Our trip to Daytona "Ormond Beach"

Our pre-trip pep rally

7-18-03 Friday

1:22 pm

• Left house in Atlanta, Georgia headed to Daytona Beach, Florida. We had to come back because I needed my birth certificate to give to the DMV people to get my permit, and we had a copy but we lost it in the car, so we got another copy.

1:31 pm

• Found another copy and we are on our way to Daytona.

1:55 pm

• Got on I-675 headed towards our grandparent's house.

3:05 pm

• Stopped in Macon, Georgia welcome center, got a drink, saw a kid that couldn't skateboard very well, and got a map of Georgia because without one we would have gotten really lost. There was some roadwork on the way up here and it stalled us for about 20 or so minutes. The roadwork is still not over though.

4:04 pm

• Found out that every DMV location in Georgia closes at 5:00 and the only location that we are close to is Tifton, Georgia and we are still about an hour away from there. Also you are supposed to be at the locations around 30 minutes early so that you can take the test and they don't have to wait till after five. So we are not going to make it.

4:45 pm

• Stopped in Tifton, Georgia and got McDonalds and now we are back on the road.

5:33 pm

• Stopped on Exit 18 to get some candy because we are both craving some sugar. When we were getting back onto the highway, mom scared a truck, it was pretty entertaining.

6:10 pm

• Stopped at Florida Welcome Center, got a map, got coupons for Aunt Debbie and Uncle Dave. While we were leaving and big RV scared us and it wasn't very entertaining.

6:30 pm

• We were talking and we missed the exit for I-10 so we ended up going through Lake City and seeing a dancing, waving oven mitt for Arby's and a rocket on top of a car. Thanks to me we finally got back onto I-10, we took a detour. Got back on I-10 at about 6:50, headed towards Jacksonville, Florida.

The detour on I-10

7:26 pm

• False fireworks advertisement, scared mom into thinking that she was going up the wrong side of the exit ramp going the wrong way.

7:45 pm

• Found a fireworks store, Phantom Fireworks. ON SALE! Buy one get the next for one dolor. Got a bunch of fireworks. Now we are almost to Jacksonville. We left the fireworks at 8:00.

8:35 pm

• Got the Jacksonville then took I-95 through Jacksonville lots of roadwork and it was raining and also very dark because there are not any street lights on I-95. We got of the highway and went onto highway 206 which led to Crescent Beach and onto A1A. Took A1A all the way to Ormond by the Sea, and all the way there we watched the lightning in the sky it was pretty cool.

Sunset near Jacksonville

10:10 pm

• Finally arrived at my aunt and uncles house and went inside and ate some strawberry and key lime pie, watched Monk, and then went to sleep. Mileage was 448 miles from Atlanta to Ormond by the Sea.

Ocean Grove and Ocean Shore meet to form the Atlantic Ocean

7-19-03 Saturday

9:30 am

• Played two rounds of putt-putt at Pirates Cove in Daytona.

Debbie

Dave

1:00 pm

• Ate lunch at High Tides Snack Jacks in Flagler Beach. Saw three parachutes land on the beach in front of the restaurant. It was VERY good.

High Tides Snack Shack in on the beach in Ormond Beach

? pm

• Don't know what time but we took a tour of the loop, which is a scenic tour of Volusia County's natural resources. Savetheloop.org. It has rivers, marshes and is covered by canopy's of trees, very cool.

? pm

• Every one else wanted to go home and sleep but I wasn't tired so I just played on the computer while every one else slept for about two hours.

7:10 pm

• Went to the pier and saw a free concert at the shell, which is a big stadium next to the mall. We some blues which was performed by Muddy Harp it was pretty cool. We bought the CD for 20 dollars. Expected to go see some fireworks at the pier because they are supposed to have them every Saturday but I guess they were canceled because of the thunder and lightning so we went home and made our own fireworks show on the beach, then came home and ate some more pie and left over wings. It was a pretty good day.

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Blues at the Daytona shell

7-20-03 Sunday

9:30 am

• Mom attempted to wake me up without success. Debbie and Dave had been awake since around 8:00. Mom joined them on the veranda, and they talked for a while.

10:45 am

• I finally woke up to Larry in my face and then joined mom, Debbie, and Dave on the veranda and got some breakfast.

Larry and one of his pet humans

11:30 am

• Went on a motorcycle ride around the loop with Dave; it was awesome we went really fast. Mom and Debbie went to the beach for about 15 minutes and came back because it was raining.

Dave and David on the Harley - what it's all about

12:15 pm

• Got back from the ride around the loop and through Daytona and went to Snack Jacks again, but this time it was without Dave because he stayed at home and watched NASCAR. After lunch we went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean at Regal 10 Cinemas in Ormond Beach, it was a very good movie. At around 6:00 we got home, picked up Dave and went to Betty's, which is a good restaurant on the edge of the water, and they had very good food.

Did you see the High Tides menu?

8:00 pm

• We got home and everyone was stuffed so we sat on the coach and watched TV, and ate pie. At 10:00 the Cable Guy came on and Debbie went to sleep while mom, Dave, and I watched the movie. It was also a good movie. Then we all went to sleep. I slept on the coach as I had done the night before as well, it was very comfortable.

Monday 7-21-03

11:00 am

• Left Debbie's house and I got to reverse out of the driveway and go up the street, driving of course.

11:35 am

• Reached Saint Augustine at 476 miles we forgot to reset the mileage. We took A1A all the way through Saint Augustine trying to reach I-10 and find food.

11:50 am

• Stopped at McDonalds and found an alternative route. We took A1A to Saint Augustine Beach then turned on the Highway 312 and took it to Highway 207 which led the I-95.

1:30 pm

• Got on I-75 from I-10 headed towards Georgia, it's thundering and lightning and we think that there might be a fire in the woods.

2:21pm

• Still on I-75 just reached Georgia border, going through Valdosta to try and get my driving permit, wish us luck. About 30 miles until Valdosta.

 

The crowd at Ormond Beach

2:40 pm

• Found a DMV place to get my permit, but of course, it was closed. Going back to I-75.

3:00 pm

• Mom decided that we should take an "Alternative route" also known as a long cut. We took a right on Exit 29 and went through the small town of Hahira, now were on Highway 41 North headed to around Macon then we will take the other road we took before.

3:43 pm

• Decided we wanted to get home quicker so we got of Highway 41 and got back on I-75, turned out there was more roadwork and still went pretty slow, but now it is starting to pick back up so we are hoping to be home by dinner and I am going to try to go to sleep.

The real Ormond Beach

5:30 pm

• Got to Macon and then got onto I-475 I have eaten way too much sugar and I am really hyper.

7:00 pm

• Finally got to our house and we have 408.2 miles on the way home but it was probably more like 436.2 miles because we forgot to set it.

 

END OF TRIP!