Category: Geography

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Blogging Driving Geography History Military Travel

Miami Military Museum

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of Fridays ago I visited the Miami Military Museum for the first time ever. It’s located about a mile west of Florida’s Turnpike off SW 152ND Street in South Miami-Dade County Florida next to Zoo Miami. In fact if you reach the parking lot of Zoo Miami – then you’ve gone too far. Make a right-hand turn just before the parking lot at the sign that leads you to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum. (They share the same parking lot.)

At the present time the museum is only open for 3 days per week – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – from 10 AM to 4 PM. They prefer that you call them in advance to schedule an appointment to visit the museum.

I did that, and I got there at around 10:30 AM on that Friday. The Executive Director of the Museum and one of the museum docents greeted me downstairs. The former proceeded to informally interview me about my military and civil service history. He then picked-up a microphone, and he proceeded to announce my grand arrival military-honors-style through the entire building’s sound system – like I was a V.I.P. That was an extra special nice touch.

After that welcome the museum docent took me upstairs (via elevator), and he guided me through all of the various rooms of displays. The museum has only been open for a couple of years, so they are a work in progress. It looks like they are constantly receiving new items for display, and they are trying to figure out what to do with them all. I had a good conversation with my docent, and he displayed many qualities of a docent that I wish to have when I do what he does elsewhere. He opened-up more as he went along, and he even extended the tour outside around the perimeter of the property. They have big plans for good stuff inside and out !

If I were not moving away and retiring next year then the Miami Military Museum would be a great place for me to serve. It’ll be a great place for me to visit in the future when I come back to Miami-Dade County for visits.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll stay in Miami-Dade County, and I’ll try to figure out what other tourist attractions I wish to visit before I move away from here. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Christian Driving Geography God Music Radio Travel

Fort Lauderdale Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Thursday October 13TH 2022 dual music concerts were occurring simultaneously 17 miles apart in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area (Broward County). At The Parker – “Weird Al” Yankovic was LIVE on tour – with comedian Emo Philips opening for him. Over at The Center – Newsboys were headlining – with Cochren & Co. and Adam Agee (Stellar Kart) opening for them. So of course – you know me – you’ve been reading my blog for years now – of course – I saw – the legendary – “Weird Al” Yankovic and Emo Philips !

I actually bought my ticket for the “Weird Al” show 7 months earlier in March 2022. He was doing back-to-back completely different shows on Wednesday and Thursday (October 12TH and 13TH), and I randomly picked the second show since it was closer to the weekend. If I had picked the first show (on Wednesday) then I could have gone to the Newsboys concert (on Thursday). The Newsboys concert wasn’t even announced until a couple of months ago in August 2022.

So I’ve been a “Weird Al” fan (OK – nerd) for almost 40 years now – ever since I first heard of him and his music in 1983 on WJOK-AM (All Comedy Radio in Gaithersburg Maryland). I bought all of his cassettes back in the ’80s. I kind of “outgrew” him into the ’90s, but I still have that place in my heart for his weirdness. I saw him LIVE in concert for the first time in August 2015, and then I saw him again in June 2019. All 3 shows were in Fort Lauderdale. He always puts on a good fun nostalgic show. I kind of wish I had gotten tickets to both of his shows – since they were both completely different (aside from the encores). For his tour this time around – he performed some of his “extremely unpopular songs”, so not the hits, but even so I knew a lot of the songs that he did. For this show that I attended – one of his encores was a note-for-note cover version of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” – one of my favorite songs of all time !

“Weird Al” Yankovic is a born-again Christian who doesn’t cuss, smoke, drink, or use drugs. Privately (off-performance) he’s shy and polite to everyone.

Emo Philips opened for “Weird Al” with a 34-minute stand-up comedy set that had the entire concert hall laughing in hysterics. I was never a fan of his weird comedy, but he definitely delivered for this show. He exceeded my expectations of him. His comedy routine was funny and relevant.

This was my second show at The Parker (former Parker Playhouse) – at least since 2000. It’s been there near downtown Fort Lauderdale (off U.S. 1) since 1966 – with the first show presented in February 1967. It recently completed a 2½-year / $30-million-dollar renovation. It definitely had that “new-car-smell” to it last week. It’s a very nice venue. I think I may have seen a concert or two there in the late-1980s into the 1990s. Back then the Sunrise Musical Theatre was the place for concerts over in the western part of Broward County.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll tell you all about the Miami Military Museum. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography Nature Photography Shopping Travel Weather

Fort Myers Beach Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. On Wednesday September 28TH 2022 Fort Myers Beach Florida changed forever as Category-4 Hurricane Ian made landfall just a few miles north of the area. The Southwest Florida Gulf coast from Flamingo northward to the Tampa Bay area experienced widespread damage. The area from Marco Island to Venice was especially hard hit, and Fort Myers Beach – “Ground Zero” – was virtually destroyed. The photos online have been heartbreaking. They have brought tears to my eyes.

The Southwest Florida coast is my favorite part of the state. Over the past 35 years I’ve enjoyed numerous short visits over there (about 2 to 3 hours away from home). My last visit was a daytrip to and from Naples 3 months ago. I wrote about it on a 2-part #TravelThursday this past July.

From 2011 to 2020 I visited Fort Myers Beach on 9 separate occasions. I spent a combined 17 nights on (or just off) the island at several different hotels on 7 of those 9 visits – both on the north-end and the south-end. I walked in the surf, drove on the streets, rode on the trolleys, shopped at the stores, and ate at the restaurants. I took 366 photos of the island. 122 of them are featured within my Fort Myers Beach album on my Flickr site. They are presented in chronological order from oldest to newest starting with April 28TH 2011. That was my very first day / night ever on the island, and I instantly fell in love with it. I soon decided that not only had I found my brand-new weekend vacation paradise getaway, but I had also found my eventual retirement landing spot.

After the first 6 visits – all between 2011 and 2013 – the idea of eventually moving to the island upon retirement had waned. But I would still visit on a regular basis. I became concerned during those early visits that if (when) a major hurricane makes landfall on the island or very near it – there would be catastrophic destruction similar to what I experienced here in Homestead after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. I thought that it would be the Gulf Of Mexico destroying the vulnerable island via storm surge rather than wind. That was one of the main reasons to change my mind about retiring there.

I’ve captured some of the most beautiful sunsets of my life on that island. One of my favorite things to do during those 17 nights was to exit my hotel room, walk directly onto the beach with my bare feet, head for the surf, and join the dozens of others just like me who had the same idea to prepare their smart phones and cameras to be aimed up the beach at the setting sun on the WNW horizon.

I was originally scheduled to drive to Fort Myers tomorrow (Friday) morning – and spend 2 nights there – and attend a concert at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall. The hotel was damaged, the concert hall was damaged, and the show was moved to next March. The entire area is a disaster zone, so the last thing they need right now is tourists. I canceled my trip to Fort Myers. (It would not have included a beach visit.)

It will take many years to rebuild Fort Myers Beach. It will never be the way that I knew it during those 9 visits and 17 nights on the island. I have my fond memories and 366 photos to look back on my former paradise on the Gulf Of Mexico.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll visit Fort Lauderdale Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

Henrietta Texas

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I revealed that I spent quality time with family in and around Wichita Falls Texas. It’s an annual tradition for me every late-September to visit for a few days, and celebrate the wedding anniversary of my Aunt (by blood) and Uncle. This year was their 66TH !

Following an early Lunch at a local Mexican restaurant (another tradition) we went on a short road-trip (another tradition). This time we headed 20 miles ESE along U.S. 287 into Clay County and the small city of Henrietta (the county seat and population center). A little over 3,000 residents call Henrietta home, and it’s one of the oldest settled areas in the region – going back to the mid-19TH Century.

We visited the Clay County 1890 Jail Museum & Heritage Center – presented by the Clay County Historical Society. For those of you who have been following my #TravelThursday posts for awhile – you’ll know that not only am I a big fan of local historical societies and museums that they run, but I also plan to be a member and volunteer at a few upstate here in Florida once I retire and relocate.

Me, my cousin, and her husband were treated to an excellent docent early on a Friday afternoon. The museum is only open for 8 hours per week (4 each on Thursday and Friday), and we exclusively occupied 2 of those 8 hours. The docent showed us everything in the museum. (There’s a lot to see inside downstairs and upstairs.) I was studying our docent intently. I hope to be as good as her when I resume being a museum docent. She definitely enjoyed her museum, and she absolutely loved to talk about it. That’s the type of docent that I like !

On this visit to the Wichita Falls area we also drove over to Archer City – the county seat of Archer County (south of Wichita County). We visited a church lot where they were selling pumpkins and gourds.

We also drove all around Downtown Wichita Falls – the county seat of Wichita County. There’s a lot of history downtown – much of it mere memories with the original buildings left behind vacated. There are plans to continue to revitalize it with new cafes, bars, restaurants, events, and opportunities.

This was my 11TH visit to the Wichita Falls area to visit family over the past 9 years (since 2013). Each visit brings family love, good food, and pleasant surprises. I always look fondly back – and forward to – my next visit.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll present a tribute to a place that I visited 9 times and spent 17 nights from 2011 to 2020. It’s an island that will never be the same again due to the catastrophic destruction of Hurricane Ian. I’ll look back at those fun times on #FortMyersBeach on the Southwest Florida coast. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp