November 1, 2023 Day 25 Okeechobee Florida to Ormond Beach Florida 203 miles
This morning the temperature was 68 degrees. Ten degrees cooler than yesterday morning. Connie left her window curtain down and the air conditioning is off. It’s partially cloudy as well which will help keep it cooler.
During our travels today we passed two rodeo arenas. This just doesn’t seem like rodeo country. We did see a wall mural depicting a cattle drive however.
Shortly after the first grounds we passed a very large cattle feed lot. It was too far away to tell whether it had dairy or beef cattle. It actually sat on top of a small hill. Hills have been extremely rare in Florida. Now mind you a small hill in Florida is more like a large mound of dirt. We have seen road sand piles at home about the same size.
Next a farmer was mowing grass in a large field. The egrets were behind the mower eating something that gets stirred up during the mowing. A larger white bird was also there. Florida has too many similar white birds to know what this one was.
The wind has picked up and is blowing quite hard. It feels quite cool compared to how it felt in Key West. It continued to increase and by the time we got to our destination it was about 20 mph. That is enough to blow the car to the other side of the road. Rob is really getting an arm workout today.
More vultures today. A group of four or five were along side the road. Most likely something in the barrow pit they were eating.
We drove part of the day on two lane roads and occasionally on divided highways. A truck started to pass us and about the same time a pickup turned onto the road. They pulled over as did we so the truck could continue down the middle of the road. Not too scary but enough to get your attention.
Lots of the time tall trees line the road making it difficult to see what is on the other side. Then they suddenly stop and a large pasture will be there. The sugar cane has gone and the cattle and horses have appeared. One field must have had 20-30 big bulls. One looked to be at least part brahman because it had a large hump. The others were a mixture of angus and Hereford. Not sure where the cows were.
An orchard of what looked to be orange trees finally came into view. These were smaller trees but looked to have plenty of fruit.
We are now back with large sections of evergreen trees. We even saw a few logging trucks again. The trees grow quickly down here. They are tall but not big around.
Twice we saw signs warning of fog and smoke. We didn’t observe either. Since we left the sugar cane behind, I am not sure what the smoke would be from.
The next area is composed of several horse farms. One had a large covered arena. The signs weren’t easy to read but I think many of them were thoroughbreds. No race tracks were on the route so they may have been jumpers or dressage horses.
In the area of the horse farms was a subdivision called “A Quiet Place in the Country”. We thought that was a fun name.
We arrived in Daytona Beach in the early afternoon. The traffic has picked up considerably. The wind is still really strong. We drove passed the racetrack where the Daytona 500 race is held. The stands are huge! Glad its not race season.
Oh my gosh the suburb has Christmas decorations out. There was a tree with Christmas balls on it and three deer beside it. Then the street light poles were decorated with green tinsel wrapped around and a big red bow on top.
We pulled up behind a Greyhound bus. Surprisingly this is the second one today. We didn’t think they still existed.
We crossed over a tall bridge into the town of Ormond Beach. If you look between high rise hotels you can see the ocean. Definitely white caps. The wind is blowing sand onto the road and swirling it around. Sure glad to see the hotel.
We lost another brake rod pin today. Rob spent some time under the car replacing the pin, He thinks he has found the cause and hopefully it will not happen again. Time will tell.
We met up with an old friend and her new husband for dinner. We had a lovely evening catching up on everything.
Spoffords Travel 