Monday, February 29, 2016

Travel: Feb 2016 - Dec 2016; Catching up the notes


Hi All.  This post is ordered at 2/9/16 but is being added 10/19/17.



You may have been wondering what ever happened to that blog the Holdrens were keeping or you may have thought we traveled so far that we fell off the edge of the Earth….



Yes, the blog stalled; No, we haven’t fallen off the edge of the Earth; Yes, we are still traveling.



While sitting here at Daytona International Speedway, several texts from colleagues where I taught hit my phone.  Seems they had fired the teacher that had filled my retirement and were hoping I’d come back to teach the 2nd semester of Physics classes while they did their search for a new Physics teacher.  We negotiated a bit and headed back to upstate NY in February (we couldn’t believe it either)!!  We parked our home in the driveway of our (at that time) unsold house and back into the Lab I went. 



That is when the blog stalled out.



At the end of the school year it was like retiring all over again and we fell into a vacation mind-set.  We were still gathering lots of photos and information about interesting things we saw but none of it was getting posted.  That ends now and I’m dedicating the next several weeks to getting caught up.  This post is a short version of our travel log thru the rest of 2016.



Am looking forward to sharing our travels with you and hoping you enjoy traveling vicariously via our blog.  Leave us comments.  J



Scott & Sue
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#s in parenthesis indicate the Purple Pin # (2016) at our travel map www.tinyurl.com/SnSTravels  

2/22/16 Daytona Speedway to Southern Trails, Unadilla, GA, 320 mi (6)
2/24/16 to Atlanta Speedway, Hampton, GA, 100 mi (7)
2/29/16 to Jones RV, Norcross, GA, 50 mi (8)
3/1/16 to Forest Lake, Advance, NC, 285 mi (9)
3/2/16 to Timberland Campground, Abingdon, MD, 415 mi (10)
3/3/16 to our House in Coeymans, NY, 291 mi (11)
6/28/16 to Moody Beach, Wells, ME, 235 mi (12)
7/19/16 to Narrows Too (Acadia Nat'l Park), Trenton, ME, 198 mi (13)
7/26/16 to Gateway to Cape Cod, Rochester, MA, 322 mi (14)
7/31/16 to Diederich's RV Sales, West Coxsackie, NY, 200 mi (15)
8/3/16 Flew to Orlando World Center (Shaklee Conference) (16)
8/7/16 Flew back home (17)
8/8/16 to Rondout Valley, Accord, NY, 60 mi (18)
8/9/16 to Hershey RV, Lebanon, PA, 270 mi (19)
8/23/16 to Wally World, Loudonville, OH, 365 mi (20)
8/30/16 to Twin Mills, Howe, IN, 220mi (21)
9/6/16 to Pine Country, Belvidere, IN, 210 mi (22)
9/14/16 to Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, IL, 98 mi (23)
9/19/16 to Erie Island Resort, Port Clinton, OH,288 mi (24)
9/29/16 to Niagra Lazy Lakes, Lockport, NY, 295 mi (25)
10/1/16 to our House in Coeymans, NY, 310 mi (26)
10/19/16 to PA Dutch Country, Manheim, PA, 270 mi (27)
11/1/16 to Chesapeake Bay, Gloucester, VA, 260 mi (28)
11/5/16 to Sycamore Lodge, Jackson Springs, NC, 310 mi (29)
11/9/16 to Oaks at Pt South, Yemassee, SC, 215 mi (30)
11/17/16 to Bulow Plantation, Flagler Beach, FL, 248 mi (31)
11/22/16 to Orlando RV, Clermont, FL, 105 mi (32)
12/13/16 to Peace River, Wauchula, FL, 70 mi (33)






Sunday, February 21, 2016

Daytona 500

Time for the "Great American Race" 2016.

Despite the crowd, we were at the base of the escalators in about 10 minutes.  The new traffic flow in the stadium is well designed.



Green Flag!!!!

Friday, February 19, 2016

Eatery: North Turn at Daytona Beach

The North Turn Restaurant is one of our absolute favorites when in Daytona.  It is a 10 minute drive from the track and right on the ocean.


Photos from their archives show were it was located when the Daytona race was actually run on the beach.

Photo from their archives: the view from the deck during a race on the Beach.


The current front door.

First thing you see when you step inside...


Looking from our table out toward the beach.


Chowder...


Fish Tacos...


Eggs Benedict...

...and we ate the calamari and shrimp before we took pictures.  :-)  Oops.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Tour at Daytona

We had some time today before heading up into the stands so we grabbed an infield tour ride.

We met the group atop the garage


 On the tram, headed into the tunnel to the infield.


Going through the tunnel  (most of our pics were pretty fuzzy)

First view after the tunnel was at the turn 1 stands.

The Air Titans lined up just in case.  If needed, the air compressors in each truck create a high pressure squeegee.  The trucks line up conga style with each truck 1/2 lane below the truck ahead of it and in just a couple passes around the track, they squeeze all of the water off the track. 



Sunday, February 14, 2016

Qualifying at Daytona

Time to qualify for the front row. Top 2 qualifiers get the Daytona 500 front row. The rest will use today's finish to determine where they start in next Thursday's Duals to determine where they start in the 500.

One of the Stadium entrances.


Cars are lining up....

Our Trading Card!

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Racing at Daytona Day 1

Saturday... 1st of 7 days of racing at Daytona to start the season. Tonight is ARCA and the Sprint Unlimited.

Sun is going down, shadow of the stadium is on the front stretch. Lights will come on soon.

Friday, February 12, 2016

News Article

So we arrived at Daytona International Speedway on Tuesday and about 30 minutes after unhooking, a reporter from the News-Journal stopped by to ask us a few questions.  Ended up a nice article in Friday's paper.  You can see the full article including video at http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20160211/NEWS/160219906?Title=Daytona-Speedway-s-die-hard-campers-set-up-early

But for here, here's a few pictures.





Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A drive past the Front of Daytona International Speedway

The Speedway has remodeled / rebuilt its grandstands into a grand stadium  Individual seats, charging stations, WiFi, restaurants...  A comfortable venue for an entire day of racing.


There are three major entrances to the stadium - referred to as the Injectors.  Each Injector has a major sponsor and includes fan interactive and educational walk-thrus.


The nFlorida Hospital Injector

 The Toyota Injector; our entrance



The Sunoco Injector



The major day parking is across the main highway - complete with a walk-over bridge.


Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Arriving at Daytona International Speedway

We're Here!!!

Our Travel Map: www.tinyurl.com/SnSTravels (Purple 5)

This is our turn...



...to camping outside Turn 1 - walking distance to the grandstands.


A glance to the left....



Stop and get water... (rather than haul 800 lbs of H2O down the road)

...and head toward our reserved spot.



Once parked, this is the view out our picture window!!  We watch the team planes land and take off as well.

It was a bit windy...