Unable to extend at Trimble Park, we secured a four day reservation at nearby Kelly Park, another Orange County park that has its own very special water featuer: Rock Springs Run.  I have fond childhood memories of this place and the crystal clear fast flowing spring and creek.  During a previous stay at Mt Dora we had scoped out this campground as a possible back up to our preferred Trimble Park, and found it quite nice.

The electric and water only sites are the same $23 a night for us non senior, non county residents, which given the location and season is a great deal.  The sites are reasonably spacious and surrounded by greenery, which means they are attractive but also come with the periodic crack of acorns bouncing off your roof.   At least the branches dropping them on us here were a lot closer than the ones at Trimble Park, so the acorns had not achieved terminal velocity to the point that they sound like baseballs hurled at our rig, but they were still a loud annoyance.

As for markets, we returned to the two that worked reasonably well for us in November: Sanford on Saturday and Wekiva Sweetwater on Sunday.  As the last full weekend before Christmas, we had saw a larger than average crowd and sold well, bolstering our budget for the month and getting us that much closer to being on point for the year.  We had hoped to participate in a Friday market in a relatively high end area near Orlando, but after four weeks of working with the market manager we still did not have approval to participate, and had begun to suspect that we were being stiff armed or provided inaccurate updates.  The manager might very well run a great event, but the process of approval is atrocious, an opinion shared by several of the other vendors I discussed the issue with at Wekiva.  Ah well, they can’t all be easy.

The highlight of the stay was the gathering at Anthony and Anita with friends Rosemarie has known for decades but sees to little of these days.  They through a great party, largely to celebrate Lynn beating cancer and Anthony’s successful back surgery, but none of these people needed an excuse to gather together for drinks and food.  Keep on healing Anthony, and consider even obeying your Doc’s post-op orders.

With our motorhome freshly repaired we headed back up to Central Florida, intent on spending the bulk of December there, at least through Christmas.  Our first stop would be our favorite county park, Trimble Park, located a couple of miles south of Mount Dora.  We discovered this gem a year ago as we returned to Florida after making our one year circuit of the west half of the country, and now make it a point to return when in the area.

Though not well known, with only 15 sites it does tend to fill up on weekends and holidays, so we felt fortunate to lock in a full week reservation.  Last year they seemed to have a policy of holding back a couple of sites for walk ins, but that is, apparently, no longer the case, so if you want to visit this great lakeside spot, reserve early.  Even with reservations, you are not selecting a specific site, just the right to one upon arrival.  After we checked in we were thrilled to see that site #13 was unoccupied; we had scouted that one as the best spot in the park during a previous visit, and felt doubly lucky to get not only a full week stay but also in our preferred huge site right on the lake with no neighbor at all on our right side.

We had excellent weather, and enjoyed the usual assortment of wild life, but did not have near the explosive level of nature activity as our last visit.  But this stay wasn’t just for relaxation, we had work to do as we continued our push to vend at farmers markets until Christmas.  While prepping for a return to the Sanford market, our neighbor reminded us of the huge flea market in Mount Dora, Renningers.  I made a call and found the requirements to participate simple and the cost relatively low.  Though Sanford had been decent for us, we thought we ought to at least try a flea market.

Vowing never to return, and possibly to skip flea markets all together, we looked forward to the Sunday traditional farmers market in downtown Mount Dora.  Surely this art and boutique oriented town would have a great location and plenty of potential buyers.  No. No they do not.  While the setting in Evans Park by the shore of Lake Dora was indeed beautiful, it is located well off the main drag and thus enjoyed almost zero natural through put.  Combine that with apparently limited advertising and a location that has shifted twice in the last year or two and you end up with very few people in town that even know it exists.

While it was not as painful an experience as the previous day’s flea market, we made less here than at any of the other 21 events to date.  The market manager promises that in a couple of weeks they will be located in the main downtown park which will enjoy very heavy foot traffic, we will believe it when we see it and won’t do the Mount Dora market again until that move is confirmed.

While in Trimble we got to visit with several of Rosemarie’s long term friends.  Nancy came to see us from nearby Eustis one evening, and we visited with Anthony, Anita, and their girls Angel and Bella at their home in Mt Dora another.  We also met Will, our neighbor for a few days, who regaled Rose, Nancy, and I with stories of his time as a POW in Vietnam, and his post war career as an Elvis/Tom Jones/Engelburt Humperdinck impersonator.  The people you meet in these campgrounds…

We had such a great stay at this affordable ($23, less if you are senior or an Orange county resident) campground that we tried to extend.  Alas the park was not only booked solid byond our stay, even the waiting list was full.   We chcked around the local public parks (the private ones in the area are pricey this time of year) and found an opening at nearby Kelly Park that would get us though the weekend.

Our electrical problems, if anything, were getting worse.  What had been occasional losses to the 50 amp were now consistent, the automatic steps no longer worked even with a bit of carefully timed physical assistance, and the 12 volt system in general was inoperative without shore power, and even with power a number of things did not work.  Having exhausted my limited knowledge, perhaps even making things worse with my efforts, it was time to bite the bullet and let the pros deal with it.  After a bit of research I found a decently reviewed shop in south Sarasota that could get us in on short notice.

So we regretfully said goodbye to Sanibel and headed north, dropping Serenity off at Campbell RV with a list of half a dozen things to address.  Bill and Gloria took us in for a couple of days while we waited for what we hoped would be a quick and affordable set of fixes possibly covered in part by our Easy Care extended warranty.  In the meantime, we ate like kings at the Bayba’s, combining Gloria’s Puerto Rican cuisine with Bill’s notable culinary skills.  We had a great feast when Bobbi and Steve, Bill’s daughter and son-in-law, joined us for dinner.

Aside from that it was thrift shop hunting time at Venice and Nokomis’ many stores.  On the third morning I drove up to Sarasota, picked up Serenity, hooked up and took the rig down to Oscar Sherer State Park in Osprey before rejoining Rosemarie at the Bayba’s for Bill’s excellent grilled sausage pizza.

As for Serenity: huge improvements.  The 12 Volt problem was a popped circuit under a control panel shield that I did not know existed.  Once that was reset, the 50 amp problem also went away.  I suspect the 12 volt system has some role in controlling the transfer switch or something.  They found a ground in the automatic steps, repaired a broken awning bracket, rewound the awning retraction spring (when I replaced the rear awning arm, I had been unable to wind it to the full appropriate tension,) and unstuck my water filter.  I had a bit of excitement when I went across the road to hook up and drive away: no one mentioned that they are in the habit of disconnecting both the start and house batteries using the two switches near the stairs, so I thought everything was dead and broken until they sorted me out.

So the good news was that they fixed a lot of stuff and it didn’t take them much labor time or require any significant parts to do so.  The bad news is that without a component failure, the Easy Care policy covers nothing at all, so we had to cover the full, nearly $500 bill.  Lastly: by the time I got to Oscar Scherer whatever they had adjusted on the steps failed again, and we currently have to ghetto up the stair area and use a cooler as a step in order to not have a two foot drop.

A one day stay at Oscar Scherer is not nearly enough to enjoy it, particularly when you arrive late and want to get on the road the next day at a decent hour.  One new thing we learned while there though is that the row of sites that back up directly onto the South Creek are “no pets allowed “spots; I think its because of liability issues related to how much alligators enjoy playing “hide and seek in my mouth” with small dogs and cats, but I’m not certain.  So unless you plan on working around this in some way, pet owners will need to avoid sites 68-98.

We had enjoyed four great days in Sanibel to close out November, and started the last month of the year off right with two more days on the island.   This place gives us a sense of contentment, and we relished a couple more days of shell hunting, great pizza,and casual campground happy hour with “The 49ers” (unofficial name for the regular RVers at Periwinkle, so names for the number of RV spots.)

And then we hit the jackpot when we stumbled upon Sanibel’s annual Luminary Festival, held the first Friday of every December, miles of bike paths are lined with luminaries, and many of the merchants along the main route host events, usually with wine, cheese, and other snacks.  We took out bikes out as evening approached, had Champagne samples at Huxters, wine and cheese at McCallion & McCallion Real Estate, and half a dozen other nice stops before returning to Huxters for live music.  Lacking bike lights we called it an early night and walked them back to the campground.

We reluctantly left our favorite Gulf Cost park to return south for another go at the two weekend Naples markets.  We had mixed results that first weekend, with the Saturday Bed Bath & Beyond event being particularly slow while Pine Ridge Rd/Livingston on Sunday was one of our better performances.  A number of other vendors at both events reported that weekend was unusually slow, so we were hopeful that things would pick up for us now that the post Black Friday shopping exhaustion period had passed.

Non-nomadic vendors have the ability to assess market performance in their region over time in order to select the best fit for them.  We don’t have that luxury, and must make that decision often based on one visit supplemented by conversations with our vendor neighbors.  Even with some of the other sellers assuring us that the BBB event was usually better than what we saw on that first Saturday, we had almost decided that our second try would be our last, attending it only because we had already paid the steep $35 vendor fee. Fortunately, that second attendance produced far better results, with sales up about 80% from the previous week.  We can’t say for certain, but when we passing through Naples this coming March we might give this one another go.

After the market we stopped in again at Club Naples RV Resort (yes, that means we took the RV straight to the market, set up, then moved the rig to the back parking area) taking one of their standard 30 amp sites on the Passport America 50% rate for our two day stay. Though Club Naples is pretty ideally situated for our purposes and has some amenities, the spots are a bit tight, the standard site lots are dirt and weeds, and the internet was not up to speed that weekend, so we may consider another option for future stays.

On Sunday we took the tracker down to the Pine Ridge Road/Livingston event, which had been kinder to us on our first go round than BBB.  With the improvement from one week to the next we had just experienced, we hoped Pine Ridge would be particularly good that Sunday.  We were not disappointed, seeing a 115% improvement in sales, yielding our most successful event all year, even better than the first Marquette market on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

With such improved sales we were a little freer with our own cash, purchasing a hefty amount of fresh bread products, another Cuban Sandwich, and a Christmas gift from one of the other jewelers.  We reveled in our sales that evening back in Club Naples, then it was up and on the road to Sarasota to drop Serenity off at for some repairs while we stayed with Rose’s mom Gloria and Bill in Venice.

Wow, we are putting up this report only three days after the end of the month, our last post was about Sanibel, and we only left that location this morning.  Which means we are caught up to the day on this blog; I’m not sure that has ever happened!

The Distance: 977 miles, not exactly a slow month as we bounced around Florida visiting relatives for the holidays, but at least a slow down from last months’ more than 1800 miles.  December will see further reduced mileage as we settle in Central Florida for a few weeks before working our way towards Key West.  We are up to 9208 for the year, and I doubt we will even break 10K.

The Places:  Basically, we repeatedly ran along two legs of a triangle between SW, SE, and Central Florida, starting with a one night stop over at Club Naples RV Resort en route to Coral Springs.  From there it was up the east coast, pausing for a couple of nights each at Port St Lucie RV Resort and Patrick AFB’s Family Camp before hitting a new county park, Lake Monroe, north of Orlando.  We took a side tour up to Silver Springs State Park in Ocala before returning to what may be our new “go to” campground in the region, Lake Monroe again.  Then it was back to Coral Springs for Thanksgiving, across the state to Club Naples RV to participate in a couple of markets, and finally up to one of our favorite RV Resorts, Periwinkle Park on Sanibel Island.

We have gone four months straight without drycamping.  Partly this is because there are so many park options in Florida (and November is not yet peak season so there are openings,) but also because we found a great deal in Central Florida at Lake Monroe Park: less than $17 a night for power and water.  Oh yeah, also because its Florida, and its too damn hot to go without AC.  We had full hook ups for 13 days, electric/water connections for 9, and stayed in relatives houses for 8.  We were in private campgrounds for 8 days, public parks for 12 (9 county, 3 state), military facilities for 2.

The Budget:   A great month for our finances, supplemented as they were by five farmers markets.  We closed out 11% under budget for the month, which gives us a reasonable chance of being under for the year, depending on how December goes.  This was a mostly hick-up free month: only two full fill ups for Serenity, one reasonable medical bill, and a taxpayer subsidized low cost vet bill for PKM’s annual check up and shots while at Patrick AFB.  In addition to the five markets, our budget was assisted by the eight days of free parking at Xavier and Joy’s, and nine days at the very affordable Lake Monroe Park.

As for December, well, its gonna be tough.  We already have a $150 medical bill as part of our annual deductible (on the fiscal year calendar.)  We also expect to pay at least $250 when we take Serenity into the shop for various electrical work, and it might be more since the house batteries may need replacement.  And of course, there is some sort of minor holiday this month that involves expenses.  This is why we decided to go “all in” on markets until Christmas, hoping to offset some of these expenses.  We shall see!

The Drama:  Well, our electrical problems are back with a vengeance.  The 120 volt system doesn’t seem to work on a 50 amp shore power circuit and our 12 volt system doesn’t work at all when we are disconnected from power and not running a generator.  But these sort of problems pale in comparison to what we experienced in The Big Kahuna, so we are not worried, particularly since we have an extended warranty.  And speaking of Kahuna, I have had two people come out to look at him and several other calls or emails, so here’s hoping hes with new owners by the end of 2016.

The Improvements:  Nothing specific to the RV to report, but we have beefed up our vendor display kit for the various markets at which we sell Rosemarie’s jewelry.  We are using two full tables for display racks with more hanging from the tent frames.

Having just completed two farmers markets with the same two scheduled for the upcoming weekend, we looked forward to our six day stay at Periwinkle Park on Sanibel Island.  We are early enough in their season that we had no trouble reserving nearly a week stay, but once peak season hits in January this place gets really hard to find more than a few weekday openings.  Even during our stay we watched the place filling up with a couple of new arrivals each day.

The RV side of the park has very regular seasonal customers that are given first right of refusal on future reservations.  For those seeking more than a week here and there during peak season, you basically have to keep coming back to the park year after year such that you become known to the staff and eventually offered longer stays as openings occur. Such seasonal spots only open up due to changing circumstances of the regulars, and to be perfectly blunt about, that often means someone has died.  We have been coming for a few years, and that might be a factor in how easily we have gotten nearly week long stays these last couple of visits, but the cost is such that we are unlikely to pursue anything like a seasonal or even month long stay, particularly given the fantastic deal we get down at Key West.

But we plan on continuing a week here and there as long as we are RVing, and are grateful to be back again.  Our first day we did pretty much nothing but relax in the RV and recover from the weekend,  The second day saw a lot of rain so we didn’t get to enjoy the beach, though we made our traditional excursion to the public library for the free wifi and then a took a late lunch at Island Pizza, one of the few very affordable good deals on the island: two for one happy hour every day from 12-5 and $2.50 large pizza slices.

By day three we were sufficiently recovered and with cooperative weather, so I dropped Rosemarie off at her favorite shell hunting section of the Island, Bowman’s Beach.  The tide wasn’t ideal, but its almost impossible to go to Bowman’s and not find a few nice ones.  And as low tide progressed forward each day, by Thursday Rosemarie was willing to get up earlier than our usual leisurely hour for proper shelling at that prime location.

We took the downtime between weekend markets to work on a few projects as well. In addition to prepping additional jewelry for sale, I did some maintenance on both the bikes, including replacing both of my tires with salvaged ones from a bike being thrown out back Coral Springs.  My tubes had never quite recovered from having been punctured by a dozen thorns back in Idaho, and the green goo sealant put in them had now blocked the valve stem, so two free tires of a slightly larger width and tougher tread were a welcome find, as was the softer seat I took from the same trashed bike.

I made the mistake of thinking I could at least do a bit of troubleshooting of our electrical system, but not only did I fail to make headway, things actually got worse the longer I played with it.  We are, unfortunately, seeing a return of the degraded 120V system issues that we experienced before Horizon RV replaced our shore power cable.  I suspect that the bad cable was masking  other problems, such a a degraded converter and automatic transfer switch.

We hooked up in connections here in Sanibel and noticed that the rear AC and water heater, which are on the same breaker, were not working.  Once I started messing with the system, I “improved” things by making it so we had no electrical power at all throughout the RV.  Turning on the generator, however, returned not only power to the rig but even the rear AC and heater.  Remembering that we had experienced a weird failure of the 50 amp system in both Washburn, WI and Scott AFB in Illinois, but had attributed it to a bad pedestal and just used the 30 amp adaptor, I decided to try that little trick here and voila, power restored.  At that point I decided to leave well enough alone and just schedule a visit to the mechanic for what I suspect will be an automatic transfer switch replacement.

Keep in mind this is in addition to the complete loss of 12V power throughout the bus whenever we operate without shore power or the generator.  I am thinking the electrical converter/invertor is going bad, and the deep cycle house batteries might also be shot.  Ah well, time to let the experts work on it.

Oh yeah, I also suffered the loss of another coffee maker, putting me in dire straights until I came up with a jury-rigged temporary set up.

Finally, we made a bold purchase of an entire bin of pencil urchin spines for Rosemarie to turn into jewelry, most likely earrings and necklaces.  Look for some of those items to soon appear in her Etsy store and be on display at our various markets.

Having been confirmed to participate in two Naples markets, we dragged our usually late sleeping selves out of bed at 5:00 AM in order to have time to finalize Serenity’s road readiness, hook up Loki, make the drive across Alligator Alley to Naples, find the market manager for spot assignment, and set up our displays before the 8:00 AM start time.  We usually try to avoid driving the big rig in the dark, but the nearly empty early morning roads felt a lot safer than a late night with the drunks, and dawn broke partway through our journey across the Everglades.

The market was impossible to miss as we approached the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot, and given the hour there were plenty of space to lodge Serenity until we got the full scoop on our vendor spot and designated vendor parking.  They got us assigned in short order, and we pulled Loki as close as we could get to unload and set up.  We have our system down pretty well and can have the basics done in 15 minutes.

The Naples BB&B market used to be a well established event, but shut down for a couple of years and has only recently restarted, and was charitably described as still building up.  It had perhaps 25 vendors and a modest throughput of potential customers.  Perhaps due to bad timing as it was the day after Black Friday, but there seemed to be a distinct lack of willingness to browse up close or even make eye contact compared to what we are used to; and by noon we were seriously concerned about even covering the $35 vendor fee with our slim sales.  But we had the usual end of event rush and closed out with a modest profit.

We headed back to Club Naples for the night.  While I have not toured any other options in the region, all of my research suggests that they are the best value resort we can get near Naples, so they are our go to spot until I learn of something better.  Our assigned site was a lot tighter to get into than our last stay.  While the premium pull through sites are of decent size, the standard back ins are packed in a bit tight, and the position of the neighbors rigs and vehicles made it a bit of a challenge, but with Rosemarie’s expert signalling we puled it off with only one adjustment after our initial backing maneuver.

We enjoyed the clean facilities and free high speed wifi for our one night stay, but the next morning it was up early again to connect up our rig, get a bit of gas for Serenity, and make the short drive to the Pine Ridge Road Sunday market.  As soon as we pulled up we could see it was a much bigger event than the BB&B market.  Over 70 vendors were already set up with customers browsing half an hour before the scheduled start time.  This looked promising!

We had made some adjustments to our displays, and set up in our assigned spot between a woodworker and flower pot maker.  From the moment we had our table ready we had customers doing more than just walking by and averting there eyes.  We cleared the table fee within an hour or so and ended up with one of our better profits.  During the course of the event Rosemarie did most of the selling while I ran some errands, checked on the cat, and rearranged our RV park stays for the next few weeks.

As a much bigger event than the BB&B market, we had a much larger selection to choose from for prepared food and produce.  The bread and pretzel man nearby, the true to tradition Cuban sandwich vendor, and two of the produce stands yielded an excellent meal and take home things for our cupboard and fridge.   Next week it might be the Turkish style lamb pizza for lunch. So many options…

After we closed up shop for the day just after 2 PM, we jostled for loading position with the other vendors’ vehicles, hooked up and headed north on I-75 for the short ride to Sanibel Island and a six day relaxation and rejuvenation period before the next weekend’s events back in Naples.  It wont all be lounging about or collecting shells; we have a couple of projects to do and need to restock the displays with additional jewelry for the upcoming Naples markets.  Stop by and say hello if your in the area next weekend!

For several years before we started full time RVing we hosted Thanksgiving at our little condo in Miami Beach for any family and friends we could rope into coming.  We would clear out all the living room furniture, rent two long tables and chairs, and set up for as many as 17 people.  Fantastic and loud events, everyone of them.

Once we began our RV adventures things obviously changed.  For 2015 we did Thanksgiving with my mom and stepdad Tim in Wilmington with just the four of us.  Back in Florida this year we had a similarly intimate gathering at Xavier and Joy’s; just the four of us and a lot of food.

Aside from gathering with friends and families, Thanksgiving gives me the opportunity to cook another Turkey, something that has become one of my favorite kitchen oriented tasks ever since I learned the secret to making the bird come out delicious.  As many of you can attest, cooking something as large and unwieldy as a turkey has the danger of drying out a significant portion of the lean white meat in order to get the fatty dark meat up to proper temperature.   As I have no doubt written before, there is a simple two step solution to this problem that results in fantastically juicy meat of both types and also cuts the cooking time in half or even less.

I am a bit evangelical about this, so expect to hear the same spiel this time next year:  First, brine the turkey for 24 hours.  Dissolve a cup of salt and half a cup of sugar in hot water, add whatever spices catch your fancy, cool it with some ice, then completely submerge bird in the solution along with more water and a bunch of ice.  Keep the whole thing either refrigerated or in a cooler over night.  This process infuses the turkey with additional moisture that protects the fragile white meat during the cooking process.

Second, spatchcock the thing.  This is a fancy word for cutting out the backbone and then butterflying it.  This will result in a much flatter and wider lay out, which allows for more evenly distributed heat and a much faster cook time.  This year we did our 12 pounder in only 90 minutes, most of it at 350 but cranked up to 450 for the last ten minutes to brown it.

We supplemented this centerpiece with short pork ribs, mashed potatoes, spicy corn, rice, salad.  Thanks to Joy and Xavier for hosting us in their driveway for another four days, and letting me create a mess in their kitchen again.  I hope to do the same to some Central Florida relatives abode over the Christmas holiday.

After the once a month craft show/yard sale type events we enjoyed on base in early 2016 at the Naval Air Station in Key West, we had a five month gap before we did another market.  Our rate of travel up the east coast simply did not lend itself to stopping for weekend farmers markets, and we did not fully understand the opportunities that were available in small towns throughout the country.  Once we slowed down we stumbled across a small event in Grand Marais, Michigan, which in turn lead to a series of eight markets during a four and a half week period as we traveled through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and into Wisconsin.

Since that robust period we had another lengthy drought as we wandered through upstate New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, and then sprinted south from Minnesota back to Florida.  But upon arrival in the Sunshine State, we have been able to do our research, adjust our schedule, take advantage of our nominal “local” status, and thus participate in a few Central Florida farmers markets.

Following our recent Silver Springs State Park visit we returned to Lake Monroe Park in Volusia County for a five day stay.  But we have already discussed this very affordable county campground, so here we would rather catch you up on our plan, mentioned last post, to go “all in” on markets and vendor opportunities though the rest of November and December.  We have gotten better at finding markets at which to vend, our pace of travel has once again slowed, and we have some big bills coming in December and January. Bottom line: we expect to end November having done five events, and then do up to ten more in December before Christmas.

One of the key lessons we have learned is that no matter how much online research you do, nothing can compete with local connections and knowledge.  Just as the Bruce, Wisconsin market pointed us to the Rusk County Fair, our participation in the Sanford market has led us to a widening series of potential events through the region.  It is not just a matter of finding out about the existence of a market, it is also about working with the individual market managers to make your participation mutually beneficial.

Here is how it has worked out for us:  Conversations with other vendors at the Saturday Downtown Sanford Market put us in touch with the  Sunday Sweetwater-Wekiva market manager.  During our short stay at Silver Springs we filled out the appropriate forms, but did not hear back as to whether we had approval to participate in the upcoming Sunday event.  So we decided to boldly show up ready to sell and see if the market manager was game.  She was, and we had a great sales day that easily compensated for the $25 vendor fee.  While there we talked with the other vendors and got details on three other local opportunities, including the Lake Mary market (a Saturday alternative to the Sanford event), the Windemere Market (a higher end event in west Orlando,) and the Volusia County Fairgrounds Market (a Wednesday flea market style event.)

And that’s just for Central Florida!  Since we are also headed to SE and SW Florida for a few weeks, we pursued markets in those regions as well.  We struck out in the Coral Springs/Pompano Beach area (market managers simply do not return calls) and in Venice/Sarasota (county ordinances restrict anything other than produce/food vendors.) But between SE Florida and Sarasota lies Naples, which has a much more flexible market policy, and after negotiation with a regional manager we are cleared to participate in two markets, a Saturday and Sunday event, for a couple of consecutive weekends after Thanksgiving.  Then we will stop in Venice for a few days before returning to Central Florida for the series of markets there.

Even if we are approved for every event, we wont do them all; if we wanted jobs we would still be working!  But now is the time to get serious because we are expecting a lot of bills coming due in December.  In addition to the usual holiday expenditures, we also expect a repair bill for Serenity’s 12 volt electrical system, medical bills as we complete our annual checks and meet the yearly insurance deductible, and the pricey cost of staying at one of our favorite but most expensive regular RV parks in Sanibel.

So that means we need to push hard until Christmas, especially since we will be spending the first few months of 2017 in Key West, and our vending opportunities there will be quite limited, and our selling pace will slow considerably.  We are extremely grateful to the many people who have supported us with purchases, and look forward to meeting many more of you out there.  So if you are in Central Florida or the Naples region, we hope to see you at the various weekend markets.

Though we lean towards country parks these days, there are some state parks that are “must see” visits, especially in Florida.  I have not been to Silver Springs since I was a child, but it definitely lived up to my nostalgic memories.  Only 90 minutes from our Lake Monroe Park spot in DeBary, we had a nice drive through part of the Ocala National Forest before arriving at Silver Springs.  This state park as three entrances: main, equestrian, and campground.  We mistakenly pulled into the main entrance, but it is a large drive through area with a big parking lot, so we had no problem turning around after getting directions to the campground entry less than a mile down the road.

Silver Springs campground is, simply put, fantastic.  The spots are huge, many are enormous pull throughs, most have full hook ups including sewage, and all are surrounded by nature.  After taxes and the irritating Reserve America fee, our rate came out to slightly less than $29 per night.  There are several hiking trails within walking distance of the campground, and the rangers had excellent recommendations for which to focus on based on the season.

Three days is too short for Silver Springs, and since we were on a budget we chose to skip the famous glass bottom boat tour.  Despite our limited time and access, we were fortunate enough to see a good bit of nature during our stay.  In addition to the deer and box tortoise, we also spotted a river otter successfully hunting fish in the spring on our second morning there.

While in the area we also made an attempt to attend the annual Golden Corral Military Appreciation Night dinner.  While a lot of places are doing free meals on Veterans Day for those who served, Golden Corral has been doing it for 15 years. And perhaps to set themselves apart, the host there free dinner the Monday after the holiday.  We made the short drive to the Ocala location, only to find the line stretching out the door, down one side of the building and around the corner.  Good on Golden Corral, but that sort of wait was beyond our patience, and we headed to a local Italian joint instead.

What a pleasant surprise!  You see a lot of pizzerias outside of New York advertising authentic NY style pizza, but most fail to deliver, so it’s nice to find one that get its right. At Fiore’s Cafe, not only was the pizza true to the New York tradition, but the service and dining environment were also top notch.  The house red wine was nice, but the giant pour made it even better.  We found this place not merely a consolation prize for the Golden Coral meal, but rather an excellent accidental discovery.

There are a lot of places we want to revisit, but Silver Springs really drew us in, and we would love to stay there for a week, especially after we have acquired a couple of kayaks early next year.   We are headed back towards Central Florida for a few days before Thanksgiving.  We are looking at going “all in” on farmers markets and related vending opportunities for the rest of November and through December, and have a serious line up of options that will define our travel through the state for the rest of the year.   If you are in SE, SW, or Central Florida for the rest of 2016, we would love to meet up with you.