The Wandering Adventurers: March 14 and 15

March 14

Daytona is an hours drive and a straight shot east from our RV Resort. When we went through Daytona in the rain in February it was Race Week for the Daytona 500 and very busy. Today it is the middle of Bike Week and really busy. Over a half a million bikers are here! We have seen motorcycles everywhere. We stepped into another world once again, the world of car racing, and took the Daytona International Speedway Tour. We were surprised at how fabulous the tour was. We drove in a tram with a another great guide as he took us onto the actual raceway with its 31 degree high banks. We went behind the scenes to see the Drivers Meeting Room where they get the low down before the race, the garages where they work on the cars, the tech inspection area, the Press Box high above the race track, and had our picture taken at Gatorade Victory Lane! It was 90 minutes full of information. They get about 250 million people at the Daytona 500 race each year! All kinds of vehicle races take place here. This week there are motor cross races for Bike Week. We saw them working on their bikes in the garages. As the bikes have gotten faster and faster, they actually had to slow down the course by making it shorter to keep the bikes from going too fast for safety. Standing up in the Press Box and looking out onto the expanse of the speedway was really breath taking. We even saw the winning car from this years Daytona 500! We drove across the bridge with motorcycles on all sides of us to see the beach where the car races actually started on the sand. They didn‘t move to an actual track until the 1930‘s. From 1903 to 1935, some 15 speed records were set on the sandy beaches. Today cars can drive on the beach when it is low tide. It was high tide when saw it and didn’t look like much room. As we passed Main Street, thousands of motorcycles were in view!