Trip to Ringling Museum with Debbie

I know Randy wanted to spend hours in an art museum, but I really thought we needed some time away from each other, so I jumped at Debbie's invitation to tour the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. They have a fabulous collection of Reubens and other Renaissance paintings, made even more interesting by the fresh flower arrangements exhibited and inspired by the paintings. Taking photos was okay, but no flash. I struggled to find a manual light setting and in turn forgot to compose the photos. Hopefully, you can see what the flower arranger was trying to do.

We left the art museum and went to the circus museum. This beautiful wagon was transported on rail cars until the circus reached it's destination and then was part of the parade advertising the circus. I have only seen one small circus and had no idea that in it's hay day the Ringling, Barnum and Baily Circus was huge, employing 800 people and putting on a show under a tent larger than a football field. The circus no longer belongs to the Ringling family and the house and museum were bequeathed to the State of Florida. Truly a great place to visit... very well done, reasonably priced and the pork barbecue for lunch was yummy... not quite up to a Sonoran hot dog though.

Randy spent the day meeting the new neighbors, a couple from Ontario who Randy says look and talk like the Clampetts. We are now sandwiched between ZZ Top and Jed and Granny. It just makes you want to spend your winters in a trailer park, doesn't it. I am out of taffy so time for sleep.

We try to go to the beach.

After spending the weekend doing laundry, cleaning, and trailer maintenance, (just a little pipe leaking problem, tail light out, and Yuk, Yuk, Yuk, sewer back up problems), we decided it was time for a Beach Day. We packed up the coolers, lawn chairs, straw hat, sunscreen, dog water, dog treats, dog and headed for the only dog friendly beach: Fort Meyers Beach. As you may remember, we had visited the beach when we first arrived, a cool, overcast day, no problem parking and very few people. After sitting in traffic for one and a half hours, we realized that our only hope of remaining civil with each other was to turn around and head home. Boy, are we beach newbies, who knew that that the beautiful 80 degree weather would inspire every other Snowbird in Southwest Florida with a dog to head for the only dog friendly beach. It may not seem obvious to my blog followers, but Randy and I do eventually learn from our mistakes and we have concluded that next time we travel, the dog must either board with Aunty Lissy and Uncle Tim or learn how to stay alone in The Land Yacht.

It wasn't a completely ruined day, I discovered Beall's Fun and Funky Florida style clothing outlet. I had great fun picking out shorts and shirts for Randy, pants with embroidered matching tops with beach themes for me and some cheap flip flops... I realized I was out of control when I noticed that in my Southwest Florida induced "dare to be tasteless" frenzy, I had put some denim capri pants with flamingos gracing the pant leg in my cart. I traded them in for some salt water taffy.

It is time to sign off, not only am I getting tired, but my fingers are too sticky to type... damn that salt water taffy.