Category: Nature

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Blogging Driving Geography Nature Travel Weather

The Mountain State

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This post is all about the great state of West Virginia. A very short 14½-mile portion of I-70 passes through the middle of the northern panhandle of West Virginia, and when I drove that Interstate from Illinois to Maryland way back at the end of October of 1985 as an 18-year-old – that was the last time I was in wild and wonderful West Virginia.

But that was not my first visit to West Virginia. About 6 or 7 years earlier when I was an early Boy Scout (age 11 or 12) our troop would go hiking and camping during the wintertime up along the Appalachian Trail – mostly in Maryland. (We lived in Lanham Maryland at the time – just outside of Washington D.C., and the Appalachian Trail was a little over 60 miles away from our town.)

We hiked much of the 41 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland – not all at once, but in lengths of about 10 to 20 miles over a couple of days spanning several different trips in the wintertime. Most of our trips were in the snow with subfreezing temperatures. We learned to hike properly (with our backpacks) and stay warm while doing so. And we learned how to setup a campsite with tents and start fires to cook and keep warm.

Once (maybe twice) on our trips we made it across the West Virginia state line along the trail at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. It’s known as the “psychological halfway point” of the 2,192-mile Appalachian Trail. Statistically it is actually 1,167 miles to the north-end of the trail in Maine – and 1,025 miles to the south-end of the trail in Georgia. Harpers Ferry is at West Virginia’s lowest point in elevation – just under 250 feet. It’s where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet at the eastern tip of the state.

I would love to visit Harpers Ferry again for the first time in nearly 50 years. I could spend several days there exploring it all and the surrounding countryside across the river in both Maryland and Virginia. It’s about 40 miles from Washington Dulles International Airport (#IAD).

Soon I’ll be visiting West Virginia again as part of my Ohio River cruise. 277 miles of the Ohio River forms the state’s entire western border with Ohio. The river itself is entirely in West Virginia. The north shoreline (historical low-water mark) is where Ohio’s land begins (or ends). All of the islands in the river, and all of the bridges that cross the river are part of West Virginia. Nearly half of my approximate 600-mile cruise will be in West Virginia even though we will never walk on land.

Maybe I’ll sing this while sailing the Ohio and admiring the West Virginia landscape:

♬ Country roads – take me home
To the place – I belong
West Virginia – mountain mama
Take me home – country roads ♬

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at past visits to “The Keystone State” – Pennsylvania. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Blogging Driving Food Geography Nature Shopping Travel

The Bluegrass State

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This post is all about the great state of Kentucky. My first visit to Kentucky occurred a few days before the 4TH Of July in 2005. My brother was living in Dublin Ohio (just outside of Columbus). I flew to Columbus, and then we embarked on a fun road-trip together that took us up to Windsor Ontario Canada (via Detroit). We then took I-75 all the way southward through Cincinnati and into Northern Kentucky. We spent the night at a hotel right next to the Ohio River off (and below) the Interstate. We drove around Covington and Newport and discovered the Newport On The Levee shopping, dining, and entertainment complex overlooking the Ohio River and the Cincinnati skyline. That was a fun first visit into Kentucky – 21 years ago.

My brother had no idea whatsoever that he would eventually live in the Cincinnati area, but that’s exactly what happened 8 years later in 2013. He moved from the Dallas Texas area to West Chester Township – a northern suburb of Cincinnati. My first trip to his new house was actually part of a 15-day / 13-state / 3,666-mile road-trip from November 16TH to 30TH of 2013. On the 6TH day I drove from the Wichita Falls Texas area to the Saint Louis Missouri area. The next day I drove I-270, I-255, I-55, I-70, I-465, I-74, I-275, and I-75 to my brother’s house. On the day after Thanksgiving (returning southward) I drove through the heart of Kentucky along I-75.

Fun Fact: My Saturn Ion 3 Sedan (my longest-running car ever) had a little over 100,000 miles on it when I started the road-trip. At the end of the road trip – a little over 104,000 miles.

I did one more road-trip to and from Southwestern Ohio through Kentucky while my brother lived there. That was in November 2017, and on my return trip southward I got to explore the Creation Museum along I-275, and Sanders Cafe & Museum – where Kentucky Fried Chicken started in Corbin.

Most of my trips to and from the Cincinnati area were through Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport (#CVG). I loved that airport.

My brother and his family moved back to the Dallas Texas area in 2019, and I must say that I miss visiting Ohio and Kentucky. I was actually planning my next road-trip to and from the Cincinnati area where I would explore more of Kentucky either on the way up or on the way down. I really wanted to check out Mammoth Cave National Park off I-65. I’m not ruling out a future trip to Kentucky to explore it as well as other areas in the state.

Soon I’ll be flying in to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (#SDF) for my Ohio River cruise. I’ll get to see a small portion of Louisville – the 7 miles from the airport to the hotel to the ship on the banks of the Ohio River. And then I’ll get to see Northern Kentucky for the first 4 days of the cruise on the starboard side of the ship.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at past visits to “The Hoosier State” – Indiana. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Animals Blogging Geography History Home Nature Travel

The End Of The Innocence

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. For this edition I’m not traveling anywhere. I’m standing in my own kitchen and living room. I’m looking out both of my windows here that face the northwest. Over to the right is the northern fenceline of my dream forever neighborhood of the past 3 years and 3 months. On the other side of that fence is what is now recently-annexed land for the City of Avon Park.

That land – as it looks right now – is raw undeveloped Florida scrub. It sits here on the eastern slope of the Lake Wales Ridge at about 140 feet above sea level (same as my adjacent neighborhood), and it’s probably looked like that for thousands of years. It sits on ancient land here on the Ridge. When sea levels were over 100 feet higher than they are now – this land existed as a series of islands – surrounded by sea – much like today’s Florida Keys.

The remnants of these ancient islands are present here with lots of sand – 80 miles away from the sea on each side of it. Low trees and bushes grow in the scrub due mostly to the poor and arid ground conditions. (Rainwater drains quickly into the sand.)

Here in fast-growing Central Florida these undeveloped scrublands are critically endangered. And the one right next to my neighborhood will also soon be gone – changed forever after thousands of years.

The City Of Avon Park has approved developers to begin bulldozing it all very soon to prepare the land for a big multi-phase / multi-year residential neighborhood with 300+ new homes (single-family houses and duplex villas). The densest portion of the new neighborhood would be closest to my neighborhood – with backyards right up against our fenceline. (Earlier reports had suggested up to 800 new homes, but I think the development has been scaled down since.)

Nevertheless – it’s “The End Of The Innocence”. Once destruction and construction begins – manmade noise will be endless. It will never be as peaceful and serene as it has been since my neighborhood was built 40 years ago. All of the birds, rabbits, squirrels, and other wildlife that live over there will have to find a new home. My view will be changed forever.

My neighborhood replaced scrubland 40 years ago, and maybe that angered the residents in the already-established neighborhoods behind the destruction and construction. I’m grateful for my neighborhood, and I’m also hopeful that we can protect surrounding area scrublands to keep – at least this part of Florida along the Lake Wales Ridge – as natural as can be.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll stay home and look back at our weather from this past Winter season. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Blogging Bugs Driving Geography History Nature Travel

Arcadia Or Bugs

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Yeah you read that title above right. It’s a play on words from my last 3 editions – “Highlands Hammock State Park Or Bust”. Let me explain:

5 weeks ago on May Day I drove north on U.S. 27, west on Florida State Road 64, south on U.S. 17, and west into the historic city of Arcadia Florida for my 3RD visit in a little over a year.

The occasion – the grand reopening and ribbon cutting ceremony of the John Morgan Ingraham House Museum of the DeSoto County Historical Society at the corner of North Monroe Avenue and Whidden Street.

I had previously visited the museum for the first time 14 months earlier on March 06TH 2025. I wrote about it here.

But let me get to the “… Or Bugs” portion of my post here. So here in Florida we have what is known as “Lovebug Season”. I suppose that parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and maybe even South Carolina also experience it. There are actually two distinct seasons a year – each averaging about 2 to 4 weeks in length based on local weather conditions. They are in late-April / early-May, and late-August / early-September. I may be wrong about this, but I don’t recall lovebugs being a problem at all here in South Central Florida for the past 2 or 3 or more years. I don’t know where they went, but I don’t think that they were here. In fact I actually remember news reports over the past few years suggesting that lovebugs were declining, disappearing, and maybe even going extinct.

Well they’re back with a vengeance this year. As I drove those 43 miles / 55 minutes over to Arcadia – my car was swarmed and inundated by thousands of lovebugs – two at a time of course. (Every so often I saw a lonely lovebug all by itself – not getting loved. And then I also saw the rare three together, so that was weird.) It was essentially “raining” lovebugs virtually the entire way to and from Arcadia. And of course they went splat and died together on the grill, bumper, and windshield of my car. (The average lovebug only lives for about 2 to 4 days.)

So me and my scattered, smothered, and covered with lovebugs car arrived at the historic house museum in Arcadia, and there were surprisingly a lot of people there (maybe 50 or so). Everyone seemed like they knew each other (except for me), so it was overwhelmingly locals. I may have been the only one from outside of DeSoto County. I represented the Sebring Historical Society there, as I felt that it was a good idea to be there to support our neighboring county’s Historical Society museum which is just like ours – a restored historic house.

Their house is much older than our house. It was built about 140 years ago. (Ours dates back almost 105 years.) Their house was donated to them (the DeSoto County Historical Society) in 2002 after over 110 years of private family ownership. It is a very nice museum inside – all about the history of Arcadia and DeSoto County.

The program itself for the grand reopening of the museum was very nice for the attendees. It included hot and cold refreshments, LIVE musical entertainment, an Invocation, a Pledge Of Allegiance to the U.S. flag, a welcome message from the President of the Historical Society, a special message from the Mayor of Arcadia, a brief history of the house, the formal ribbon-cutting on the front porch, and a Benediction to conclude. The house was then open for self-tours.

Incidentally the lovebugs were swarming all around us during the program. I guess it could’ve been much worse – like mosquitoes. (They were not yet out.)

After lunch downtown – I headed back home for Round 2 of the 43-mile / 55-minute lovebug splat-a-thon. Later that same day – I got my car washed at my favorite place to do so. On the other side of that – perhaps 90% of the dead lovebugs were wiped clean.

Next #TravelThursday – it’s the “End Of The Innocence” – and I’m not talking about Don Henley’s classic album from 37 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

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