RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> Highlands County >> Avon Park >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Avon Park, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Avon Park and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Avon Park:
    • 27.595783, -81.506229
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Avon Park
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Highlands County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Highlands County
    • Since Avon Park is near Polk County and also Hardee County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Polk County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hardee County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Avon Park

Communities Also Named Avon Park ...

We found six communities that are also named Avon Park.

There is one other community in Florida that is also named Avon Park.

Beyond Florida, we know of five communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Florida ...
    • Broward County
      • This Avon Park is located in Broward County and lies 133 miles [214 km]<1> to the southeast of the Avon Park that is located in Highlands County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Broward County community of Avon Park.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Jefferson County
      • This Avon Park is located in Jefferson County and lies 516 miles [830.4 km]<1> to the northwest of the Avon Park that is located in Highlands County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Avon Park.
    • Georgia
      • Chatham County
      • This Avon Park is located in Chatham County and lies 309 miles [497.3 km]<1> to the north of the Avon Park that is located in Highlands County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chatham County community of Avon Park.
    • New Jersey
      • Middlesex County
      • This Avon Park is located in Middlesex County and lies 984 miles [1,583.6 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Avon Park that is located in Highlands County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Middlesex County community of Avon Park.
    • Ohio
      • Trumbull County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Ohio community of Avon Park [Trumbull County].
    • Texas
      • McLennan County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Texas community of Avon Park [McLennan County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Avon Park ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

How Far From Avon Park to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a city such as Avon Park to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Avon Park and extending to:

  • Sebring, which is the Seat of Highlands County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Tallahassee, which is the State Capital of Florida, lies 258 miles [415.2 km]<1> to the northwest (NW). If you could drive a straight line from Avon Park to Tallahassee, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 15 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 821 miles [1,321.3 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 32 days and walking would take 47 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,591 miles [10,607.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,254 miles [11,674.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,158 miles [8,301 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Avon Park) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Avon Park could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<5>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Avon Park to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Avon Park. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.5958, Longitude: -81.5062    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.304 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.57 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.666 degrees.