Day 16 – OBAMA

Wednesday, November 5th

Ponce Inlet, FL

We slept in again today and woke up to Deb’s amazing creations: hot coffee, fresh vegetable juice, sweet fruit smoothies and a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and oatmeal.  She’s awesome!  Over breakfast, Bill invited us to stay another night, and though we didn’t want to outstay, who can turn down an offer of a comfortable bed, great meals and excellent company?

After breakfast, we laughed at the fact that all the newspapers could come up with for their front page headline was “Obama” in giant letters.  We had all been hoping for something a little more imaginative.  I worked on the blog a bit while the others thought up activities to do in the area.  Bill took us on a hike to the nature preserve just behind their home.  Composed of several significant sand hills covered in a forest of beach plants and small trees, it was like nothing I’ve seen before.  The path opened to a road and we crossed over to a boardwalk/pier that stretched out over a marsh.  The city or the county had built the walk, which had some very nice intermittent pavilions complete with canoe launches, and they took it all the way out to the river (Halifax River, I think) where you can watch the yachts go by.

By the time we returned to the house, we were all getting hungry.  Bill, Dad and I got cleaned up for lunch (and following my shower, after a moment’s hesitation I put on some foundation, eye liner and mascara, ending my 15 day record for the longest I’ve gone in my adult life without using makeup), then we piled into their truck and Dad enjoyed our second ride in a automobile in about two weeks.  They took us to a nearby riverside restaurant to celebrate Bill’s birthday.  Bill, Deb and Dad ordered the lunch special – a very tasty white fish with broccoli and rice and pasta – while I tried a savory crab cake sandwich.  The garlic bread was warm and buttery, the sweet tea delighted us all, and to finish off the meal, Deb saved some scraps to feed to the eager school of catfish who mill around outside the restaurant.  All in all, a wonderful experience.

Then to make the afternoon even more enjoyable, Bill took us to see the Daytona Speedway.  On the way there, we stopped at a Bob’s Bike Shop in Port Orange and while Dad ran into to get chains and chain cleaner, the rest of us waited in the truck in the parking lot of the Dunkin Donuts next door.  A group of volunteer cops were exiting the donut shop and we saw an older female volunteer in the standard uniform and three inch heeled boots.  Luckily for her, there’s not much crime in that area.

We arrived at the speedway and went inside, but found the track was closed for remodeling.   I’d never been to a speedway and was amazed at size.  Bill told us there was even a lake inside the track where they do boat races.  (Wikipedia says when building the track, they dug dirt from the infield to build up the banked curves and water seeped in to fill the resulting hole, leaving them with what is now called Lake Lloyd.) We checked out the giftshop while we were there and picked out a postcard for a blog reader who had requested one.  As we handed our money to the cashier, the bagger put the single card in a giant logoed bag.  I told him not to worry about the bag and that we could just carry the card, but seeing as he was being paid to put purchases in bags, I think I may have threatened his job.  He insisted that we take the bag, so we walked out with our huge clear bag and lone postcard shining through.  Job well done, baggerman.  Job well done.

The road home took us through old Daytona and past several pretty impressive estates, then after dropping Bill and Dad off at the house, Deb took me to the posh Ponce Inlet 7-11 to grab a New York Times (for the President Elect Obama announcement) and a fake cappuccino (which was wonderfully tasty).

Back at the house, Dad, Bill and I replaced the Corsa’s chain and cleaned the Agio’s.  Meanwhile Deb fixed another amazing dinner: chili, cheezy beef and shrimp quesadillas, corn chips, and a crisp salad (I think there was something else to the dinner, but I can’t remember what it was…).  Both nights, Deb brought out jars of homemade sweet jalapenos (onion, jalapenos and sugar all cooked together) to eat as toppers or by themselves and we enjoyed them so much!  They tasted like candy!

Dad and I spent most of the rest of the evening working on and printing up our route to get to the Tampa area from the East coast.  After watching some news on the results of the election, we figured it was time to turn in for the night as we would have to be back on the road early tomorrow.