Back from Daytona

We are back! Phew, what a trip it was! We left Friday and arrived in Orlando that night, with no problems! We found our hotel and after we checked in we walked across the parking lot to Cracker Barrel for dinner.

The next day we got up early and ate breakfast at the hotel. Then we took the free shuttle over to Universal Studios. We picked Islands of Adventure to go to. We rode the Hulk first, the line was only about 20 minutes. We made one circle around the park first hitting the rides we really wanted to hit. On our first trip around the park most of the lines were only 20 minutes, it was great. On our second trip around the park, the lines were getting a little longer. The wait was then up to about 45 minutes for most rides. We stayed in the park until about 7pm, and then we went and had dinner at the NASCAR café, which is right outside the park entrance. Our hotel was not far from the park, so we took a taxi back to the hotel after dinner.

The next morning was the day! We got up at 6am and we were on the road by about 7:15am. Daytona was an hour away (usually). We hit traffic half way there. It took us about 3 hours to finally get to park the car. When you finally get to the point that you can see the track, there is this magic spell that takes over. It doesn’t matter what you look like, what race you are, what social class you are in, everyone suddenly becomes a redneck. And NASCAR is one amazing sport. There are not 2 teams where you root for one team or the other. There are 43 different drivers out there, and everyone pulls for someone different. Now Dale Earnhart Jr. and Jeff Gordon have the biggest percent of fans, but there are still people pulling for different drivers. And we all come together that day and watch the race together are yelling and screaming for our drivers. There is no bickering in the crowds about who is better than whom, you just have your favorite driver and you just pull for them. The guy sitting next to me in the stands was a Junior fan, but I was yelling and screaming so hard for Jeff that he too started cheering with me. On the other side of Hubby was a Ryan Newman fan, and they had several discussions. Mostly Hubby kept him up on the news of the race because the guy didn’t have a scanner.

There of course are the annoying fans, like the ones that sat right behind us. It was a family of two boys and a mom and dad. Let’s just say they took redneck to a whole new level.

Anyway, we arrived at the track and after looking around a few minutes we headed to the Fan Zone. This is where you can go on to pit road and be in the garage area. Due to the time it took us to actually get to the track, we didn’t have much time before they shut down Fan Zone. We were out on the pit lane and I saw my high school friend, Marcus. He is the Jack Man for Casey Mears, the #41 Target car. We sat and chatted a moment. While we were chatting people kept coming up and asking for his autograph. That was odd, to me he is an old high school friend. To strangers he was someone worthy of getting an autograph from. I hate to tell those people, but I am sure Marcus signed many of my yearbooks! I probably have several of his autographs! He was always nice to me in school growing up.

Then we went and got in line to get on the tram to take us to the other side of the track where our seats were. Then we waited in line to get some lunch. We got to our seats just as Vanessa Williams was singing God Bless America. Then the race started! What a race it was! Phew, very exciting! I am sure all my screaming for Jeff is what made him win.

After that we headed off to the After Race Dinner Party. There were about 800 people there, and it was held in the Museum. The Daytona Race museum is very cool! Toyota put in a simulator that actually does a 360 flip if you hit this ramp in the simulator. It’s really neat! They also have a lot of history in there. There is a piece in the floor from the original track that was part beach part road. We enjoyed dinner there while traffic settled down. Later we headed for the hotel. That time it only took 2 hours. When we got back to the hotel we had to pack, as we were checking out early the next morning.

We got up at 5am and hit the road. We were on the way to the Induction Breakfast. This is when they induct Jeff’s car into the museum for the year, and Jeff gets his jacket. He was on all the morning shows, Good Morning America, the Today Show and such. All those interviews took place just around the corner from us! After he was done with all of the interviews, he came on to stage where we were. Hubby and I were only about 10 feet from him! He took questions from the audience, signed a few autographs and then headed out to his team breakfast. It was so cool!

After we ate and looked around a little bit more (the breakfast was held the same place the dinner was) we too hit the road! We stopped at the Kennedy Space Center on the way down to Jupiter. We didn’t have much time, so we only took the tour on the bus of the facility, it was still really neat.

After that we headed down to Jupiter, FL, where we spent our last night with Brian’s Aunt and Uncle and his cousins (the flower girls from our wedding). Brian had a blast playing with the girls and Lucy made a fantastic dinner. We spent the night there and the next morning we got up and we went to breakfast with Brian’s grandma who lives not far from Mike and Lucy in a very nice retirement community.

After breakfast Lucy took us to the beach and to a sea turtle rehabilitation center. It was a beautiful Florida day! Then we went back to the house, got all packed up and headed for the airport.

We had such beautiful weather the whole time! And we had so much fun! It has taken me two whole days to write this entry we did so much stuff! We couldn’t have had a better time!

We did end up having a photo card crash on us, so unfortunately we lost pictures from Kennedy Space Center as well as all the ones we took with the girls. But at least Hubby and I have the memories.

Hubby had his knee surgery today. All went well, he is down stairs resting in the recliner. We also have discovered that Petey is just about completely deaf. Such crazy times!