Category: Travel

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Blogging Driving Travel

12,000 Miles

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I hit a milestone on my car a couple of Tuesday mornings ago less than a mile away from my home. I hit 12,000 miles on my odometer, and I did so on my 607TH day of owning it. That’s right – it took me almost 20 months to drive 12,000 miles. The national average for driving here in the U.S. used to be 12,000 miles per year, but a recent study by the Federal Highway Administration states that the average American now drives 14,263 miles per year. They actually break it down by state. Here in Florida we drive an average of 14,557 miles per year, or just slightly above the national average.

I obviously help to bring our average down a little bit. Last year (2021) I drove 8,672 miles, and that was up from the 6,395 miles that I drove in 2020. Pre-COVID I drove an average of 10,244 miles per year from 2015 to 2019. My 12-year average from 2003 to 2015 was 9,854 miles per year.

How do I know all of this ? Well I have a spreadsheet that tracks it all.

Since 2015 my most-driven month is September (by far). I’ve driven to and from North Texas twice in September. My least-driven month is May – with August as a close-second. My most-driven day of the week is Friday, and least-driven – Wednesday.

Incidentally it took me 40 days to drive the 1,000 miles from 11,000 to 12,000 on my odometer. It took me 72 days to drive from 10,000 to 11,000. I think it will take (at least) 72 days to make it to 13,000.

We’ll see what happens between now and June. I’ll keep you updated here on #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Commerce Driving Travel

No More Vacations

And now on #TravelThursday – something a bit different. For the past 19 weeks in a row I’ve been writing about 4 vacations that I experienced in November, January, March, and April. Well – I have no more vacations to write about. As I told some coworkers of mine last week – I am all vacationed out. This is the time of the year where I just need to settle in, relax at home, go to work, relax at home, go to work, etc., and accumulate new vacation time. Oh – and also write blog posts and sermons. I’ll be here for the long run. I’m not going anywhere for about 5½ months.

I was actually planning yet another vacation for early-June starting with my birthday. I considered another Carnival cruise to the Caribbean, and I also considered various short road-trips here in South Florida and over to Southwest Florida (Gulf Coast). Hotel rates are running much higher than normal – even for low season which we’re getting ready to enter. I think a lot of hotels are charging up to double (or more) what they’ve charged during previous low seasons (pre-COVID) – mostly because they can – because demand is high. Hotels lost a lot of money in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID, and now they are making their money back.

So #TravelThursday returns to its original format where I write about places I’ve been to before – not necessarily while on vacation. I’ll also write about places I’d like to visit – either again or for the first time. I’ll also write about some potential visits to some of our own local tourist attractions here in South Florida. I realized that I haven’t been to ZooMiami in 5 years, and Biscayne National Park in 6 years, and Vizcaya in 10 years.

Maybe I’ll take a quick day trip or two down into the Florida Keys – perhaps Marathon (about 70 to 75 miles from where I live). I already have a potential schedule of places to visit for 2 days of fun and food in Marathon including an overnight stay at a hotel.

Well – whatever happens – either virtually or physically – we’ll have some fun here on #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Food Movies Sports Television Travel Wrestling

My Wild Wrestling Weekend Vacation 2022

And I am back from yet another vacation – this one a 6-day trip out west. I flew in to the Dallas Texas area early last Thursday morning (March 31ST). First stop after my brother picked me up at the airport (DFW) was a restaurant nearby that the locals love – Old West Cafe. I enjoyed a hearty breakfast during my first hour within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and it continued a new tradition for me and my brother. This was our first stop the last time I flew in to DFW (in November 2020), and it worked out so well that we’ve decided to do it every time I fly in to DFW.

Here’s me a few seconds before diving in to this culinary masterpiece:

We saw a movie that afternoon – The Lost City (starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe – among others). I enjoyed it. A solid ‘B’. 3.5 out of 4 stars from me. It was my 3RD movie seen at the theatres so far in 2022, and that ties both 2020 and 2021. (By comparison my 2000 to 2009 average was 20 movies per year, and my 2010 to 2019 average was 30 movies per year.)

That night we went to WrestleCon in downtown Dallas at a large hotel with a convention center. You may have heard of ComicCon held in various cities each year around the U.S. (and probably the world.) Well this is the professional wrestling version of that. Picture a lot of vendor booths with well-known wrestlers behind many of them selling photographs, autographs, and selfies or pictures of you and the wrestler. These are real-life TV stars of the wrestling realm – past and present – of rival companies – sitting or standing right in front of you in living color. Just you and them meeting and greeting each other. It was quite the experience. I was a bit starstruck. My brother talked to a few of his favorites, and he bought their photo and signature, and I took a picture of them with my brother’s smart phone.

Also part of the convention was a show at the wrestling ring with a full card of matches. We had front row seats ringside for that first night’s show. These are mostly independent wrestlers. I’m a huge WWE fan (more on that later), but beyond that I’m not really in to the independent wrestling scene (or other promotions stateside and worldwide). I know of some of them because they used to work for the WWE. I was very impressed with this first night’s experience.

Night 2 (Friday), and we were in Garland Texas (a Dallas suburb) at the Curtis Culwell Center – a nearly 7,000-seat arena. We were there for the reboot of Ring Of Honor and their annual Supercard Of Honor pay-per-view event. It was a stacked card with a dozen matches that thrilled the more than 2,000 in attendance. (We had ringside seats again.)

Nights 3 and 4, and we were at WrestleMania 38 at AT&T Stadium (where the Dallas Cowboys play). This was my 21ST WrestleMania (since WrestleMania X8 in 2002), but it was my very first LIVE and in-person. It was a bucket list event for me and my brother, and we finally did it. We were there for 8 hours on Saturday night and 6 hours on Sunday night. (The show itself was 4 hours on each night.)

If you have followed me online for a while then you know that I am a huge WWE fan. (I even preached a sermon about it here on my blog.) My brother got me hooked in June 2001 at a Raw and Smackdown in Tampa and Orlando respectively. Before those two LIVE events I had never seen an episode of either show. Since then I don’t think that I’ve missed one. I became a sudden and instant fan at those two shows at the atypical age of 34. (I never watched it as a kid either.)

Me and my brother watched the post-WrestleMania edition of Monday Night Raw at his house, and then I flew back home the next morning. My wild wrestling weekend vacation was complete.

A couple hundred million dollars were pumped-in to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex economy last weekend due to professional wrestling and its loyal fanbase worldwide, and I was part of all of that.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Driving Food Sports Travel Wrestling

My Spring Break Vacation 2022

And now – Week 4 of my 4-week series on my 6-day / 626-mile road-trip adventure here in South Florida and also up in Central Florida.

Last #TravelThursday I wrote all about my fun family day at Legoland near Winter Haven in Central Florida. From there I proceeded over to U.S. 27 (my favorite highway in Florida – affectionately known as the Chris M. Day Retirement Highway – or the #CMDRH). My family did the same in two other vehicles. We said our “good-byes” in the parking lot of Legoland. I’ll see my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces again – today. (More on that later.)

I stopped for Dinner at a place that I’ll probably be spending a lot of time at in the future (during retirement life) – Bob Evans in Sebring. Hopefully service greatly improves with future visits. I’ve eaten there a handful of times in the past, but this time service was the worst I’ve ever experienced.

I spent the night at a hotel in Lake Placid. That’s the other town that I’m eyeing for my future retirement / forever home. It’s very likely that I’ll purchase my forever home before I retire (maybe even later this year – but more likely next year). I’d begin to move things into my new home with each visit over a period of time.

My 6-day / 626-mile road-trip adventure ended the way it began 5 days earlier. I drove 3 hours to my workplace on the morning of Tuesday March 08TH 2022, and I worked much of the day. Then I went home and unpacked. That was the official end of another fun and successful vacation.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll write about my next vacation (which actually started yesterday). I’ll be spending 5 fun days hanging out with my family in the Dallas Texas area. Me and my brother – well we’re going to Wrestlemania !

I’m going to try to recap this vacation in a single blog post, but if I can’t fit it in 700 words or less (basically a 3-minute read) – then I’ll do a 2-part series.

I really want to get back to the original format of #TravelThursday where I write about a fun place I’ve visited (not necessarily while on vacation), or even a place somewhere in this world that I want to visit but haven’t done so yet. I think that’s the plan going forth after I write about this trip to and from Dallas Texas.

I thank you all for checking-out my blog and making #TravelThursday consistently my most-read blog post of the week (by far). Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp