Category: Travel

Take A Picture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 27, 2020

(Good song by Filter from early-2000.)

Well Happy Thursday February 27TH 2020 my friends. It’s the final Thursday of February, and it’s the start of another blogging weekend for me. But this weekend will be curtailed. In lieu of the usual 4 new blog posts I’m only publishing 2 – this one right here -and tomorrow’s RETRO. After that I’m going on hiatus for a little over a week to hang out with church pastors, preachers, planters, ministers, leaders, and disciples up the road in Orlando. I’ll also be singing and dancing in the middle of the Hertz Arena in Estero Florida with MercyMe and Jeremy Camp performing their greatest hits. That’s how I “Spring Break” at nearly 53 !

So here’s where that Title above (“Take A Picture”) is significant. Last weekend (Friday in fact) I posted original material on Facebook for the first time in 13 months. It was actually quite benign (or so I thought). I swapped out my profile picture. That’s it. I replaced a picture from 2018 with a picture from 2012. It’s a picture of me up on stage with my former church family with a wireless mic hosting a Sunday morning service. I didn’t think anything of it really when I posted it. Some friends recently asked me to change the picture, so I did. In the next few days it garnered 35 likes and loves and 15 comments. It’s one of my most reacted-to Facebook posts ever (since I created my account in 2013).

Incidentally – other than the occasional profile picture and cover photo swap – I don’t post much on Facebook anymore. I still have friends (lots of them) who are only on Facebook, so I keep in touch with them on there and sometimes post a comment on something that they have posted. But this is where I really live on social media – right here on my own blog.

And so – here’s that profile picture that went viral on my Facebook account for a few days. Enjoy, and I’ll be back tomorrow for my Winter Season Finale.

LPC 20120205

Christian Driving God Ministry Music Radio Travel

My Top 10 Hits – Week 157

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 17, 2020

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday February 16TH 2020:

“The God Who Stays” – Matthew West [# 1 last week / 13TH week on chart]
“Rescue Story” – Zach Williams [2 / 19TH]
“Almost Home” – MercyMe [4 / 9TH]
“Waymaker” – Michael W. Smith Ft. Vanessa Campagna [3 / 4TH]
“Your Name Is Power” – Rend Collective [5 / 6TH]
“One Day” – Cochren & Co. [7 / 4TH]
“I Will Fear No More” – The Afters [8 / 4TH]
“See A Victory” – Elevation Worship [9 / 2ND]
“Like You Love Me” – Tauren Wells [6 / 5TH]
“I Know” – Big Daddy Weave [- / 1ST]

# 1 One Year Ago This Week:
“Maybe It’s OK” – We Are Messengers

# 1 Two Years Ago This Week:
“Gracefully Broken” – Matt Redman Ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard

# 1 Three Years Ago This Week:
“Love Broke Thru” – TobyMac

Welcome to the start of Year 4 of this current K-LOVE era of my weekly hit music chart. I discovered the existence of K-LOVE in a hotel room in Bartow Florida on Presidents’ Day of 2017. I was returning southward down the peninsular spine of Florida after having been at the TobyMac concert in Tallahassee the night before. I was actually praying to God in my hotel room for a Christian pop station back home in South Florida after listening to WAY-FM and The JOY-FM in North and Central Florida. Well God delivered that miracle immediately.

I quickly discovered that there was already a Christian pop station in South Florida by the name of K-LOVE, and here’s the kicker – its 1,000-foot+ transmitter was broadcasting it at the U.S. maximum power of 100,000 watts just 5 miles away from my home ! The next morning once I got within about 100 miles of that transmitter and my home – I heard K-LOVE for the first time. And here we are 3 years later.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) here on #CountUp I’ll present a special cumulative Top 20 chart – my Top 20 hits of the past 3 years.

Tags KLOVE

Food Nature Travel

Here – Eat This !

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 13, 2020

Last Saturday morning with chilly temperatures for South Florida (low-to-mid-60s) I enjoyed about a 3-hour visit to the local Fruit & Spice Park. They claim to be the only park of its kind in the continental U.S. It was my 4TH visit ever, and my 2ND visit in 10½ months. I got in for free because I’m a member. (I bought a $25 annual pass last March.)

I toured the Park for a good 90 minutes, and I walked almost exactly 2½ miles. After that I hopped on the tram (pulled by a John Deere tractor) for a fun 1-hour and 15-minute tour of much of the Park that I had just walked, but this time narrated by a 21-year-old expert. He made many stops along the way treating us with exotic fruit samples, edible leaves and flowers, and other leaves for us to smell. Here at the Park you can’t pull anything off of any trees. Only the tour guide can do that. Any fruit that has already fallen to the ground is yours to claim !

After the tram tour I stepped in to their small café, and I enjoyed a hot and delicious Cuban sandwich (served panini style) and a cold and refreshing banana milkshake. Good Stuff my friends ! Little did I know that later that same day and into the night my stomach would become bloated and somewhat painful. I ended up calling it an earlier than normal night knowing that the bloat and pain would eventually dissipate in my sleep – or I would be rudely awaken early the next morning with botulism. I’m blaming it all on those 25 or so edible leaves that I consumed – particularly the bright yellow ones.

Incidentally I awoke the next (Sunday) morning feeling great. The pain went away in my sleep.

Animals Bible Bugs Christian Church Driving God History Holidays Military Ministry Music Nature People Photography Scripture Travel Weather

Southwest Florida Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 23, 2020

This past U.S. holiday weekend I enjoyed a 3-day / 3-county / 360-mile Florida road-trip to and from Fort Myers. It was my first visit to the region since last July. I always enjoy visiting Southwest Florida (Collier and Lee County). Usually I venture over there to see a concert at the Hertz Arena, and this trip was no exception.

My first stop though after crossing the Everglades via the Tamiami Trail was the flagship branch of the multi-site Collier County Museum in East Naples. It was my first visit since June 2012. Back then I thought it was my first visit ever – until I saw some of the exhibits outside – and then I realized that I had been there years earlier.

At the end of my 90-minute visit I picked-up a brochure for a nearby place that I never knew existed – the Naples Museum Of Military History – at the main terminal of the Naples Airport. So I went there, and I immersed myself in all of the awesome displays there. They were overflowing at the seams in the two rooms that they occupy there. They need more space, and hopefully they get it.

After that I took a ride out to the country and into the woods for another first-time visit ever – the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. What a wonderful and beautiful place this was – especially on a sunny and coolish day. I’m sure that it would be a miserable place to be during our 9-month bug season and especially our 5-month rainy season, but that was truly a great day to be outdoors strolling the 2.25-mile elevated boardwalk absorbing nature’s beauty – created by my Almighty God.

By the way all of the above was Day 1 of my road-trip ! Day 2 started in Fort Myers at probably their # 1 tourist attraction – the Edison & Ford Winter Estates. It was my first visit since April 2011. I love this place. I could work and have fun at this place after I retire from my military / civil service career. I took the 1-hour and 15-minute guided tour which was a lot of fun (even though I had done it before). I’d do it again !

On Sunday night I went to the Hertz Arena to see Franklin Graham conclude his recent tour of Florida. He led us in prayer for our nation and our leaders, and then he preached a classic Billy Graham Crusade sermon on Repentance & Salvation. That’s a topic that I’m quite familiar with, as many of my sermons are about the same. Jeremy Camp opened and closed for Franklin, as he performed 7 of his greatest hits. I’ll be seeing Jeremy Camp perform again at this very same arena in 6 weeks, as he opens for MercyMe.

Day 3 of 3 started back in East Naples at the Naples Botanical Garden – yet another first-time visit. I walked well over 3 miles for 2 hours at this fun place on a chilly and overcast morning.

I’ve got over 80 photos of this fun road-trip to and from Southwest Florida – also known as Florida’s Paradise Coast. At least 60 of those 80 photos will probably be uploaded and captioned on my Flickr site over the next few weeks. But I’ll close this blog post with a sneak-peek. It’s a photo of the chalkboard at the start of the boardwalk at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary where visitors can write-down what they’ve seen along their walk on the boardwalk. A little less than 90 minutes later – there were more sightings documented on the chalkboard.