Fri - 20 Mar/15

All the rain and high humidity remains as heavy fog this morning. It did not start to "burn off" until after 9 p.m.

The prime mission for today is visiting the 56th Annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. This is one of the nation's oldest and largest festival of this type. The Festival features a wide variety of fine arts and crafts. Artists complete for 63 awards totaling $72,500.  Well over 100,000 visitors will come to the festival on each of the three days.

The ride in was great. The route I planned yesterday worked out. It kept us off the busy roads until we connected with the Toll Road at Apopka. Even that is not crowded and much quicker. Taking the other available roads means having to travel at half the speed and stopping at many traffic lights. It is well worth the $1.25 (each way)

We found parking at a church ($10) in the block next to the Festival site. Two blocks of Park Street are blocked off allowing easy walking access to all the booths. The Park Street stores and restaurants bordering the Festival site have their sidewalks set up with sales displays or food service.

There was a steady flow up and down the street and through the park. Prices tend to be fairly steep at an "Art Festival" as compared to an "Arts and Crafts" Show. There were plenty of shoppers; however, we did not see many sales being made. This, of course, has nothing to do with the quality and everything to do with the personal tastes and needs of the shoppers.

The busiest booths were those that sold food and drink. The "Arepa's" (sweet corn patty w/Mozzarella) remind me of the "treats" we would buy when travelling in Mexico with our friends Diane and Alberto.

The train tracks run right through the park to the nearby Amtrak Station.

I don't think many folks came on Amtrak to the Festival; however, I am sure that the free SunRail service this weekend will keep that service packed.

Personal Note: We prefer the Mt. Dora Art Show that we went to earlier in the year. No cost for the abundant parking and the booths were easier to visit as they ran parallel on both sides of the streets. The layout at today's event meant a lot of "doubling back" was required to view all the vendor displays.

We returned on the same route that we took to the show. I made a slight change as we approached Eustis so that Charlotte could stop at Hair Cutters in the Publix plaza. They did a good job - she looked great! (as always)

Then it was a stop at "The Mason Jar" for lunch. We shared one of their great Club Sandwiches and a piece of Coconut Cream Pie.

Back at the RV we checked the afternoon mail. Our last package from the several we ordered had arrived. A trip to the office resulted in receiving the pair of Del Sol Signal lights that I had ordered last week. They are DOT certified and guaranteed to be a replacement for the originals which are no longer available from Honda. They are slightly different than the originals although without a direct comparison it would be extremely different to tell. After 20 years the lens cover glue dried out and it fell off. I figured the same fate might soon occur to the other lens. I phoned Wally (Wally's Garage) in Eustis and made an appointment for next Thursday morning. (Being that good - Wally is that busy).

It was a hot, humid and busy day. We decided to skip Bingo and just rest and watch TV for the remainder of the evening. This is OK as we have missed Jeopardy for the last few days.

FYI: Today is the Spring (Vernal) Equinox (Astronomically speaking) marking the start of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere. It is actually occurring as I type today's blog. (6:45 p.m. EST). The March equinox occurs when the Sun crosses the celestial equator on its way north. In Reality, Spring should be actually arriving at home in Canada by the time we arrive at the end of April.