After our crazy night of drinking and watching men play with their balls, we understandably had a later start. It was a decadent 9.30 before we were down for breakfast. The weather, which was quickly becoming an obsession, was forecast to be crap but looked OK for now.
We decided to have a sit-down breakfast at Sessions and even made the crazy decision to sit outside. We ordered coffee and juices and looked over the menu before choosing –
Mum – French Toast
Louise – Eggs Benedict
I went all hipster artisanal and had Avo & Eggs on Toast
The weather, seeing that we had plans to be outside today, did this.
We had to drag our table further undercover to finish eating in a dry state. Rather than obsess over the My Disney Experience app, I was now constantly checking the weather one. It looked, to be blunt, shite for the rest of the day.
We finished eating, paid the $90 including tip bill and went back up to our rooms. I’d arranged to pick up our hire car today at 12 and arranged for a Lyft to take me there. After hanging around the room for a bit, watching the weather not get better, I headed down to reception and got picked up by my driver. That sounds more showbiz than it was.
It was a delightfully silent ten-minute drive to Enterprise in, let’s be honest, a less glamorous part of Daytona, but we were getting the idea that aside from a few posh-ish hotels on the beach, much of it was.
Enterprise was a hut in a car park and I waited to be served as the staff undertook daylight robbery of all the customers in front of me. I was not looking forward to this.
I was eventually served and he vaguely pointed at some red car in the far distance, behind the rain-streaked window and asked if that would be OK. It could have been a Ford Kia or a Bentley, the visibility was that bad, and I initially said OK.
As he went to seek out the keys, I wandered up to the window and looked out at a car that was smaller than some things that have left my backside after a heavy meal. I think it was a Matiz.
I informed him that he was taking the piss and having booked an Intermediate vehicle I wanted something I couldn’t fit in my pocket. He inspected his inventory, which was basically him rifling through sets of keys in a drawer and offered me a sizeable Nissan thing. I think it was a Rogue. That was much more like it.
I left Dodge City, still a homeowner, and drove back to the hotel, fairly pleased with the car which turned out to be a lovely drive and certainly roomy enough for the three of us. Bearing in mind the horror show upon arrival at the airport I had extended this booking till the end of the holiday so that we would have two cars to get us back to MCO.
It had been decided that, in light of the rain, we would go to a mall. Super. So I picked up Louise and Mum and headed straight out to Volusia Mall. It was about a ten-minute drive.
Granted this was a wet Wednesday, but the whole place had a definite Walking Dead vibe to it. It was as if there had been an apocalyptic event in the early 2000s and the whole place had been deserted and preserved in that state. The sight of shops such as Lids and Hot Topic kicked off large amounts of nostalgia.
Louise had to undertake her mid-holiday ritual of buying new trainers because whatever shoes she had brought with her, assuring everyone they would be fine, were not, resulting in her wearing flip-flops around the parks and then almost becoming lame.
We stopped in the US arm of JD Sports and gave them their one sale that week. Whilst Louise selected the shoes that would never touch her feet again once back home, I walked the entire length of the mall in search of a wee, only to spot a restroom ten yards the other way when returning to the shop.
We wandered around, unbothered by fellow humans, buying the odd thing here and there. We popped into Hot Topic, mainly for nostalgic vibes, but ended up buying Emily a couple of T-Shirts. (Upon getting home, being the very cool Dad I am, I had indeed chosen/guessed at the perfect band T-shirts).
Mum got some joggers (pants, not athletes) and I got a tub of Cinnamon Pretzel things from Aunt Annie’s. They were awesome.
We left once we’d done a full loop, and I thought I’d take a photo of our new car to share with you all.
Some of the sharper amongst you will have noticed what I did not. That isn’t a Nissan, wasn’t our car and I had been taking photos of some random car.
Once I was next to the relevant car, I captured it.
I’ll be honest, I took a lot of photos like this, half expecting to be hit with a load of damage charges at drop-off from Jessie James and Dick Turpin at Enterprise. It had not been a good trip in relation to the hire car experience.
You will be wondering why we had not been to a CVS in some time, so we remedied that next and had a wander up and down a very weird row of shops opposite the baseball ground.
Let’s call them eclectic. And mostly closed.
We drove back to the hotel and the rain was clearing, so we headed down to the pool.
We got about two hours of lying in the sun before heading up to change for dinner around 6.30.
In what research I had found time to do pre-trip, I had identified some eateries we might try and had planned Sloppy Joe’s for this evening. We drove down to the area around the Hilton hotel, where we have stayed previously and parked up in the multi-storey opposite. There’s a walkway over the road, across to the shops and restaurants.
I was expecting a sort of independent version of “TGI Fridays”, but Sloppy Joe’s was a bit more “FFS It’s Monday”. It was empty but so was much of Daytona it seemed and not the most plush eatery you might imagine. Undeterred, although Mum was not too keen on the place, we ordered the obligatory Nachos to start.
The place may not have been much to look at, but the Chilli on those Nachos and on my Sliders was one of the tastiest we have ever had.
Mum had a burger
Louise had Blackened Chicken Fettucine Alfredo.
We felt a little rushed by the staff, no doubt as we were the only ones in and as soon as we were done we saw them all bolt for the exit. The bill was $120 including a 20% tip and we headed back to the car.
We could not do two crazy nights in a row, so instead we watched an episode of Breaking Bad in bed (we were repeat-watching it many years after the first time) and were asleep around 11pm.
Till the next time…..
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