Road Trip 2025, Day 4: Travalon's Teacher, New Smyrna Beach, and Ron Jon Surf Shop

 

Today Travalon and I drove and drove until we got to Daytona Beach, where we met his old high school teacher and his wife for a late lunch. The traffic there is just horrible! And the place was packed despite the hour. We spent quite a bit of time talking to them, then they recommended that we go to New Smyrna Beach, so we got there about half an hour before sunset and took a walk. Here are some photos.

Then we went to Ron Jon Surf Shop, even though we are not surfers, because they had approximately one million billboards along the highway, and one featured a little girl snuggling a unicorn. We didn't see any unicorns there, but we did get a crocodile wearing a Ron Jon tie-dyed hoodie and a hammerhead shark, and the shark came with an app that lets you track an actual female hammerhead named Riptide. Sorry, no photos of the stuffies yet. We also got some clothes and jewelry and a hat.

Not far down the road we found a seafood place where we could get conch fritters for an appetizer, and Travalon got a whole lobster while I had a classic lobster roll. They even had a watermelon-flavored infused drink. Then we had to drive quite a while on the turnpike, singing Steely Dan to stay awake, and I was snuggling the hammerhead shark. Cameras took photos of us every few miles, and I imagine how weird they must look if they got us too and not just the license plate - me snuggling a stuffed shark and making weird faces as I sang. Now we are in Pomano Beach, and tomorrow we board the cruise ship.

We did see a lot of spectacular Christmas decorations along the turnpike, but it was impossible to get photos of them. We did see this display on the way to the hotel.

We were at a stoplight that changed, otherwise I could have gotten the whole thing, including a marlin.

Famous Hat