Warmer temperatures in Florida bring about Castle visits, Edison Estate Tours, Blue Jays baseball and fast cars at Sebring Raceway

Previously on ‘Paris resident Karon Sinning’s winter snowbird adventure’: Karon and her partner Roy decided to check out the snowbird life and packed up their RV for an extended trip to the Sunny State this winter. See how her adventure started, published here on pages 20-22 in our February 3, 2024, edition.

While everyone at home has been enjoying the warmest winter on record, it’s been a very cool, wet time here in central Florida. There were days of sun and warmth, but February specifically was up and down. Hitting occasional single digits at night and rising to the low 20s daytime Enter March! March has significantly improved. Only raining at night briefly and high 20s and low 30s in the daytime; high teens to low 20s at night

With the nicer weather we had a few outings planned First off Solomon’s Castle Located in Ona, Florida it is about a 40-minute drive from our park There were few to no cars on this route, so we had wondered if it was going to be a dud Far from it!

Surrounded by live oaks, the Boat in the Moat restaurant is a true gem, recommends Karon Sinning, a Paris resident experiencing her first winter in Florida!

Howard Solomon was an artist, sculptor, painter and so much more His dream castle sits amid live oak and palm trees. It is 12,000 square feet and built by Solomon himself. Using almost all recycled materials, it is a masterpiece. The silver exterior walls are old tin plates from the local newspaper Each piece has a copy of one page from the paper on the back side of it

His sculptures and art are featured throughout the tour He also dabbled in stained glass, with windows in the castle themed from fairy tales to the stars.

His sculptures use a variety of materials including wood and metal The metal ones, in my opinion, were breathtaking. Sadly, pictures are not allowed inside the castle, but a quick look at the website gallery gives you a general idea (Www.solomonscastle.com).

Continued on page 25