#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit the small island of Madeira. It’s an autonomous region of Portugal located in the North Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 kilometers southwest of Portugal. It’s a difficult island to find on a map. It’s at 32.7° north latitude and 16.9° west longitude. It’s actually the top of a volcano that extends some 20,000 feet above the ocean floor along an underwater mountain range. The highest point of the island is just over 6,100 feet above sea level. The island itself is about 35 miles wide (west to east) and about 14 miles in length (north to south).
Back on November 03RD 2007 I visited Funchal – the capital and largest city of Madeira on its south coast. Over 110,000 people lived there in 2011, and that’s almost half of the population of the island. Funchal is a major cruise ship port – particularly for ships traveling between Europe and North America. That’s how I visited the island. I was on Day 7 of a 14-day Transatlantic cruise from Rome Italy to Miami Florida. That was our final port-of-call before crossing the Atlantic.
I took a shore excursion with hundreds of others from the cruise ship. It was basically a tour of the southern part of the island to include the port city as well as the mountains to the north. I forget which mountain peak we went to the top of, but it was cold up there at over a mile high.
That was a fun day on land. After that our cruise ship sailed down to about the 25° north latitude line, and then once we got there we straddled that parallel all the way westward to Miami Florida – arriving 8 days after our Madeira stop.
Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.
All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
Following a fun 7-part Thursday blog series on my recent 77-hour / (4-day / 3-night) / 472-mile road-trip to and from Florida’s Treasure Coast – I plan to continue these travel-themed Thursday blog posts indefinitely.
This week #TravelThursday leaves Florida and the United States to check-out the intriguing island nation of Iceland. We’re technically not leaving North America to visit Iceland, as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which separates North America and Europe in this region runs right through the center of Iceland. Geologically speaking the north and west part of the island is part of the North American plate, and the south and east part of the island is part of the European plate. You can actually walk right along the narrow valley / rift that is in the middle of the ridge and look-up at both North America and Europe on either side.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the longest continuous mountain range on earth – extending from the Arctic Ocean in the north to nearly Antarctica in the south. Most of it is submerged under water, but there are a few islands in the middle of the ocean that are part of the ridge – to include the biggest one – Iceland. There’s an excellent article on the Amusing Planet web site that explains the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in Iceland.
I’ve never been to Iceland; although, I once had the chance to do so when I lived in the United Kingdom for 2 years from 1985 to 1987. Back then Keflavik NAS (at the SW corner of the island) was a joint-use Icelandic / American military base, and the base that I was stationed at in England – which itself was a forward operating location for stateside KC-135 aircraft – sent some of those aircraft to Keflavik for a few months at a time to support the mission there.
One of my favorite Twitter accounts is @dorisig (Iceland Photos). The name of the guy who runs it is Halldor. He’s got over 5,100 followers. He lives in Iceland (Reykjavik), and he’s a tourist guide. Once or twice per day (usually during the work week only) he drives somewhere with his dashcam on, and he posts a 30 to 40 second video of his drive along with the time and temperature. He includes noteworthy comments with his tweets – some of them quite amusing. I love his tweets and videos. I look forward to my daily drive around town with Halldor. Some of his videos have been shown on TV worldwide – including here in the U.S. This is probably the best thing Iceland has going for it online right now. He’s promoting the beauty that is Iceland every day. My interest in visiting Iceland during a future summertime has increased immensely !
#TravelThursday continues next Thursday. Where shall I visit virtually next ?
All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
It’s Part 7 of my multi-part Thursday blog series on my recent 77-hour / (4-day / 3-night) / 472-mile road-trip spanning Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee Counties (in that order). It was my first extended visit ever along Florida’s Treasure Coast. While there I was always within about 5 miles of the Atlantic Ocean and the adjacent Indian River.
I awoke early on Day 4 – Saturday June 05TH 2021 – my 54TH birthday. In the weeks (even months) prior to this road-trip I had planned to enjoy a free birthday Grand Slam® breakfast at Denny’s, but they’ve actually changed things up over the past couple of years. Instead of simply walking-in to any Denny’s on the exact day of your birthday, telling them that it’s your birthday, showing them proof via your driver’s license, and then enjoying a free birthday Grand Slam® – now you have to be a part of their Rewards program, and receive a digital coupon for a free birthday Grand Slam® that you can utilize once anytime during your birthday month.
I decided to save my digital coupon from Denny’s for later in the month. Starbucks gave me a reward for any item on their menu free – good only on the exact day of my birthday – so it was off to Starbucks of Vero Beach for a quick small Breakfast.
After that it was a mostly uneventful drive home – down U.S. 1 – onto Florida State Roads 713 and 70, into Okeechobee County, around the eastern edge of the big lake, and then southward onto U.S. 27 and back into Miami-Dade County. I drove 180.2 miles home, and the total miles of the road-trip from start to finish was 471.8.
This was a fun yet well-planned road-trip. I planned it back in early-2018, and I scheduled it for the first week of June of 2018. I had to cancel it when a work-related road-trip to Georgia took precedence. Early this year I decided that this would be the year to take that road-trip, and so I scheduled it for the exact same 4-day / 3-night part of the first week of June. Most of the places that I visited were on my original 2018 itinerary. This was a road-trip where I wasn’t looking for potential part-time volunteer or employment opportunities post-retirement. I wasn’t driving around looking through potential future neighborhoods. I just wanted to visit new places that I’ve never been to before in my life, meet interesting people along the way, and enjoy some great food. I accomplished my mission.
Inside the Indian River Citrus Museum in downtown Vero Beach Florida
There are a lot of hidden treasures along Florida’s Treasure Coast – mostly along or within a few miles of the Atlantic coastline and the Indian River shoreline. I’ll definitely visit the area again to explore more. So far I’ve captioned and posted about 35 photos of this road-trip over on my Flickr site. I’ve got dozens more still to post, so I’ll be doing that for at least the next month. Check my Flickr often to see the newest photos.
And now it’s time to announce my next great Florida road-trip that begins in less than 100 days. It’s all planned-out. I’ll be driving up the spine of Florida along U.S. 27 up to Florida State Road 60, and then I’ll be heading westward into the Tampa area for one night. From there I’ll be heading southward along U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail) into the Fort Myers area for one night. From there I’ll be heading southward and then eastward back into South Florida. I’ll be spending one night in Northwest Broward County before I return home on the afternoon of the 4TH day. It’ll be a nearly 650-mile road-trip from start to finish, and I’ll post all about it for many weeks after.
This concludes my 7-part series on “My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip”. Actually it was an 8-part series, as I introduced it on the June 06TH 2021 edition of “Sunday Scripture”. You can utilize the calendar feature down at the bottom of this site to click on a previous Thursday if you missed any of the parts.
#TravelThursday continues next Thursday, as I plan to blog about Reykjavik Iceland.
All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
I. #Introduction – Surprise. I’ve brought back an old favorite of this blog, but just for a single return appearance. This won’t become a regular weekly feature again. This was once the flagship of this blog. It started in 2007 on Myspace – inspired by fellow bloggers of the era. It continued here on WordPress for 129 well-read editions. This is the first edition on WordPress in over 11 years. I brought it back briefly on Facebook after that. This is essentially my instant “brain dump” online. It’s what’s on my mind – right here – right now. I have no idea what I’ll write – until my fingers hit the keyboard. Once it’s done it gets posted immediately. I wanted to do something different to observe 2,000 blog posts here on WordPress, and this is what I came up with. #Blogging101
II. #Lunch – I’ve written about Longhorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster many times before here on my #GrabBag. Back in 2008 and 2009 they were being built and opened in my city right next to each other just 3 miles away from my home. Longhorn and Olive Garden continue to thrive with delicious food, great service, and an abundance of customers all day every day. Red Lobster is struggling. I don’t go there very often anymore, and when I do there aren’t that many people there – both customers and employees. They appear to be poorly managed at this time. As a church group we’ve dropped the place from our regular rotation due to poor service. I went back today solo on a reconnaissance mission to see if they have improved. They failed. They were closed 18 minutes after they were supposed to be open at 11 AM. I went back to Longhorn – the place that I’ve been to more than any other restaurant in my city. My favorite waitress served me. She was fantastic, and my meal was delicious. #CaseClosed
III. #ManOnTheMoon – 52 years ago today on July 20TH 1969 (a Sunday) man walked on the moon for the first time ever. It was one small step for man – one giant leap for mankind. I actually remember watching it as a 2-year-old toddler in our cozy Greenbelt Maryland apartment on our giant (25-inch) living room TV set that was essentially heavy furniture that weighed several hundred pounds. I smiled when R.E.M.‘s “Man On The Moon” played on my iPod Shuffle at my desk at work this morning. #Appropriate
IV. #WeatherOnTheFours – Today we had a lot of quick-moving heavy showers around the area, but we also had a lot of hot sunshine. Sometimes the sun was shining bright while the rain was pouring down. Sounds like a typical “rainy season” day. We started-off this morning right around 78°F / 26°C, and we managed to reach 90°F / 32°C. Slightly drier and hotter days are headed this way – along with some Saharan dust. #Gesundheit
V. #FamilyPhotoOn5 – I stumbled across this photo recently. It’s from a long time ago – the Summer of 1977 (I believe). It could be ’78. I’m 10 (or 11). My little brother is 2 (or 3). We’re definitely in Ocean City Maryland with our neighbor friends. I went fishing for the first time ever in my life, and look what I caught ! Please excuse my outfit. I didn’t dress myself back then. #CutenessOverload
This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend (which starts very soon) – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.
Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.
Be blessed my friends ! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
