Category: Home

Carnival Jubilee

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 18, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of days ago I observed exactly 2 months in my beautiful new dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida. I closed on it (officially became the owner) on March 16TH, and I actually purchased it on February 16TH, so that marks 3 months since I first walked-in to my new home and almost immediately decided that it would be mine.

But this week’s edition is not about that. It’s about a cruise that I took with my parents exactly 19 years ago this week. It was a 5-nighter out of #JAXPORT (Jacksonville Florida). (My parents lived in the area at the time.)

Over the course of 32 years (1991-2023) it was my only cruise out of Jacksonville. It was on an old Carnival cruise ship – the Jubilee – that was in-service from 1986 to 2004. In fact she was sold to an Australian cruise company just 3 months after our sailing.

I don’t remember much of anything from that cruise, and I have no photos of it – mostly because I didn’t take photos back then before the smart phone era. I don’t even remember the ports-of-call. Maybe Nassau ?

It was 1 of just 3 cruises that I went on with my parents. It was the middle cruise. (The first one was 13 years earlier when we all went on our very first cruise ever. I instantly fell in love with the idea of cruising, and I continued on with 23 more cruises after that first one in 1991.)

I’ve been telling friends recently that I probably won’t be booking any further cruises at this time. This past January I was on the newest, biggest, and best that Carnival has to offer – their brand-new Carnival Celebration – and I documented it for 6 weeks in a row here on #TravelThursday. It was perhaps a perfect ending to my cruising experience. Now that I have 2 homes and a 30-year mortgage on my new home – I’m on a budget now. I’ve declared a spending freeze of sorts. I need to figure out how to live my life with less than half the money I make today once I retire at the end of the year.

As for travel opportunities I really want to explore more of Central and North Florida – and into Georgia and Alabama – and the Carolinas – on a series of road-trips. I’ve conquered the sea, and now I wish to explore the land. I want to visit with some good friends along the way.

Next #TravelThursday I’m not driving – I’m walking. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Carnival, Cruise, Florida

Blogging Driving Geography Home Travel

Venus Florida

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 27, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This morning I’m returning to my new home in my new neighborhood in my new part of Florida – near Sebring. I don’t live within the city limits of Sebring. I live in unincorporated Highlands County. I actually live real close to where the Avon Park zip code and addresses begin (just a few thousand feet to the north). I live a little closer to downtown Avon Park than downtown Sebring.

Both Sebring and Avon Park are located in the northwestern part of Highlands County, and much of the population of the county lives in this area. The “south county” is much more rural; although anyone traveling from any of the big cities along either coast would think that the entire region is “out in the middle of nowhere”.

Way down near the southeast end of the county – about 35 to 40 miles from the Sebring / Avon Park population center – is the community of Venus. It’s located entirely west of U.S. 27 – and right up against it. Its small Post Office (Zip Code 33960) faces the main highway.

There’s a fun web page with reader interactions that you can link to that explores Venus and Old Venus. It’s referred to as a ghost town in the article, but I don’t think that’s really an appropriate term for the area. To me – a ghost town is the remnants of what used to be – with no existing life. There’s life in Venus, and I bet that it’s a peaceful and relaxing life there. It appears that there are anywhere from about 700 to 1,000 people who live in the area.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll present an update on my Flickr site. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida, Venus

Blogging Church Driving Food Geography History Home News Travel Weather

Home Sweet Sebring

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 20, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’m waking-up in my new home in my new neighborhood in northwestern Highlands County Florida for the 6TH morning in a row. It’s the longest streak yet, and I’ll be waking-up here for 3 additional mornings before I head back down U.S. 27 and Krome Avenue to Homestead for a quick turnaround.

Now if you’ve been reading or watching the news lately then you may know about the gas crisis in nearly all of South Florida (from The Treasure Coast southward through The Florida Keys). There are long lines at gas stations that are actually open, and no activity at all at gas stations that are closed because they have no gas remaining. It’s all because of a freak 24-hour rain event in Fort Lauderdale last week where they received over 2 feet of rain – flooding much of the region – including the port where the gas comes in. Here in my new part of Florida there is no such crisis. No lines. No shortages. No closings.

I’m scheduled to return to Homestead this Sunday morning. I’ll celebrate Christ with my home church family, and then I’ll spend 4 nights in my longtime home before I return back north to Sebring. But I may reconsider that schedule if the gas crisis continues.

I can easily fill-up my car with gas here in this area, drive down there, and then return back here on that same tank of gas. I get up to 50 MPG on the open road with my Honda Civic, but why venture into chaos and rage ?

If I take that trip – my next trip back here to Sebring will be even longer than this one – 12 nights in a row. Going forth I’ll be spending about 70% of the rest of the year here in Sebring, and 30% in Homestead. (I have an Excel spreadsheet that tracks all of this.)

Yesterday morning I spent about 2½ hours with my new friends at the Sebring Historical Society (#SHS). We enjoyed coffee, pastries, conversation, and we had an informal meeting. This afternoon I’ll spend about 3½ hours with them as we enjoy our monthly spaghetti dinner (my first one). This Saturday afternoon we have our quarterly pot-luck luncheon and board meeting. I’ll be serving with the #SHS a lot going forth. I’ve been dreaming about this opportunity for a couple of years now, and I’ve been blogging about it since a couple of years ago. My retirement dreams are coming together !

It’s 4/20, and I’m not making this up. We have a big nearly mile-long manmade lake in my new neighborhood. Nearly all of the condos encircle the 10½-acre lake. Its name – Lake Mary Jane.

Next #TravelThursday we’re going to Venus. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida, Gas, Homestead, Sebring

Blogging Church Commerce Driving Food Geography Home Travel

Sebring Florida

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 6, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This past Monday morning I returned southward back to my longtime home. It was bittersweet, as I enjoyed 4½ days / 5 nights in my new home, new neighborhood, and new region of Florida. I didn’t want to leave, and I wasn’t really excited about returning to my old home. But I’ve got some good stuff planned for this upcoming stretch down here in South Miami-Dade. I’ve got the annual Good Friday Prayer Breakfast to look forward to tomorrow. I also get to observe and celebrate Resurrection Sunday with my church family – followed by Lunch after that. It’s going to be a good time here.

It’s actually 184 miles from home to home. All along I’ve been touting 186 miles, as that’s what Google Maps states. I guess it’s off by a couple of miles (probably due to rounding). I drove up 184 miles. I drove down 184 miles. In-between I drove 43 miles all around town – discovering roads to get around, stores, restaurants, and my new church. I even found my new barber shop !

I surpassed the 19,000-mile mark on my car odometer in West Broward driving southward this past Monday morning. That’s just 19 days after I hit the 18,000-mile mark. And the 18,000-mile mark came 37 days after I hit the 17,000-mile mark. I drove over 1,000 miles in consecutive months (February and March) for the first time since 2020. That may not happen this month. It could be real close though.

I took an impromptu photo of the main entrance of my new neighborhood, and I actually posted it on Facebook within our private group. Surprisingly it received more likes and comments than any post that I wrote publicly when I was active on Facebook for almost 5 years. I captioned the photo – What a great place to live ! #Home

Here’s that photo: