There were other negatives besides Nazi terrorism.

After about one year in Daytona Beach, I got the opportunity to move to Orlando with the help of a friend.
Beside the constant harassment and terrorism that I experienced in Dayton Beach, there were some real negatives about living there.  In the spring, there was an influx of tourists for events like the Dayton 500.  Although the race track was about 10 miles inland, almost all of the accommodations were on the beach side where I was living.  That meant that traffic became horrendous.

That event was followed by Bike Week and thousands of Harley Davidson's.  The event was centered around Main St. on the beach side and that was about four blocks from where I lived. You can't imagine what fun it is to have the streets packed every day with rowdy, drunk bikers.  And it literally gets tiring waking up at three AM to the roar of a parade of Harleys.   Also every morning I had to clean up the beer cans strewn all over the area around my apartment.

Interestingly, one day while walking along Main St. during bike week,  I spotted a man who I knew was an undercover cop.  Don't ask how I knew that.  Anyway, when he saw me, he looked like he had seen a ghost, and took off as fast as he could.  I could only surmise that he was afraid that I would rat him out and his life wouldn't have been worth a nickle among those bikers if they knew.  He was just like The Crazies; The Crazies are only brave when no one knows what they are doing.  And of course, the undercover cop was paranoid just like The Crazies.

And a couple of weeks after the roar of motorbikes abated, there was Spring Break!  Every evening during Spring Break, the main road on the beach side was impassable due to marauding college aged students that filled the streets.  Even though I knew my way around the back-roads,  getting around for those couple of weeks became a real chore.  But college students did graduate from liter the front yard with beer cans, to littering with whiskey bottles.  And there was the occasional drunk sleeping in the front yard in the morning.

And then there were the drugs!  One club to the north that I visited a couple of times was a haven for drug dealing.  I knew several people who would sit in the place looking all down, tired and barely moved or talked.  Then after being there for about an hour, the would go out to the parking lot and when they came back in about fifteen minutes later, they couldn't stop dancing and talking. They were full of energy! You had to be blind not to see the behavioral change which made me wonder what the two local cops were doing who  frequented the place.  I even stumbled on a money drop one evening.  The owner of the club eventually closed the place and I heard he closed it because he couldn't keep the drugs out of his club.

All of the above made moving to Orlando seem like a good idea and I jumped at the opportunity.

Next: from little beach town to the big tourist city.