My Daytona Experience (Long post)

[Holbeird]

So as many of you know we were going to miss daytona this year as it just didn't seem that the funds were going to be there. Well I got up at 6 am on Saturday, went to work got off around 11 am and came home.

Chelsey (our roommate and forum member articblue) came home around 12:30 and we talked about how much we couldn't wait to go to the Raleigh show the next weekend. She jokingly said well we could drive down to daytona over night, see the show and drive back up. I laughed but the thought stuck in my head. Finally I said, why don't we just see how many miles it's going to be? Well after doing the math it looked like about 3 tanks of gas to get there and back and after both of us getting excited and deciding to split gas and go the plan was set. So I called my wife at work, said I'm going to drop the baby off at your mothers, we're going to daytona and got off the phone leaving her stunned in silence.

Well we couldn't leave right away because our work was having a dinner out that night. So I take care of a few errands and then take a 45 minute nap since it seems to be the only sleep I'll be getting till Sunday night! We go to dinner with my boss where he promptly gets everyone drunk. Halfway through the dinner I force myself to stop drinking so I'll be sober enough to drive home (not to mention to daytona) I end up having to drive 2 other drunk co-workers of mine home before we go home and load in.

Fast forward 7 or so hours to daytona. We get there and are stoked about there being 7-11's as we don't have them in NC and Chelsey and I both had them where we're from and we know that Slushies are much better than Icees. Then we go to the beach because Chelsey has never seen the beach. We got there just before sunrise so her first beach experience ever was watching the sun come up over the ocean.

We kill time around daytona until the show starts. Chelsey and to a lesser extent Ashley (only because she was doing it a little too!) my wife make fun of me because I'm excited as a giddy little school girl and I'm pointing out people in the vendor crowd like they're celebrities or rock stars going "LOOK THATS DAVE BARKER" "LOOK THERE'S BRIAN AND LORI AND THE BHB CREW!" "LOOK THERE'S JUDY AND ROBIN!"

We go in and obviously are overwhelmed by everything! The show was great. Tons of vendors, quality animals and great people. Unfortunately maybe I was "star-struck" but I saw numerous people I barley said a word to because I was too "star struck" I saw the reptile radio booth and wanted to stop but didn't, saw Tim bailey and didn't say anything. I did stop by the bp.net booth and said hi to judy, robin, deb, emily, nate, and god forgive me one or two others I can't remember the names of! Anyway, although I talked to them I spent most of my time being shy which is very unusual for me!

We picked up some great animals. The wife and I brought home 6 breeder females from Kathy Love, A candycane cornsnake and a high yellow leopard gecko for my wife, and an awesome little pacman frog that I decided to get because he was a mint-green color instead of bright green, and when another frog hopped up to him he promptly bit it on the head and tried to eat him! So I couldn't leave little ozzy at the booth and home he came! Chelsey got 7 cornsnakes (various morphs) a veiled chameleon and a sulcata tortoise.

We drove home the 7 hours and after being up from 6am Saturday till 1 am Monday with only about a 45 minute nap in between, I crashed only to have to work Monday morning.

All in all it was a great trip, with great animals, and great people.

There's no way we'll miss it next year! Thanks to everyone who was so nice to us down there and I hope to see you all again next year!

Edit: Pictures coming as soon as I can go through them and get them resized and loaded up!

[rabernet]

JR - it was a pleasure meeting you AND you were the 30th member to stop by the table to get a free hat.

I thought you were nuts when you told me the story of driving down the night before! LOL

I want to know how it take yous 7 hours from Charlotte to Daytona and it takes us 7.5 hours from Atlanta to Daytona?

Glad you guys had such a great time!

[frankykeno]

What a trip, J.R.! I'm so glad after going through all that you managed to be the final hat winner though - how cool is that! Hopefully Mike and I will make Daytona next year and get to meet you and well as all the others we've always wanted to say hi to. I bet I'll be just as star struck myself.

[mlededee]

I want to know how it take yous 7 hours from Charlotte to Daytona and it takes us 7.5 hours from Atlanta to Daytona?

It's 3.5-4 hours from Charlotte to Savannah and 3-3.5 hours from Savannah to Daytona, so that's about right...

It was great seeing you again JR!

[rabernet]

Yay, but it's 7.5 hours from Atlanta to Daytona and about 3.5 hours from Atlanta to Charlotte.

[mlededee]

Well if you start in Atlanta and go all the way east to the coast to Charlotte before going south to Daytona of course it will take much longer!

[Freakie_frog]

Ok since we're sharing its 6.5 hours from my house to Pensacola and 5.5 hours from there to Daytona so stop whining..

[Debbienflorida]

No whining here.....it's about 90 minutes to Daytona from Gainesville in nice weather........bout 2 hours to get home in the rain!

[Kristy]

Glad you had a good trip. Sounds like something I'd do at the last minute lol.

So yeah, you all can stop bragging now about how many hours it takes to get to Daytona.


If I were to drive Non stop, it would take me 41 hours!!!

Maybe next year I will fly down to visit family, and the same time the show is happening

[nwheat]

What a fun trip! I'm glad you were able to go after all!