Northeast Florida; Deland to Daytona Beach to Jacksonville 1/19-22/2012
Marineland, north of Daytona Beach
Whatever you say about Florida, when viewed from the road, most parts look uniquely Floridian. There are streets and buildings that look like nowhere else. I mean, what else looks like Marineland, from 1938? California would never be so green.
Where else can you go for a hog hunt? Where else but Daytona do guns and motorcycles get so incongruently mixed together?
Outside Daytona Beach
Somewhere west of New Smyrna Beach
Also outside Daytona BeachMy bike among the bikers; Flagler BeachAlso outside Daytona Beach
In this part of Florida, restaurants and bars frequently park a large motorcyle in front of their establishment, to show they are “biker friendly.”
This trip took me for three days from Deland in central Florida to the coast south of Daytona, then up the coast a hundred miles, through St Augustine, to Jacksonville Beach, where Tom picked me up. I had a nice two days with Tom and Esther before taking Amtrak back up to North Carolina.
Many parts of central Florida exhibit a rural vibe, with early twentieth century buildings surrounded by Spanish moss. Some parts of New Smyrna Beach and Daytona Beach also have such an ambience.
Older neighborhood, Daytona Beach
Outside Deland, Florida
Other parts of Florida exhibit brash sometimes Jetson-like architecture; this could be nowhere else but Florida.
Jacksonville Beach
Art deco Daytona Beach
Oceanfront modernism, Flagler Beach
You know this is Florida because Floridians practically invented the gated community. Ponte Vedra Beach, just south of Jacksonville Beach, is home to the TPC golf tournament and is the epicenter of gated communityness. There is one every quarter mile or so.
Largest gate in a gated community (at least that I saw!)
Florida is ground zero for the real estate crisis, and evidence of collapsed developments was everywhere.
Look carefully, only one house, lots of empty lots, underground utilities installed
Once I got to Jacksonville, the hospitality was for real. I hope to get back real soon.
urban bicycle journeys 
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