Daytona Beach residents were AOL'ed by the media and DBAVCB

The residents of Daytona Beach have been blinded and guided into not adopting a 'visioning plan' presented by A. Nelessen Associates like a AOL first time user. Just as thousands of AOL users have never seen a true web browser and are led by the hand in the on line activities, such was the case in the overwhelming dismissal of the proposed visioning plan. A plan that cost the city in excess of 250,000 dollars was never given a chance according to the president of A. Nelessen Associates in a statement to the Daytona News Journal here. EDIT: Hmm, it appears that the letter was somehow deleted from the online edition of the Daytona newspaper. Not a problem, you can read the letter here

After reading the statement and looking at what the vision plan actually entailed, it was clear that the residents of Daytona Beach either never were shown the vision, or it was held only in context. The statement released today from Mr. Nelessen tells how his vision plan for the city of Daytona Beach being rejected was a first. The vision it seems called for too much viewable area of the beach being left undeveloped when according to the Daytona Chamber it would be better used building hotel lobbies with restaurants and shops. If you want to see the 'worlds most famous beach" you will have to pay to drive on it or view it from a balcony. The vision also called for too many acres of unspoiled wildlife area being left untouched. The recommendations by the chamber feels that these areas would be better put to use by building housing projects on them to lessen the population density in the downtown and beach areas.
The Daytona Beach City Commission and the Chamber expressed their disappointment that Mr. Nelessen's vision plan made no mention of the area's huge resources like the Daytona International Speedway. They were also miffed that he did not include tourism and special events like Biketober and Bike Week (that they are wanting to downscale) in his vision for the city. The city felt that because these resources generate millions of dollars, they needed to be included in a vision.
The recommendation also points out that Daytona Beach has evolved from a single city into a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) encompassing New Smyrna Beach and Port Orange to the south, and Ormond Beach, Palm Coast, and Flagler Beach to the north. Really?

ZoomInfo Web Summary: Michael Odom

ZoomInfo Web Summary: Michael Odom
For more information about the writer of this blog, Mike Odom

How this blog got its name

I do a lot of driving. Many time I drive cars that need to be transported from point A to point B. Today I had to drive a car for quite some distance that had no air conditioning or radio! I love to sing in the car with the radio when I am traveling by myself. So without this luxury and many more miles ahead, I began to sing anyway. Some really old songs started coming to my head out of nowhere. Then I was suddenly stumped on lyrics and what to sing next to entertain myself during the ride. I was in the fast lane of a interstate highway doing 10 over and had a guy tailgating like I was doing 40. I looked in the passenger side rear view to check the lane before I made my way over to let the jerk by. There it was! In the mirror, the next song for me to sing. If you are a big classic rock fan, you probably already have determined the song and artist by the weblog title.


But it was long ago and it was far away, oh God it seems so very far
And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are

Meatloaf from the Bat out of Hell II album

Yes the very words that are in the rear view mirror prompted both the next song and the title of this blog.
of course I had to do a couple more cuts by this talented musician before I made my destination. Do I have you guessing?
OK, I tell.
Two out of three ain't bad and Paradise by the dashboard light

What happened to physical requirements for cops?

Overweight Melbourne motorcycle Police


There was a day when the physical requirements to become and remain a Police Officer where tough.

What happened to those requirements?

The Police Force of today, especially the motorcycle units are out of shape. These Officers used to be proud and ride tall. Today they are overweight and sloppy looking. I have seen Officers that I know would be out of breath after chasing an alleged criminal 1 block. The Police Force used to be well trained and in top physical condition like that of the Armed Forces.
I find it ridiculous to see a Police Officer have to pull up his trousers after dismounting his motorcycle or deporting from his vehicle. I also see it as a loss of respect from the general public as well as the officers themselves. I truly believe that there is a need to reinstate a more stringent physical requirement for a law enforcement officer. If they cannot meet these requirements, then they need to be removed from the force until such time as they can.

The police chief needs to take a closer look at his unit and the officer should take a look at himself in the mirror. We need to reinstall a respect in our Police Department, but they certainly need to start within the department by respecting themselves.

It’s difficult to feel protected by someone that could not complete a simple obstacle course.

I enjoyed shooting pictures of this custom motorcycle during Bike Week in Daytona Beach this year.
MNO Photography

Daytona Beach. A city without a vision

You have to have a direction in life. Daytona Beach has not adopted a vision plan.

Daytona Beach used eminent domain ruling to force business and land owners to sell their property in the name of redevelopment. Business' that were very much a part of the history of the beach. Now, almost two years later the city still has not provided its residents what they are calling a vision. They seem to have no direction at all even destroying historic buildings along the way like one of the oldest lifeguard stations. Chasing off the bikers from events like Biketober and Bike Week and downgrading the motorcycle events was part of their vision. But bikers are used to being on the road and they have no problem with direction. It has become increasingly clear that the direction at this point is to go north.















Bruce Rossmeyer owner of Daytona Beach Harley-Davidson had a vision of his own. Because the city chose to raise the stakes on him, he put together a little redeveloping of his own.
The plan was to build the world's largest Harley dealership in Ormond Beach. Although construction of the dealership fell behind, the complex is well laid out and is already turning handlebars. Complementing the gigantic motorcycle showroom, there are pubs, shops and hotels.















Destination Daytona, when completed, will be not only the world's largest Harley-Davidson dealership. It will also be one of the biggest attractions for bikers during Bike Week and Biketober.
Many other biker-friendly downtown Daytona Beach businesss' followed Rossmeyer by either moving to Ormond or opening a second location. The world famous Boothill Saloon was one of the first to make the move by opening a second location at the old Jackson Hole.

Motorcycle Photography - www.mnophoto.com

Motorcycle Photography - www.mnophoto.com
After completing some pretty big changes in the design and layout of my motorcycle photography site, I am now working at writhing some new articles and content. I have to spread my work out and pace my schedule so that I can get several sites updated weekly. I downloaded some new software last night to compliment this blog with some of my work. So, there should be some dramatic changes in the look of this site as well.

You are learning until the day you die

I like to look back on each day and note the things that I learned. When you do this, you will find that what you did learn will tend to stick with you more. Its kind of like when you really need to remember to do something, you write it down. It is not the fact that the paper will remind you, it just helps to remember something simply because you wrote the note.
One thing that I learned the other day that I found very interesting was that the rubber in your tires DO NOT protect you from lightning. More will be available on this at http://www.rideweather.com/forum/ when I get my story finished for the site. I learned this when I visited the National Weather Service center in my hometown of Melbourne, Florida. I met a forecaster that was also a lightning specialist. It surprised me when he told me that a motorcyclist had been struck and killed by lightning.

Ok, so I started this blog so that I would have a place to jot things down as I am working or surfing the web. This happens a lot because I practice at the art of designing web pages. I don't like to use the title or term "webmaster", I think that it is a practice. It is a practice that I enjoy though. A couple of thoughts about work. First work is a four lettered word, so shun from using the word and second, do something that you enjoy to make a living.
That is about it for now. I want to get this blog configured so that it has a little more life to it.