Back to Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach

Daytona Beach

After I spent the morning in Daytona Beach and had lunch at the Ocean Deck (on the beach!) (with a stop at a used book store) .... such a lovely way to spend time ....

In Ormond Beach is the Casements, John D. Rockefeller's winter home,  beautifully restored to function as the Cultural Center for the City of Ormond Beach, Florida.  It got it's name because of the casement windows on both sides of the structure

The top picture is some of the windows; second picture is the second floor; original fireplace mantel, skylight.  Originally the skylight opened to allow airflow up the center of the house.

Rockefeller had two goals in life - to be the richest man in the world and to live to be 100 years old.  He achieved the first .... at one time he was 6 times richer than the next billionaire.  Unfortunately, he died 6 weeks before his 100th birthday.  He had a personal nurse with him, monitoring his health, his entire adult life and was so close ... kind of sad.

In his 40's he developed alopecia so he was completely hairless.  The pictures you see of him up until his death with the beautiful white hair were human-hair wigs - he had 3 in different lengths to simulate hair growth.

John D. and his wife had 4 children, 3 girls and then a boy.  They were so frugal, although they were "rich", that the boy had to wear his sister's hand me downs until he was 7 or 8 years old and needed pants.  Rather than buy each child a bike, they had to share one.  I guess that's how you become and stay rich!

Ormond Beach was known as the speed capital ... they were known for speed trials before the racing track history started in Daytona.  The cars would gather each year ... starting in Flagler Beach, they would drive down the beach, gathering speed until they hit a marker that signified the beginning of the mile they were recorded.  Cars reached speeds in excess of 200 mph!  They then had until Daytona Beach to slow down.  These were speed trials only; they did not race against another car.

The race "track"  where two or more cars competed against each other, began with an oval starting on Daytona Beach, up over A1A, and then back to the beach.

I think of all the cities/towns I've driven in since I arrived in Florida 6 weeks ago, I think I like Ormond Beach the best.  I can't really say why ... it's just a relaxed feeling I have there. 

I have had some beautiful weather these last weeks ....

Tuesday I'm going to walk over and have "Taco Tuesday" at the campground and meet some new friends.  They have a bar in the campground that opens at 7pm .... they serve beer and wine.  I've not experienced a bar in a campground before ..

I'm going to make one more trip to St. Augustine on Wednesday to see the fort and run a couple of errands in the area, and then head to South Carolina on Sunday. I have enjoyed this time "at the beach."  Peaceful .....