Well we arrived at the Suncoast RV park in Hudson Florida around 2:30 p.m. with no problems and we are grateful for the good travel Karma. But I may have ruined the good karma when upon checking in I asked to use the restroom, and what do I get when I ask the older gentleman working there… “Are you staying here because the restrooms are for campers only”. My answer was “If I were over 55 would you be asking me that question? For your information I am checking in but just wanted to visit the restroom first” The lady at the desk proceeded to be nice to me and directed me to the restrooms and then we checked in.
”Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know.
Smell like cabbage. Small Hands.”
— Austin Powers .
Well we had to get setup at the “arts” festival by 5:00 p.m. so we were in a bit of a rush. Upon pulling into the flea market parking lot and seeing the carnival behind it we got a bad feeling. And it only got worse as we saw some of the other vendors merchandise. It was pretty much all flea market crap. I was one of two actual artists there. We were fortunate to have a very nice neighbor, one of the other few vendors that were selling products they hand-crafted.
Her name was Beth, she was from Canada originally and was currently residing in Florida for a spell. She knew all the festival ins and outs and helped us out quite a bit. She was an outspoken woman with a fading Canadian accent, very no-nonsense personality and not afraid to drop a few “F” bombs every now and then. She spoke her mind and her biggest pet peeve is vendors that cheat. Cheating is when vendors try to pass off products that they bought from a wholesaler as their own hand-crafted work. Which happens to be what the person behind us was doing.
The vendor I am referring to was selling Iguana Statues that wrap around a wooden post, wooden frog statues that croak when stroked with a stick, and other various trinkets. He was pretty creepy. He just stood around with his fanny pack stroking his wooden frog, trying to draw attention to himself and products. I got sooo sick of hearing those stupid frogs!! What was even better was hearing his story of how he created the frogs on a computer program that sends the 3-D image to a laser cutter to carve the frog where he finishes them by drilling a hole for the stick and staining them. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! I’ll tell you why I know it was bullshit in a second but first here is another load of crap I heard about the Iguanas. “When I traveled to the Galapagos Islands while in college studying marine biology I was so inspired by the iguanas I started figuring out ways to carve them. On one trip to Mexico I saw an old man creating lizard sculptures using paper machete and glue mixed with sawdust and just cannot stop creating iguanas, I guess I am obsessed *followed by the creepiest chuckle we have ever heard*” Can you believe he actually said that load of total BS!?!?
Upon hearing that, Beth went into action. She too has an aircard in her laptop and starting searching wholesalers and in less than a minute she found all of his products. They WERE hand-crafted…in THAILAND! Somehow she managed to hold her tongue after throwing a few cursing insults under her breath. I however let things eat at me and eventually have to say something. But I did not go the direct route instead I had more fun. I wanted to see him squirm. To keep the story short I kept coming back over to him through out the day asking him specific question about his creation process. At first he tried to answer with vague answers but I pinned in in many times, such as “So how much glue do you mix with the sawdust and how long does it take to dry? Is it like Elmer’s glue or a specialty glue? Does it stick to your skin? How much do you go through when you make an iguana? Does it smell bad, is it toxic? Do you where a ventilator? And I just kept going on, I would have made Columbo proud :)
We did no sales on Friday night and very few on Saturday so we decided to bug out and not setup Sunday, instead we could take out time getting to Orlando and setting up.
We did meet a few people in the RV resort. Sharon came across another young RV couple traveling fulltime. Mike and Lisa. They were alot like us. They too hate the crap the manufacturers stick in motorhomes. They are currently reflooring their coach with wood laminate to add to the many other modifications already completed such as taking out the passenger seat for alot more room. They had a great little Pug whom Jinny and Jack loved to play with. We wish them safe travels and maybe we will
cross paths with them again sometime and go out for a beer.
Some final notes. We did find great Sushi at Kozu’s in Hudson and the Buccaneer roll was fantastic! I almost got ran over taking a photo of a shoe to add to the diaries, but made for a cool shot of the blurred pink escort flying by me :)
Off to the land of make believe, Disney!
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