Since I had a few DE breakdowns to do, I flew Jon into St. Pete to help out. This way he could drive down with me to Miami to do the show there. Free flight for Jon, great help for me! We finished our DE work in about 4 days. Now it was time to head south.
The drive down was easy enough. It took about 4 hours. Once there I deposited Jon at the campgrounds and headed to Brandi’s house. Brandi is an old friend of Sharon’s that now lives in Sunrise. It’s about 40 minutes north of Miami. I got a good night’s sleep and was refreshed for our first day in Miami.
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Our opening day was solid. A little slow to start but by noon, people started funneling in. I was pleased with the turn out. I think there were over 2000 people there. That’s about 2000 more than last year since it was sleeting, windy, 30 degrees and closed 40 minutes after opening.
Sunday was even better. I heard there were about 3400 people. Our shows were great. The best part was that the owner got to see our best show of the day. It always a nice feeling when management sees you at your best. Hopefully this show will lead to an opportunity in Deerfield Beach. It’s the big sister show to this one. It’s five weeks long and has been around for many years. It’d be a great addition to the Blue Teams season.
Sunday night I decided to take to guys out to Miami Beach. Years ago I used to have some friends out there and frequented south beach. It’s a great place to party. Expensive, but fun. It’s definitely a great place to visit… but I wouldn’t want to live there. We checked out a really great Taco place by the recommendation of a friend in St. Pete. Across the street from the T-Mex is Club Deuce, another South Beach staple. I guess it’s been around forever and everyone who’s anyone or nobody drinks there. It’s quite the dive but with a lot of character. After a drink there we wandered down the strip checking out the occasional bar and/or hotel. We stopped at The Clevelander. It was a hotel my friend Ian Scott used to live at. He is a fashion photographer and worked the beach for years. Boy has it changed! After our tour we headed back to get ready for our Monday performance.
Monday came and with it a lot of clouds. I kept checking radar on my phone but it didn’t show and actual rain. It was wrong! At about 10:30 the heavens opened and the rain came down. We did our first show in pouring down rain for only two people! Not fun, but made us look good in managements eyes. Honestly, we’ll perform in the worst weather as long as the audience stays to watch. Since the weather was so bad the fair ended up closing at 2pm. Cool! We’ll drive home now!
I thought I’d have a relaxing week between weekends. Again I was wrong! Between closing the books on Decorating Elves and Tortuga clerical duties I was still busy. Hopefully the two weeks between Miami and Phoenix will be better. (Probably not)
The last weekend was wonderful. The weather held out and the crowds were fun. As a matter of fact, some old school fans from the old Bay Area Largo days showed up. It was great to see them and they were so happy to see us.
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Saturday night Jon and I joined our fans at the Rusty Pelican for dinner. It’s a touristy place on Virginia Key not far from the festival site. Dinner was good. A little pricey but the view of Miami was spectacular! Thanks to Tim and Cassy for a great time.
After this weekend was one last Monday. It was a student day. Now, student days usually are no big deal for us anymore. Since we’ve started doing our clean version of the sword show, it’s been a breeze. Unfortunately, the Miami kids aren’t as well behaved as the ones from the north. The amount of obscenities coming from these kids was ridiculous. We only had two shows though. The first was so early that nobody was around. Fine by me! The second was late enough that most of the kids were on the way out. The few that actually sat and paid attention enjoyed the show. After hearing about some of the horror stories from the past at this show, I think we dodged a bullet. Time to head home.
That’s gonna do it for January. I’m really excited to get to Arizona. I’ll miss home but it will be nice to see my desert dwelling friends. See ya there!!!
