Tag: Travel

Wichita Falls Texas

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 16, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit one of my favorite cities in the great state of Texas – Wichita Falls. It’s one of my favorite cities for one main reason – I have 5 family members (and their pets) who live there. I visit them every year.

The 72-square-mile city of Wichita Falls includes just over 100,000 residents with little to no growth since 1960. The 3-county metro area of Wichita, Archer, and Clay Counties includes just over 150,000 residents. One of the weird aspects of this metro area is that they have nice modern wide highways and expressways with very little traffic on them. I think most of their expressways were built throughout the 1960s, and they were built to handle substantial growth. That growth never occurred, as they have the same number of residents today as they did in 1960. Their “rush hour” is fairly non-existent; although, some of the locals may contend that statement. I actually enjoy driving through the Wichita Falls metro area. It’s mostly peaceful on all days at all times.

I’ve driven there a few times – in my own car from South Florida – and also in a rental car from the #DFW airport about 2½ hours away. I’ve visited Wichita Falls every year since 2013. My Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins have showed me a lot of the city and the local area. As is tradition with each visit we all go on a road-trip of a few hours away from the metro area. We’ve gone southward, eastward, and northward, but not yet westward. They used to tell me where we were going on our road-trips, but now they intentionally keep it a secret from me so that I don’t do extensive research on the destination(s) and know more about it than them.

I’ve accumulated over 450 photos of my visits since 2013. I’ll share a few photos of my 2021 visit – next #TravelThursday.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

Tags Texas, Travel, Wichita Falls

Blogging Driving Music Nature Photography Scripture Travel

Edinburgh Scotland

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 9, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit Edinburgh Scotland – a place that I’ve actually visited a couple of times back in the mid-1980s while I was living in England. My family visited me from stateside, and we went on a week-long coach tour out of London that circled much of the United Kingdom – England, Scotland, and Wales. I forget which direction it went (clockwise or counter-clockwise). My Dad took all of the pictures of the experience, and those pictures are (hopefully) located in an album or shoebox somewhere in North Texas today. Eventually they may be uncovered, and me and my brother will have fun reminiscing on that trip again – from back when we were 20 and 12 respectively.

I also visited Edinburgh with friends on a road-trip. We took some great road-trips back then !

Edinburgh Scotland stands-out for me as the northern-most point I’ve ever set foot on in my life. It straddles the 56TH parallel north. For 2 years (1985-1987) I lived just below the 52ND parallel north in Gloucestershire England. Other than those 2 years I’ve never ventured too far above the 43RD parallel (Milwaukee, Niagara Falls, and Syracuse – all future ideas for #TravelThursday).

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, but it’s not the largest city of Scotland. (That’s Glasgow.) Both cities include over a half-million residents. They are the two population centers of the “Central Belt” of Scotland near both coasts – about 45 miles away from each other along the M8.

Scotland’s population is near 5.5 million, and more than half of the residents live in Glasgow, Edinburgh, or near or in-between the two cities.

On a future trip back to the United Kingdom – it won’t be complete without a visit to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

One of the greatest music acts to come out of Edinburgh Scotland are none other than The Bay City Rollers. They were one of the hottest teeny-bopper acts of the 1970s – not just in Scotland and the United Kingdom, but all around the world. Here in the U.S. they scored with 8 hits at Top 40 radio – including their biggest of them all – “Saturday Night” – the first # 1 smash of 1976. It remains in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles. It’s one of my favorite songs of all-time !

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

Tags Edinburgh, Glasgow, Scotland, Travel

Blogging Driving Food Nature Photography Scripture Travel

Kansas

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 2, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit Kansas. But before we get there let me share this map of the 50 United States. All of the states that I’ve visited are colored green. That includes states that I’ve lived in, spent quality time in, visited, or simply drove through. It does not include states where I stayed inside an airport on a layover and never ventured outside. (I see you California.)

By the way you can create your own such map at amcharts.com/visited_states. You can share the final product on social media or download it. I tried to incorporate it into this blog post via the HTML coding, but it appeared to be non-compatible with this blog, so I simply downloaded it and then uploaded it on here.

So you can see that there are 21 states that I have not yet visited – or 42% of them. One of my goals – post-retirement in a few years – is to visit all of the rest of them.

In November of 2013 when I drove 1,003 miles from west of Wichita Falls Texas to north of Cincinnati Ohio I came within about a tenth of a mile of the Kansas state line while driving on I-44 from Oklahoma into Missouri. That’s right – I-44 misses the southeastern corner of Kansas by about 550 feet.

I actually don’t know anyone who lives in Kansas. I don’t know much about Kansas other than the cities of Wichita and Topeka and of course the western portion of the Kansas City metro area. #GoChiefs

I know that there are lots of interesting places to visit in Kansas. I favor museums and parks, so I’ll be researching those and planning a future visit to “The Sunflower State”. I have family living in North Texas, so Kansas is just a little over 250 miles away. A Spring, Summer, or Autumn visit to Kansas sounds good. (I know how cold it can get in Kansas in the wintertime.)

Kansas – particularly the Kansas City area – is known for its slow-smoked barbecue. I’m a fan of it. Actually I’m a fan of any type of barbecue. I pretty much enjoy eating assorted meats cooked well-done on a grill. I could make myself at home at many Kansas BBQs and steakhouses.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

Tags Kansas, Travel

Blogging Career Driving Home Military Nature Photography Scripture Travel Weather

Home Sweet Homestead

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 26, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit my hometown of the past 34 years – Homestead Florida. The United States Air Force brought me here at the age of 20, and I’ve been working at the airbase next to the city for most of these past 34 years. Hurricane Andrew tore through the city and the surrounding area exactly 29 years and 2 days ago, and almost everything was in ruins. I left the area 4 days later, and I returned to my original home-of-record – the Washington D.C. area (both Maryland and Virginia).

19 months later (in March of 1994) I returned to a partially-rebuilt Homestead, and I’ve been here ever since. I’ll be here for a few more years until I retire and move away about 3 hours north of here.

Homestead (the city limits) is about 5 miles wide (west to east) and 2 to 4 miles long (north to south). Homestead (as an area) extends not too far east and south (due to water), not too far west (due to the Everglades), but well to the northeast.

West to east street numbers begin in downtown Miami at Flagler Street. It’s the “zero street line”. Street numbers increase both northward and southward by 1 every 330 feet. Every 16 street numbers is a mile (5,280 feet). Homestead is located in the lower-300s. 304TH, 312TH, 320TH, and 328TH Streets are all major thoroughfares in the city. Technically that’s about 20 miles south of downtown Miami, but you can’t drive due southward from Miami to Homestead. You have to drive southwestward along Florida’s Turnpike or U.S. 1. It’s about 30 miles, and it’ll take you about 45 to 60 minutes depending on traffic. The Homestead area generally begins south of 232ND Street. Over 175,000 residents live here. New home construction continues to boom.

Homestead is actually located closer to Key Largo than Miami. The “18-Mile Stretch” between the mainland of Florida and the “Overseas Highway” (U.S. 1 through the Florida Keys) begins just 2 miles south of Homestead.

We have lots of local tourist attractions here in the Homestead area. Some of my favorites include Monkey Jungle and Fruit & Spice Park. We are also located in-between 2 National Parks – Everglades and Biscayne. I’ve spent quality time at all of these places over the years – more so recently than previously. I volunteered inside Everglades National Park as a docent at a partially-restored NIKE Missile Site. About a million people from around the world visit Everglades National Park each year.

That’s my 2015 Honda Civic (at the time) parked in front of the Missile Launch Barn with the restored Nike Hercules Missile on display inside. That was taken at 3 PM on New Year’s Eve of 2016 as I was wrapping-up a busy day of tours.

Of course our # 1 product here in Homestead is our fine weather – especially in the wintertime when it’s freezing cold elsewhere in North America. A typical December or January day consists of sunny skies with highs in the mid-70s and lows in the low-60s. We actually experienced one of our chillier winter seasons in years in 2020 into 2021 with 9 days when we were stuck in the 60s all day long and 9 mornings when we dropped to the (gasp) 40s !

We’ve experienced rapid population growth here in the Homestead area over the past 20 years. Most of the long-timers don’t like it. They miss the “good old days” when Homestead was a sleepy rural town surrounded by vast farmland. A lot of long-timers have moved away to smaller towns elsewhere that remind them of the way Homestead used to be. Of course the long-timers of those respective smaller towns don’t appreciate their own population growth.

I like the Homestead of today – more so than the Homestead of yesterday. All of the new rooftops have created new stores, new restaurants, and new opportunities – all within about 3 miles of my home.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.