July 11, 2008 – Volusia County Travels!
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.11, 2008, under Florida Attractions, Florida History!, Florida Outdoors!, Florida Restaurants, Various, What\'s New?
Our first stop during our Volusia County tour was Ponce Preserve. It’s a park that has a combo of opportunities to experience the original natural Florida tidal area of this part of the east coast. See the site for details. It’s a GREAT park and well worth the trip whether you take the boardwalk, the natural trail or head out to the beach.
Our next stop was Sugar Mill Gardens. It is the site of a sugar mill, a theme park, a Civil War site and a Seminole Indian War site. It covers it all. There is no doubt ‘Bongoland’ is the most interesting. I’ll let this site explain it as I run out of time to type all of this. By the way, I counted 7 dinosaurs. Above is one of them.
| We continued our Volusia County tour with a stop at the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences.WHATTAPLACE!!!!Everyting from greek statues (See right) to antique cars to Florida history to pirates to actual train cars to….It’s an amazing place!We made a stop at Zeno’s, a favorite of ours, |  |
We next stopped at a favorite of our in Volusia County, Zeno’s. They have two locations. We stopped at the one on A1A. Got ice cream and salt water taffy. Above is cover of the box of the saltwater taffy we picked up. I love the historical photos.
| After Zeno’s we wandered up A1A to Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area. The park, that includes beach access, is named for the Florida troubador, Gamble Rogers, who sang and told stories of Florida’s history, environment and a series of characters that dwelled in our state in the fictional area of Ocklawaha County.I got to meet and work with Gamble back in the ’80s when I was working with Florida music and storytellers festivals and groups. He was a sight to behold. A very calm and steady performer. I’m reading a number of books about Dean Martin. Gamble was the easygoing come-what-may Dean Martin on stage.It was a tragedy he died in the surf at the very spot where this park is. He was trying to save another person caught in the rough waters. We happened to be there when there was a red flag warning of the rough surf and dangerous waters at the beach as it was when Gamble died. The difference now is an actual red flag atop a pole flapping in the wind, see the sketch to the right. At the time of Gamble’s death there were no flags there.
Too bad the story of Gamble’s death isn’t at the park. I felt like chasing after the people in the surf and warning them of the dangers and of the reason why the park area is named after Gamble. |
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We finished our trip in Marion County and had dinner at Lena’s Restaurant, where you can have a “whale of a meal”.To the left is the papertowel holder on every table. |
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