Will McLean Music Festival

After our most delightful visit at Jan and Doug's amazing lake house, we headed back to Arcadia, FL for a few nights at Riverside RV Resort. Kris and Darrell got caught up with some of the many friends there, played golf one day (Kris bought), went bike riding with Tom and Heidi one day, and paddled the kayaks on the Peace River with Tom and Heidi another day.

Wednesday, 11 March

We broke camp at day break. After a quick stop at dump station on the way out, we had an uneventful drive to Sertoma Youth Ranch near Brooksville, FL where Sprinty was getting to hang out with the cousins for a few days attending the Will McLean Music Festival (https://www.willmclean.com). Will McLean is considered the "Father of Florida Folk."  The "Black Hat Troubadour" travelled all across his beloved state writing hundreds of poems, songs and stories.  McLean wanted to save Florida through his music.  After his death in 1990 he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.  Each year Florida singer songwriters gather at the Will McLean Folk Festival to honor him. 

A more detailed summary of Will McLean can be found at: https://dos.myflorida.com/cultural/programs/florida-artists-hall-of-fame/will-mclean/

A bunch of Roadtrek owners have been arranging a Roadtrek rally as part of the festival. As camping is first-come, first-served, it was highly recommended to arrive on Wednesday to be able to park together.

We arrived about 10am, got checked in, and got Sprinty settled in on a row of six of his cousins (other Roadtreks). Originally, over 25 said they were attending, but a few had some issues come up. Still had over 20 Roadtreks attending.

Then Kris and Darrell headed out in the Toyota to play golf at the The Abbey at St Leo University. A real basic golf course. The positives were we could get on (many other nearby courses did not have available tee times), it was inexpensive, close to the Ranch, and nice greens to putt on. Neither of us played to what we prefer, but in the end, Kris bought. So we detoured on the way back to the Ranch for Kris to pay up.

As with other Roadtrek rallies, there was a social at 4pm. Dean, one of the Roadtrek folks who has been volunteering at the festival for over a decade, knows many of the musicians. He invited Brian Smalley, a singer/songwriter, to entertain the group. The group was treated to an amazing performance.

Here is a link to just one of the songs Brian played for us: Tiki Hut Repairman: https://www.reverbnation.com/briansmalley/song/4012886-tiki-hut-repairman

Here is a link to a very short snippet of Brian Smalley performing for the group:

After dinner, there was a campfire and many of the Roadtrekers enjoyed a pleasant evening around the fire.

Thursday, 12 March

With no events planned today, we went and played golf at The Links of Lake Bernadette. When we arrived, there were a lot of groups on-deck at the first tee, and others loading up. Based on the on-line tee time, we knew it would be a busy day, so we were grateful when the starter paired us up with Jose and Eddie from New York. Golf was going to take 4 hours or more but there is less waiting than if we had played as a two-some.

Darrell opened with his best drive of the day at 238 yards, and sent the rest of the round hoping to have another great drive like that again. Kris took the lead on the second hole, made 7 consecutive pars, and made the turn up by 8 strokes. Darrell made three consecutive pars starting on the back nine and briefly had hopes of finishing the day even. Those hopes were dashed on the next two holes, so Kris had to buy. Again.

After the necessary stop for Kris to pay up, we picked up some groceries. The concerns of the day seemed to result in fewer people at Starbucks (no one in line for the drive through, and a quarter to a third as many people inside as usual for mid-afternoon). At Walmart, the parking lot was nearly overflowing. The toilet paper and disinfectant shelves were almost bare. However, the checkout lines were quite short and quick.

We returned to the Ranch in time for the afternoon social. One of the many performers, George Gray, singer/songwriter from Tallahassee, asked if he could play for us. We quite enjoyed his song, and almost wished he had been the person scheduled to entertain us for the afternoon.

Alas, the group had already made arrangements for Jerry Mincey, a Florida singer/songwriter/story teller, to perform at 4pm. George was gracious to put his guitar away, and he and his wife stayed for Jerry's performance.

Through Jerry's stories and songs, we learned a bit about Florida non-tourist history. Like cow rustling, the battles between the free range ranchers and the phosphate mines, the citrus growers, and the hurricane of 1935.

From a website description of Jerry Mincey:

• "With five generations of Florida heritage for inspiration, Jerry Mincey is the embodiment of an authentic Florida historian. Through his music and stories, the listener learns of legends and heroes; the natural beauty of a now lost landscape; and ordinary people and inhabitants, from Indians to settlers to black bear and panther."

At the evening campfire, George Gray, the singer/songwriter from Tallahassee who had stopped by earlier, returned and entertained us for over an hour.

Here is a link to him performing one of the songs, "Waiting for the Storm": https://youtu.be/RyFpdVItLCc

He also told a story about how he and his wife became truck farmers in central Florida, and meeting an older farmer who often used the expression "Too soon old, too late smart". So true.

Short snippet of George performing for us:

Friday, 13 March

First event of the day was to meet Dottie and Jack at a nearby Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We met Dottie and Jack last summer on the Canadian Maritimes caravan. Long time blog readers may remember Dottie was the hairdresser who insisted on cutting our hair. They have been wintering in Florida for many years, and this year they have been wintering in Brooksville. We had a great time catching up. About 1/4 of the folks on the caravan have visited them this winter down here.

When we arrived at Cracker Barrel, we found the parking lot less than half full, no wait to be seated, and a dining room less than 1/3 full.

The music festival started at noon. The festival has three stages, and artists are scheduled every 30 minutes. The first challenge was to choose which artists to listen to as we were unfamiliar with any of them other than the three who performed at Roadtrek afternoon socials.

Folk music humor from a banjo player: "Definition of a gentleman is a man who owns a banjo and declines to play it." - Mark Twain

Photo of banjo humor shirt:

Our kayaks have drawn a number of admirers who shop by to examine and ask questions.

Saturday, 14 March

One advantage of where we parked is being able to listen to the music while sitting in or outside of Sprinty. Useful for social separation. A minor downside is being able to listen to the music after we turned in for the night.

A quiet day, spent listening to various performers. We specifically went to George Gray's performance, which we enjoyed a lot.

Another advantage to where we were parked was being able to listen to various performers while working on taxes in Sprinty. A necessary chore that aligns well with social separation. Perhaps better done when socially separated even in the best of times.

As most people, we are thinking a lot about how COVID-19 might impact our plans for the next weeks and months, even if we don't contract it. It is certainly the elephant of the week. Regulars attending music festival have shared that the attendance at the festival is only about 25% of past years.

About 25% of the performers seem to have canceled, as evidenced by the daily revised schedules. Some cancelled as they live in places like New York and assessed it imprudent to travel down by air. One bright side is that performers who were there got more stage time. Many originally only had one 30 minute slot, and with the cancellations, several got two or three slots, especially the better ones.

We joined several of the Roadtrekers to listen to Brian Smalley again at the smallest stage. Fortunately we arrived early and enjoyed the performance by Doug Spears who,preceded him. One number he performed that was especially beautiful was "I Wish". You can listen to it here: https://dougspearsmusic.com/track/2129723/i-wish

Brian Smalley was amazing, again. Awesome guitar picker. So glad he was scheduled again as a fill-in. So glad we attended another of his performances. He is also a favorite of attendees and other performers as his performance this afternoon drew quite a large crowd. Likely more than at the main stage.

Sunday, 15 March

As Darrell waited for the food vendor to open for breakfast, he got to speak with some of the performers also waiting to order breakfast. They talked about future events already canceled, and ones they expected to be canceled. Louise also stated that in Pasco County, they had issued a ban on gatherings like the Will McLean Music Festival. The Sertoma Youth Ranch is located such that the southern property boundary is the county line. Had the festival been only a few hundred feet further south, it would have been canceled.

We decided yesterday it was time to move on. Even though there was another full day of performances, after two days off from golf, Kris was wanting to get back in the swing of things. So we broke camp after breakfast and started meandering north. With rain in the forecast for the rest of the week at home in Canton, we were torn between wanting to get home and wanting to linger to be able to enjoy the nicer weather.

Golf today was at Ocala National at Golden Hills Country Club. We booked a 11:54 tee time on-line, and noted that there were almost no morning tee times available. We made a grocery stop at Walmart on the way and for Sprinty some fuel as well. No toilet paper, no sanitizer, and other shelves were in a bit of disarray. Lots of pallets of goods in the aisles, suggesting a worker shortage. A headline this morning indicated Walmart was going to cut back hours, but we did not see any sign to that effect at this store.

As we continued north, we saw many RVs and cars with Canadian license plates. We wonder if some of the Canadian snowbirds might have cut their season short to start hope out of concern for the virus, and possible travel restrictions.

When we arrived at the golf course, we were surprised at how few cars there were for a full tee sheet. We were also pleased to see the cart staff all wearing nitrile gloves. As we checked in, the staff said we could tee off as soon as we were ready. Apparently a couple of groups had a block of tee times and canceled. It was also forecast to be above 90 degrees. So between virus concerns, cancellations, and the heat, the course was less crowded than expected.

Last time we played Ocala National, we played the first several holes in the fog. Not today - we could see where we were hitting. Darrell opened with a par and took a one stroke lead. Kris kept it tight, and we made the turn with Darrell up by one stroke. Kris played better on the back nine, and took honors for the day. Again.

As we started early, and played the first nine holes without having to wait on others, we finished about 1-1/2 hours sooner than we expected - early enough to trek into Ocala for Kris to pay up.

After Starbucks, we headed north to Ocala North RV Park in Reddick, FL for the night. A very nice RV park, worthy of the high reviews which led us to pick it. Sprinty is spending the night in a full hookup pull-through site.

At 90 degrees, Sprinty's quiet air conditioner came in quite handy.

At the park entrance was a sign that all activities are cancelled for three weeks. The office was also closed due to virus concerns. We had a prepaid reservation, and the lady came out to hand us a park map.

Monday, 16 March

After much deliberation, we went to bed last night having made the decision to head home today without delay. Despite golf's calling and better weather in north Florida, the recent announcements of state parks closing, tourist attractions closing, and various recommendations for older people not travel swayed us to weather the next few weeks of the COVID-19 situation at our home in Canton. While Sprinty is as ideal a bug-out pod as any, the measure of uncertainty is causing some anxiety.

As Mike Wendland said in his weekly RV newsletter this morning, "We had lots of RV travel plans but have put them on a temporary hold and will hang here for a couple weeks to see what happens and how long it takes for things to get back to normal."

Darrell checked in with Tom and Heidi who are still at Riverside RV Resort in Florida for a couple more weeks. They shared that the Canadians in the RV park were pulling out as they had been told their Canadian health insurance would not continue to cover them in the United States after 23 March. That might explain the large number of Canadian license plates we saw headed north on I-75.

Sprinty enjoyed lighter-than-usual traffic all day, especially going through the center of Atlanta. We also saw nearly empty Park-N-Ride lots. Not unscathed though as somewhere in today's travels, Sprinty picked up a big crack in the windshield. Pooo. We had hoped to collect major windshield cracks like that in Canada and Alaska later this year, not South Georgia. Fortunately, not big enough to require immediate attention.

After 3-1/2 months of snow birding in Florida, Sprinty will get a much deserved break and get some more attention at home in the forms of a couple of projects. His next adventure is TBD.