Florida here we come!
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
OK, here’s the plan: get the hell out of this cold New England weather. (Velma and I have done this sort of thing before.) I pull the 5th wheel RV trailer with our giant pickup truck while Velma pulls the kettle corn trailer with our Ford Escape. We plunk ourselves down in a few spots in Florida and attempt to sell kettle corn at a few farmers markets. We’ll be in St. Augustine for 10 days, 1 month in Naples and 1 month in St. Petersburg/Tampa. There was a reason why I never had kids and I am my own boss. Freedom to do exactly this.
We’re considering doing this on a regular basis. Summer up north, winter down south. We’re going to focus on finding an area that we really like and maybe finding some property there. It always bothered me that your job usually dictates where you live. Damn it, I want to find a place that I like..THEN find a job. With kettle corn I hope to create my own job at this new spot.
We did a Florida trip a couple of years ago. We moved about on a weekly basis, trying to get a good overview of the whole state. We had created these silly flash movies of our exploits, you can see them all at: On The Road With The Dacrons.
We’re taking 5 days to get down there. The first stop will be St. Augustine. We really liked it the first time down there. We probably won’t be popping any kettle corn. We managed to reserve the same spot as the first time! Here’s a youtube version of what we did:
Next spot will be Naples for 1 month. We like what we see for climate stats – warm all winter. We also like all the wildlife in the everglades. There’s a couple of farmers markets in that area and I’ve already contacted them about popping there. Here’s what happened last time:
Then it’s off to St. Petersburg near Tampa for 1 month. There’s some farmers markets through there. We would also be in striking distance of the Orlando area, so I’ll have to see what’s available for popping locations. We only took a peek at Tampa last time through Florida. It seems to be closer to more stuff, thus more opportunities to find sales. If anyone reading this has any suggestions on where to make kettle corn in these areas, let us know!
