March 18, 2007, Sunday
DeLand, FL
The official first day of the tour consisted of a loop from DeLand past a couple of natural springs, Lake Helen, and back to DeLand. We were glad to be staying in DeLand a second night, not having to pack and move for another day. It was a pleasant ride to DeLeon Springs State Park. Native Americans were known to use the springs. Early settlers established a sugar plantation that was later destroyed by the Seminole Indians. It later became a winter resort. There's a lively restaurant and many canoeists explore the Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge and the 18,000 acres of lakes, creeks, and marshes.
Our second stop was at Blue Spring State Park. When it's cold, manatees swim from the St. Johns River to warm themselves in the 70 degree spring waters. Several were floating next to the viewing platform along with gar and a very large alligator lying on the opposite bank. Many scuba divers come to explore the underground caves.
At Lake Helen lunch was provided for the us and we ate with other cyclists and listened to the musical entertainment. One couple was from Pennsylvania. They had planned to fly down but when they arrived at BWI airport, their flight, along with many others, was canceled due to the spring snowstorm that we missed by leaving on Thursday. They wisely left the airport, returned to their car, and drove down. They were riding Ritchey Break-Away road bikes.
After returning to the room and cleaning up we got back on the bikes to ride to camp headquarters. Normally we don't eat many bike tour-supplied meals, especially dinner. Soggy pasta with a thousand close personal friends gets old fast. This tour was different in a couple of ways. It's smaller than many state tours; there were around 700 cyclists this year. The food was actually rather good. As part of registration this year meals were included, so we didn't have much choice. Being the pennywise person that I am, it went against my general principles to pay again for dinner. The ziti with cheese, salad, roll and vegetable were very good.
We stayed for the group meeting, the only one of the ride. There was a good safety film after which we heard about the upcoming attractions of the trip. The afternoon spent riding around the Daytona Speedway sounded interesting.