OK, continuing on my quest to fill up your cold, snow filled world with a little sun and surf...this weekend we were set up on the west coast of South Florida. We were in a little park off the east bank of the Caloosahatchee River right in downtown Ft Myers. Nice little park on the edge of said river...filled with homeless guys laying on blankets and only a few brave office dwellers walking off lunch. That was the first red flag.
The second red flag was that when check in time rolled around there was no one to give us any direction. Luckily though, our spaces were marked, so I unloaded the van and by the time I was done, a gal on a golf cart had come on the scene. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to help with any of our questions--most importantly, why was the back half of my booth in the vollyeball sand court???? Why was there no room for the lady next to me to actually rise her tent up to the full height because of the tree in the back of her booth??? Said lady--who had an amazing number of LONG WHITE chin hairs--had also left her paper work at the office, so most of our questions could not be answered.
The most important red flag came a little later when the art vendors started realizing that our contracts did not match the brochures and press releases that went out to the public. Our show was to run 10-5 Fri and Sat. and until 4 pm on Sunday. The public received info that read Fri 1-4pm, Sat and Sun 10-4. Argh. Idiots sometimes seem to run the world.
SO, I pretty much had written off the show by the time my booth was set up on Thursday. I was not happy. It was Valentine's Day and my hubby was gonna be four hours away. I was stuck with my parents and my friend Cindy (NHCindy on SkiSpace) who I was staying with in Naples (about an hour south of Ft Myers--depending on how many wrecks the grey hairs got in on I75).
Now being "stuck" with my parents on Valentines Day isn't as bad as it sounds. We ate at the Cracker Barrel (aka Crapper Barrel) and had good cheap food and a waitress who kept my tea water kettle filled with hot water. I am a great tipper for these kind of gals! My friend Cindy wasn't actually on the scene until nearly 11pm as she was "stuck" babysitting some kidlets. By then I was pooped so I asked her to come to the show with me so we could hang out like old times.
Cindy is from a little New Hampshire town called Laconia. Her family is apparently big into boats and vehicles (the Irwin Zone) and she loves being from NH. She is a character...fun to be around and she never lets anything (but bad manners) get her down. We walked to downtown for lunch once my parents showed up and found a Starbucks (yuck) and a Quiznos (that will do) for lunch. Some food vendor forced us into eating a handful of Kettle Corn...which was great...but dang I hate pushy salespeople.
Fridays sales were pitiful, but, I did cover the booth fee. We drove back to Naples and met my parents for dinner at Tin City's Riverwalk. The big thrill was all the private planes buzzing in from parts unknown. Cindy informed us that Naples had more celebrities than any other part of Florida--like Judge Judy, Tom Cruise's Mom and Gloria Estafan...LOL! Remember folks...this is FLORIDA and not Hollywood. I am not sure Miami's South Beach would like to be compared to Naple's reputation for Snowbird Capital of the South.
The sad thing is that Saturday's sales were awful too...we had maybe 2000 people both days and the event was billed at 200,000. LOL Who is doing the crowd count for God's sake---a 10 month old?????? SO, I made the decision to pack up at 4 pm. Unfortunately my vehicle was stuck in a place that I would not be able to get out until after the big parade. SO, I road back to Cindy's with my craft buddy Lynn. We had to do a little illegal maneuvering to get out of the lot she was in too...but we made it! :) We also got stuck in ANOTHER accident on I75 between Ft Myers and Naples. :(
This night it was Cindy's choice and where did we go again??? Crapper Barrel! We had an even better waiter and the grilled chicken salad was about perfect...again. LOL Nothing I couldn't live without in the store part though. We headed back to Cindy's condo and watched movies (Miracle on Ice) and we all decided that we liked sports movies. I also tried to tell them about the Deadliest Catch, but I don't think they were feeling it. If they just watched it once...they would be hooked.
SO, Sunday morning I packed the booth into the van and was on the road by 10am. My sister called from Minnesota to say they were stuck in a blizzard...or would be shortly. They were chaperoning 50 kids who were participating in "show choir" competition--think High School Musical for those of you with pre-teens and teenagers. So, they were going to entertain the kids by going to Mall of America for a while before they tried to drive about an hour south of the Minneapolis/St Paul area. LOL Glad it was her and not me!
Next week's show is a great one...the best Seafood Festival in Florida--in my opinion. Come on down and eat...and buy some soap too...pretty, pretty please! :)
Jazz
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