Category: Geography

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1990s Blogging Career Driving Geography Home Military Travel Weather

From Melbourne To MacDill

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. In last week’s edition I wrote about my hectic 6-months right after Hurricane Andrew destroyed Homestead Florida. That’s when I was driving back-and-forth between Fairfax County Virginia and Prince Georges County Maryland (Andrews AFB) along the Capital Beltway and also through Washington D.C. I put a lot of miles on my red 1989 Geo Spectrum sedan back then, but I was not yet done.

I drove / moved to Melbourne Florida in March 1993 – just a few days before “The Storm Of The Century” swept through the U.S. Eastern Seaboard bringing hurricane-force winds, sub-freezing temperatures, and even snow to North and Central Florida.

5 months later in August 1993 I was offered a job on the opposite coast over in Tampa at MacDill AFB. I accepted, but I kept my home in Melbourne. I ended-up living in a hotel (paid for by the USAF) in Tampa, working on-base during the week, and taking I-4 and U.S. 192 back to Melbourne on most Friday afternoons – returning back to Tampa on Sunday afternoons.

That was about a 140-mile drive in each direction, and it took anywhere from 2½ to 3 hours. That was also back when I freely drove on Interstates and high-speed expressways. (I don’t do that anymore.) That was also when far less people lived along the U.S. 192 corridor from Melbourne through St. Cloud and Kissimmee to Walt Disney World. Back in 1993 into 1994 St. Cloud had a population of about 15,000. Now it’s over 65,000. Kissimmee is up from about 35,000 to over 80,000. That’s a lot of traffic along U.S. 192 these days. It wasn’t too bad back in 1993.

That back-and-forth commute between Melbourne and MacDill lasted about 7 months until March 1994 – when I moved back to Homestead Florida. For a short period of time I thought that I would live in Melbourne for the rest of my life. But then when I got the job at MacDill AFB I thought that I would eventually move to Tampa full-time and live there for the rest of my life. Then I moved back to Homestead for the next 29 years.

Now I have my longtime Homestead home – and my new Sebring home. And I have a commute of about 185 miles that I do several times per month. I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I enjoy the scenic and mostly rural drive. I enjoy seeing my church family and even some of my coworkers at my longtime workplace in Homestead. But I especially look forward to the return trip back north again to my new home and pre-retirement life and times in Sebring. I plan to live there for the rest of my life – less than 2 hours away from both Melbourne and Tampa.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll check-out Weeki Wachee Springs. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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1990s Blogging Career Driving Geography Home Military Travel Weather

Post Hurricane Andrew

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 31 years ago this morning on August 24TH 1992 Hurricane Andrew struck Homestead Florida, and within just a couple of hours its winds caused catastrophic destruction across the region. It was unlike anything I had ever lived through before or since. And that’s all I’ll say about it. I’m actually glad that I’m not in Homestead today, as on this day every year it’s what’s on everyone’s mind – that night / morning that lives were changed forever. I don’t like to talk about it. I don’t like to write about it. So I won’t.

Later that same week on that Friday morning I departed the death and destruction of Homestead and drove up Florida’s Turnpike and I-95. The next day I arrived at my former home from when I was a teenager – where my parents, little brother, and cats still lived – in Fairfax County Virginia. On that Monday morning – exactly a week after Hurricane Andrew – I arrived at Andrews AFB on the other side of the Capital Beltway in Prince Georges County Maryland (where I actually grew-up from 1969 to 1980). I checked-in as a “refugee” of Hurricane Andrew. I was not the only one. Others had beaten me there.

For the next 6 months I was stationed at Andrews AFB doing almost exactly the same job that I had left behind at Homestead AFB. I was welcomed with open arms at my new office. I was considered as that extra special bonus person that they didn’t know they would get. I fit right in. It turned out to be the greatest (and last) 6 months (out of 8 years) of my entire USAF active duty tour.

I actually lived in a dormitory room on-base during the week – generally from Sunday afternoons to Friday mornings. On Friday afternoons after work I’d circumnavigate almost half of the Beltway in a clockwise (inner-loop) direction. (What fun that rush hour traffic was.) On the return-trip back to the base on Sunday afternoons (with less traffic) I’d “cut-through” Washington D.C. diagonally from Virginia into Maryland.

Fun Fact: Back then I drove a red 1989 Geo Spectrum. It was the first brand-new car I ever bought. I bought it at Tropical Chevrolet on Biscayne Boulevard (U.S. 1) in Miami Shores Florida. (That dealership is still there today with the same name.) I owned that car for over 8 years, and I put 96,745 miles on it.

That was a crazy time in my life – albeit only 6 months – living and working in the metro area that I grew-up in from age 2 to 18. Yep – 31 years ago I was traversing the Interstate Highway System like I owned it, and not only that – I was on the Capital Beltway. I don’t drive on Interstate highways anymore except in rare circumstances (like rural portions of long road trips to and from North Texas). I generally stick with old U.S. highways and state roads. I feel more comfortable on them in my older age.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll share my coast-to-coast travel adventures along U.S. 192 and I-4 in Central Florida from exactly 30 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Commerce Geography History Shopping Travel

Historic Downtown Sebring

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’m currently on my 11TH stay here in Sebring Florida since purchasing my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream town in my dream part of Florida. I bought in February, and I’ve been here in Sebring for over half that time. My average stay has been about 9 nights. (I’m approaching my 100TH night here in Sebring.)

When I’m not hanging out with my new friends here in my new neighborhood – or over at the Sebring Historical Society – I’m working at home from my office. (I haven’t retired yet.)

Yesterday I decided to take a day off from work (on official leave) and spend some extra time in historic downtown Sebring. I spent about 2½ hours hanging out with my friends at the Sebring Historical Society. We have some big changes coming up, as well as some big events. We’re losing one of our two historic houses, but we’re enhancing and sprucing-up our remaining one – the Charles F. Weigle House Museum – with an expanded gift shop. I’ll write about that in the weeks to come.

I’ve written about our Museum previously here on #TravelThursday, and I’ll be writing about it a lot more in the future. I plan to be a docent there once I’m retired and living full-time here in Sebring in the new year, and I’ll probably work the gift shop as well. I also plan to write about (promote) our Museum across multiple social media platforms that I’m active on.

Later yesterday morning I ventured over to Strangely Warmed Coffee Co. They are a specialty coffee roaster located in a quaint warehouse just off “The Circle” in historic downtown Sebring.

Fun Fact # 1 – Specialty coffees are markedly different from regular coffees in the sense that they are grown at higher elevations, are traceable, and are processed and graded carefully once harvested.

Fun Fact # 2 – Specialty coffee goes beyond the quality of the beans. The processing, brewing, and roasting are equally important to have a great coffee experience that represents one of the world’s most affordable luxuries.

I met Steve – a co-owner of the company – and he gave me the grand tour of the facility. It was very impressive. It’s a smooth operation. After that we just talked for about an hour. We eventually realized how small our world was. He’s one of my neighbors. He lives in the same exact model condo as I do. Furthermore – he knows one of the Directors of the Sebring Historical Society. They attend the same church together. Finally – my own church here in Sebring serves Strangely Warmed Coffee. (I had no idea.) He knows my Pastor !

I already consider Steve a friend. I’ll be visiting him at his workplace every so often just to hang out for a little while, and to also buy a bag of dark roast coffee (in K-Cups) from him. He gave me a cup of coffee while I was there, and I drank it all up during our conversation. It was definitely very good. It was smoother than grocery store-bought K-Cups. I may have bought my last box of K-Cups from Publix.

Strangely Warmed Coffee Co. is on Facebook, and you can also visit their official web site. Check them out. They also sell their coffee in a few local area stores, and they serve it in a few local area restaurants. I’ll probably write about them again here on my blog and across social media.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at my very first Caribbean cruise from exactly 32 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Commerce Driving Geography Shopping Travel

Let’s Go To The Mall !

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. There’s no denying that America’s love affair with traditional interior shopping malls is over. We first discovered and got excited about them back in the 1960s, as strip shopping centers were enclosed and expanded. Newly-constructed malls dotted the American landscape during its heyday in the 1970s. You could spend hours or even all day at the mall – protected from the elements outside – whether it be summertime heat or wintertime cold or wind or rain or snow. It was the hip social place to be for all ages during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Many of us “grew up” inside malls – at our favorite stores and restaurants. Parking spaces were especially hard to find from the day after Thanksgiving through the New Year. Remember when helicopters hovered above mall parking lots during the holiday season to report on traffic going in and coming out ?

But then – what goes up – must come down. The slow demise of the shopping mall began shortly after the turn of the 21ST century as we dialed-in and connected to the Interwebs to buy things. (Some would even say that it really started its decline during the late-1990s with the rise of Walmart and Target and Best Buy and other “big box” stores.)

Nowadays what used to be shopping malls are now open-air shopping centers – or vacant plots of land where the mall once stood – or still a mall with few signs of life. Of course there are some areas around the country where shopping malls are not just still alive – but also thriving. (South Florida is one of those areas.)

There are web sites and social media pages that are dedicated to dead malls. They are full of photos from yesteryear when they once thrived – as well as what they look like today – if they even exist today.

Here in my new hometown of Sebring Florida – just 4 miles from my neighborhood – we have the only traditional shopping mall in the county – Lakeshore Mall – and it’s a dead mall. It’s still there. It’s been there since early-1992 (built in 1991). I imagine that it was a booming mall during its first decade of existence. (There are several thousand parking spaces surrounding the mall.) Nowadays – it’s quite the opposite. More than half of the mall (more like three-quarters of it) is vacant. The only movie theatre in the county is inside, and it seems to be doing fine. To bring in customers the mall hosts various flea markets and special community events, and even BINGO once a month in the former food court. They actually do a pretty good job promoting these events on their Facebook page.

As long as the air conditioning is working (which is suspect) it’s actually a nice place to get in out of the summertime heat of South Central Florida, but you’re not going to spend a lot of time there unless you’re seeing a movie or walking laps around the mall. I should add that there is a 24-hour (during the week) Planet Fitness inside the mall.

I’m rooting for the survival of our mall. It needs a really popular anchor store to bring in the residents. I’m not sure what that store could be.

Footnote: One of the main entrances to the mall from busy U.S. 27 is actually blocked. Why ? The big sign for the mall is leaning and about to come crashing down !

Next #TravelThursday – Let’s drink some coffee. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp