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Ag Tour

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last year a couple of my friends at the Sebring Historical Society told me all about an “ag tour” that they went on. It sounded very interesting. They boarded a bus early in the morning, and they went on a guided tour of various agricultural sites around the region. In the middle of it all – a big steak lunch. I was intrigued. Travel & Food together. Two of my favorite pastimes.

The tours are limited to the winter season – January, February, and March – on the last Thursday of each month. They start at 8 AM and end at 5 PM. They are hosted by UF IFAS Extension – which stands for University Of Florida Institute Of Food And Agricultural Sciences. They have Extension offices in all 67 of Florida’s counties. (I’m in Highlands County.)

I didn’t get a chance to sign-up for any of the remaining tours last season (2025), and then I pretty much forgot about them during the “off-season”.

Last month at our Sebring Historical Society board meeting we were discussing an upcoming event when one of our board members pointed out that the date of that event conflicts with an “ag tour”.

Once he said that – bells started ringing in my mind. I went home that night and began looking up the ag tours to get more information on them. One was coming up on the last Thursday of February. I read the itinerary. I was determined to be on it. Less than a week later I actually drove to the Extension Office (for the first time ever) – 10 miles away from home – to sign-up for it and pay for it ($100).

Thursday February 26TH 2026 was the date of the tour, and I arrived back at the Extension office (formally it’s the Bert J. Harris, Jr. Agricultural Center Highlands County). I arrived about 40 minutes before the start of the tour. Apparently – that wasn’t early enough, as there were already several dozen people there before me. I checked-in, I retrieved my big bag of goodies / freebies from the various sponsors of the tour, and I got on the 56-passenger luxury coach.

We departed promptly at 8 AM on a mostly cloudy and chilly morning. We took an unusual route to our first of six stops – perhaps by design. We headed south briefly along U.S. 27 before turning west into Hardee County, and then north into Polk County. It was all two-lane backroads (after U.S. 27) – through the countryside – with farmlands on both sides. Many of the farms didn’t look too good after numerous frosts and freezes. Our UF IFAS hostess narrated and answered questions along the way. She was very knowledgeable and informative.

Our first stop was a few miles east of Fort Meade along U.S. 98. We visited the Dundee Citrus Growers Association (CGA) Citrus Under Protective Screen (CUPS) farm. I’ve actually driven by it several times over the past few years while heading to and from Tampa, Bartow, and Lakeland. It’s easy to spot along the old highway. It’s about 500 acres of screened farms with citrus growing inside – protected by the deadly psyllid insect. All of the sun gets in. All of the rain gets in. But the psyllids stay out. The screens were installed in 2022 and 2023, and the first trees were planted during the Fall of 2023. They grow red grapefruit under the Florida Rubies brand name.

Their grapefruits are available in many grocery stores and also online. They ship to anywhere in the U.S.A. and Canada.

Fun Facts: Their farm is at a high elevation for Central Florida – 215 feet above sea level. You can see it from aircraft flying above at cruising altitude. (Look for white landscape instead of tan.)

Next #TravelThursday – The Ag Tour returns to Highlands County to another citrus grove. I’ll introduce biochar to you. And then we’ll head into historic downtown Avon Park to enjoy a hot and delicious steak lunch. Travel & Food together. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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It Starts With A Donkey And A Buffalo

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This week it’s Part 3 of my 4-part series on my recent trip to visit family in the Wichita Falls Texas area. That would make this the penultimate edition of this series. (I’ve always liked that word – penultimate.)

It’s the final Saturday morning of September, and we need to check on Reno – our approximate 25-year-old family donkey. He lives in a farm in Clay County about 500 feet away from the Wichita County line. He gets checked on every day. He’s fed (a pile of hay and a carrot), given fresh water, and sometimes even cleaned up a bit. (I actually Goggled “do donkeys like carrots”, and Google’s AI confirmed that “donkeys generally love carrots as a healthy treat”. I can confirm that Reno does indeed love carrots.

After our visit with the donkey we checked-in with the buffalo – as in White Buffalo Coffee Bar. It’s a Veteran-owned franchise with 18 locations in Oklahoma and Texas. We went to the one near Sheppard AFB. I got a hot Pumpkin Spice Latte and a breakfast croissant sandwich. Both were pretty good. My cousin liked her drink and food too. I have a feeling that we’ll be back there on my next visit – especially considering its proximity to the airport (6 minutes away).

Next stop – a wonderful roadside memorial off I-44 northbound – north of Wichita Falls and about 7 miles south of the Oklahoma State Line. It features a 77-foot Cross, 3 smaller crosses, and numerous plaques along a circular sidewalk with Scripture detailing the final days of the life of Christ Jesus. It was constructed from 2023 to 2025. KMOC 89.5 – a local Christian radio station – was behind the memorial.

Next stop – a classic car show at a church. We actually stumbled across this one, and this is a recurring theme on my visits to Wichita Falls. We go on a road-trip (either locally or regionally), and we stumble across a place or an event that we weren’t expecting on our way to another place or event. This was a fun event. I love classic car shows and museums. I love guessing the year each car is from before I check out its display card. I love looking inside the cars – especially at their dashboards.

We also checked out a small portion of the Wichita Bluff Nature Area (off Loop 11).

Later that same day (and the start of my final night) – 5 of us went out to dinner at a place called Firefly. The fellowship with family was wonderful, and the food portions were MASSIVE. I would’ve taken a picture of my dinner plate upon receiving it, but I didn’t want to waste any time. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to eat everything on my plate within an hour. (And I actually couldn’t finish it all.)

Next #TravelThursday starts with dinner leftovers for an early lunch the next day, and it’s my trek through the airports and inflight back home to Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Cornhole & Mini-Golf

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s Part 4 of my 6-part (possibly 7-part) blog series on my recent trip to and from Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. It was my first trip back to the area in exactly a decade (to the date).

Last week I wrote about our 3+ hours at Arlington National Cemetery. After that we headed back to McLean (our family hometown of 16 years in the ’80s and ’90s), and we ate at a local deli for late-lunch. We continued our trip down memory lane through McLean and into Falls Church. My brother knew where he was going because he used to drive those streets from 1991 to 1996, and before that he was our Mom’s passenger in her car, and he told her how to get to different places around the region (even into Maryland). Aside from downtown McLean I was pretty much lost, as I only drove around the local area for a little over a year 40+ years ago.

We drove over or under I-66 dozens of times. We lost count of the number of times that we did so. It became a running gag as we drove around the local area. “Oh look – it’s I-66 again !”

I remarked that they don’t build new roads in Fairfax County. They were the same roads that we drove on in the ’80s and ’90s, and those were the same roads that our predecessors drove on in the ’60s and ’70s. They simply repair, repave, and restripe the existing roads. And now more vehicles than ever before drive on those same roads. They also don’t cut down forests in Fairfax County to build new neighborhoods. They cut down old houses in existing neighborhoods to replace them with new houses.

Me and my brother took a side-trip to nearby Annandale to visit a store that he used to visit 30+ years ago. (It’s still in the same shopping center but at a different location.) A few hours later we (as a family) took a trip to nearby Vienna, and we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant that my brother used to enjoy eating at back in the early-’90s. (It’s been there for 50+ years.)

After dinner we headed north up to Tysons for some Friday family fun. We went to a place called The Perch. None of us knew what to expect there, but at least me and my brother were mesmerized by it all. Think of a 2½-acre public park with plenty of green space (including a dog park), gardens, trees, benches, picnic tables, food trucks, drink kiosks, a biergarten, LIVE concerts, cornhole, and an 18-round mini-golf course. Now picture all of that 11 stories up high atop the roof of a 1,600-seat performing arts center and attached to a large 300-room hotel – surrounded by much taller high-rises. It was cooler, breezier, and refreshing up at the park in the sky, and the views were spectacular (where not obstructed by the surrounding office buildings).

I haven’t played much cornhole in my life, but I think I did pretty good at The Perch. And then our 18 rounds of mini-golf after that ? It was perhaps one of my best performances of my lifetime. I was doing so good that my sister-in-law – the scorekeeper – gave up about halfway through on recording the scores. Mini-Golf is a 30+ year vacation tradition for me and my brother. This particular course was a bit on the bland side, but you can only do so much with limited space high atop the roof of a building. (No caves or waterfalls.)

Me and my brother have already discussed staying at that 300-room Watermark Hotel when we possibly revisit Northern Virginia next year. It’s steps away from the McLean Metro station on the Silver Line !

And speaking of the Metro – we take it into Washington D.C. – next #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Nokomis Beach Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my Wednesday morning and afternoon in June along narrow and winding Casey Key Road, and then onto Siesta Key. I wrote about my ride on the Breeze Siesta Islander (Route 77) trolley from Siesta Key to and from downtown Sarasota. I wrote about Bayfront Park and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens – my first visit to both in nearly 11½ years. And the trek continues.

From the underwhelming Siesta Beach I drove back to my hotel, and then shortly after I went for a late-lunch / early-dinner (I call it #LuDinner) at a popular and highly-rated restaurant dockside called Pelican Alley. When by the sea I must enjoy seafood, and so I did. I enjoyed the deep-fried Grouper Tempura with fries and slaw while enjoying beautiful scenery out the window. It was all good !

Due to the threat of thunderstorms late in the day and into the night I decided to check out Nokomis Beach for the first time. It’s actually Sarasota County’s oldest public beach. At 3:30 PM the beach was busy, but not unbearably packed. I hear sunsets can bring out the crowds, and they occasionally do some organized ceremonies just before sunset there at the “Drum Circle”. That’s something that I need to experience in the future, and in hindsight I should have experienced it on this Wednesday evening.

I really liked my short time walking on Nokomis Beach. It was a good family crowd. I definitely want to return sooner than later. I can imagine checking out a pre-6 PM sunset against a cloudless deep-blue winter sky in November, December, or January. I didn’t get to view the sunset on either night because of weather.

After an early hot breakfast the next morning at the hotel I checked-out and got on the road again – up U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail) and onto Florida State Road 681 – which served as the final 4 miles of I-75 from 1980 to 1986 before construction was finished extending the Interstate southward to Naples (and across the Everglades to Broward County).

I thought about taking Florida State Road 681 to I-75, and then 5½ miles of I-75 to Florida State Road 72, but at the last minute I decided that I didn’t need the 5½ miles of anxiety that would come with that. (I rarely drive on Interstates, Expressways, Turnpikes, etc. due to a disorder I have called “being terrified”.) Instead – I made a left onto Honore Avenue (signaled intersection on the pseudo-freeway), and that runs parallel to I-75 on the west side.

Last week I mentioned Sarasota County Road 72 – which is the far-western extension of Florida State Road 72 that continues on to Siesta Key (from U.S. 41). Eastward it continues on for 41½ miles to just west of downtown Arcadia (which I wrote about in Part 1 of this blog series). I didn’t stop this time in downtown Arcadia. I continued on – northward on U.S. 17, eastward on Florida State Road 64, and southward on U.S. 27 to my neighborhood.

This (almost exactly) 48-hour road-trip to and from the Gulf Beaches was a lot of fun, and definitely worth it. I got to revisit places that I hadn’t seen in nearly 11½ years, as well as places that I had never seen before. I discovered a new favorite beach named Nokomis, and I rediscovered an old favorite named Venice. I visited a couple of nice museums and a few nice parks. I enjoyed two great dinners where locals love to eat. I drove 229 miles on that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (I also walked 6 miles on that Wednesday.) It was a lot of fun looking back at this trip and then converting those great memories into words via these last 4 weeks of #TravelThursday blog posts. That’s what this is all about. I’m truly embracing my life as a travel blogger. I love to travel and tell !

Next #TravelThursday I’ll write about my 37TH and final trip to Homestead Florida a little over a month ago to close on the sale of my longtime home, and to close that chapter in my life. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp