Today is the day where this trip actually started for, the Daytona500. We start quietly and are in the car around 10.30 am on the way to the hotel where we will stay this night. We will deliver our suitcases there. Fortunately, a cautious sun breaks through, which is very nice after two days of rain. Then towards the circuit, or better said, towards the parking lot. About 7 kilometers from the circuit, a huge meadow has been made available where you can park your car for free and shuttle buses have been arranged to transport you to the circuit. Funny detail: they are authentic, American, yellow school buses. These take us to our destination in 10 minutes. Even though it is 4 hours before the start, it is already quite busy. We look for our seats and then the long wait begins. But as mentioned earlier, with the sun this is no punishment. An hour before the start, the 40 riders are introduced, a squadron of 6 fighter planes flies over several times, a pastor says a prayer and of course the national anthem is sung. The race starts around 4:30 PM to loud cheers from the spectators. Not much happens until round 190 (out of 200). Then came the big one, as it is called. A total of about 15 cars were involved in the crash. After some patching up, a large number of people were able to continue the race. Another crash at the start of the last lap, but this had no consequences for the winner, William Byron. Then the challenge for us started getting back to our car. We quickly found the place where the shuttle buses come and we are not the only ones. All in all, it takes about 45 minutes before we get on the bus that takes us to the parking lot. Once there, we still have to do some searching for the car, but that also works out fine. We reach the highway to the hotel fairly easily. This brings our holiday to an end and therefore also this blog. Tomorrow during the day we will visit Orlando, no definite plans yet. We fly back to Schiphol at 7:00 PM, local time, where we land around 10:00 AM the next morning.
Video of the day
