Travel Thru My Eyes: FLORIDA - 2016, January - House/Pet Sitting - Chapter 3

Sunrise at the Hillsboro Lighthouse

Over the past week the weather has been unusually cold down here. At night, our low temps were in the low to mid 40’s with wind chills knocking them down into the 30’s. Daytime highs ranged from the mid to high 60’s. For those of you reading this in the northern latitudes, these temps would just fine in February; not here in South Florida. In February the average low here is 60 and the high is 70.

With that said, I still spent some time fishing, but didn’t catch a damn thing. With the temps being below average, the waters choppy, and more often than not the sky cloudy, nothing was biting. And it wasn’t just me, other fishermen out there also.

Without wanting to spend a lot of time in the cold, wet, and windy weather I decided to visit with a longtime friend. You see, when I was working, I had to the pleasure of meeting a lot of good people. One such person was a guy we call Mac Daddy (Mac for short), that lives close to the south Florida area. His home is on the southern shores of Lake Okeechobee which is about one and a half hours from Lighthouse Point. We made contact and met up for lunch.

Mac is the kind of friend you have that you don’t get to see very often, but when you do, it’s like you just saw each other last week. You spend a few minutes catching up, talk about the now, and finish the meeting with talking about the future. And that’s what we did.

Finally, the weather was decent and I was ready to hit the road. The south Florida area has an endless amount of stuff to do, especially on the weekends and holidays. The first day trip was to The West Palm Beach RV (Recreational Vehicle) Show. One advertisement included a boat show also, but there were no boats to be seen; they were all at the Miami International Boat Show. I looked at this and choose to wait until a slightly smaller boat show was in the Tampa Bay area in March.

The old is new again

This was the first RV showed I’d been to in years and they had a good selection. Whether it was an RV to pull behind your motorcycle, something to tow behind your truck, or one you tow your car behind, they had it. There were a few you could even park your car inside the RV.

The larger to mid-size RV’s had small, and I mean small, bathrooms to one with full size tubs and showers. Most of them had, or could be converted to sleep a family, had cooking, dining, and living areas. One of the nicer units had two bedrooms, each with their own full size bathroom.

The smaller ones were designed mainly for sleeping and dining.

With RV’s being used more as luxurious campers vice tents and sleeping on the ground, outside cooking and lounging areas were a common theme. While I’m sure these outside areas could be screened, none of them were.

The next day, I went to the Florida Renaissance Festival's 24th season "Renaissance around the World" which was taking place at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield.

Like the RV show, it too had been a while since I’d been to one. For those of you unfamiliar with a renaissance festival, they're gatherings in large open areas where historical events are recreated. Most of them have people dressed in costumes from by-gone periods, the actors talk with accents, and several stages are erected where skits are performed. These events usually have an entrance fee, food, beverages, and souvenirs for sale. And, they are FUN...