Vero Beach – CountUp

It’s Part 7 of my multi-part Thursday blog series on my recent 77-hour / (4-day / 3-night) / 472-mile road-trip spanning Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee Counties (in that order). It was my first extended visit ever along Florida’s Treasure Coast. While there I was always within about 5 miles of the Atlantic Ocean and the adjacent Indian River.

I awoke early on Day 4 – Saturday June 05TH 2021 – my 54TH birthday. In the weeks (even months) prior to this road-trip I had planned to enjoy a free birthday Grand Slam® breakfast at Denny’s, but they’ve actually changed things up over the past couple of years. Instead of simply walking-in to any Denny’s on the exact day of your birthday, telling them that it’s your birthday, showing them proof via your driver’s license, and then enjoying a free birthday Grand Slam® – now you have to be a part of their Rewards program, and receive a digital coupon for a free birthday Grand Slam® that you can utilize once anytime during your birthday month.

I decided to save my digital coupon from Denny’s for later in the month. Starbucks gave me a reward for any item on their menu free – good only on the exact day of my birthday – so it was off to Starbucks of Vero Beach for a quick small Breakfast.

After that it was a mostly uneventful drive home – down U.S. 1 – onto Florida State Roads 713 and 70, into Okeechobee County, around the eastern edge of the big lake, and then southward onto U.S. 27 and back into Miami-Dade County. I drove 180.2 miles home, and the total miles of the road-trip from start to finish was 471.8.

This was a fun yet well-planned road-trip. I planned it back in early-2018, and I scheduled it for the first week of June of 2018. I had to cancel it when a work-related road-trip to Georgia took precedence. Early this year I decided that this would be the year to take that road-trip, and so I scheduled it for the exact same 4-day / 3-night part of the first week of June. Most of the places that I visited were on my original 2018 itinerary. This was a road-trip where I wasn’t looking for potential part-time volunteer or employment opportunities post-retirement. I wasn’t driving around looking through potential future neighborhoods. I just wanted to visit new places that I’ve never been to before in my life, meet interesting people along the way, and enjoy some great food. I accomplished my mission.

Inside the Indian River Citrus Museum in downtown Vero Beach Florida

There are a lot of hidden treasures along Florida’s Treasure Coast – mostly along or within a few miles of the Atlantic coastline and the Indian River shoreline. I’ll definitely visit the area again to explore more. So far I’ve captioned and posted about 35 photos of this road-trip over on my Flickr site. I’ve got dozens more still to post, so I’ll be doing that for at least the next month. Check my Flickr often to see the newest photos.

And now it’s time to announce my next great Florida road-trip that begins in less than 100 days. It’s all planned-out. I’ll be driving up the spine of Florida along U.S. 27 up to Florida State Road 60, and then I’ll be heading westward into the Tampa area for one night. From there I’ll be heading southward along U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail) into the Fort Myers area for one night. From there I’ll be heading southward and then eastward back into South Florida. I’ll be spending one night in Northwest Broward County before I return home on the afternoon of the 4TH day. It’ll be a nearly 650-mile road-trip from start to finish, and I’ll post all about it for many weeks after.

This concludes my 7-part series on “My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip”. Actually it was an 8-part series, as I introduced it on the June 06TH 2021 edition of “Sunday Scripture”. You can utilize the calendar feature down at the bottom of this site to click on a previous Thursday if you missed any of the parts.

#TravelThursday continues next Thursday, as I plan to blog about Reykjavik Iceland.

My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

It’s Part 6 of my multi-part Thursday blog series on my recent 77-hour / (4-day / 3-night) / 472-mile road-trip spanning Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee Counties (in that order). It was my first extended visit ever along Florida’s Treasure Coast. While there I was always within about 5 miles of the Atlantic Ocean and the adjacent Indian River.

Last Thursday we left off at one of the city beaches owned and operated by Vero Beach. The city enjoys about 4 miles of beachfront property along the immediate Atlantic Ocean coastline. Indian River County extends about 22 miles along the coastline.

On my final full day of vacation I mostly stayed within the city limits of Vero Beach, but I took a few side-trips. I visited the southern extent of another Florida State Park – Sebastian Inlet – right along State Road A1A. I visited the McLarty Treasure Museum, and it was the northern-most point of my vacation at 27.83° north latitude. The museum was very educational and informative. I watched about a 45-minute video in their theatre that tells the story of the 1715 Treasure Fleet – treasure that was headed to Spain, but didn’t make it very far off the coast of the present-day museum due to a hurricane.

From there I traveled southward back through Vero Beach to the McKee Botanical Garden. It’s been open as an 18-acre Indian River County attraction for the past 20 years, but for 40 years from the early-1930s to the mid-1970s it was a much larger (80-acre) roadside attraction right alongside U.S. 1. Known as McKee Jungle Gardens back then – it was very popular during the 1950s and 1960s (pre-I-95) – boasting 100,000+ visitors annually. My favorite part of the botanical garden was actually the part where the main entrance / footprint of the original park was maintained and honored. Admission to the botanical garden is $15 for adults, and slightly less for seniors, teens, children, and military.

My next destination was the 14TH Avenue district of downtown Vero Beach for a number of stops along a walking tour. First-up was the Indian River Citrus Museum at the Heritage Center. It’s a very small museum, but it’s packed with fascinating citrus memorabilia. I walked over to the Indian River County Historical Society which houses a museum in the old railway station building. They were closed (“indefinitely”), but I got some good photos of the exterior. I would have loved to talk with someone inside the building (as I’ve done in other small towns nearby), but maybe I can do that on a future visit to the area. I enjoyed a nice late-Lunch / early Dinner (#LuDinner) at Italian Kitchen (across the street from the citrus museum). I had their “Combo Special”. It was a lot of good food !

I probably would’ve spent a little bit more time walking the streets of downtown Vero Beach (working-off my big meal), but it was really hot on that day (Friday June 04TH), the area wasn’t as pedestrian-friendly as I envisioned it to be, and I didn’t feel as safe as I wanted to be. I kind of stuck out walking around solo as perhaps the only tourist in the area. Even a cop drove by slower than normal looking over towards me to see if I was up to no good. I got back in my car, and I headed back to my hotel room. I did go out a few hours later in the afternoon to Sweet Kiss Ice Cream for some banana gelato.

Day 3 of my road-trip is now complete. I drove 40.1 miles on this day. That brings the total thus far to 291.6 miles.

Next Thursday I’ll conclude this road-trip recap with Part 7 and my birthday drive home from Vero Beach to Homestead. I’ll also reveal the destinations of my next Florida road-trip that I’ll take in a few months.