Category: Military

My November Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 2, 2021

I have returned back home (where I belong) to Homestead Florida after 18 days on the road between here in South Florida (30 miles southwest of Miami) and my family’s home in North Texas (25 miles northeast of Dallas).

#TravelThursday continues now with a recap of my adventures and experiences along this extended multi-holiday road-trip. In fact I’ll be looking back on this road-trip for the next 7 Thursdays (starting today). I’ve got a lot to cover. I’ve got a lot to look back at with joy. If you’re interested in this trip then read on and stay tuned, for we’ll visit some fun places together (virtually).

Let’s get started – at the crack of dawn on Thursday November 11TH (Veterans Day here in the U.S.A.), as that’s when this road-trip commenced. I took Florida State Road 997 (known locally as Krome Avenue) onto U.S. 27 up the spine of the Florida peninsula. I refer to Krome and the southern portion of U.S. 27 as the #CMDRH. (That stands for the “Chris M. Day Retirement Highway” – for obvious reasons.)

Every military veteran knows that on Veterans Day you can pretty much eat for free at selected restaurants for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Many restaurants offer free portions of meals (appetizers, desserts), and other restaurants offer assorted discounts. Denny’s and Bob Evans are two restaurant chains that offer free meals on Veterans Day. As I cruised up U.S. 27 into Central Florida I intended to stop at either restaurant – as long as the respective parking lot wasn’t jam-packed. I passed by about a half-dozen Denny’s and Bob Evans locations that were bustling with cars and people – even lines waiting to get in. An ideal situation would’ve been to eat at Denny’s for Breakfast (free) – and then Bob Evans for Lunch or Dinner (free). I finally found a Bob Evans with a few empty parking spaces at around 11 AM in Clermont, so that’s where Lunch was to be. After a short wait in line I enjoyed a nice, hearty, and delicious “Country-Fried Steak – Dinner Bell Plate”. #Yum

After my free meal at Bob Evans I continued up the road, over to the Nature Coast (“Big Bend”) of Florida, into the Panhandle, and just past Tallahassee for my first night’s pitstop. I drove 519 miles on Day 1 of my 18-day road-trip.

On Day 2 I took I-10 westward for another 180 miles to the Alabama state line. That’s right – it took me nearly 700 miles just to get out of Florida !

Incidentally driving through Pensacola along I-10 is never fun. It’s actually rather intimidating (for me). It’s a close call as to which stretch of I-10 in the Florida Panhandle is more challenging – Tallahassee or Pensacola. In both cases I-10 skirts the northern fringes of the cities (rather than traversing right through the middle of them). But due to the combination of local and Interstate traffic there’s a whole lot of merging going on, and merging traffic gives me anxiety attacks.

Rivaling both Tallahassee and Pensacola is I-10 through Mobile Alabama. I prefer to cruise the scenic route along Battleship Parkway (the concurrency of U.S. 90 / 98 which runs adjacent to and closer to the water than I-10).

I wrote about Mobile Alabama 4 weeks ago here on #TravelThursday. On this visit (on Friday November 12TH) I drove past a few more places that I’d like to spend some quality time at in the future – including the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. I really need to return to Mobile and spend several days there exploring the attractions of the city on both land and sea. It would also be nice to spend more quality time with my friends there.

I did make a 90-minute stop in Semmes (a suburb northwest of Mobile). I think I know about a dozen people who live in or near Semmes who also lived in Homestead 10 years ago. I ate with one of those people. I enjoyed good Thai food and fellowship with one of my great friends. I’ve known her for nearly 15 years – since the first 3 minutes of my very first Sunday morning church service as a born-again Christian on January 21ST 2007.

And that’s where I’ll end Part 1 of this 7-part blog series. I’ll continue with my road-trip adventures and experiences next #TravelThursday. We’ll cruise-up U.S. 98 into Mississippi, and we’ll cross the state via old rural U.S. highways – over to the eastern bank of the mighty Mississippi River.

Tags Alabama, Florida

Animals Blogging Church Driving History Military Photography Scripture Sports Travel

Hattiesburg Mississippi

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 18, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit “The Hub City” of Hattiesburg Mississippi.

It got its nickname “The Hub City” because it was a hub – a central point – of several railroad lines at the time (1910s) with a thriving lumber industry. Nowadays it’s known as “The Hub City” because it’s where old U.S. Routes 49 and 98 meet at the south end of the city. U.S. Route 11 also passes through the core of the city. It extends southward to near the Gulf Of Mexico, and northward to the Canadian border with New York. I-59 bypasses much of the city to the west. It is definitely “The Hub City” in the southeastern part of Mississippi. It’s a little less than 100 miles northwestward from Mobile Alabama, and it’s a little more than 100 miles north-northeastward from New Orleans Louisiana.

I’ve driven through Hattiesburg several times en route to and from North Texas. I’ve even spent a couple of hotel nights in Hattiesburg. On one of those hotel nights I had driven 657 miles from Wichita Falls Texas. I checked-in to my hotel room, and I looked at my iPhone. I had a voice mail from my Pastor. He told me to call him. I did. He asked me if I wanted to preach on Sunday. (That was a Thursday night.) An exhausted me gladly accepted. On that Sunday (October 02ND 2016) I preached my very first sermon to my church family. I was ready for that day. I had plenty of time on the road to think about and to pray about that first sermon.

I really want to spend more than a hotel night in and around the Hattiesburg area. There are lots of places to see and things to do there. The Hattiesburg Zoo and the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum would be on that list. #VisitHattiesburg.

Hattiesburg is a young college and military town with about 45,000 residents within the city limits and about 170,000 residents within the metro area. It is the home of the University Of Southern Mississippi and the black and gold Golden Eagles.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

Tags Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Travel

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Honoring My Fellow Veterans

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 11, 2021

It’s Veterans Day here in the U.S.A.

This week marks the 36TH anniversary that the United States Air Force shipped me off to a foreign country solo for the first time in my life. As an 18½-year-old I flew from Washington Dulles Airport nonstop to London Heathrow Airport. It was an overnight flight from November 09TH into November 10TH of 1985. From there I took British Rail westward to Swindon in Wiltshire, and then from there I hired a cab to take me up to RAF Fairford in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire – my home for the next 2 years. (It was my first permanent duty station.)

I remember “Road To Nowhere” from The Talking Heads playing on my cab driver’s radio, and I certainly felt like I was on a road to nowhere, but I was really on a road to somewhere – the official start of my lifelong career.

I’ve been a member of the United States Air Force for the past 37 years now – going back to when I first signed on the dotted line of the delayed enlistment program near the start of my senior year in high school. I was hesitant in joining the military way back then, but it all turned out just right, and it’s become my career. I’d do it all over again.

To my fellow Veterans – this is our day. From one Veteran to all of you – I thank you for serving your nation so that we may be free indeed.

Tags Military, Veterans

Blogging Driving History Military Photography Scripture Travel

Mobile Alabama

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 4, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit “The Port City” of Mobile Alabama.

I’ve driven through Mobile a bunch of times since the mid-1990s. It’s a very unique drive along I-10 over Mobile Bay, under the Mobile River, and through the downtown area. It can also be a scary drive through the 3,000-foot tunnel, as it has a reduced speed limit of 50 MPH, but everyone is driving much faster than that. I’ve been severely tailgated through that tunnel, and it was not a pleasant experience. And then of course once you reemerge out of the tunnel you are instantly hit with blinding daylight.

A little over 5 years ago on a 3,008-mile road-trip to and from the Wichita Falls Texas area I enjoyed a scheduled pitstop in downtown Mobile to check-out some of the sights for a few hours. It was too short of a visit, and there’s plenty to see and do downtown over the course of several days or a long weekend. I talked to two women who were serving at their downtown tourist bureau (co-located with a museum), and they gave me great ideas for sightseeing for a few hours, and for a few days. I told them that I only had a few hours, but I vowed to return sometime in the future to spend more time in their city that they clearly love. Their friendliness and excitement actually inspired me to possibly pursue post-retirement service in the tourism welcome industry.

Before I talked to them I actually visited Fort Charlotte (Fort Condé de la Mobille). It’s a partially-reconstructed 18TH-Century fort that guarded Mobile during wartime. It was demolished about 100 years later (because it was no longer needed). The current replica fort was opened on America’s Bicentennial on July 04TH 1976 directly above the western-end of the aforementioned I-10 tunnel.