Tag: Heartland

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Blogging History Travel

Avon Park Depot Museum

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 113 weeks ago I wrote all about my first visit (which was really my second visit) to the historic Avon Park Depot Museum – operated by the Avon Park Historical Society. It’s located about 4½ miles from my neighborhood. I visited the museum on a previous trip to the area in February 2021. I arrived at the museum. I took a couple of exterior photos. I walked-up to the front door, and it was locked shut. #COVID

What a disappointment. I immediately returned southward to Sebring. That disappointment actually led me to a big “reveal” with the Sebring Historical Society that began my relationship with them.

Meanwhile I’ve been visiting the Depot Museum in downtown Avon Park on a fairly regular basis. 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. It’s now used for special catered dining events by groups of 16 to 36 (by reservation only).

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 and curator to share history with you. It’s currently open from 10 AM to 3 PM on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. 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.

The docent on duty at the museum during my visit last month told me all about Tasmania Florida and Fisheating Creek. That led me to do some historical research on the ghost town and the natural free-flowing stream that runs alongside it. I’ll share what I learned next – #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Blogging Driving Food Geography History Nature Photography Travel

Sugar Express

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This past Sunday afternoon I took a fun 2-hour / 46-mile train ride aboard the Sugar Express. It was my first such train ride here in the U.S. in my lifetime. I didn’t really know what to expect with it until it actually occurred.

I picked-up the train at the Highlands County Fairgrounds adjacent to the Alan Jay Arena across from Sebring High School near downtown Sebring Florida. U.S. Sugar actually owns and operates the railroad track that runs adjacent to the Fairgrounds, and we stayed exclusively on their railroad track (also known as the “South Central Florida Express“) for all 23 miles southward and then back northward.

Passengers were already aboard the train over an hour before our 2 PM departure. (I got there early too – surprised that so many others got there even earlier than I.)

The train departed on-time at 2 PM, and we began our slow southward trek towards south of Lake Placid. One of the most surprising things that occurred throughout much of the trip were people (I believe mostly locals who know the train schedule) getting out of their vehicles and taking pictures and recording our train as it passed by. (Lots of tripods were setup.) This occurred at street crossings and adjacent to neighborhoods and businesses where people came out of homes and stores to record us and wave at us. (And many of us waved back.) The scenery was beautiful on a sunny Sunday afternoon – from natural unspoiled Florida scrub to abundant orange groves to sandy hills to picturesque lakes around Lake Placid. It was interesting to see such a diverse and different part of my hometown county that I never see while driving 55 to 65 MPH along U.S. 27.

We arrived in the area south of Lake Placid known as Childs. It’s a sugarcane loading site between train and truck for U.S. Sugar. The train came to a stop for a moment, tested its brakes, and then began slowly moving back northward for the return trek to Sebring.

This was a fun ride. Customer service all around was outstanding. They actually made two trips back and forth through the passenger cars with complimentary bags of chips and cookies – far more than you get on a standard airplane in coach. You also get unlimited Zephyrhills bottled water out of a well-stocked cooler. They even pick-up your trash after you’re done. You’re able to walk through all of the passenger cars at your leisure – even while the train is moving. They sell souvenirs in one of the cars. The top speed of the trip was just shy of 40 MPH (outside of both Sebring and Lake Placid); although, for much of the trip it averaged from 15 to 30 MPH. The ride was mostly smooth except when it reached top speed when it got a little bit “jerky”. It’s got a nostalgic feel to it with original passenger cars from the 1950s, and continuous big band music from the 1940s playing throughout the sound system.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at the cloudy and dreary and rainy and chilly El Niño Winter of 2023-2024 here in the Heartland of Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Blogging Driving Geography Home Travel

Home Is Where The Heartland Is

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s an anniversary week for me. It was exactly one year ago that I bought my current home here in the Heartland of Florida near Sebring. I bought my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida. It’s my forever home. I expect to live here and enjoy retirement life here for the rest of my physical life here on Earth.

This is the place that I drove through many times and eventually spent vacation time in for about 8 years – including several Presidents’ Day Weekends here in the U.S.A. I fell in love with the region. I decided that I wanted to move here after I retire. I narrowed it down from Lake Wales to Lake Placid (about 55 miles apart). I eventually settled on Sebring (right in the middle). I had my eyes on my current 55+ neighborhood when I was still 54. I waited until 2 days after my 55TH birthday to physically tour my likely new neighborhood with my Real Estate Agent. I bought my new home last Presidents’ Day Weekend.

I still love everything about my new neighborhood and home county that I loved a year ago and during those 8 years of vacations. I’ve also become actively involved in my new neighborhood and community – something I never really did during my 36 years in South Florida. My footprint is all over Sebring, Avon Park, and the surrounding Highlands County region. I’m looking forward to contributing more time to make this an even greater place to live and visit and enjoy.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll reveal the first 2 stops on my upcoming retirement road-trip. One is in the Florida Panhandle, and the other is now the second-largest city in “The Yellowhammer State”. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

Categories
Blogging Driving Geography Home Travel

Miles & Meters

Welcome back to #TravelThursday.  This past Sunday afternoon I surpassed 22,000 miles on my 2020 car. It took me 34½ months to get there. I reached the milestone in the southern part of my home county – Highlands County Florida.

The topography of Highlands County is quite interesting, and it explains its name.

My neighborhood – for example – is on a gentle slope, and it’s most noticeable after a thunderstorm when the water quickly runs and drains downhill from west to east along the culverts and into the lake. It starts at 43 meters (141 feet), and it runs down to 40 meters (131 feet). The large neighborhood to our west on the other side of U.S. 27 is as high as 52 meters (171 feet). In our northwestern part of Highlands County – the Lake Wales Ridge runs along the west side of U.S. 27. (Think of the Lake Wales Ridge as Florida’s little mountain chain along its spine.)

The highest elevations in Highlands County are in the southwestern part – south of Lake Placid closer to Venus – where the land peaks at 62 meters (203 feet). That’s where U.S. 27 rides along the top of the ridge. The land starts rising from 22 meters (72 feet) just as soon as you enter Highlands County from the south.

So – I got sidetracked there with the fascinating topography of my new home county, but isn’t that what blogging should be all about ? You write what comes to you in the moment – not knowing where your thinking mind and your typing fingers will lead you.

Well – (circling back) – I surpassed 22,000 miles on my car 32 days after I surpassed 21,000 miles on my car, and that was 18 days after I surpassed 20,000 miles on my car. So it was a slower 1,000 miles this time around. I’m settling-in to my new home here in the Heartland and the Highlands of Florida. The view is wonderful from up here on the Ridge !

Next #TravelThursday – I gotta cut loose – footloose – kick-off my Sunday shoes. Let’s keep traveling together.

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