Tag: Museum

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Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Charles Weigle In Chattanooga

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I think I’ve been to Chattanooga Tennessee once in my lifetime – 32 years ago in July 1992 during a road-trip with my little brother (age 17) from Huntsville Alabama. I picked him up after Space Camp, and we drove to Nashville, Knoxville, Gatlinburg, and Chattanooga Tennessee, and then from there to Atlanta. That was a fun adventure in my 1989 Geo Spectrum that included a trek on U.S. 441 up, through, and down the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. We drove and climbed to the top of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet above sea level – the highest point on land that I’ve ever been to.

My retirement hometown of Sebring Florida has a little bit in common with one of those cities above – Chattanooga.

As you may have read previously here on my blog – I’m a docent at the Charles Frederick Weigle House Museum here in Sebring. Come visit us. We’re open 5 days a week – Tuesday to Saturday – from 10 to 3. Before I was a docent – I was a frequent visitor of the historic house, and I was (and still am) intrigued by its 102 years of history. I will never stop studying the history of the house, the man and his wife who lived in the house, and the city that they called home.

Dr. Weigle – an evangelist and songwriter – lived in the house from the time it was built brand-new in 1922 – until 1951 – when he “retired” to Chattanooga Tennessee. I put “retired” in quotes because he actually went back to work up there in his early-80s. He and his wife moved there so that he could work at Highland Park Baptist Church. He wanted to spend his remaining years of life near a Bible college campus so that he could help train and inspire young people in the Lord’s work. The church provided Dr. Weigle with a nice apartment, and he lived there until he passed on 15 years later in 1966.

He maintained his residence in Sebring during much of that time. He continued to study the Bible, and teach, and preach, and write music during his last 15 years in both Chattanooga and Sebring.

Less than 2 weeks after his 95TH birthday – he had entered Heaven’s gates to be with the Lord eternally. Today – he’s buried with his second wife Carrie in a cemetery in Sebring – just a couple of miles away from his longtime house by the lake.

Next #TravelThursday – I’m exploring Highlands, Polk, Osceola, and Orange Counties in Central Florida over 7 days with my little brother. And the Weigle House Museum makes an encore appearance. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

The Ringling

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of months ago I visited The Ringling estate in Sarasota Florida. It was another field trip with the Sebring Historical Society – the group that I serve with. I was with a group of about 30.

Our chartered bus departed from the parking lot of our museum at 8:43 AM. The drive to the Gulf Coast took a little less than 2 hours. Our first stop in Sarasota was Der Dutchman – a large Amish-style restaurant, bakery, and gift shop. At the restaurant you can either order off the menu or enjoy the buffet. (Our “all-inclusive” trip included the buffet.) We arrived there as Breakfast was wrapping-up and Lunch was just getting started. Some in our group enjoyed a late-Breakfast. I enjoyed a hearty Lunch. It was all good. I think my favorite dish was their slow-cooked old-fashioned Roast Beef. It was quite delicious and juicy. We spent over 2 hours there eating, browsing, and shopping.

Our next stop was the Ringling estate. We spent 3 hours there, and our group pretty much split-up to tour the museums and grounds at our own individual paces. I visited much of the estate to include both circus museums and Ca’ d’Zan (“House of John” in Venetian) – John and Mable Ringling’s personal residence (built from 1924 to 1926) overlooking Sarasota Bay.

My favorite part of the circus museum was the 38,000-square-foot / 42,000+ piece miniature circus display that was essentially a ¾-inch-to-the-foot scale (1:16) model of a typical 24-hour day in the life of the Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey Circus during the 1920s and 1930s. I think that was probably my favorite part of the entire estate. I did a walkthrough at the beginning of my visit, but there were so many other people doing the same thing that I couldn’t fully enjoy it, so I returned a couple of hours later to check it all out again in greater detail with far less people around. Circus fan Howard Charles Tibbals designed and built the model from 1956 to 1974 (age 20 to 38). It premiered at the World’s Fair in Knoxville Tennessee in 1982. He set it up at its current location at the museum in 2004 and 2005. What an amazing accomplishment to build that miniature circus !

We got back to Sebring after 6 PM. It was a fun day out with my historical society friends. It was revealed that our next field trip will be in just a couple of weeks – a 4-hour St. Johns River cruise out of Sanford Florida with a big multi-course lunch and a comedy play. I’m looking forward to it !

Next #TravelThursday – What do Sebring Florida and Chattanooga Tennessee have in common ? Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Astronomy Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

North Texas

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my Thursday afternoon in downtown Marshall Texas where I visited the historic Starr Family Home, the Harrison County Historical Museum, and finally – Pazzeria By Pietro’s. After that – I checked-in to my hotel for the night. It was very difficult to find, as it was hidden deep from the main thoroughfare (U.S. 59) behind a lot of road construction in an awkward location alongside I-20 eastbound near the dead end of a frontage road.

But I eventually found it, and it would be my 4TH and final night in a row in a hotel room.

The next morning – I arrived at my destination – my family’s house in Wylie Texas. After 5 days I had driven 1,216 miles northwestward across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. I would not drive again for the next 7 days. My brother or sister-in-law did all of the driving to and from errands, stores, and restaurants. We also went to church on Sunday morning. (I wrote about that on a previous #SundayScripture.)

This is #TravelThursday – not #FamilyBusinessThursday, so everything that we did together for 8 days will stay private; however, I will write about one thing, and that’s the total solar eclipse on Monday April 08TH 2024.

Most people never experience one, as they are so rare at any given location. It was my first (and perhaps last) experience of total darkness during the daytime. It lasted for not quite 4 minutes. I wasn’t planning to look at the sun and the moon together, but my brother and sister-in-law each had special glasses to view the eclipse, so I used one of them to check it out for myself during the minutes leading-up to the big event. Once the moon completely covered the sun – we experienced darkness. It wasn’t like “Midnight darkness”, as it was more like perhaps “an hour after sunset darkness”, and then it was like “an hour before sunrise darkness”. It was like nautical twilight (the scientific term for it). My family lives right behind an elementary school, and I think all of the kids were outside experiencing it, and they were cheering loudly as darkness descended. It was quite eerie to see a few of the planets (especially bright Venus) and the stars out during this darkness. We had our family dog out, and he had no reaction to it. I think the birds flying around were confused. I may have heard some crickets chirping. No roosters though.

And then it appeared as if a bright flashlight were shining down on us from the reemergence of a tiny slither of the sun, and then it slowly got back to normal “two-in-the-afternoon daylight” after that. We had mostly cloudy skies during the event, but there was enough break in the clouds to see the sun and the moon in-between the clouds (with special glasses), and even behind the clouds (carefully – without glasses). What a spectacular event it was. I’m glad that I can now tell everyone that I’ve experienced this once-in-a-lifetime event (for me anyway). If I’m still around on August 12TH 2045 – then maybe I’ll get to see a 2ND total solar eclipse.

I spent Days 5 to 12 of my retirement road-trip with my family in Wylie Texas, and then early on Day 13 – I hit the road again to the Wichita Falls Texas area (about 155 miles away) to visit family there. My Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin have lived there since the late-1960s.

There are a few things that I like about Texas. (Food comes to mind.) But my favorite thing about Texas are my family and their pets. As long as family lives in Texas – I’ll keep visiting Texas. But I wouldn’t want to live in Texas. I just love Florida !

Next #TravelThursday – It’s off to Paris. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Blogging Driving Food Geography History Military Travel

Marshall Texas

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my morning south of Hattiesburg Mississippi at historic Camp Shelby to visit the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum. After that – I drove to the bluffs overlooking – and the banks of – the Mighty Mississippi River at historic Natchez. I didn’t get to see and do everything that I wanted to in Natchez, so I’ll just have to visit again on a future road-trip.

Natchez and the surrounding area intrigues me with so much history. The U.S. 84 / U.S. 98 drive across the south of Mississippi leading to Natchez is quite scenic and serene.

Day 4 of my recent retirement road-trip began on the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge. It’s actually two bridges side-by-side. Westbound (into Louisiana) is the original bridge that has been there since 1940. Eastbound (into Mississippi) is the newer (and a bit wider) bridge that was built 48 years later.

I continued my westward trek on U.S. 84. It’s definitely one of my favorite highways in the U.S.A. It has a very interesting intersection with U.S. 165 where – in order to continue on U.S. 84 – you have to make a right-hand turn onto U.S. 165, immediately get in the left-hand turning lane, make a U-turn, quickly get in the right-hand turning lane, and then turn right back onto U.S. 84. (There was a high incidence of collisions at this intersection, so it was reconfigured in 2018 to 2019.)

Fun Facts: U.S. 165 is a 412-mile highway in Arkansas and Louisiana. Its northern-end is at U.S. 70, and its southern-end is at U.S. 90. Technically – U.S. 165 forms a concurrency with U.S. 84 at the unusual intersection described above. (I’m such a U.S. route nerd.)

I entered Texas from Louisiana via rural Keatchie-Marshall Road. There was no big “Welcome To Texas” sign at the state line – just an ordinary “Panola County Line” sign with a smaller route sign above it designating it as Texas Farm Road 123. Oh – and the speed limit increased. (Texans love their high speed limits.) That quick moment began a 10-day stay for me in North Texas.

It was on to Marshall Texas from there, and my first stop was the historic Starr Family Home. I introduced myself as a fellow docent of a historic house, and I enjoyed a wonderful conversation with two of the docents on duty at the time before, during, and after my self-guided tour on both floors of the house. They gave me some good ideas to ponder.

After that I ventured over to the Harrison County Historical Museum. I was a little disappointed that there were no docents on duty during my visit to their museum (located in two different buildings across the street from each other). In fact – I was able to enter and tour virtually the entire museum without any human contact whatsoever. That’s not really a good thing. Open museums should always be visibly manned and supervised for information and security purposes. I did finally find someone working in an office near the gift shop, and I briefly talked to her about the other museum location across the street. Their museum (in both buildings) contained great displays, but they lacked guidance, direction, and written material.

Harrison County Historical Museum, Marshall Texas

My final stop in downtown Marshall was the highly-rated (via Google reviews) Pazzeria By Pietro’s. I got myself a 9″ pizza with pepperoni and Canadian bacon. It was very good – truly hot and delicious !

Next #TravelThursday – I’m settled in North Texas with my family for 9 days. I’ll share some fun moments – including the total solar eclipse. Let’s keep traveling together.

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