My best friend, M- and I decided to take our first "big"(re:2 days) trip together in 2005. I met her online our freshmen year of high school and we've been pretty inseparable ever since. She's originally from New York and she was moving to Las Vegas a few days after this trip so it was starting to look like this would be our first and only trip together and we wanted to get on it right away. We're both huge NASCAR fans and it was appropriate that our first vacation was a race and the mecca of racing, Daytona International Speedway.
It was the end of June when we were to fly from our respective airports: me Logan and her JFK to meet in Orlando. Her flight was scheduled to leave about an hour after mine so we would just about be getting there at the same time. We sat waiting and sending text messages back and forth before our flights boarded. Before she left, it came to my attention that my flight was delayed about twenty minutes to a half hour which really wasn't a huge deal. She let me know when she was boarding and leaving and I settled back to wait to get on my way. Well that thirty minutes went by..and then another. And another. My flight was delayed about 3 hours and poor M- was stuck in the Orlando airport for something like four or five hours waiting for me. I didn't get to Orlando til close to dinner time and we got a cab to our lovely Holiday Inn in Altamonte Springs, FL.
That Holiday Inn is now a Clarion Inn and Conference Center. The cab ride was a ridiculous $60 but we were just happy to be there after the hellacious day we were put through thanks to Delta Airlines and their delay for "routine maintenance". We checked into the hotel with no problem, got up to our room and made the obligatory phone calls home to let everyone know we got in okay, we were together and we were about to get some dinner. I had absolutely no complaints about the Holiday Inn in Altamonte Springs, FL. It was absolutely lovely and I would stay there again if I had to..I would just rent a car next time to avoid the ridiculous cab fare and to be able to travel around a little bit.
Luckily, our hotel was right off of I-4 which is the awesome eight lane freeway that goes through Florida. On our side was a little shopping center with a gym and some stores that we checked out to relieve some boredom. But no food within sight. The closest thing we had was a Denny's, across the freeway. I have never felt more like that little video game frog than I did that day trying to cross the freeway. Now, before you think I'm completely wreckless, there is a crosswalk and traffic lights. We used caution in crossing the freeway but that doesn't mean my heart still wasn't in my throat. We got some food and I bought a bathing suit because I forgot to pack one. Who goes to Florida in the middle of the summer and forgets to pack a bathing suit? I do. We traversed I-4 one more time and walked back to our hotel, changed into our suits and went down to the pool to cool off before relaxing in our room for the rest of the night.
Saturday-The Big Day
We booked our trip through a travel agency that specializes in sports event travel, Premiere Sports Travel. They were awesome in helping us book this trip and the service was outstanding. They have a ton of awesome packages for just about anything you can imagine. They provided transportation to and from the track and since we were too young(19 at the time) to rent a car, this was perfect for us. We woke up Saturday morning and got ready for our day. We had to check in with the agent assigned to this hotel by 11am and then we waited around in the lobby with everyone else who was going to the same place. They got us all on the buses in an orderly fashion and we were off to Daytona. And, Florida being Florida, it rained most of the Friday night and was raining off and on Saturday. It would clear up and the whole bus would cheer and then it would start raining again. Such is life.
We got to the track after sitting in some race day traffic and it stopped raining. We got off the bus, enjoyed the dryness for all of thirty seconds and bam. Rain. Again. It only lasted a little bit longer and we got inside the massive Daytona International Speedway facility. The very first thing we did was find our seats and check out the view. It was absolutely breathtaking. The track is huge, it's a two and a half mile racetrack with everything you can ever dream of in the infield. They even have their very own lake! Lake Lloyd runs along the backstretch and you can go fishing. They also have some boats and water skiers for entertainment throughout the weekend. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before and I loved it!
For our first race we decided we needed to go all out so we also got pit passes for race day. After taking in the spectacular view of the entire place, we made our way down to the tram area to get into the infield. This is where I started to figure out that wearing sandals was a horrible idea. The area to wait in line for the tram was on a bit of grass. It was covered over by some easy up tents but that didn't matter. It was still muddy. So my feet got a little muddy, no big deal right? It would dry, I could get to a bathroom and wash my feet off. Or so I thought. We get to the infield and they have this whole area set up so you can see into each individual garage stall, you can see all the haulers. There's live entertainment and concessions. They have it set up so you can spend the whole day down there and not get bored. Oh! And pit road!
View of the grandstands and front stretch from pit road.
Race Time
The race was scheduled to start around 7pm. But lo and behold, it was raining again. We got through driver introductions and everything before the raindrops started falling again. And it poured. There was even some lightning off in the distance. While everyone else ran off for cover, we stayed put and waited out the rain. Once it had stopped raining for good and they got the track dry, it was pretty late. The race still went on. And ended around 2am. Tony Stewart was the winner of the race. We stayed for the fireworks show before heading back to the bus which didn't get us back to the hotel until 4am.
We'd made friends with the two men sitting next to us and they were staying at the same hotel and offered to drive us back to the airport in the morning so we didn't have to pay the outrageous cab fare. It was a very nice offer and one that we were seriously considering taking them up on but we we only knew them for a few hours and even though we'd survived crossing I-4 twice, we figured that's where taking risks should end and had the desk call us a cab for some crazy time in the morning.We got about three hours of sleep and took the cab back to Orlando thus ending our whirlwind trip. M- and I immediately began planning another trip as soon as we both got home.
All in all it was an excellent experience. The hotel was very clean and the staff was so friendly. I would stay there again in a heartbeat if I ever had a need to be in that area of Florida but I think next time we go to Daytona, we'll actually stay on the beach so we're closer to the track. Premiere Sports Travel is the way to go if you're unsure of hotels, tickets and transportation.
Ciao for now!
Ashley
