Category: Travel

Home Is Where The Heartland Is

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 15, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s an anniversary week for me. It was exactly one year ago that I bought my current home here in the Heartland of Florida near Sebring. I bought my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida. It’s my forever home. I expect to live here and enjoy retirement life here for the rest of my physical life here on Earth.

This is the place that I drove through many times and eventually spent vacation time in for about 8 years – including several Presidents’ Day Weekends here in the U.S.A. I fell in love with the region. I decided that I wanted to move here after I retire. I narrowed it down from Lake Wales to Lake Placid (about 55 miles apart). I eventually settled on Sebring (right in the middle). I had my eyes on my current 55+ neighborhood when I was still 54. I waited until 2 days after my 55TH birthday to physically tour my likely new neighborhood with my Real Estate Agent. I bought my new home last Presidents’ Day Weekend.

I still love everything about my new neighborhood and home county that I loved a year ago and during those 8 years of vacations. I’ve also become actively involved in my new neighborhood and community – something I never really did during my 36 years in South Florida. My footprint is all over Sebring, Avon Park, and the surrounding Highlands County region. I’m looking forward to contributing more time to make this an even greater place to live and visit and enjoy.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll reveal the first 2 stops on my upcoming retirement road-trip. One is in the Florida Panhandle, and the other is now the second-largest city in “The Yellowhammer State”. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Avon Park, Florida, Heartland, Highlands, Sebring

Blogging Driving Food Geography Nature Travel

Lorida Florida

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 8, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. There’s a place in the eastern part of my home county here in the Heartland of Florida – Highlands – that is actually in the lowlands – some 100 or more feet lower in elevation than the more populated U.S. 27 corridor in the western part of the county. That place is named Lorida, and it does not rhyme with Florida. It’s pronounced “Lor-EE-da”. It was formerly named “Cow House”, and “Istokpoga”. Lorida got its name in 1938.

It’s not an incorporated city, town, or village. It’s a broad census-designated place right along U.S. 98 along the northern shore of Lake Istokpoga – one of the largest lakes in Florida. The lake is about 5 miles wide and 10 miles long. It’s very shallow with an average depth of about 4 feet. Boating and fishing are popular at this lake.

About 1,700 to 1,900 residents call Lorida home.

There’s a restaurant approaching Lorida (from Sebring) called Gator Shack. I’ve been there twice now. I went there last June late on a Sunday morning after church service for their highly-rated Fried Chicken lunch. It was spectacular, and I vowed to return for more of some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever tasted. I actually returned late last Wednesday morning, as they also offer their fried chicken on Wednesdays. Unfortunately – I found out after sitting down that it’s not available until after 4:30 PM on Wednesdays, so I got their big burger with swiss cheese and hand-cut fries. Both were delicious !

Some day in the near future I’ll venture back there on a Sunday after church to enjoy their fried chicken again. And I’ll explore more of Lorida and Lake Istokpoga including the Highlands County Park on the lake.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll celebrate my first anniversary of selecting and purchasing my new home here in Highlands County. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Istokpoga, Lorida

Blogging Food History Travel

Titanic

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 1, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Friday afternoon and evening I visited Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition on Orlando Florida’s famous and thriving International Drive. I went with a bus of 40 fellow passengers. It was a Sebring Historical Society hosted daytrip that left our own museum in downtown Sebring at 3:15 PM and returned by 10:45 PM. (We were at the Titanic museum, dinner, and show for 3½ hours.)

The entire experience from start to finish greatly exceeded my expectations. The museum tour / show technically starts the moment you walk through the front entrance, and it continues on through the multi-course dinner (which plays out like a fun singing and dancing revue). As you can imagine it’s a happy and joyful gala at the start of the journey (and through dinner), but then after dinner – disaster strikes, and the show and its players take a solemn and somber tone out of respect for the real-life victims of that cruise. (Out of 2,240 passengers and crewmembers – over 1,500 perished at sea.)

You can actually visit the museum during the daytime for your own self-guided tour, or you can visit the museum as part of the overall 3-hour dinner and show experience. It is definitely worth the admission price. Check out their official web site (hyperlinked at the top) for all of the details.

You know – not once during the dinner experience did I hear Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” (from the 1997 Titanic movie). And that’s a good thing. The show’s players kept it to the life and times and sights and sounds of April of 1912.

Next #TravelThursday – it rhymes with Florida – or does it ? Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Titanic

Blogging Geography Travel

All Aboard !

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 25, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. You know I love the sound of train horns in the distance. And in my new home in the Heartland of Florida I hear train horns from afar. When it’s really quiet outside (and inside my own home) – particularly at night – I can actually hear (and almost feel) the sound of the train as it moves along the track. Those are sounds that I never heard down in my former home in deep South Florida. (Trains didn’t go that far south.)

At its closest point the active railroad track (used by AMTRAK and other trains) is just 2 miles to the north-northeast. My home office in the front of my home also faces in that direction, so when I’m sitting here at my desk writing this blog, or writing a sermon, or working on Excel spreadsheets – and I hear the train – it’s a beautiful sound, and it makes me wonder how many people are on that train, or what material and supplies are being hauled, and is it headed northward or southward. It’s a welcome distraction for a few minutes.

FLASHBACK – I wrote about AMTRAK on the July 13TH 2023 edition of #TravelThursday.

I want to ride a train sometime in the future to see America. There’s a vast part of our country that I’ve never seen before (such as California, and the Pacific northwest, and the Rocky Mountain states, and the Great Plains, and even most of New England.)

There’s actually a train that does short sightseeing trips right here in the Heartland of Florida – Sugar Express. That would be a good start to see America – starting right here in my backyard. I may do it in March. That would make for a great #TravelThursday blog post !

Next #TravelThursday – My Heart Will Go On. Let’s keep traveling together.