April 1-8, 2015

We arrived in Pt Orange just after lunch time on April Fools Day. Our plan was to spend a week in the area doing mainly nothing with a couple of side trips in between. Our campground had a lovely pool and for once, even though it was heated, it did not feel like a bath tub. The water was very refreshing and we enjoyed laying by and being in the pool all week long.

On Thursday morning we jumped on our bikes and biked down to the beach in Pt Orange. Pt Orange borders south Daytona Beach which borders Daytona Beach. The beach was absolutely great to bike on as it was packed down hard. Many cars and RV’s drove on the beach and parked for the day. We had planned to find a spot to eat lunch at on the beach but there was very little there by way of restaurants so we ended up just returning to the RV instead. In total we biked about 18 miles that morning. After lunch we spent the afternoon by the pool.

On Friday morning we set off with Jazz for a very long walk in the hot weather.  By the time we got home we were soaked with sweat and decided to just take it easy for the rest of the day.

We had picked up a local bus schedule on Friday during our walk so on Saturday morning we took a bus to Daytona Beach and brought our bikes along on the bus so we could check out what it was all about as we had never been there before. As it was Easter weekend it was very busy to say the least. (see pics). We enjoyed biking around the beach strip and on the beach. We found a great beachside restaurant called Surfside Tiki Bar where we had lunch. We then biked around some more and then went back across the bridge to the mainland to try to catch a bus back to Pt Orange. Unfortunately, when the bus arrived at our stop, it already had 1 bike on its rack and the bike racks can only hold 2 bikes. So, we decided to bike back to the campground instead. It was a 10 mile bike ride and by then the temperature was in the high 80’s. But we managed to do it in 50 minutes which was only 10 minutes longer than the bus would have taken. Needless to say, we were proud of ourselves!

Easter Sunday we spent a quiet day around the campground. We spoke to Bryn and Melissa on Skype . We had spoken to Matt and Emily on Friday so it was great to catch up with our Family on Easter weekend! Sunday night we had a campfire on our campsite which was great. We hadn’t had a campfire since November we think so we really enjoyed it.

Monday morning we packed up the RV and headed 8.8 miles to the Daytona International Speedway  (DIS)where we went for an All Access Tour. Needless to say, Rob was in his glory and honestly, I enjoyed it as well.

DIS is presently undergoing a  $400 million renovation called Daytona Rising which will transform this raceway  which was built in 1959 into a multi purpose facility possibly hosting Football games, concerts etc in addition to the regular racing schedule. There is a lot of history at this track which I won’t go into. The track was built by Bill France who was one of the Founders of Nascar. Originally car racing in Daytona was done on the beach but moved to this 2.5 mile speedway when he built it. The biggest  Nascar race of the year is the Daytona 500 held at DIS.

We toured the actual track in a trolley. We saw pit row, the car garages and inspection garage. We stood on Victory Lane (see pic), watched a video in the Driver’s meeting room and had a tour of one of the renovated grandstand areas with a great view of the start/finish line and the whole track. We also got to see Joey Logano’s car that won the 2015 Daytona 500 (see pics).  It was a great tour and well worth the admission price.

As we were leaving DIS, Rob spotted an Olive Garden across the street. He has been craving Olive Garden for a few weeks now (I think because of TV commercials) so since we were so close, off we went for a delicious lunch of all you can eat Soup, Salad and Bread sticks plus we added a little pasta.

We did go for a walk later on that day to walk off all of the food we had eaten.

Tuesday, we walked up to the local mall not too far away from our campground and did a little shopping at Bells and Ross. Rob had more success than I did but neither of us bought that much since we really didn’t need anything. Tuesday for dinner we went to Booth’s Bowery  which was just down the street from our campground. Booth’s is the place where the locals go to enjoy the best in Buffalo Wings .  It brags that its wings are “World Famous” so naturally we had to give them a try. They were very good  and the place was very busy. We hadn’t had good wings in a long time so it was a great place to go for dinner.

Today, Wednesday, we packed up and after doing a big grocery shop to hopefully last us until we get home we headed to St Augustine, Fl. We will be here for the next 2 days so will let you know what we find there in a couple of days.

Stay tuned

 

 

 

 

March 29-31 (Cocoa ,Florida)

When I think of history, I think of something that occurred a 100 years or more ago……..

On a warm summer day, my Dad arrived home to our summer residence, a two storey log home (our cottage). My father and brother tore down the house log by log and transported it about 30 miles and rebuilt it, log by log beginning in 1967.A few years later, the rebuilding of the cottage was well underway with only floor joists on the main floor while the second floor had a full floor, 3-4 beds, a bathroom and a kitchen area – all temporary living for a while.

On that specific day, he arrived home with something we didn’t have at the cabin at that time, a 19” TV. He had rented (yes rented) one for the weekend to allow us and many of our cottage neighbors to witness one of man’s greatest accomplishments of the 20^th century – landing and walking on the Moon. Apollo 11 landed on Sunday July 20, 1969 – which also happened to be my 10^th birthday. This day and event will forever be etched, no carved, in my memory.

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

One of the destinations during our RV journey was a visit to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. We arrived at our new park on Sunday for three nights with the intention of doing very little with the exception of the NASA tour. Cape Canaveral was about 23 miles away, so on Tuesday we packed up the RV and arrived at the center just before opening at 9 am. What did we do with Jazz you ask for a whole day? The KSC has a free kennel on site, so she went a made some new friends for the day.

We left the KSC at around 5:30 that night, full of new information and facts we learned during the day. I don’t plan on trying to repeat this in the blog. We spent the full day but you could easily spend two days as we didn’t go into at least 3 of the buildings. Seeing some of the actual lunar capsules (Apollo 14 – see pic) and the Space shuttle Atlantis left me awe struck. I could have just sat and looked at the Atlantis for an hour – imagining all the ventures it went on and the astronauts taking space walks building the International Space Station (ISS). Seeing the Canada Arm (2 of them) proudly mounted and identified on the Atlantis was a good feeling.

We visited the memorial site as well reflecting on the fact that with great triumphs comes many failures and sometimes great tragedy. Apollo 1 didn’t even get off the launch pad, when a fire occurred in the command module killing all three astronauts. Apollo 11 landed on the moon with only 30 seconds of fuel remaining when it missed its planned landing site by several miles. Apollo 13 barely made it back to Earth when they had to abort their landing mission. And then there was the Shuttle program, with the loss of 14 lives on two separate occasions losing both Challenger and Columbia orbiters. Risks are very high but rewards even greater!

At the height of the Apollo program, 1961-1972 KSC employed some 21,000 people. During the shuttle program, 15,000.  KSC now has approximately 8,000 people on staff, with many working on the future space program and module – the Orion which is meant for deep space travel. They are talking about Mars and 3 year missions…. 6 months to just get there!

So much information!!! It was a great day and extremely interesting. Worth going to if you are in the vicinity.

On April 1^st we will be relocating to Port Orange (a suburb of Daytona Beach) for a week of R and R.

Squawk soon!