Deland Florida

Day 21-23 –  October 21-23 – Deland Florida USA

Weather – Increasingly sunny – warm to very warm – high of 28c

Homecoming Parade, Swimming in the lake, Stand-up paddle boarding

Ok – So it 3 day update in one hit. Day one which was the Friday, also happened to be homecoming. This is a bit of a big deal here in Deland. Homecoming is a high school thing – and it’s connected to the local high school – Deland High which has around 3000 students in yrs 9-12. During homecoming, they close off the main street and then have a parade down town which goes for probably about an hour. During this weird event, they have a bunch of SUV’s, trucks, etc, where teachers, school and district board members and then students who are elected, stand out the top of a moon roof or on the back of a pick-up truck, and throw candy to the crowd.

They have the homecoming King and Queen – seniors – so year 12’s, who are driven down the main street and people clap and it’s all very strange to me. But it’s not just a Senior King and queen – they had a whole suite of titles – and a boy and a girl for each title – paired up, standing out of a moon roof of an SUV. Each year level had a number of royalty – which is strange for a republic.... Anyway, once this was finished, all the various clubs that students participate in, had a float, and they paraded downtown – there was the avant-garde dance troop, who danced down the street and had a float, then there was a soccer team that, just in case you weren’t sure what they were about, dribbled soccer balls with them as the walked down the street. You had the Cheerleaders in uniform dancing about and then football team came next, sitting on the back of a flatbed semitrailer. Yep, it felt a lot like a stereotypical American teen movie or TV show, only, this time instead of a bunch of perfect 30year old actors pretending to be teenagers, you had a bunch of 17-18 year olds, awkwardly trying to mimic what they had seen in the movies. To me, as someone who deals with people in this age group, it was really interesting watching this all unfold. Finally, you had a bunch of big trucks with flatbed trailers, towing the alumni from 40yrs down to 10year reunions. These were far more rowdy, and generally had music blaring from the era, and a bunch of people drinking beer from kegs – now this part looked like fun. We watched this all unfold with our own plastic cups full of beer – apparently all ok with the authorities. And then we went back inside to the elusive grape – a fantastic little bar in downtown Deland, for a few more refreshments before heading home. The big homecoming football game was played at the local 6000 seat stadium, apparently a sell out, however we didn’t go as we were all a little jet lagged. We finished the night off buy cooking out on the dock over coals – some bone in country pork ribs – which to me seemed closest to big pork loin chops that we have at home.

Day 2 was at the house, Rusty Chi and Wiley came over and stayed for the night, it was a picture perfect day, and once again, we spent a fair amount of time on, and in the lake. There was a fair amount of cornhole competition, and tire swinging. And Lucy had a great time looking after Wiley, who is now three and a half, and likes to run! As Rusty and Chi were staying for dinner, Rusty and I had to go and pick up a few extra steaks. I managed to get a hold of some exceptional ribeye’s, at $19lb they worked out to be about $65AUD per kg – so I’d say pretty good value, for high quality aged beef. We paired that with some red wine reduction that I made, and some smashed roasted potatoes. Excellent cooking by Rusty on the Grill, all the steaks were spot on mid-rare, and the Caesar salad on the side just rounded it out. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

Day 3- as I write this, it’s about 28c, sunny and we’ve spent most of the day in, on or around the Lake. Lucy has had a few swims with everyone. I’ve fallen in off the Paddle board, and also gone in deliberately a few times. And Katie and Kathy are off shopping in Daytona – a nice relaxing day before we head off to the condo tomorrow in New Smyrna Beach. I’ll post