North Port Florida

Now in North Port, Florida

We are now in Del Rio Texas

We are now in Del Rio Texas

Stopover in Daytona Beach

May 14 - 15, 2016

This was just a 2-night stopover on our way to Jacksonville Florida.  Patty had not been here and I was just  here for a few hours 30 years ago.  I was here just long enough to drive on the sand and put my feet in the water before heading back to Disney in the 80s.  Since we are only here 2 nights this is a short post.

We stayed at the Daytona Speedway KOA.  Like the name says, we were parked within walking distance to the NASCAR Daytona International Speedway.  Nothing was going on at this time so it was quiet.  This place must be a huge party during a race though!


Daytona Speedway KOA

Our site at the KOA

The RV Park is next door to a large flea market which was open while we were there.  On Saturday morning we went to the flea market to spend a few hours looking around.  Well, this place was huge!  We probably saw maybe a quarter of the place before deciding we had enough.  We purchased a couple small golf items and some fresh vegetables.  We really could spend a full day in this place.


Right next door to the KOA

Lots of people at the flea market!

About a mile from the KOA



This is where we should have driven but, no, we went right!

After the flea market we headed to Daytona Beach to just relax for a bit.  We really didn’t know where to go so we just headed east knowing we would hit water eventually, which we did.  We actually, without knowing what we were doing, ended up at the entrance to the beach!  However, since we didn’t know this was the entrance and we saw people turning around at the beach, we went elsewhere to park.

We found a place on the street a block from a beach access walkway.  We got our chair backpacks on and headed to the beach.  As soon as we got on the beach we saw that everyone was parked on the beach and sitting around their cars!  Damn!  We later found out that the cost is $10 to enter and park all day.  Also, the entrance was where we initially entered the area!  Seems the cars we saw turning around didn’t want to pay the $10!!  They probably didn’t want to pay because it was already 2 in the afternoon by that time.




We got there as the tide was at its peak high so we had beach front property!  The water temperature was around 80 so it felt refreshing but very easy to get in.  The beach at Daytona is hard pack type sand and has a very long shallow entrance. This shallow entrance allows you walk quite a ways into the water. We found a place right at the water’s edge with the waves lapping up on to us every few minutes.  It was a really nice time on the beach.

We were there just a couple of hours and decided to call it a day.  I was already starting to burn!  I had sunscreen on my face but didn’t have any on the rest of me.  I thought I had enough tolerance from my time in the sun most of the winter.  I guess not!

We got back to the RV and made dinner with a NY strip and some fresh brussel sprouts we got at the flea market this morning.  We added a baked potato and that made a nice meal.  So ends our one full day at Daytona Beach, Florida!

On Sunday we had just 80 miles to go to our stop in Jacksonville.  80 miles will only take us a couple hours if that. Well, it took us about 3 hours as there was an accident in Orlando that delayed us close to 2 hours!  That was the longest we have ever been delayed since we have been in the RV in 2012.  

Anyway, we managed to arrive at our, thought to be, campsite at around 1pm.  This place was a DUMP!  No management there either.  We walked around looking for an available site which there was only one that we could see. The rest of the sites were made up of permanent residents. Mostly they looked like Walmart rejects.

Patty talked to a few people and was told that we should just take the open site. The site was a back in with very little room to back in with our rig.  So we turned around in a nearby field so we could be in a better position to back in.  This site was on the end of a row but had rigs on the other side of the road. 

We managed to get into the site and partially hooked up when Patty got a call and was told that we did not have a reservation at this campground!  Crap, we had already been there for over an hour how and it was pushing 2:30 pm.

We hitched back up and parked in the dirt road that led up to this place so Patty could look for another place to go.  After talking to a few with very high rates, she settled on one with just slightly less high rates.  We are now in the Pecan Park RV Resort just off of I95 North but still in Jacksonville.  This is the most we have paid for a site in a long time at $42 a night and that is the discount for the week!  

This is where Patty sees the Gastro Specialist at the Mayo Clinic. He was referred to her by her Gastro in Texas. He gave her the 4 best in the field; 1 in Chicago, 1 in Orlando, 1 in Jacksonville and 1 in Montreal. Patty was fortunate to get an appointment one month out, so we were able to travel accordingly. 

We are all set up and ready for our adventures here in Jacksonville in the coming week. More on Jacksonville Florida in the next post!

Stay tuned!

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