Over the past few days travelling around a couple of things have stood out:
1) if you want to buy a new car there's not likely to be a wait because all of the dealers we've passed hold huge stocks. The BMW dealer had a multi-storey car park full!
2) the road toll system is very inefficient. On some roads we were stopping several times with barely a mile or so in between. You have to drive to a cashier (there are no credit card options) unless you have the exact coins (which we never do). It's usually between $1 and $1.50 a time which doesn't sound too bad but starts to add up when you're stopping 7 or 8 times on one road. The other frustration is that it really slows your journey down as there's usually only a couple of booths open that everybody without a fast pass has to go through.
After a long, boring journey we arrived in Daytona. As usual the I-4 had a lot of congestion so we took an alternative route. This seemed to confuse our sat nav app because it started working upside down and stopped talking to us! In the end we stumbled across the speedway by accident and without any wrong turns.
The heat hit us as we got out of the car. Fortunately it wasn't far to get to the entrance. There were three tours left with availability - one was leaving in ten minutes. We hurried to the departure point but unfortunately there were a few people in front of us and only 5 spaces in the tram. We decided to get some lunch (which was very reasonably priced) and wait for the next tour which was due to leave at 2pm.
Getting on and off this tram for 90 minutes in 36C heat was a challenge for everybody. We were all rather damp by the end of the tour! It was extremely thorough though; we got taken onto the track, into the VIP suite and all round behind the scenes. Despite the heat, I was really pleased that we were able to get on a tour because this was on Harrison's 'to do' list and we're doing our best to tick everything off it!
A few photos for all the racing fans:
The start / finish line
The top floor of this building is reserved for the presidential party
They're upgrading the seats. Currently they measure 18 inches across but they've had many complaints that they're too small. The new seats are 22 inches. Although a whole new section of seating is being added around the top, there will be a reduction in the total number of seats available. This is because they are removing the front five rows from the bottom tier; all of the seating on the other side of the track ( including the VIP boxes that we went in) and adding in the larger seats. There has been approximately a 65,000 attendance reduction over the past few years due to the economic climate so everybody who wants one, should still be able to purchase a ticket. They can currently seat 250,000 people! The multicoloured seats are a media trick. If cameras focus on the spectators, it looks as though the event is a sell out, even if it isn't. On a race day, they can have up to 250,000 RVs camping in the ground. The speedway covers around 450 acres.
The photo doesn't show how steep the track is
We briefly cooled down in Volusia Mall opposite (although the credit card warmed up very quickly!) then we headed to Daytona Beach - it had to be done ;-)
We arrived just after 6pm and the beach had to be cleared of vehicles by 7pm. This actually worked to our advantage because it should have cost us $3 to park but the ticket booth was closed. That's $3 saved towards the road tolls!
This was a complete contrast to yesterday's beach experience. Firstly, no problem parking; there was a very welcome cool breeze which took a lot of the heat away from the sun and finally we didn't see any badly burnt bodies compared to the countless number we saw yesterday.
We stayed on the beach until the lifeguard truck with loud speaker and flashing lights drove past telling everybody to leave. It was a lovely end to a good day. However......
As usual, Harrison kept a very close eye on the clouds and noticed a storm was brewing in the direction of Orlando. We turned on the car radio and listened to the severe weather reports. Soon enough, straight ahead of us we could see some dramatic lightning going from the clouds down to the ground. The sky grew steadily darker and the rain started. Before long we could barely see in front of us and the roads had turned into rivers. This was definitely the most dramatic storm we've witnessed so far. Would have preferred to watch it from the villa!
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