Tag: Sebring

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Blogging Geography Travel Weather

El Niño Winter

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I was previously planning to write about “The Cars Of Sebring” as a continuation of last Thursday’s fascinating post on “The Birds Of Sebring”, but I decided to change the script and write about the weather instead. (It’s always an easy subject to write about for me.) Don’t worry – those cars will be reported on next Thursday (unless I call another audible).

It’s been a cold week so far here in the Heartland of Florida. (As a refresher – the Heartland is that mostly rural inland region of South-Central Florida that’s southeast of Tampa and southwest of Orlando.)

Due to a plunging jet stream and trough in the east with several strong cold fronts sweeping through – December and January-like temperatures invaded the Heartland (and all of Florida). The 50s actually made it all the way south to the Everglades in South Florida, and the 40s (even mid-40s) poured into the northern suburbs of the Tampa Bay area. We actually set some record low daytime high temperatures this past Monday and Tuesday – with the low-70s – or about 15°F below normal. (Our normal high for this time of the year is still the mid-80s, and our normal low is still the low-70s here in Sebring.)

We dipped down to 52°F here in my part of Sebring with wind chills around 48°F on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at dawn. It felt good and weird – like we suddenly plunged into winter after 5 months of a hotter and dryer than normal summer. I had to dig-in to my limited winter clothing collection.

Our rainy season has ended. September 30TH is generally the unofficial end of the rainy season here in the Heartland. (It’s October 15TH in South Florida.) We’re now in our 7-to-8-month dry season when we get just 30% of our annual rainfall.

But it’s an El Niño Winter, so that means cooler and wetter than normal for Florida (all regions). So far – it’s living up to its reputation. This is (already) our strongest El Niño since the Winter of 2015-2016, and that was one of the strongest ever recorded. (This one likely won’t be as strong.)

Unfortunately – El Niño Winters also bring severe weather to Florida, as the leading edge of this early winter weather arrived after a confirmed 6 tornados (EF0 to EF2) in the Tampa Bay area last week.

Fun Fact: That strong El Niño Winter of 2015-2016 ? I recorded an unprecedented 13 days in Homestead Florida that we did not reach 70°F. (Normal is 6.)

Want to learn more about El Niño (and La Niña) ? The NOAA does a very good job of explaining it here.

So – it should be a very interesting winter season here in Florida. I’ll keep watching and studying it just like I’ve done for the past 45 years, and I’ll even post pictures of it occasionally.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll tell you all about the cars of Sebring – unless I change my mind again. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

Categories
Blogging Driving Geography Travel

The Birds Of Sebring

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’ve been a resident of Sebring Florida for a few days shy of 7 months. Actually – the main entrance to my neighborhood is about a mile north of the city limits of Sebring, but that’s close enough. I’m not quite a full-timer yet – more like a 75%-timer, but that’s close enough.

As a new resident of Sebring – I’ve learned how to speak Sebring. Those of us who live here year-round are known as “survivors” or “warriors” – because we’ve survived the long hot summer and any tropical systems that came this way. Everyone else is a “snowbird” – whether they are here for a couple of months, or up to 6 months out of the year. (We’ve already had some snowbirds return from the great white north. The license plate colors are changing.)

U.S. 27 (or “Highway 27”, or simply “27”) is our main thoroughfare through the commercial (western) part of the city. The survivors believe that the snowbirds cause all of the accidents along 27, but the fact of the matter is that we have accidents every day of every month – even in the dead of summer. If anything – the snowbirds actually slow down the speeding traffic up and down 27. As a speed limit obeyer – I appreciate them.

So far – no day here in Sebring have I encountered traffic as heavy as any day down south in Homestead. The survivors frequently complain about the traffic on 27. I don’t know what they are complaining about.

So we have some unique neighborhoods here in Sebring. If one says that they live in “The Fish Streets” – then they live in the neighborhood right behind my neighborhood up in North Sebring. All of the streets are named after types of fish. We also have “The Indian Streets”, “The Tree Streets”, “The Irish Streets”, “The African Streets”, and “The A Streets”. Two of the largest neighborhoods are adjacent to each other west of 27 – “The Car Streets”, and “The Bird Streets”. Everyone in Sebring knows what you mean when you say – “I live in the bird streets.”

These are the birds of Sebring (in alphabetical order): Barn Owl, Brant, Cardinal, Caspian Tern, Chickadee, Condor, Crane, Darter, Dove, Duckling, Dunlin, Eagle, Egret, Grosbeak, Heron, Hummingbird, Ibis, Jay, Kite, Lark, Limpkin, Loon, Macaw, Meadowlark, Mockingbird, Nightingale, Oriole, Parakeet, Parrot, Partridge, Peacock, Pelican, Pheasant, Pigeon, Puffin, Quail, Rail, Raven, Road Runner, Robin, Sandpiper, Scrub Jay, Sparrow, Spotted Owl, Starling, Sunbird, Swallow, Swift, Tanager, Tern, Thrush, Vireo, Woodpecker, Wren

Those are “The Bird Streets” – collectively known as Sebring Hills. The elevation of this neighborhood ranges between 160 and 170 feet above sea level – higher than much of the rest of Sebring to the east.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll tell you all about the cars of Sebring. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

Categories
Blogging Commerce Geography History Shopping Travel

Historic Downtown Sebring

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’m currently on my 11TH stay here in Sebring Florida since purchasing my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream town in my dream part of Florida. I bought in February, and I’ve been here in Sebring for over half that time. My average stay has been about 9 nights. (I’m approaching my 100TH night here in Sebring.)

When I’m not hanging out with my new friends here in my new neighborhood – or over at the Sebring Historical Society – I’m working at home from my office. (I haven’t retired yet.)

Yesterday I decided to take a day off from work (on official leave) and spend some extra time in historic downtown Sebring. I spent about 2½ hours hanging out with my friends at the Sebring Historical Society. We have some big changes coming up, as well as some big events. We’re losing one of our two historic houses, but we’re enhancing and sprucing-up our remaining one – the Charles F. Weigle House Museum – with an expanded gift shop. I’ll write about that in the weeks to come.

I’ve written about our Museum previously here on #TravelThursday, and I’ll be writing about it a lot more in the future. I plan to be a docent there once I’m retired and living full-time here in Sebring in the new year, and I’ll probably work the gift shop as well. I also plan to write about (promote) our Museum across multiple social media platforms that I’m active on.

Later yesterday morning I ventured over to Strangely Warmed Coffee Co. They are a specialty coffee roaster located in a quaint warehouse just off “The Circle” in historic downtown Sebring.

Fun Fact # 1 – Specialty coffees are markedly different from regular coffees in the sense that they are grown at higher elevations, are traceable, and are processed and graded carefully once harvested.

Fun Fact # 2 – Specialty coffee goes beyond the quality of the beans. The processing, brewing, and roasting are equally important to have a great coffee experience that represents one of the world’s most affordable luxuries.

I met Steve – a co-owner of the company – and he gave me the grand tour of the facility. It was very impressive. It’s a smooth operation. After that we just talked for about an hour. We eventually realized how small our world was. He’s one of my neighbors. He lives in the same exact model condo as I do. Furthermore – he knows one of the Directors of the Sebring Historical Society. They attend the same church together. Finally – my own church here in Sebring serves Strangely Warmed Coffee. (I had no idea.) He knows my Pastor !

I already consider Steve a friend. I’ll be visiting him at his workplace every so often just to hang out for a little while, and to also buy a bag of dark roast coffee (in K-Cups) from him. He gave me a cup of coffee while I was there, and I drank it all up during our conversation. It was definitely very good. It was smoother than grocery store-bought K-Cups. I may have bought my last box of K-Cups from Publix.

Strangely Warmed Coffee Co. is on Facebook, and you can also visit their official web site. Check them out. They also sell their coffee in a few local area stores, and they serve it in a few local area restaurants. I’ll probably write about them again here on my blog and across social media.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at my very first Caribbean cruise from exactly 32 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

Categories
Blogging Commerce Driving Geography Shopping Travel

Let’s Go To The Mall !

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. There’s no denying that America’s love affair with traditional interior shopping malls is over. We first discovered and got excited about them back in the 1960s, as strip shopping centers were enclosed and expanded. Newly-constructed malls dotted the American landscape during its heyday in the 1970s. You could spend hours or even all day at the mall – protected from the elements outside – whether it be summertime heat or wintertime cold or wind or rain or snow. It was the hip social place to be for all ages during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Many of us “grew up” inside malls – at our favorite stores and restaurants. Parking spaces were especially hard to find from the day after Thanksgiving through the New Year. Remember when helicopters hovered above mall parking lots during the holiday season to report on traffic going in and coming out ?

But then – what goes up – must come down. The slow demise of the shopping mall began shortly after the turn of the 21ST century as we dialed-in and connected to the Interwebs to buy things. (Some would even say that it really started its decline during the late-1990s with the rise of Walmart and Target and Best Buy and other “big box” stores.)

Nowadays what used to be shopping malls are now open-air shopping centers – or vacant plots of land where the mall once stood – or still a mall with few signs of life. Of course there are some areas around the country where shopping malls are not just still alive – but also thriving. (South Florida is one of those areas.)

There are web sites and social media pages that are dedicated to dead malls. They are full of photos from yesteryear when they once thrived – as well as what they look like today – if they even exist today.

Here in my new hometown of Sebring Florida – just 4 miles from my neighborhood – we have the only traditional shopping mall in the county – Lakeshore Mall – and it’s a dead mall. It’s still there. It’s been there since early-1992 (built in 1991). I imagine that it was a booming mall during its first decade of existence. (There are several thousand parking spaces surrounding the mall.) Nowadays – it’s quite the opposite. More than half of the mall (more like three-quarters of it) is vacant. The only movie theatre in the county is inside, and it seems to be doing fine. To bring in customers the mall hosts various flea markets and special community events, and even BINGO once a month in the former food court. They actually do a pretty good job promoting these events on their Facebook page.

As long as the air conditioning is working (which is suspect) it’s actually a nice place to get in out of the summertime heat of South Central Florida, but you’re not going to spend a lot of time there unless you’re seeing a movie or walking laps around the mall. I should add that there is a 24-hour (during the week) Planet Fitness inside the mall.

I’m rooting for the survival of our mall. It needs a really popular anchor store to bring in the residents. I’m not sure what that store could be.

Footnote: One of the main entrances to the mall from busy U.S. 27 is actually blocked. Why ? The big sign for the mall is leaning and about to come crashing down !

Next #TravelThursday – Let’s drink some coffee. Let’s keep traveling together.

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