Tag: Sebring

Driving In 2024

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 2, 2025

Welcome back to #TravelThursday, and the first edition of 2025, and my first blog post of 2025. I posted on 173 days in 2024. That’s every Thursday, Sunday, and Monday in 2024 as well as 16 special posts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ll do it again in 2025 – starting with this one.

Less travel is my theme (and goal) for 2025. That’s less road-trips to and from Homestead Florida. That’s no retirement road-trip like last year. Just a low-key year, as I enter my 3RD year here in my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida – and 2ND year of retirement. The priority this year is neighborhood, museum, and church, and my duties, responsibilities, and relationships at each.

I drove 11,954 miles in 2024. That’s up from 11,721 miles in 2023. That’s the most number of miles driven since 2004. I exceeded 1,000 miles in a month just twice, but one of those months was April – when I drove 3,290 miles. That included 2,807 miles to and from North Texas during the first 18 days of April. From May to December my monthly average was 784 miles.

I’ll likely have no 1,000-mile months in 2025, and I’m projecting about 9,000 miles total for the year. I do plan a few road-trips to and from South Florida and Southwest Florida, but I’d like to explore more of the Heartland of Florida. That’s the name given to the rural inland region in and around my dream part of Florida.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about my first such local exploration. It’s a fun New Year’s Day morning and hike through the ancient scrub out at Archbold Biological Station in southern Highlands County Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida, Highlands, Homestead, Sebring

Blogging Driving Food Geography Home Travel

Walking Around The Neighborhood

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 26, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. While most of my travel posts have to do with driving or flying somewhere – this post is about another form of transportation – my own two feet.

17 years ago this past Christmas Eve I started something new that I had never done before. I intentional walked around my neighborhood. I did it for a few reasons back in 2007. I did it for fitness – to get healthier and stronger. (I was neither back then.) I did it to honor my dad. He was slowly losing the ability to walk due to the effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – AKA “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. I did it for my Lord + Savior Jesus Christ – to thank Him for rescuing me and saving me and blessing me with His gifts – such as the gift to pray for my neighbors, and my neighborhood, and my city, and beyond.

This is the start of my 18TH year of walking around my neighborhood. (Technically – each season begins near the start of the dry season here in South and South-Central Florida.) In this 18TH season – I’m still walking for fitness, and for my dad in Heaven, and for God. And when I walk around my neighborhood – I’m praying for my neighbors, and for my neighborhood, and for Sebring, and beyond. The Lord placed me in my dream home – in my dream neighborhood – in my dream part of Florida. I can’t stop thanking Him for that, for I’m living my best life today !

Statistically – Season 17 (2023-2024) – was the biggest one yet. I walked 87 times for a total of 113.50 miles. That’s an average of 1.30 miles per walk. I walked from September 2023 through July 2024. Season 18 started this past September 2024. My goal for this season is to walk 100 times. I’m about one-fourth of the way there, and I’m way behind last season’s numbers at this point. I need to get to steppin’ !

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about my driving year in review. Let’s keep traveling together.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I usually post there on Mondays and Thursdays. I’m also the Social Media Director for the Sebring Historical Society. I post on our Facebook page 6 days a week – Mondays to Saturdays.

Tags Broward, Clewiston, Florida, Glades, Heartland, Hendry, Highlands, Homestead, Love's, Miami-Dade, Moore Haven, Palm Beach, Sebring, South Bay

Blogging Driving Food Geography Home Travel

Homestead And Back

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 19, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Thursday morning I drove down to Homestead Florida for the 32ND time since I bought my new home in Sebring Florida 22 months ago. Traffic was a bit heavier than normal for a Thursday morning with lots of truckers and tourists from the north.

I actually drove straight to Longhorn Steakhouse – where I met up with two former coworkers / supervisors for another one of our reunion lunches. We meet about every 3 months. It’s a great tradition that we’ve continued for many years now.

This will likely be my final monthly visit to Homestead. I’ve kept my longtime condo since moving away. I hope to put it on the market next month, and hopefully it will sell fast. I’ll still visit Homestead in 2025 – just not as often – maybe every 3 months or so.

It’s a nice 3½-hour drive between my new home and my old home. 99% of it is on just two highways – U.S. 27 and Florida State Road 997 (locally known as Krome Avenue in Miami-Dade County).

I drove back home this past Sunday afternoon after church and lunch in Homestead. My scenic (mostly rural) drive includes 6 Counties – Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, and Highlands.

Once I’ve reached U.S. 27 near the Miami-Dade / Broward line – I’m on the road that I live on. (My neighborhood’s entrance is directly on U.S. 27 just shy of 150 miles away.)

Once I’ve reached South Bay near the south end of Lake Okeechobee in far-western Palm Beach County – I’ve reached the halfway point. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped anywhere in South Bay. I’ve only driven through it. A new RaceTrac Travel Center is currently under construction. That holds promise for potential future stops.

Clewiston (in Hendry County) is next up on the trek. It’s actually the most populated city directly along the road between Homestead and Lake Placid (in Highlands County). Over 7,000 residents call Clewiston home. A longtime Sonny’s BBQ recently went out-of-business along U.S. 27 in Clewiston. I’ve stopped there a few times for a mid-trip meal. If only I were driving through the area before 1999 when Old South Bar-B-Q Ranch drew in the hungry locals and tourists along U.S. 27 for over 40 years.

I’ve written about Love’s here on my blog in the past. It’s just west of the small town of Moore Haven. It was built in 2016 and opened in March 2017. I remember driving by it a few times while it was under construction thinking that I’d very likely be a future customer there. I’ve stopped there many times – in fact – more times than not heading northward. Their employees are friendly. Their restrooms are wonderful – large and mostly clean. They have an Arby’s on-site, and lots of gas pumps. That Love’s stop is right at the two-thirds point of my trek back home.

And then there’s the ordinary (but beautiful to me) “ENTERING Highlands COUNTY” road sign at the slight rightward bend in the road. Once I reach that sign – I’m 40 miles / 45 minutes away from home. I used to dream of living in Highlands County every time I saw that sign during my road-trips northward. My dream came true 22 months ago. Now I’m glad to be back home again when I see that sign. (The whole County is my home.)

From the Highlands County line northward – it’s a slow ascent from elevations in the 60s (feet above sea level) to more than 3 times higher !

Although my visits to Homestead 3½ hours down the road will be fewer starting in 2025 – I can’t envision a time in the future when I stop driving southward to Homestead. As long as I have friends still living down there – I’ll be visiting them. That – and the scenic drive alone – is well worth the trip to and fro. The portion of U.S. 27 from I-75 northward is a trip along the main highway through rural and unspoiled South-Central Florida (“The Heartland”). I imagine that much of it looks mostly the same today as it has for the past 65 years.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about my progress on Season 18 of my fitness walks around my neighborhood. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Broward, Clewiston, Florida, Glades, Heartland, Hendry, Highlands, Homestead, Love's, Miami-Dade, Moore Haven, Palm Beach, Sebring, South Bay

Blogging Driving Travel

End Of An Era

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date October 31, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. My 2020 Honda Civic survived Hurricanes Helene and Milton (both Tropical Storms here in my local area of inland South Central Florida), but it did not survive the Monday after.

A couple of miles from my home – while headed to my favorite car wash (how ironic) and then movie theatre (to see “White Bird”) – I was sideswiped by a heavy lawn and tree care utility truck while stopped in a long line at a red light. The point-of-impact was the rear-right corner / edge of my car, and the entire right-side (including tires) was smashed with pieces of it laying along a frequently congested portion of Sebring Parkway (approaching U.S. 27). Police arrived. Fire and Rescue arrived. A few were placed on stretchers and transported with injuries to a local hospital. Traffic was shut down in both directions for about 90 minutes during the aftermath.

I didn’t see it coming, but when I was hit – my car didn’t move one inch. Neither did I. The truck that hit me then hit the next vehicle up, and that ultimately caused 3 other vehicles to be hit. It was a 6-vehicle collision involving about 10 people.

Most of the vehicles were towed away as undrivable, and mine was almost immediately identified as visibly totaled (just by looking at the photos alone). Confirmation occurred several days later at the insurance company’s salvage yard by an adjuster.

The next day – Tuesday October 15TH – I picked-up my rental vehicle – a 2022 Buick Encore GX – a subcompact SUV. My insurance company reserved it in my name and paid for it. I drove it around for 8 days. Needless to say – I am not a fan of driving around in an SUV – no matter how subcompact it is.

So – it’s the end of an era. My almost 10-year association with the Honda Civic has come to an end. I leased a brand-new 2015, and then I leased a brand-new 2018. In August 2020 (coming out of COVID) – I bought a brand-new 2020. It was intended to be my retirement car – a car that I would finance and make monthly payments for – and then have it paid off shortly after retirement. I would keep it forever after that, or as long as it would keep on running. (I was thinking 15 or 20 years or more.)

It lasted exactly 4 years and 2 months – 50 months (to the day) – 1,523 days. The final odometer reading was 37,910. That’s an average of just shy of 25 miles per day. I drove to and from North Texas twice in that car – in November 2021 and April 2024 (my well-documented 18-day retirement road-trip). Over the course of almost 10 years and 3 Honda Civics – I drove a total of just over 94,000 miles. That’s well below the U.S. national driving average of about 14,000 miles per year.

Incidentally – on the final morning of driving that Buick Encore rental – I reached a milestone. I drove my 10,000TH mile of 2024. I’ll surpass 11,000 miles next month. I did that last year too. It’ll be the first time since 2016 and 2017 that I’ll drive 11,000+ miles in back-to-back years.

On the 8TH day of driving around in that Buick Encore – I got my insurance money – and I bought a new car. I’ll write about it – next – #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I usually post there on Mondays and Thursdays.