Rev up your engine at Daytona Beach - MiamiHerald.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Biker babe, I'm not. NASCAR fan? Uh-uh. Beach bunny? Nope, don't think so. I'm way past the weight limit on being either a babe or a bunny.
But it is late evening, and I've found myself driving along Daytona Beach, on Florida's Atlantic coast, easily blending in with true biker babes, racing fans, and beach bunnies.
And I've just come from visiting Daytona International Speedway, after having feasted at the Daytona Diner, a much beloved local cafe frequented by bikers.
Daytona, a real sun of a beach, sort of has that magic wand, transformation effect on you.
Meandering for miles along Florida's Atlantic coast, Daytona is defined by lots of white sand, sparkling green water and big waves, long bridges strung like necklaces across bays, golden rays, and a carnival-like boardwalk that hums with sensory overload.
Once dubbed "The World's Most Famous Beach," Daytona is the largest community in Volusia County and is surrounded by smaller ones like Ormond-by-the-Sea, Ormond Beach, Holly Hill, South Daytona, Daytona Beach Shores and Ponce Inlet.
The main draw of Daytona is the beach, which is one of the smattering in the U.S. on which you can still drive, but, says Georgia Turner of the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, "We're way more than a beach. And there's a misconception of who race fans and bikers are. There's not that Hell's Angels element anymore."
During Bike Week in the late winter and Biketoberfest in the fall, about a bazillion motorcyclists gather to pay homage to the sport.
That's when leather-clad dudes riding their choppers and cruisers on the streets and beaches reign, but they're likely to be joined by their equally leather-clad dudette wives and girlfriends, children, parents, and even grandparents. No joke, motorcycles are big business here, Harley-har-har.
Before motorcycles, Daytona's hard-packed sand beaches were known for car racing.
"There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles," legendary racer Richard Petty once said. "It was the day they built the second automobile."
So, in 1903 soon after cars were invented, Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton made a straight-line race down Daytona Beach, which became the earliest forerunner of the Daytona International Speedway, which opened in 1959. Now tourists come from across the globe to see these hallowed grounds.
On the day I toured the Speedway, a potpourri of languages filled the air, including French, Canadian, Dutch, Spanish and Southern - definitely Southern, as I overheard this actual conversation:
"Hot dang!" a bearded man clad in an Alabama "Roll Tide" T-shirt laughed into a cell phone, drawing out "dang" into three syllables. "I can't believe it. I'm actually standing here in Daytona at the Speedway. Man, it's so cool!"
My tour, which the Alabamian joined, took us to the drivers' briefing room to victory lane to the press box high above the 2 1/2-mile primary track, which, by the way, Bill Elliott once circled in 42 seconds averaging 210 miles per hour.
Later I drove along Daytona's "strip" - Florida's A1A Highway - that runs parallel to the beach. Fun, funky mom-and-pop hotels and restaurants co-mingle with dining chains like Bubba Gump's and Bonefish Grill and big resort hotels like Hilton Oceanfront Resort and The Shores Resort & Spa.
29 Aug, 2011--
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