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Pioneer Daze 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s an active week this week with the Sebring Historical Society – the organization that I’m an active member and volunteer of. Yesterday (Wednesday) was our weekly social and meeting. I attend for both. The social is important in that it’s fellowship with my new friends who share a common interest with me – to preserve, protect, and promote the history of our small town. The meeting is important as we find out what’s going on in relation to that, and our future plans as a result of that. Today (Thursday) it’s our monthly spaghetti dinner, and that will look a lot different than it has recently since we will be in a new building that we recently acquired (at least temporarily).

I look forward to both events this week. I also look forward to next month when we add our quarterly luncheon as well as a first-time special event at the local sports arena. If it’s successful – then it may become an annual event for our local community. Read all about it, but please forgive all of the misspellings. I had nothing to do with this flyer:

In the months to come I hope to spend more time working with the Sebring Historical Society including serving as a docent at our museum and gift shop at the Charles F. Weigle House Museum.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll reveal my retirement date from the USAF after almost 39 years, and I’ll reveal the 2-to-3-week road-trip that will follow shortly thereafter. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Driving Geography History Nature Travel Weather

Cedar Key Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 6½ years ago on Monday February 20TH 2017 (Presidents’ Day here in the U.S.A.) I visited Cedar Key Florida along the Nature Coast (the “Big Bend” region) for the first and only time.

Back then this blog was solely on Facebook. Here’s what I wrote about that visit a few weeks after:

We’re up to Day 6 now of my recent 1,226.5-mile “Spring Break Florida Road-Trip”. Coming out of Tallahassee at dawn on a Monday morning in February (Presidents’ Day in fact) I took U.S. 27 eastward (eventually joined by U.S. 98) into Perry, and then I continued on U.S. 98 through the Big Bend region. My first stop was my very first visit ever to the Cedar Keys. About 700 residents live on the main tiny island full-time, but the population swells to over a thousand during the winter “snowbird” season. I spent over an hour touring Cedar Key Museum State Park. It includes two museum buildings, a raw nature trail, and the rocky Gulf Of Mexico coastline. Oh yeah – and lots of biting bugs.

Fun Fact: Making a cameo appearance above is my very first Honda Civic – a 2015 LX. (I now own my 3RD Honda Civic.)

Cedar Key Museum State Park, the islands, and the surrounding area was recently devastated by the effects of Category-3 Hurricane Idalia. For the latest news and information regarding Cedar Key visit their Chamber Of Commerce home page.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll introduce you to “Pioneer Daze 2023”. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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1990s Blogging Career Driving Geography Home Military Travel Weather

From Melbourne To MacDill

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. In last week’s edition I wrote about my hectic 6-months right after Hurricane Andrew destroyed Homestead Florida. That’s when I was driving back-and-forth between Fairfax County Virginia and Prince Georges County Maryland (Andrews AFB) along the Capital Beltway and also through Washington D.C. I put a lot of miles on my red 1989 Geo Spectrum sedan back then, but I was not yet done.

I drove / moved to Melbourne Florida in March 1993 – just a few days before “The Storm Of The Century” swept through the U.S. Eastern Seaboard bringing hurricane-force winds, sub-freezing temperatures, and even snow to North and Central Florida.

5 months later in August 1993 I was offered a job on the opposite coast over in Tampa at MacDill AFB. I accepted, but I kept my home in Melbourne. I ended-up living in a hotel (paid for by the USAF) in Tampa, working on-base during the week, and taking I-4 and U.S. 192 back to Melbourne on most Friday afternoons – returning back to Tampa on Sunday afternoons.

That was about a 140-mile drive in each direction, and it took anywhere from 2½ to 3 hours. That was also back when I freely drove on Interstates and high-speed expressways. (I don’t do that anymore.) That was also when far less people lived along the U.S. 192 corridor from Melbourne through St. Cloud and Kissimmee to Walt Disney World. Back in 1993 into 1994 St. Cloud had a population of about 15,000. Now it’s over 65,000. Kissimmee is up from about 35,000 to over 80,000. That’s a lot of traffic along U.S. 192 these days. It wasn’t too bad back in 1993.

That back-and-forth commute between Melbourne and MacDill lasted about 7 months until March 1994 – when I moved back to Homestead Florida. For a short period of time I thought that I would live in Melbourne for the rest of my life. But then when I got the job at MacDill AFB I thought that I would eventually move to Tampa full-time and live there for the rest of my life. Then I moved back to Homestead for the next 29 years.

Now I have my longtime Homestead home – and my new Sebring home. And I have a commute of about 185 miles that I do several times per month. I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I enjoy the scenic and mostly rural drive. I enjoy seeing my church family and even some of my coworkers at my longtime workplace in Homestead. But I especially look forward to the return trip back north again to my new home and pre-retirement life and times in Sebring. I plan to live there for the rest of my life – less than 2 hours away from both Melbourne and Tampa.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll check-out Weeki Wachee Springs. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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1990s Blogging Career Driving Geography Home Military Travel Weather

Post Hurricane Andrew

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 31 years ago this morning on August 24TH 1992 Hurricane Andrew struck Homestead Florida, and within just a couple of hours its winds caused catastrophic destruction across the region. It was unlike anything I had ever lived through before or since. And that’s all I’ll say about it. I’m actually glad that I’m not in Homestead today, as on this day every year it’s what’s on everyone’s mind – that night / morning that lives were changed forever. I don’t like to talk about it. I don’t like to write about it. So I won’t.

Later that same week on that Friday morning I departed the death and destruction of Homestead and drove up Florida’s Turnpike and I-95. The next day I arrived at my former home from when I was a teenager – where my parents, little brother, and cats still lived – in Fairfax County Virginia. On that Monday morning – exactly a week after Hurricane Andrew – I arrived at Andrews AFB on the other side of the Capital Beltway in Prince Georges County Maryland (where I actually grew-up from 1969 to 1980). I checked-in as a “refugee” of Hurricane Andrew. I was not the only one. Others had beaten me there.

For the next 6 months I was stationed at Andrews AFB doing almost exactly the same job that I had left behind at Homestead AFB. I was welcomed with open arms at my new office. I was considered as that extra special bonus person that they didn’t know they would get. I fit right in. It turned out to be the greatest (and last) 6 months (out of 8 years) of my entire USAF active duty tour.

I actually lived in a dormitory room on-base during the week – generally from Sunday afternoons to Friday mornings. On Friday afternoons after work I’d circumnavigate almost half of the Beltway in a clockwise (inner-loop) direction. (What fun that rush hour traffic was.) On the return-trip back to the base on Sunday afternoons (with less traffic) I’d “cut-through” Washington D.C. diagonally from Virginia into Maryland.

Fun Fact: Back then I drove a red 1989 Geo Spectrum. It was the first brand-new car I ever bought. I bought it at Tropical Chevrolet on Biscayne Boulevard (U.S. 1) in Miami Shores Florida. (That dealership is still there today with the same name.) I owned that car for over 8 years, and I put 96,745 miles on it.

That was a crazy time in my life – albeit only 6 months – living and working in the metro area that I grew-up in from age 2 to 18. Yep – 31 years ago I was traversing the Interstate Highway System like I owned it, and not only that – I was on the Capital Beltway. I don’t drive on Interstate highways anymore except in rare circumstances (like rural portions of long road trips to and from North Texas). I generally stick with old U.S. highways and state roads. I feel more comfortable on them in my older age.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll share my coast-to-coast travel adventures along U.S. 192 and I-4 in Central Florida from exactly 30 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp