Tag: Florida

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.

Tags Florida, Museum, Highlands, Heartland, Avon Park, Sebring, Depot, Railroad, Train

Blogging Driving Geography Health Home Travel

Driving & Walking In 2025

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 5, 2026
No Comments on Driving & Walking In 2025

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Now that I’m done recapping my 10-day Texas Thanksgiving experience with family it’s time to move on to other travel topics.

Last year I drove a total of 6,210 miles. That’s an average of 17 miles per day. Half of those miles occurred between January 01ST and May 27TH. Almost 70% of those miles occurred during the first 6 months of 2025. June was by far my most traveled month. I drove 1,166 miles in June – including 2 trips to and from my former hometown of Homestead Florida. I closed on the sale of my longtime (30-year) home on June 30TH, and I haven’t been back since. From July 01ST to December 31ST (final 6 months) I only drove 1,910 miles, for an average of a little over 10 miles per day. I drove under 500 miles per month for all 6 months – and under 300 miles per month for 4 of the 6 months. The 6,210 miles driven surpassed only 2022 (by just 66 miles). It was likely my 2ND-least driven year over the past 37 years of driving in Florida. The outlook for 2026 is much less driving – probably less than 4,000 miles.

And now on to my walking in 2025. I wear my Apple Watch 24/7 – except for when I’m taking a shower, or I’m sitting down and recharging it. I got my Apple Watch as a #ThanksChristmasGiving gift in 2022 (IYKYK).

So – I now have 3 full years of data. And for the 3RD consecutive year – I came close, but I did not reach 1,000 miles by foot. I fell short in 2025 at 966.70 miles. That’s compared with 964.71 in 2024, and 995.64 in 2023. My goal is to reach 1,000 miles in 2026. If I can average 2.74 miles per day – then I will achieve that goal. I surpassed 2.74 miles per day last January, February, March, April, November, and December. It’s those 6 months in the middle that I need to increase my walking. Maybe I should try some “mall walking” before the stores open.

I walked around my neighborhood 117 times in 2025 for a total of 142 miles. That represented not quite 15% of my total walking in the year. So – over 85% of my walking was just me walking around and doing things.

Any other Excel spreadsheet nerds out there ?

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll have lunch on the train. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida

Blogging Driving Food Geography Holidays Home Travel

Homeward Bound

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I returned home from North Texas 54 days ago. This is Part 8 of 8 – the conclusion of my recap of my 10-day experience with my family for Thanksgiving and the week after.

After my gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (#DFW) changed from B18 to B17 to B14 to B11 in less than 2½ hours – it changed once again – to D2. That’s right – a completely different terminal !

I got the text message from American Airlines (#AA), and others sitting at the gate obviously got the same text message at the same time, as we all reacted pretty much the same way. We were aggravated, but there was no time for aggravation because boarding would begin in just 38 minutes at a gate far away from there. We all got up, gathered our carry-on bags, and walked briskly to the nearest Skylink (automated people mover) station to reach the new terminal and gate. Of course – Gate D2 was perhaps as far away as possible from the Terminal D (Gates 1-22) Skylink station (and pretty much all other “D” gates). We all made it to the new gate, and we all got good exercise doing so. Strangely – a lot of people were already at that gate, and it looked like they had been there for a while. They obviously knew about Gate D2 long before many of us did.

After a brief respite it was time to board the aircraft to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (#SRQ). As with the incoming flight 10 days earlier – the outgoing flight was not quite full, but close to it. There was plenty of space available in the overhead bins, and the middle seat next to mine was vacant. I had a window seat 3 rows from the rear, and I stared out at the sky towards the NNE for much of the flight. Once at cruising altitude I ate a couple of Pop-Tarts, and then I enjoyed the Lotus Biscoff cookies that are handed out on most #AA flights. Additionally – the flight attendants gave us a bag of pretzels. Two complimentary snacks at the same time !

I also enjoyed a cup of black coffee to go with my multiple snacks. Their coffee has always been delicious, but now it appears that they are in the process of switching / upgrading to Lavazza‘s premium coffee blends. That should be available on my next flights later this year.

The flight from #DFW to #SRQ took a normal route ESE across Louisiana and the Gulf straight into Florida – landing more than 10 minutes early. It took a while (longer than normal) to retrieve my baggage at the carousel. (Mine was one of the last bags to appear.)

After that I went to the wrong location to pick-up the shuttle bus to the parking area. I went to the area for hotel shuttles. I blame that on a lack of clear and proper signage. I eventually figured it out on my own due to no available help from anyone who worked at the airport – inside or outside. The shuttle bus driver took me to the secluded parking lot over near the control tower off Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41). There were two vehicles remaining in that temporary overflow parking lot (which was obviously closed for new parking), and mine was obviously one of the two.

The 78-mile drive back home was uneventful – taking me 1-hour and 49-minutes through Sarasota-Bradenton suburbia and into the countryside and up into the hills. I had to deal with a few slow drivers in front of me and a few tailgaters behind me. I arrived home at 7:26 PM on Saturday December 06TH 2025. My 10-day and 6½-hour Thanksgiving trip to and from Wylie Texas was complete. I enjoyed refreshing my memory and writing about it over the next 2½ weeks following my return. (I completed this post on Christmas Eve.) I hope that you enjoyed reading about it over the past couple of months.

As for my next trip to visit family – that may occur in less than 3 months. As for next Thanksgiving – I’ll likely revert back to tradition and fly out 8 days before the holiday (instead of the night before) – and I’ll return back home on the night after the holiday (#BlackFriday). Or maybe I’ll do something completely different and stay home for the Thanksgiving holiday and instead visit my family during the week leading-up to Christmas. I’ll figure it all out in a few months. #StayTuned

How was my driving in 2025 ? I’ll look back at it – next #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags American, Bradenton, Dallas, DFW, Florida, Sarasota, SRQ, Texas, Thanksgiving, Wylie

Blogging Commerce Driving Food Football Geography Holidays Home Movies Shopping Sports Television Travel

Church, Beef, & Eternity

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 18, 2025

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week’s post covered my holiday weekend time-period from Thanksgiving Eve – through Thanksgiving Day, and Black Friday, and Small Business Saturday.

We’re up to Museum Store Sunday now; although, this post has nothing to do with any museum stores. (Well since I mentioned it – back home – my Sebring Historical Society observed Museum Store Sunday by having our museum open for 6 hours to try to ~~get rid of~~ [sell] as much of our gift shop merchandise as possible to make room for new inventory.)

OK – let’s get back on track here. And let’s go to church – as a family. That’s what we did for the first time ever at their new non-denominational church in nearby Sachse Texas. (I wrote more about that experience on #SundayScripture a couple of weeks ago.)

After church me and my brother went to a busy Best Buy, and then we went to see our 2ND movie in 3 days. It seems as if every trip – either me visiting in Texas or my brother visiting in Florida – we end up seeing a movie that neither one of us was talking about in the hours or days leading up to it. Our “under the radar” movie for this trip was “Eternity”. I knew about it, but I never mentioned it because I didn’t think that he’d want to see it. And my brother knew about it, and he didn’t think that I’d want to see it. We decided about 90 minutes before the next showing at a nearby movie theatre to see it. We both enjoyed the premise of the movie. It’s one of my favorite movies of the year (out of 20+ so far), and my brother wants to see it again with his wife once it’s streamable. It was a fun movie with (surprisingly) lots of sight gags.

Fun Fact: “Eternity” and “Rental Family” (seen 2 days earlier) were the # 6 and # 7 movies of the 5-day Thanksgiving Weekend. Both played in far fewer theatres than the Top 5 movies above it.

Where’s The Beef ?: I almost forgot about it. Before the movie we ate lunch at a popular place called Portillo’s. It’s a Chicago-based fast-casual restaurant with almost 100 locations nationwide (and rapidly expanding). They specialize in Chicago beef. And I had some for lunch. I had the Beef & Cheddar Croissant. It’s a variation of the classic Italian beef sandwich that uses a croissant instead of French bread. It features thin-sliced, slow-roasted, rich, and seasoned Italian beef and melted cheddar cheese. It was pretty good. Very juicy !

And finally – I ended my favorite month of the year – November – with a great Sunday Night Football game on NBC – the Denver Broncos (a team I like) at my original hometown Washington Commanders. It was surprisingly an exciting and close back-and-forth game that extended well into overtime. My Commanders had a chance to win it by a point if they had converted on a 2-point conversion following a touchdown, but the conversion was blocked, the game ended – Broncos 27 Commanders 26 – and November ended.

Next #TravelThursday is in 2 weeks on New Year’s Day, and I’ll cover the experiences and events of the first few days of the new month of December in the Dallas Texas area. Let’s keep traveling together.