The Birthplace Of Speed Celebration At Rockefeller Park

So, after spending an hour or so down on the Beach for that celebration and watching that parade, this olelongrooffan set off for thejeepjunkie's shop to set up the install of the replacement drivetrain parts once they had arrived on Wednesday morning.

During the rare time this olelongrooffan was driving my olestationbus across that high bridge on Granada Boulevard, I spotted some happenings going on at the newly constructed Rockefeller Park.

Rockefeller Park is situated just across Riverside Avenue adjacent to John D. Rockefeller's (yes, that John D. Rockefeller) Winter Home, called The Casements. It was finished up last year, serves as home to the Farmer's Market every Thursday and is a wonderful park adjacent to the Halifax River/Intercoastal Waterway.

So, Counters, guess what this olelongrooffan did?

Yepper, hung a right on Halifax Avenue, just beyond Billy's Tap Room and then down to the parking area for this park.

As parking was pretty haphazard, the olestationbus was situated, successfully, less than 100 feet from the event at that park.

Upon entering, this was the view this olelongrooffan saw.

I am standing just off Riverside Drive and facing northwest. Riverside Drive runs parallel to the right side of the above image. That 1906 Fiat is just in front of that Model A, similar to the one TheGentlemanFarmer used to own. To the extreme left of this image, way in the background it the end of the tall bridge eastbound on Granada Boulevard. The Intercoastal Waterway is to the left in that image.

As I started to walk through the cars in that park, this olelongrooffan saw some old racecars seen by me, in person, and you, in this blog, on that fateful Tuesday before the Daytona 500.

As well as thejeepjunkie's favorite mode of transportation.

I had seen this a while back for the Bus.

One of the few automobiles this olelongrooffan had not seen, either earlier that day or at shows previous was

this 1964 Chevrolet Corvette.

Although, not as desirable as the '63 split window,

this C-2 did have official recognition from the National Corvette Restorers Society for its excellence of restoration.

Plus, it's got a 427 cubic inch big block.

Yeah, for a Corvette, real sweet.

Then, this olelongrooffan spotted this cool Daytona Beach emblem on the front of another old car. The Bus has one on the front of his old school bus but Springfield, Missouri is the town referenced. I thought I had an image of it somewhere in my image library but with over 4,000 images, this olelongrooffan can't seem to find it.

As I had seen most of the cars and trucks down on my beach, this olelongrooffan headed over to spot some new stuff.

In an effort to mimic my friend Kris, I decided to try and get some artsy fartsy images. Like this one, the hood ornament on a 1950 Ford Coupe.

This is it.

And this is the grill.

Just behind it were three longroofs that this olelongrooffan spent about a half hour just checking them out.

Each of them had a placard on the dash telling all about them.

The first one is a 1963 Buick ambulance that served its tour of duty right here in Daytona Beach.

The other two were Cadillacs and man they were huge.

The interior driver's compartment was outfitted with the period correct radio system and it was cool to see.

This is the passenger compartment of

this 75 Cadillac. How about that 70's era linoleum on the floor?

Check out all the red lights on this beauty.

The driver's compartment had a walk through to the rear section.

And this is the dash.

And do ya think this olelongrooffan could find a replacement bumper for it out at my favorite pick and pull parts yard?



The other Caddy was a 73. Both of these Cadillacs are owned by that funeral home listed on the side. It is down in New Smyrna Beach.

And both of the Cadillacs were built by Miller Meteor, a longtime custom automotive fabrication company best known for its construction of professional funeral cars and hearses but they also were responsible for this.

As this olelongrooffan was exploring these vehicles I noticed three guys in beach chairs on the grass nearby. I asked them if they were the owners and their response was in the affirmative.

I mentioned I had noticed it looked like the rear door on the driver's side of the '75, the one in the above image, seemed to be operable.

The owner jumped up and remarked how observant this olelongrooffan was and he walked over and opened up the door to show me what was inside.

Awesome isn't it? I was pretty floored by the ingenuity of those auto designers back in the day.

The Buick was built by Flxible, best known to this olelongrooffan for building buses like the one in Jay Leno's garage. As with the one in Jay's garage, a bunch of them have been converted into motorhomes.

Just a ways away, I spotted this Dodge Dart Swinger, sister car to the orphan Plymouth Duster.

I'm pretty sure it was a 1975 and the book reading owner in the above image was proud to state it had 51,000 original miles. Yeah, it's a condo car that's for sure.

And this olelongrooffan had forgotten the cool way MOPAR decided to dot the "i" in this emblem.
And I thought the convex rear window was pretty cool also.

I bet it would be pretty difficult to source one of those these days.

Oh yeah. DOOOH!

It was a dadgum pretty show the City of Ormond Beach put on that day. They even had it catered with cheese cubes, bite size chicken cordenbleu and a bunch of other stuff.

Of course, this olelongrooffan helped himself to a paper cocktail napkin filled with bunch of that and along with a complimentary glass of cider I headed over to have a seat by the water and take it all in, Water, Cars and Sunshine. God sure is watching over me, especially that day.

While I was sitting on a bench on the other side of that yellow speedster, this olelongrooffan was checking out the neatest truck I had seen that day.

It was an REO with Continental Silver Crown Power under the hood.

And getting all artsy fartsy again. BTW, those motorcycles seen in the background are the same ones this olelongrooffan had spotted in the video portion at the end of this blog.

I got to talking with owner and turns out he had spent four years personally doing a frame off restoration, complete with photos. He also has a REO touring car back home in Indiana.

Well Counters, about that time this olelongrooffan received a call from thejeepjunkie telling me the Kid was on his way to the Taj Mahal to pick me up to shuttle the Kid down to pick up his new ride so I beat it on back to the Taj Mahal and we did just that.

And know that with all the cr*p that is, or actually isn't, going on in my life right now, this olelongrooffan still remembers to

Celebrate Life.

Hope you Counters do also.