Daytona Beach, Florida

No Red Roof Inn on this trip. I'm in a fancy Hilton, oceanview, with the sliding doors open -- well, not doors since there is no balcony, but I can hear the surf. Got here after dark so I can't take a photo, but I can hear the surf and it is a full (or nearly full) moon tonight so it's nice. It's also lightning and thundering a bit -- the perfect natural sound effects for drifting off to sleep.

Since you have to change in Atlanta to fly to Daytona, I had this brilliant idea I thought I invented to fly to Orlando and drive 90 minutes. When I mentioned this, expecting people to tell me how clever I am, everyone interrupted me and said, "No, fly direct to Orlando."

I'll have to take photos outside my window when it's light, but here are some pics of the trip:



I hadn't been to LGA in a long time, and Delta has redone all their gates -- instead of rows of chairs, there's workstations and these booths. I don't know why but I find it annoying. I know that is totally unreasonable.



I was watching this old guy -- an old Road Warrior -- and I hadn't seen a "briefcase" like this in years. At least he's upgraded to a roller board (or roll aboard) -- I remember when business men wouldn't use them because it's what flight attendants used. These guys thought they were un-executive-like. So then when he pulled out a newspaper  I thought oh my he really is old fashioned. Used to be when you flew on Sundays, people would bring the Sunday papers with them, but no more.



The flight to Daytona was $467 in coach, and the flight to Orlando was $630 in first class, so I was willing to pay the difference myself. I wish I were confident enough to demand first-class travel from my clients, but no one is doing it. It's so different in first class, here's my soda in a glass made of glass and a double bag of peanuts.




Followed by lunch. Can't remember the last time I got a meal during a flight. You had your choice of a turket sandwich or this Buffalo Chicken on Salad. Figured the turkey would be bad, slimy turkey roll, pressed into two-day old bread, so I went with the salad. The greens were mostly romainey ribs. The chicken was almost unseasoned -- and I had to laugh because I really don't like Buffalo chicken wings -- too spicy, and these had almost no seasoning. Some crackery bread sticks and a blondie for dessert.




The walk to the rental car isn't bad, if you take individual segments, but put them all together and it is one long effing haul from the gate to the car. Of course, I was at the farthest gate so you walk from there to this tram. Get off the tram and walk around the whole security area to these escalators to baggage claim. Then of course my baggage claim was the farthest possible. Then to the rental cars on a lower level. It's like a huge area of counters of rental cars-- after all this is Orlando -- and I had a reservation with Thrifty and I kept walking and walking and walking, past every conceivable rental car -- it literally is as far as the eye can see, and I couldn't see anything that looked like Thrifty. So I asked this guy who looked like he worked at the airport. He told me it was the last one (of course it is), and said they have cars -- this was an outfit called E-Z Rent --- not one I would necessarily pick. Offered me a full-size car for $20 a day and I said yes.

I had gotten a pretty good deal from Thrifty and the total was something like $140 -- this total is $90. I wouldn't use EZ Rental for a long trip -- of course, there was a catch... from the counter to the actual car was across the street, back all the way to the opposite end, and the cars were the last company is this parking garage. I was sweating like... well, like all get out.

I was kind of surprised when I saw my car -- it's a brand new Hyundai and very nice. Every so often I touch something on the steering wheel and this woman's voice said, "I didn't understand the command" -- the world is getting too complicated for me. But soon I was blasting myself with the air conditioner and I was on my way. Easy drive to the hotel.




Beautiful king size bed with fluffy comforter and real down pillows.



Behind my roller board is the door to the room, but before that is the bathroom -- you can see the large screen TV

BREAKING NEWS: It is absolutely pouring rain, so I have the ocean, the rain, lightning and thunder to go to sleep by.



Desk/work station and the full windows overlooking the beach.

 One quick funny story that anyone who knows kids will appreciate. There were two Australian women with six beautiful blond children between them headed toward Disney. They ranged in age from 18 months to about 10 years old. The 10-year old boy and one other hadn't drunk all his bottle of water so he asked the mother for it and there were two bottles of half-drunk water and he started drinking out of one of them and the mother said, "No, that's Angus's water" and he literally spit, or let drool, the water in his mouth, back into the bottle. Now he wasn't being obnoxious -- he was being solicitous that he shouldn't be drinking Angus's water and was trying to "put it back." The mother reprimanded him and when she realized he didn't get it -- she said seriously, "You don't see why what you did is disgusting?" and the kid really didn't.  This all happened two feet in front of me, and it made me laugh.

Stand by for the view tomorrow. I think it will be worth the wait.