Shooting the Curl

Even though the winds have eased, the ocean swells remain. This is great for the surfers and we had fun watching them from the pier.

 

Surf's Up!

 



Boardwalk Bound

The wind has been relentless the past week and we haven't had any chance to go kayaking, bicycle riding, or cruising on the Honda Helix. Today was our first break so we headed north to check out Daytona's famous boardwalk and pier.

Talk about the old and the new? There are high rise hotels, but there are still some of the old arcades and rides. A new roller coaster has been added along the waterfront also .

 

We had heard so much about this roller coaster and expected it to be much larger. It did have plenty of tight twists and turns though...not that we actually rode on it!

 

The pier itself had a special place in our lives because this is where Dave and I had our first date almost 37 years ago!

 

The building on the pier had a bar, band, and dancing back then and although the venue has changed, it sure brought back memories!

BOO!

One of the reasons we like to be in Daytona by the end of October is the Halloween celebration in my mother's neighborhood. This year's was beyond all others with tons of kids, grown ups and pets trick or treating. We even had props this year with Chucky standing guard.

First he had to be dressed...

Sister-in-law Eva loves Chucky!

All ready to scare, and that he did. Some of the kids were really hesitant to even get their candy and kept their eye on him to make sure he wouldn't move.

Which one is real? Only one of Chucky's eyes would blink so it looked like he was winking at everyone.

At about 8PM the crowds starting really ganging up on us. It took two people handing out treats to them all (sometimes it was one for them and one for us though!).

Our favorite was this homemade plane fashioned after the animation movie Planes...

Second was this maid with the eyeball highball cocktails.

Later, nephew Matthew came back over with his face painted. A great way to end the evening's ghoulish festivities.

Paddling Pink

Having Pink in Daytona has been great! On my first trip out in the Halifax River I saw tons of different water birds and even several dolphins frolicking in the distance. WooHoo! I'm so glad to be paddling again....

Falling Leaves To Palm Trees

Although we had a great fall and the colors were gorgeous, the cold weather set in and we have headed south. We are now in Daytona for the next few weeks until we head to Abaco. This year we drove the van and have Dave's bicycle and my pink kayak with us, so we will have lots to do while we are here.

Dave's last ortho appointment went very well and the doctor was pleased with his progress. She said he could even waterski if if he felt he could. His femur is mostly healed on the inside but on the outside there are still gaps. I'm sure that's why he still limps with the bone roughness irritating his muscles and tendons. The bone is doing 50% of the work and the rod is doing the other 50% of the work. Unless he has pain in the future, all his hardware will remain and not be taken out. Now it's time to go out and have some fun and ride around on his Helix motorcycle and build up his strength!

Death of a Junkyard

Dave is my guest commentator today. Who would be more qualified to talk about junk?

 

Recently I had the privilege of joining my friends Kevin, Walt and Jimmy for a tour of the demise of a large local automotive wrecking yard. This is where all vehicles come to die. The death throes of a vehicle are amazing to think about. This particular yard was 50 acres with 3-4,000 cars. It was being completely cleared to make room for a new purpose of the property. Vehicle age varied from the 1940's to the present. It was bittersweet watching the property being transformed and the cars getting scrapped. Junkyards are being lost to progress and rising property taxes. Here is a photo journal of some of the highlights of my day in the junkyard.

 

After the vehicles are stripped of their saleable parts, they are handled with an articulated loader with forks. This S-10 pick-up is only moments away from being crushed for scrap metal.

 

 

 The crusher is a massive, but portable, diesel powered hydraulic press. It is movable to different yards.

Three to four vehicles are compressed to a package this high, then netted to prevent parts from flying off as it goes down the road on a tractor trailer.

Van bodies always hold treasure as they are an economical way of keeping parts out of the elements.

School buses are especially popular due their large interiors. This Reo is from the late 1940's.

This yard had an amazing collection of every kind of car you have ever seen. Here is an AMC Gremlin. You could claim the vehicles by spray painting them with your name and number.

Deeper into the woods, the older the vehicles got. Here is a '57 Chevy four door wagon.

Massive fins were everywhere. These belonging to a 1959 Cadillac Sedan Deville.

Do you remember the V-8 powered Maverick Grabber?

Here is a Ford Pinto Runabout that is sinking into the dirt. The cars went on as far you could see.

It was especially cool seeing vintage imports. Here is a Hillman from about  1960.

 

 More fins. A 1960 Plymouth Valiant shows its Continental trunk, flanked by 1960 Chevys.

Here is a late 50's Chrysler Saratoga, probably with a Hemi, holding down a 1960 Ford.

There were trails between the cars that were just wide enough to access them.

 

Here is another collection of buses just brimming with parts.

 

 A huge excavator had a full time job just making the vehicles accessible to the forklift/loader.

 

Here is another one of the crusher presses on wheels. This scarp metal will go to a processing plant and be sold on world markets, usually China and the Far East.

 

There is probably over a year's work for the crew. When it's all said and done, the landscape will be unrecognizable from its former glory. It will all be a memory....and I was there.