Tag: Avon Park

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Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

Avon Park Depot Museum

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’ve written about the historic Avon Park Depot Museum – operated by the Avon Park Historical Society – a few times here on my blog. It’s located about 4½ miles from my neighborhood on Main Street in downtown Avon Park Florida. I studied the place online during COVID, and I was very intrigued by its history. I decided that once I move to the area and retire from the USAF – I wanted to volunteer at the museum full-time.

My first visit to the museum was 5 years ago next week during a fun road-trip vacation through the area. I arrived at the museum. I took a couple of exterior photos. I walked-up to the front door, and it was locked shut with a note on the door. They were closed due to COVID.

What a disappointment. I immediately got back in my car and drove southward to downtown Sebring. That disappointment actually led me to my discovery of the Sebring Historical Society. My relationship with them began that morning, and it continues to this day. I’ll write about that – next #TravelThursday.

I’ve been visiting the Depot Museum in downtown Avon Park on a fairly regular basis over the past few years. Every time I visit – I wonder what could’ve been had they been open on that Wednesday in February in 2021. What would I be doing at that museum ? Would I be giving tours ? Would I be doing Accounting & Finance ? Would I be in charge of their Social Media and Internet presence ? Would the museum look any differently because of me ?

The museum is well run. My friend Elaine is the Museum Curator, and she frequently updates the museum with new displays – both temporary and permanent. It’s a very nice museum to visit set in a historic train depot, and the trains keep on rolling by. (They just don’t stop.)

On some days you may even be able to get a bonus exclusive behind-the-scenes tour inside this railroad dining car (acquired in 1986) that last saw action as part of Amtrak’s Auto Train between Lorton Virginia and Sanford Florida. It’s now used for special catered dining events by groups of 16 to 36 (by reservation only).

And I finally got to do just that this past December. A group of us from the Sebring Historical Society joined forces with another small group to meet the minimum of 16, and we enjoyed a very nice multi-course lunch on the train car. The food was delicious, and the service was wonderful (provided by volunteers of the Avon Park Historical Society). It was an excellent experience, and I suggested right then and there that we need to do this again next year (as in 2026). Several trains (passenger and freight) sped by us on the track as we were enjoying lunch – and also during our guided tour of the museum before lunch.

The museum is a traditional historical museum for the city of Avon Park. You can easily spend an hour or two checking it all out and allowing the docent(s) to share history with you. It’s currently open from 10 AM to 3 PM on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. It’s located at 3 North Museum Avenue – right after the first set of railroad tracks if you’re driving east on Main Street from U.S. 27. Make a left at Museum Avenue, and you’ll see the museum and the dining car on the left-hand side. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated.

Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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1970s Blogging Music Radio Television Travel

Three Dog Night

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Over the past 39 years I’ve attended over 150 concerts and LIVE events at various venues. It all started in England in 1986 when I attended 17 LIVE music concerts in the span of about 16 months. The pace slowed down quite a bit once I returned home stateside, and the last 100 concerts and events have occurred since 2004.

Last Friday night was a bucket list act. I’ve always wanted to see Three Dog Night LIVE in concert, and so I finally did. They were my first favorite band on the radio when I was a little kid in Prince Georges County Maryland during the early-1970s. I liked all of their songs – especially “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Joy To The World”, “An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Black And White”, and “Shambala”. (I still love those songs today. They are all on my Spotify.)

The concert was awesome. They performed 18 songs – 17 of their 21 consecutive Billboard Top 40 hits from 1969 to 1975 – as well as a newer song for an upcoming new album. Danny Hutton (the only original) and David Morgan also told short stories in-between many of the songs. Their final song had nearly the entire arena singing in unison (and some dancing too) – “Joy To The World” – the # 1 song in America and Canada for the entire year of 1971.

Interesting story on David Morgan. I thought he joined the band in 1981 when they reformed after disbanding 5 years earlier, but upon further research after the concert – I learned that he’s only been a member since 2015. He replaced original founding member Cory Wells after he passed away. That’s how good David Morgan is. I thought he was on the band for the past 44 years, but he’s only been with them for 9. He sang lead on many of the songs, and he was impressive – and energetic. I think he’s been a fan of the band for as long as me. He’s also been a musician for the past 65 years – touring and recording with such greats as Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Dolly Parton, and Rick Nelson. If you watched “Hardcastle & McCormick” on ABC-TV back in the mid-1980s – then you heard David Morgan every week. He sang the theme song for the show – “Drive”.

This was a rare sold-out concert at the Alan Jay Wildstein Center For The Performing Arts at South Florida State College in Avon Park Florida, so that’s 1,460 seats sold. If I had to guess – then I’d say that about 90% of the attendance was between the ages of 65 and 75. I was part of the 10% under 65 or over 75. So – most of the attendees were born from 1950 to 1960, so they were in their teens and 20s when Three Dog Night were one of the hottest bands in America. (I of course was a bit younger – age 2 to 8.)

Fun Facts: Three Dog Night hosted the cocktail party on the November 29TH 1971 episode of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”, as they sang “Joy To The World” (with pauses for jokes). They also hosted the inaugural edition of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on December 31ST 1972.

I can only imagine what a Three Dog Night concert was like during the early-1970s, and I’m guessing that some of my fellow attendees may have experienced such a wild night of music (and more) back then. Now I can say that I’ve also been to a Three Dog Night concert – 2025-style.

It’s on to Fort Myers and Estero Florida for another music concert – next – #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Driving Geography History Music Travel

South Florida State College Arts

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It occurred to me today (as I’m writing this) that I’m coming up on 32 years of online activity here in Florida. It all started in a cozy studio efficiency apartment in Melbourne Florida during the Spring of 1993. Back then I was posting on a friend’s BBS (bulletin board system) before I created my very own – “MANx CAT BBS” (named after my childhood cat). It was a lot of fun back then, and perhaps the only subject that I posted about then – that I’m still posting about now – is travel. Back then I posted in “Fluffy’s Travel Bureau”. Today – it’s the simpler-named #TravelThursday.

Last Thursday I headed a couple of miles up the road to the Avon Park campus of South Florida State College (#SFSC).

My first stop was their Museum of Florida Art And Culture. It was my second visit to the museum. It’s a small museum – perhaps about one-third historical and two-thirds art gallery. They feature temporary exhibits throughout the year, and they had one this time titled “Echoes Unveiled” by Katya Neptune. It’s portraits of women and children that Neptune captured in Rwanda Africa in 2012 and 2014. The art pieces include matte medium, watercolor, polyurethane, thread, pencil, markers, and yarn on paper and fabric to embellish the large-scale photo-transfers.

There was actually a second temporary art exhibit adjacent to the museum inside the lobby of the concert venue. It was titled “Whiskers And Tales” by local 92-year-old resident Mary Seigfreid. It’s an exhibit on fluffy cats. And that brings this post full circle. (I saw a cat in her exhibit that kind of sort of looked like Fluffy from 35 years ago.)

Inside the concert venue – formally known as the Alan Jay Wildstein Center For The Performing Arts – I attended a free afternoon / matinee concert with the Charlie Redd Band LIVE. The 4-piece band (lead singer, guitarist, keyboardist, drummer) was very good. They performed mostly ’60s and ’70s pop classics – nearly all of which I knew and sang along with. Their encore was “Sweet Caroline” (Neil Diamond), and that was a lot of fun. They performed over 20 songs in 100 minutes.

It’s great to have #SFSC so close by so that I can enjoy LIVE concerts, and history and art in the same building.

Today I’m spending the day visiting Arcadia Florida for the first time ever. I’ll write about it – next #TravelThursday – Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging History Travel

The Hotel Jacaranda

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A favorite place of mine in Avon Park Florida – aside from the historic Avon Park Depot Museum – is the historic Hotel Jacaranda – AKA “The Jac” – AKA “Queen Of The Ridge”.

Built between 1923 and 1926 along Main Street in the historic downtown district – it’s been operating continuously as a hotel with a restaurant for the past 98 years. It’s named for an estimated 150-year-old Jacaranda tree that had to be knocked-down and removed to make room for the building at its location at 19 East Main Street. The entire mile-long Main Street historic district (eastward from U.S. 27) is on the National Register Of Historic Places.

During the late-1920s and into the 1930s it housed visiting major and minor league baseball players who were training in the city. Babe Ruth stayed at the hotel, as did Clark Gable, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and other famous stars of sports and screen. During World War 2 it housed military pilots who were training at the nearby Army Airfield.

Since 1988 it’s been owned and operated by the South Florida State College Foundation. The college has classrooms within the building as well as offices and student dorm rooms. Culinary students train in the kitchen of the restaurant and create many of the meals that are served to its customers. I’ve enjoyed a half-dozen delicious meals at the restaurant, and I’ll continue to support them and enjoy the ambience of the historic hotel.

If there ever comes a time where I need to vacate my home for a night or two (power outage, no A.C. in the summertime, no water, etc.) – then I would definitely consider checking the availability of a room at The Jac. I would love to spend a night or two there.

Financial donations support continuous restoration of the hotel.

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Next #TravelThursday – Pioneer Daze is coming. I’ll tell you all about it. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp