Day 3 - DeLand to Ormond Beach - Two Far 2022 - Reunion Bound (the long way around)

April 12, 2022

Day 3 - DeLand to Ormond Beach

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We made it to the Atlantic Ocean today - coast to coast in only three days! The weather is still perfect, except for a bit of headwind, and the only hills now are bridges.

Kerry found us as many residential and back roads as he could.

There are many small lakes in the area surrounded by homes. (These are not the mansions that we saw yesterday!)

When their home is across the street, owners often own lakefront property for their boat docks.

Our sightseeing stop for today was the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse and Museum. The Ponce de Leon Inlet is a natural inlet at the south end of a peninsula which includes Daytona Beach. The lighthouse was built there in 1887 and both the lighthouse and the various keeper's cottages have been very well preserved. My legs weren't up for the 203-step climb to the top, but Kerry went right up to the top and took some great pictures.

According to www.ponceinlet.org, the lighthouse is 176' 6" tall and made entirely of brick - there is no structural metal used. The walls are 8' thick at the bottom, 2' thick at the top and used 1.25 million bricks. The outside wall is a cone with a diameter of 45' at the bottom, while the interior wall is a 12' diameter cylinder.

View from the lighthouse looking west-southwest.

Here you're looking west-northwest - A yacht headed south on the Halifax River.

Looking north. The high-rises in the distance are in Daytona Beach Shores, while those in the foreground are in Wilbur-by-the-Sea

Looking east... If you squint, you can see Western Sahara!

Looking east-southeast at the Ponce de Leon Inlet. The southern mouth of the Halifax River and the northern mouth of the Indian River meet in Mosquito Lagoon to form the inlet.

Playing in the wind. Besides the parasail, we saw several planes towing banners as we rode along the beach.

This guy looked a lot smaller to me than the camera shows.

When we were getting ready to leave, a few guys stopped to talk about the bike. They were all pretty knowledgeable cyclists, so Kerry really enjoyed "talking bicycle" with them.

It was sixteen miles up the beaches from the lighthouse to Ormond Beach. We rode through Daytona Beach, staying off A1A, and still had a lot of traffic. We also encountered a lot of impatient drivers, which doesn't happen to us very often. I think Easter week is probably a time when Daytona beach visitors are not on their best behavior.

Our hotel here in Ormond Beach is right on the ocean. The views are gorgeous.

Kerry took these pictures of the hotel which were less beautiful than the ocean. Now I'm going to worry about sleeping here tonight!

Kerry here... Tonight's hotel made me thing about Champlain Towers South in Surfside.. The photo doesn't show it, but the concrete decking had lots of cracks, with exposed rusty rebar.

Here you can see one of the cracks in the support beam, and the rust stains on the wall on the right.

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 152 miles (245 km)

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