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The Road To Clewiston

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This is Part 4 of my look back at my recent trip back to South Florida – my former home of 35+ years. It was my first trip back in nearly 9 months (38 weeks to be exact) – since the end of June 2025 – when I closed on the sale of my 30-year home.

Last week I wrote about my Wednesday with my brother – starting at Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise – continuing at Fuddruckers in Pembroke Pines – and finishing at Tate’s Comics + Toys + More in Lauderhill.

Early on Thursday March 26TH 2026 – me and my brother wished each other safe travels. He was headed to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (#FLL) for his return flight back to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (#DFW).

I was headed south along Hiatus Road, and then west along Oakland Park Boulevard, and then south along Flamingo Road, and then west and south along Panther Parkway / NW 136TH Avenue, and then west along Florida State Road 84, and then onto a tiny piece of I-75, and then finally north onto U.S. 27.

I arrived in “America’s Sweetest Town” – Clewiston – at around 9:20 AM, and I headed straight for the Clewiston Museum – right along U.S. 27. (Its right side faces the highway, and its front side faces Central Avenue.)

This was my 2ND visit to their museum. My 1ST visit occurred on October 21ST 2021 while I was driving through on my way from Homestead to Tampa to attend a concert. The 40-year-old museum was closed for several weeks of renovations in August and September 2024, and I’ve wanted to check it out again ever since then. They are open 5 days a week – Mondays to Fridays – from 9 AM to 4 PM. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (50+), and $5 for children and students. Upon entry I had a very nice conversation with Rosie at the front desk. She was going to do me a favor and give me the senior discount, and then I informed her that I’m 59 anyway. She was astonished. She said I looked like I was in my “mid-40s”. I’ll look for Rosie again on my next visit. I’ll also hope to meet the Director of the museum to share ideas with each other.

Next stop – Arby’s at Love’s near Moore Haven – my favorite rest stop about 1 hour and 15 minutes from home. I watched this truck stop / gas station / convenience store / restaurant being built as I drove by 4 times in September and October 2016 and February 2017. I knew back then that I would be a future customer of their fuel, food, and bathrooms. They opened in March 2017, and I’ve been a regular customer almost every time I’ve driven through the area. From my former home to my current home (northward) it’s at almost exactly the two-thirds point of that drive.

I returned home at 12:36 PM EDT on that Thursday March 26TH 2026, and my 420-mile road-trip was complete. It was my longest stay in South Florida since the week I retired 25 months earlier. It was my first multi-night stay in Homestead / Florida City since December 2024.

I figured I would write 2 parts for this #TravelThursday series, but once I got going writing it – I wanted to include more material. It expanded to 3 parts, and then (of course) 4 parts. I enjoyed writing this series, but even more important – I loved being able to hang out with members of my former home church family, former coworker friends, and definitely my brother of 51 years in West Broward.

This was a great road-trip that I’ll remember for years to come – especially since I’ve documented much of it here over the past 4 weeks.

Next #TravelThursday – I’m going on a cruise. I’ll reveal where I’m going. It’s not where you may think. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Sawgrass Mills Mall

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This is Part 3 of my look back at my recent trip back to South Florida – my former home of 35+ years. It was my first trip back in nearly 9 months (38 weeks to be exact) – since the end of June 2025 – when I closed on the sale of my 30-year home.

Last week I wrote about my Tuesday – starting in Homestead and ending in West Broward. This week – it’s my Wednesday – Day 4 of my trip.

We went to Sawgrass Mills Mall – one of the top tourist attractions in Broward County (after the beaches). The mall attracts locals and visitors regionally, nationally, and globally – perhaps up to 25 million annually. We got there before they opened, so we entered through Target on the northeast end. The mall was fairly quiet after its 10 AM opening time, but it gradually got busier as the morning progressed. By the time we left about 3 hours later it was busy – even congested in areas.

Fun Facts: Back in 1984 groundbreaking began on the MASSIVE Potomac Mills Mall in Prince William County Virginia – about 30 miles away from home. It opened for business in September 1985 – 3 months after I had left home for the USAF. I think we may have visited the mall as a family 2 months later in-between my tech school in Illinois and my first duty assignment overseas in the U.K. And we visited on a fairly regular basis over the next 11 years every time I visited my family in Northern Virginia. (They moved to Jacksonville Florida in 1996.) Shortly after I arrived at my next duty assignment in Homestead Florida – groundbreaking began on Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise – about 55 miles away from home. It opened in October 1990. I’ve been visiting the mall ever since then – less frequently over the past couple of decades. You can easily spend the entire day there, and some visitors do.

After the mall we ventured southward along scary I-75 to Pembroke Pines and Fuddruckers. I enjoyed eating at Fuddruckers down in the Kendall area of Miami-Dade County for over 20 years, and it was a favorite of my brother as well in Florida, Texas, and Ohio. He doesn’t have Fuddy’s (as we affectionately call it) where he lives now, as the nearest ones are down in South Texas and over in West Texas. Our lunch at Fuddy’s was wonderful – just as we remembered it.

From Fuddy’s we drove lots of various roads through the heart of West Broward – venturing in and out of many of its suburbs. We ended up at Tate’s Comics + Toys + More along North University Drive in Lauderhill. It’s a huge 10,000-square-foot store of (literally) comics, toys, and more. I’ve been to a lot of comic book and sports card stores with my brother (that’s his hobby), and generally after about 5 minutes – I’m bored. It was hard to get bored at that megastore, as there was so much to see there. My brother was recording short videos in the store (with permission I believe) for his popular YouTube site.

So – it looks like there will be a Part 4 of this current series. Next #TravelThursday – I’ll head out of South Florida and onto “The Road To Clewiston”. I’ll check out their historic museum along U.S. 27. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Flamingo Gardens

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This is Part 2 of my look back at my recent trip back to South Florida – my former home of 35+ years. It was my first trip back in nearly 9 months (38 weeks to be exact) – since the end of June 2025 – when I closed on the sale of my 30-year home.

I wrote about my Sunday and Monday in and near Homestead and Florida City in last week’s edition. This week – it’s Tuesday in West Broward (the western portion of Broward County).

But before we leave Homestead – it’s a milestone in my car. I hit 9,000 miles driving to Breakfast. It took 95 days to drive the next 1,000 miles from 8,000 to 9,000. That’s an average of about 10½ miles per day since the middle of December. My trek to 10,000 on the odometer will clearly come sooner than 95 days due simply to this road-trip alone.

It was a good 48 hours in Homestead and Florida City. After Breakfast at the local family-owned Flagler Restaurant in Homestead I hit Krome Avenue (State Road 997), and then onto U.S. 27 just shy of the Miami-Dade / Broward County line.

I made it to Flamingo Gardens along historic Flamingo Road in Davie. It was my 6TH visit since 2012 – and my 1ST visit in just over 4 years. It’s my favorite place in Broward County. If I had decided to leave Homestead and move up to Broward in retirement (very hypothetical) – then I’d very likely be volunteering or working there today. It’s part botanical gardens, part wildlife sanctuary, and part historic house museum. It covers about 60 acres, and it was established 99 years ago as a family homestead and citrus grove at the edge of the Everglades (back then).

Fun Facts: As an 8, 9, and 10-year-old in suburban Lanham Maryland (just outside of Washington D.C.) me and my friends would bring rakes into the woods on a fairly regular basis. We did so to rake the leaves on the ground, clear a path, and create trails and rest stops along the way – essentially creating our very own neighboring nature parks. On the left side of the creek that ran through the woods – I created “Chris Day Valley” (named after myself). On the right side of the creek – two of my friends (brothers) created “Wolf Pack State” (possibly named after misheard lyrics of a popular Gordon Lightfoot song at the time). After my friends on the right side of the creek lost interest in their unique park – I went over to the next street over and joined other friends who had already started working on their park. They gladly welcomed me. We even had a flag handmade of our park. (One of the moms did that for us.) It was so much fun while it lasted.

So why did I bring all of that up ? It’s because Flamingo Gardens looks like a grown-up version of those childhood parks that we created in the woods. It reminds me of those fun days outside 50 years ago.

After a fun 3 hours and 15 minutes at Flamingo Gardens – I headed north to Tamarac where I met my brother (visiting from Texas) at a hotel. (His 3 days of work was done at the Broward County Convention Center.)

We went to a noisy Yard House at The Oasis at Sawgrass Mills Mall for dinner, and then we walked across Panther Parkway over to the Amerant Bank Arena to see our Florida Panthers take on the Seattle Kraken. (The Panthers won 5-4 in overtime after a shootout.)

Next #TravelThursday – we’ll head back to Sawgrass Mills Mall for extensive shopping, and we’ll take an impromptu tour of West Broward County and many of its suburbs. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Homestead / Florida City

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of Sunday mornings ago I departed for my former home of 35+ years – Homestead Florida (at the south-end of Miami-Dade County). It was my first trip back in nearly 9 months (38 weeks to be exact) – since the end of June 2025 – when I closed on the sale of my 30-year home.

I departed my current home about 50 minutes before sunrise, and I arrived at my former home church in Homestead about an hour before the start of the 11 AM service. (It was a typical 3-hour and 20-minute drive.)

It was a great Sunday morning service – with wonderful Praise + Worship music and a relevant sermon from the Lead Pastor. And it was great to see everyone again. (I wrote about this church a couple of weeks ago on #SundayScripture. You can link to it here.)

I enjoyed ministering at the church from 2015 to 2024, and I learned a lot from the Lead Pastor. But nowadays it’s great sitting in the back row with friends as a guest observer and worshiper.

A small group of us went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch (my choice). I had a gift card from last year, and there is no Texas Roadhouse back home. Fellowship, food, and service were all great. I got to catch-up with everyone. I plan to visit again perhaps in 6 months. We have some birthdays to celebrate in September.

I checked-in to my hotel for 2 nights, and I settled in until the next day.

Day 2 was Monday, and after filling up with gas and shopping at Kohl’s – I met two former coworkers / bosses (also retired like me) at Longhorn Steakhouse. We enjoyed lunch together and reminisced, and we’ll probably meet again in 6 months.

After lunch I headed to the tiny mainland portion of Biscayne National Park (at the western edge of Biscayne Bay) for the 3RD time in the past 15½ years. I previously visited in October 2010 and May 2016. In April 2019 I actually took a fun boat tour of the 95% of the Park that is water. (Embarkation of that tour was actually about 10 miles up the coast at the Deering Estate.)

Biscayne National Park was stunningly packed when I arrived at 12:40 PM on Monday. There were only a few empty parking spaces remaining in their relatively large parking lot. I couldn’t believe it. Why were all of those people there ? Oh – Spring Break continued. I stayed there for about 2 hours, and by the time I left there were more empty parking spaces.

A lot of people were fishing at the Park. I have some unpopular opinions about that, but I’ll keep them to myself (as a non-fisherman). I didn’t appreciate how portions of the narrow bridge / walkway were essentially blocked by groups of people fishing (and not particularly watching who was walking behind them or in-between them). It was kind of a safety hazard. But who I am to raise a concern ? I’m just a tourist now. It may be another 10 years before my next visit.

Back in Homestead I hit some stores, and Starbucks, and Outback Steakhouse where I enjoyed dinner with a former coworker friend. And then it was back to my hotel for the 2ND of 2 nights.

The Homestead / Florida City half of my trip to South Florida was planned and implemented perfectly. I’m looking forward to my next visit later this year.

I’m headed to West Broward County for the next 2 days to hang out with my brother visiting from the Dallas Texas area. I’ll write about it – next – #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp