- November 18, 2024
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This is pretty awesome, I thought. They get to play softball on the beach. That sentiment lingered just a few seconds longer, though. As I hung a right from Atlantic Avenue into Van Park parking lot, reality set in. There was no softball field. Just beach. A two-way gate at the bottom of a small ramp left the impression that I could drive onto the beach, but I wasn’t finding a little league softball game here.
Well, maybe Atlantis Little League, if I kept venturing east.
It all started back in Palm Coast. I reserved plenty of time to drive to Palm Coast Little League’s sectional softball all-star tournament in Deltona. As I pulled out of my neighborhood, I pushed the “home” button on my iPhone 5s and held it for a three-count. This action, of course, triggers “Siri,” Apple’s integrated personal assistant.
“Directions to Vann Park, Deltona,” I enunciated clearly, consciously making sure my voice didn’t trail off at the ends of words. Siri’s response was immediate.
“Finding directions to Van Park,” she said, voice teeming with confidence.
It was 40.6 miles, an estimated 55-minute trip (gotta love Florida traffic). Being a somewhat recent transplant to the area, the turn-by-turn developments didn’t alarm me. Daytona, Deltona, I thought. Sounds plausible that they’re close to each other. Of course, I was wrong.
I pulled into the only remaining spot before the beach gate and discovered the proper address. It was about 37 miles west, in Deltona. I had gone this far, and those girls really wanted coverage (a few wrote me very nice emails to that effect). My music, as it often does, came to reflect the situation.
As I zoomed along I-95 toward I-4, I perked up at the line “all this distance,” from Motion City Soundtrack’s “Stand too close.” A few minutes later, I misjudged the length of the merge lane on I-4. I had to floor it to avoid a physical first date with a jersey wall — and as I did — the up-tempo ballad “Pulp Fiction” blared, “Cave in, cave out, nothing but nervous doubt,” which was really just perfect.
I eventually made it to the right Vann Park, the softball girls got some much-deserved coverage and everything was straight. Or so I thought.
On the way back, I made one last pit stop in Ormond Beach, hoping to cover a softball tournament. The Ormond Beach Sports Complex’s gate was locked, and the fields were underwater. That’s about right.
