Daytona 500

We left Aztec RV Resort on Tuesday, Feb 16^th, and drove about 230 miles to Daytona Beach. We arrived at Daytona International Speedway around 2PM, got checked in, drove through the tunnel below Turn 1, and headed to our campsite in Horseshoe Campground where we would “boondock” (no utility hookups) for six nights.

There were many RVs already camped in the infield when we arrived and many more arrived each day. Mike & Marcia joined us on Wednesday with their motorhome. Their nephew Patrick and niece Tanya joined them for the week. We all sat on top of their motorhome for the races and had a good view of the track between turns 1 and 2 and then down the back straightaway.

 

We watched two Can-Am Duel 150-mile races on Thursday where Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the first race and Kyle Busch won the second. Friday night we watched the NASCAR truck races which were really exciting. On Saturday afternoon we watched the NASCAR Xfinity series (formerly Busch series) race where Chase Elliot won. The infield campgrounds were party central on Friday and Saturday nights, including wheel barrow races which were fun to watch.

The Daytona 500, “The Great American Race”, was on Sunday afternoon. It was completely sold out, with over 100,000 fans in the grandstand and thousands more watching from the infield Fan Zone and the infield campgrounds. The Air Force Thunderbirds performed a flyover before the race and the Goodyear blimp provided aerial coverage for Fox Sports. The race was exciting and only had a few caution flags. The unbelievable finish was the closest in Daytona history with the winner, Denny Hamlin, only winning by 0.010 seconds over the second place car. We can now check the Daytona 500 off our bucket list and it was well worth the experience.

We left Daytona on Monday morning and drove back to Margate to Aztec RV Resort for a two-night stay. We leave tomorrow (Wednesday) for Key West and have our fingers crossed that we’ll get in the Naval Air Station Key West campground. The campground indicated in mid-January that they were full.   

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Miami International Boat Show

We drove from Aztec RV Resort about 40 miles south to Miami on Friday to go to the Miami International Boat Show. The drive took almost an hour because of traffic, even at 9:30AM. We parked at Marlin’s Park (baseball stadium) for $5 and then rode a shuttle bus to the boat show.

The boat show was huge, with sailboats at Bayside (near the Port of Miami), and powerboats at the main site, Miami Marine Stadium Park & Basin, near Virginia Key. We only went to the main site where there were over 1,200 of powerboats displayed inside and outside moored at docks.

 

We enjoyed seeing the actual car and boat used in the TV series Miami Vice, on display commemorating the 30^th anniversary of the show.

 

Here are some photos of inside one of the large tents where up to 36-foot long boats were displayed. Our 12-year old Chaparral seemed really old compared to all the new models.

 

 

The “Pilar” is a replica of Earnest Hemingway’s famous boat. It is normally displayed at a museum in Cuba and this was the first time it has been displayed in the U.S. We were told that Hemingway’s boat the “Pilar” influenced several of his books.

 

We learned that Cigarette is actually a manufacturer's name for their “cigarette” boats. I was truly fascinated with this 50-foot long "go fast" boat, with two 1550 horsepower engines, that could go 130mph and only cost a mere $1.2 million.

 

Many of the boats were center-console used for off-shore sport fishing. Almost all of these boats have two outboard engines (in case you had an engine problem you can get home with the other). Over the past several years, the boat manufacturers and dealers have been adding more outboards to the boats.

 

 

We both thoroughly enjoyed the boat show and although we can now check it off our bucket list, we wouldn’t mind going back again.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Seffner, Florida

We arrived at Lazydays RV Resort near Tampa on Thurs, Feb 4^th. Lazydays has the country’s biggest RV dealership with over 1,700 RVs available for purchase. The dealership is huge and we enjoyed looking inside the various new and pre-owned RVs one day. Their RV resort is adjacent to the dealership and has 300 campsites.

 

Friday we drove out to MacDill Air Force Base and checked out the base Family Campground, with about 380 sites, but it was nearly full with snow birds. We stopped by the commissary and picked up a few groceries before leaving MacDill.

Wearing my Peyton Manning #18 shirt, we got ready for Super Bowl 50 this past Sunday. It was an exciting game and the Denver defense overwhelmed the Carolina Panthers, 24-10. It had been 17 years since the Broncos won a Super Bowl, since the back-to-back wins in Super Bowl XXXII and XXXIII.  

"Cam sandwich"

 

On Monday, Julie and I enjoyed dinner at the Columbia Restaurant again. The white wine sangria, the 1905 salad, and entrees were wonderful.

 

Tuesday we met one of Julie’s high school girlfriends she hadn’t seen in over 40 years. Carol and husband Mike live in Tampa and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting and having dinner with them. We went to Datz for dinner, a Cajun restaurant in their neighborhood. Julie and Carol both had shrimp and grits and Mike and I had the meatloaf, which was stuffed with macaroni and cheese. Everything was very good. 

 

We drove to Palm Harbor on Wednesday to visit my sister Cathy and her son Ben. We helped Cathy and Ben move new living room furniture into the house. Cathy fixed shrimp scampi for dinner and we had an enjoyable evening.

Today we drove from Seffner down to Margate, FL, near Fort Lauderdale. We’re staying at Aztec RV Resort for 5 nights. We plan to drive to Miami today to go to the Miami Boat Show (on our bucket list).

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Titusville, Florida

We moved to Titusville and Willow Lakes RV Resort on Tues, Jan 26^th, where we spent nine nights. We have been to Willow Lakes several times before as Julie’s sister Cindy used to live there where her husband Terry managed the RV park.

Titusville is on the “space coast” near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.   

Our RV site at Willow Lakes was next door to Jay and Audrey, a couple we had met before and socialized with. They had built a new home on their lot, but it was only framed in the last time we saw it. It also has a RV pad next to the house.

Also at Willow Lakes was Bob and Diane, a retired Air Force couple we met 2 ½ years ago at Lake Powell and we’ve since seen in Albuquerque and Forest City, Iowa. They bought a very nice one bedroom house with RV pad and spend winters at Willow Lakes.

One day we drove to Patrick Air Force Base, just south of Cocoa Beach, to check out the Family Campground. We also checked out the nice beaches on the Atlantic and then stopped by the Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach to pick up a t-shirt.

We spent a couple of evenings with Ron and Kathy, another couple we had met before at Willow Lakes. On Monday we went to Fish Lips Waterfront Bar & Grill in Port Canaveral for all you can eat snow crab. Ron and Kathy taught us a new card game called “Golf” and it was a lot of fun to play. It is similar to golf where the lowest score wins and each game consists of 9 or 18 hands.

We are headed to the Fort Lauderdale area where we have RV park reservations and plan to go to the Miami Boat Show next weekend. However, we couldn’t find a place to stay along the coast until then, so we’re back in the Tampa area at Lazydays RV Resort for a week.

Steve & Julie Cornelius