Category: Geography

Spaghetti & Meat Sauce

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 15, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’ve been blogging about the Sebring Historical Society for almost 2½ years now – ever since my first impromptu visit to the main office in February 2021. I decided after that first visit – that I wanted to eventually become an active member of the organization. 2 years later – I did just that. I became a full dues-paying member. I fully support our mission to preserve, protect, and promote the history of Sebring Florida and the surrounding area.

We have weekly gatherings, monthly spaghetti dinners, and quarterly luncheons. I won’t discuss our weeklies and our quarterlies here (at least not now), but let me get in to our monthlies.

Once a month – on the 3RD Thursday afternoon of each month – (that’s today) – we host our monthly fundraiser. It’s a hot and delicious spaghetti dinner. It’s open to the public, and many of the locals in our downtown neighborhood know about it because they put in their reservations early for either pick-up or dine-in. For $10 (in advance) or $12 (at the door) you get a large portion of spaghetti with your choice of either meat sauce or veggie sauce. You want garlic bread with that ? You got it. How about a side salad with your choice of dressing ? Of course. Top it off with your choice of 4 different desserts ? I’ll slice it for you (because that’s what I do on Thursday afternoons).

So if you’re in the Sebring Florida area this afternoon – then stop by starting at 4:30 PM (until 6:30 PM). Get there early. We’re located at 1971 Lakeview Drive. We call that historic purple-trimmed lime-green house – the Clovelly House Event Center. Once you walk in – you’ll be warmly greeted by one of our members – as well as the wonderful aroma in the air.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll write about Moore Haven Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida, Sebring

Blogging Driving Geography Travel

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 8, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’ve got a new airport to travel to and from – #SRQ. It’s the closest airport to my new home in the Heartland of Florida – less than 80 miles away – in-between Sarasota and Bradenton – south of Tampa Bay. It’s a small but growing airport. It’s been around since World War 2. I’ve already got my first round-trip flight booked – non-stop between there and Dallas-Fort Worth (#DFW).

Over the past 35½ years of living and working in South Florida #MIA has been my main airport. I’ve also flown in and out of #FLL a few times. Those are two huge airports. I’m looking forward to the smaller and less-hectic airport in #SRQ. (It’s actually the 8TH busiest airport in Florida.)

Next #TravelThursday my friends and I are serving spaghetti in Sebring. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida

Blogging Driving Geography Home Life Travel

The 1,000-Mile-Per-Month Club

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 1, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. And welcome to June 2023. This blog post officially begins my 17TH year of modern-day blogging. This blog started on MySpace in May 2007 with 310+ entries before I moved it over here to WordPress. (There was also that ill-fated nearly 5-year period where this blog existed solely on Facebook.)

But enough about that. Thursdays are all about travel, and I’ve been doing a lot of that in 2023.

May was my 4TH consecutive month of driving over 1,000 miles. Driving between South Florida (Homestead) and the Florida Heartland (Sebring) has done that. It’s about 185 miles each way, and it’s a scenic mostly rural drive along U.S. 27 and State Road 997.

My records don’t go back that far, but I believe that this is the most driving that I have done since 1993 into 1994. That’s when I started the year living (and working) in the Washington D.C. area – then moved to Melbourne Florida – then got a job in Tampa Florida – and commuted weekly between Melbourne and Tampa (opposite coasts) – then eventually moved back to Homestead. That was a lot of driving back then, and my driving now rivals my driving then.

You know back then I thought that I would live (and work) in Melbourne indefinitely – and then in Tampa indefinitely. Neither scenario occurred, but now I live within a couple of hours of both Tampa and Melbourne, and I’m living in my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida. All things worked out. It just took 30 years to do so.

Driving 1,000 miles per month is quite the feat for me. I did it once in 2022, 2021, and 2019, twice in 2020 and 2018, and 3 times in 2017, 2016, and 2015. Last year I only averaged 512 miles per month.

June should be another 1,000-mile month. I just need to drive an average of 10 miles per day on the 26 days this month that I’m not driving between Homestead and Sebring. We’ll see if that occurs.

About 13,500 miles is the national average per year. That’s about 1,125 miles per month. I exceeded that last month.

Next #TravelThursday I’m exploring #SRQ. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida

Blogging Geography Health Home Life Travel Weather

Neighborhood Walks

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 25, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Longtime readers of my blog – going back to its debut here on WordPress some 15½ years ago – may remember a series of blog posts under the heading of “The Major’s Walk-A-Thon”. It’s where I revealed and described my various neighborhood walks – mostly at dawn. They were dedicated to the memory of my Dad – who lost the ability to walk on his own in 2007 – and eventually passed away from the devastating effects of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

16 months into my fantastic journey (salvation in Christ) I began neighborhood walks to get healthy – physically, mentally, and spiritually. The walks were mostly over 1 mile in length, and up to 2, 3, and even 4+ miles. They were confined to the dry seasons here in South Florida – generally from October to May. They were “power walks” – with a pace of between 17 and 18 minutes per mile.

Season 1 was 2007-2008, and it was a shock to the system, as I had never done such a thing before in my entire life – walk to get fit. It was well-documented here on my blog. At that time in my life – I was slowly rebounding from the worst physical shape of my life. (I actually quit drinking less than 2 months earlier.)

I’m now approaching the end of Season 16. That’s right – 16 seasons of walking. So far this season I’ve walked around my neighborhood 27 times. That’s the 2ND-most number of walks in a season (surpassed only by Season 8 – 2014-2015). Those 27 walks include 8 in my longtime Homestead neighborhood (or the nearby city park) – and 19 in my new Sebring neighborhood. (My new 55+ neighborhood is near-ideal for such walks, and many of my neighbors are doing it too. I need to keep-up with them.)

So far this season I’ve walked a total of 37.80 miles. That’s the 4TH-highest number of miles (surpassed by 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017).

This season is not yet complete. We’re still getting (weak) cold fronts up in the Florida Heartland, and those cold fronts are still delivering the refreshing 60s into the region at dawn, and low humidity during the day and into the early-evening hours. Eventually it’ll get too consistently wet, warm, humid, and buggy to walk, so I’ll just be resting-up in preparation for an early debut to Season 17 come September !

Next #TravelThursday it’s all about the miles – on my car. Let’s keep traveling together.