When I sat down in my recliner this past Thursday and kicked it back to watch the Duels from Daytona, I realized that it had been 50 years since my Uncle Bobby, Aunt Mary Ruth, cousin Debbie and I had left Columbia on a very foggy Friday night about 10:30, heading for Daytona for my first 500.  It was our intention to see the modified-sportsman race Saturday and then the 500 Sunday.  Believe it or not, the reason for our late departure on Friday was because Aunt Mary and I were both huge fans of the tv show “The Twilight Zone” and that show happened to come on Friday evenings at 10:00 p.m.  I don’t remember the specific episode of the show that Friday night, but I have a pretty clear memory of all four of us climbing into that 1957 Plymouth two-door hardtop and heading out for my very first trip to Florida.

This was before the days of Interstate 95 being complete and we traveled through Georgia on a very foggy night on Highway 17 and 17A.  There were more small Georgia towns with one stop light on that highway than could even be counted and the fog, sometimes so thick you could hardly see past the chromed fender markers on that Plymouth so it was sometime around 8:00 a.m. when we pulled over at one of those highway picnic areas on A1A just south of St. Augustine where I had a breakfast of Coco Puffs (still remember that) and orange juice, appropriate for Florida.