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This is always on the first full weekend in November. It is three days, ending at 5pm on Friday and Saturday and at 4pm on Sunday.

In my humble opinion this is the best fall show to do in Florida, nobody else compares.

Also Pensacola is a very cool town to hang out at.

Lots of good seafood bars and restaurants (more about them later), easy traffic, cheap lodgings, a mellow setup and a great wholesale seafood outlet to stock up on Monday morning.

Plus, most artists make at least $3-4K here, and some make more, and sadly, a few do badly here.

Hey, that is the art shows biz in a nutshell.

Well, there is lots to talk about. So I will begin with my journey there.

OK, crank up the Siri XM, tune it to Tom Petty Radio, listen to Last Dance with MaryJane, set the cruise control at 75 and let us get rolling.

I now live in New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic Coast. So all my travel times have changed. Previously, living in Tampa, this was a nine hour run, course you gain an hour going into CST when you cross the Applachicola River On I-10.

Made it there in seven hours. Tom was wailing all the way.

Setup for the show was on Thursday.  I left on Wednesday. Gotta get Position A for the van which I leave on the street near my booth all show.  There are only about six available spots on the street.  I used Lyft to get to our AirBnB.  My first time using them.  They were perfect, and cheap.

Do not get on me about depriving some Show patron of a parking spot. Those spots get grabbed way before any patrons show up.  If you ever do the show, you will understand me.

Position A is vital, especially as we age.  I am now at that ripe old age of 73.

I roomed with my NSB buddy Phil Hall, the jeweler.  He found a cherry AirBnB a mile from the show.  The accommodations were awesome.

Thursday, setup day, was supposed to have vicious weather, high winds with copious rain.  Artists could start setting up as early at 8am.  We all had staggered times.  People in the park get the first times, then ones on the perimeter facing out to the street are next, then booths on the street, like mine, are last.

It rained like hell all morning, then wimped out to light sprinkle by 11am.  Most artists adopted a wait and see. By noon, the majority were setting up.

I was done by 5pm  and headed to dinner at the FishHouse Restaurant which is almost right across the street from art show.

This is still one of my favorite places.

Sits right on the bay, classy settings inside and reasonable prices for fresh seafood.

Shrimp a Ya Ya, which is shrimp and grits, is a deal at $19.95. It will fill you up.

I Lyfted back to the BnB and got to watch Netflix while sipping Knob Creek.

Friday dawned with perfect almost chilly weather which keeps the folks off the beaches and the golf course.

Never got busy til about noon, then it was mostly retirees with their walls already filled.

Usually if you do $500 on Friday, you are lucky.

Wow! I did a whopping $850.

Many zeroed, many did like me and a few got real lucky.

They hold a free feed for the artists at a nearby restaurant on Friday nite.  Awards are announced too.

I skipped the free feed and ate at Dharma Blue which is right by the show on Alcaniz Street.

We are talking good sushi here and a great selection of spirits as well as hot and cold sakes. Yumm.

Saturday dawned with quiet wind and sunny skies.  Perfect for great sales.

Near our BnB on Gregory Street is a great breakfest place called “Another Broken Egg.”

Unusual scrambles, omelets and great waffles.  It is a class act and they open at 7am.

We ate and were at the show in time for Phil to find a close parking spot.

Bigger crowds Then day before.  Not a lot of buying going on.  It was mostly lowend, think $30-$85 range, all out of the print bins.

My neighbor to the left with great clay wall pieces, zeroed both Friday and Saturday.  They were using new colors and the people were not buying.

I only saw less than a dozen large pieces go by my booth that day.  It was mostly low and slow for most of us.

I sold a large one-of-a-kind handcolored photo of Christopher Walken for $750.  That was my only big sale of the show.

Only sold two 16x20 framed photos,$150, the whole show.  Usually sell a half dozen.

I think the Mid Terms dominated people’s minds and their inclinations to buy.  That is just my theory.

I ended up with a lot of Lowend sales that made it a great day for me.  Trouble was, they were wiping me out of the popular ones, which means I would be under-stocked for next weekend’s show in Covington.

Overall, most artists were disappointed with their sales.

Of course, we all kept telling ourselves, “This is a Sunday show.”

That nite, I ate at Atlas Fish Restaurant which is in the same complex as the FishHouse.  You just climb the stairs and go left.  You are there.

Atlas features more shellfish, think yummy oysters.  They do a killer Mahi fish sandwich, grilled or blackened for $12. Comes with onion rings sprinkled on the top of the fish.  They give a very generous portion. The fish sticks out beyond the bun on all four sides.  This place is a deal, and it is classy.

Lyfted it back and Netflixed it.  Hoping for a strong Sunday, because this is a poor Monday show.

We hit The Egg for breakfest and then a Seven Eleven for the New York Times, standard operating procedure for me on Sunday.

I already had Position A for teardown, but Phil was looking, and then he lucked out big time. Bingo, Position A for Phil!

We had great weather for the day.  The crowds never showed up til after noon.  It is the Bible Belt as well as Prime Trump territory.

Had lots of pleasent conversations with a few turning into mostly low, very low, sales.  That is just how it went for the day.

Teardown was a snap,was down and out in 90 minutes, not bad for a man in his mid seventies doing it all by himself.

Pick up those John Deere weights and you will know you have had a workout.

Phil and I did Atlas one more time.  Another great fish sandwich with a yummy bottle of red wine.

Monday, I met up with Lou and Terry at Joe Pattis seafood.  We stocked up with plenty of shrimp and fish then we were Mississippi bound.

Three days of golf with Lou, for big stakes. But, that is a story for another time.

Aloha, Nels.