Going for 12 years in a row?

Extra! Extra! Persistent pothole wins the Daytona 500!



Not thinking so, ha! Last year the race was 'called' early due to rain and this year the famous pot hole (times 2) stole some of the excitement.

As soon as I heard about the pothole I remembered being at Martinsville in 2004 when they had a similar issue. The race was red flagged for over 2 hours. When the officials at the Daytona 500 race said 15-20 minutes I just laughed!

Regardless, fans spend a lot of money coming to this race and the past two years are making those diehard fans really wonder about checking out another track.

Guess we'll have to see what next year brings but at this point there is no intention of renewing the tickets (that he has had for the past 11 years) and I didn't reserve the KOA.

We had a good time and enjoyed the 'sunny' state even though the temperatures were about 20 degrees below average but are home and getting settled back into the routine. Luckily the kids didn't miss any school (yay me!) and even have another day of tomorrow. Wow!

So for those of you that followed our adventure, thanks! and I hope you enjoyed spending the week with us.

Blue Skies and Good Racing!

It was beautiful today - still a little chilly but the sun was out and everyone enjoyed being outside.
Ronnie had two races today since the Truck Race was moved from yesterday to today. He went to the Nationwide then came back to get Chase for the Truck.
As expected, there was a lot of action - those truck come to race :)

These two were on the top for Ronnie to watch today - Danica and Dale Jr. Unfortunately neither of their cars looked like this after the race.....Tough day for both!
Tomorrow is the big day!

Rainy but still better than home....

and we found other stuff to do. Manatees have always amazed me and Sea World's manatee exhibit is one of my favorites. It's almost as if I feel sorry for them...they are so big yet graceful and somewhat quick but seem to always be in harms way. Blue Spring State Park is about 20 minutes or so from Daytona and back in 2006 Ronnie and I visited there so we decided to take the kids this time. Sure enough, they are quickly swimming around the dock for us to see. The water is 72 degrees so you can see the steam. It is much more beautiful when the sun is shining but the kids still enjoyed it.


Check out the two fish on this manatee's back :)

We saw some orange trees along the way - actually in the backyard of many houses.
And even passed Valentine Park (how fitting this weekend?)

I had searched for local wineries - (last year we went to one in St. Augustine) and I found one in Ormond Beach. From the information I found, it sounded like they had some really 'fun/tropical' varieties. We definitely weren't mislead - we tasted nearly 30 and liked almost all of them! It was a difficult decision but we decided on five.

The truck race was cancelled so we hung out at home and watched "Finding Nemo" while Chase finished up his project :)The weather is already looking better for the remainder of our trip so no complaints here.

Thursday!

And now we tune in to what this trip is all about, ha! Four straight days of racing,
hitting the 'famous flea market' for diecast to get autographed

checking out all the local produceand those juicy Florida orangesIt's about fast cars, going to the Mall Show to see those popular drivers.




It's about the 2.5 mile race track, experiencing the 'fly over' and even finding those 'crafts' that tell people which driver you follow It's about the 'night life' at the beach
and even those funny things people do for attention in fancy restaurants (nope, that's not my Dad, lol)!!

Another Day In Paradise....

although I have to admit I was feelin' pretty guilty this morning knowing everyone back home was dealing with another blizzard :(.
Unfortunately this was one of those situations where I had to put my 'big girl panties on' and deal with it! Which meant having lunch here...(and sitting in this booth) before going to visit one of my favorite guys...Needless to say Cierra and I had lots of fun....

Since Cierra and Chase are official Disney Pin Traders, we had to search for the Limited Edition Valentine Pin....

Then we spent the next hour (plus) in Lego Land waiting for Chase to figure out what he wanted to buy.....(he changed his mind many, many times)
Of course I had to make a stop at Ghiradelli's!!


Then we headed to Celebration, FL.
The past couple of years we have 'wanted' to find this place because our previous pastor suggested it however we never seemed to make it there. Well - we made it! And it was so worth it! This is a little town referred to as "the town Disney built". We were told that Disney didn't have any plans for another park but had to do something with this piece of property thus Celebration was built. It is a quaint town with rocking chairs all around a lake. There are many shoppes - just a beautiful place! We were glad we finally took the time to go there.Next up.....some yummy chocolate covered strawaberries with my 'purchase of the day'
- Cierra spent the night with Grandma (seems odd to say that when we're in a different state) so we dropped her off then home for some appetizerswhile Chase man worked on his new project....Good night y'all!

It's the simple things....

One of our favorite things about Daytona Beach are these!You CANNOT find any better strawberries than those from Plant City which is very close to Daytona Beach. Last year we bought a huge flat so I froze two big bags and we just used the last of them a few months ago. Of course I will do the same this year....yummy!

And, what goes better with strawberries than this?

I also L.O.V.E. going to Old Navy in Daytona - it is FLIPFLOP heaven!!
Even right smack in the middle of our 'flip flop' season the local stores don't have as many as here and at $2.50 a pair, I can buy lots!! (I'm sure Cierra and I will be making more trips there before we head home, too).