January 15, 2014

Tampa RV Super Show

We got an early start for the one and a half hour drive to Tampa.  It was an uneventful ride with hardly any traffic until we approached the exit where traffic came to a standstill.  Could all these cars be bound for the show?

Most of them were. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And most of the people appeared to be patient-but then there were the ones who thought they were special and shouldn’t have to wait their turn so they rode the shoulder passing (and royally pissing off) the cars just barely inching up every few minutes.

 

 

You know who you are-what amazes me is, in this world where someone can get shot to death for texting in a movie theater, why would anyone take a chance of pissing off so many people? 

It ended up taking us 1 hour to travel a half a mile. 

Finally we paid our $6 parking fee at the entrance and found a place to park.  It wasn’t too far a walk to the entrance gate but it was cold so we took advantage of the tram that was loading passengers in the lane next to our car.

By this time I was doing a little dance trying to take my mind off the fact that I really needed to find a rest room and just when I thought we were home free we arrived at the gate to find long lines.

So after paying our $18 entrance fee (having saved two dollars for the senior rate-being a senior does have some perks) our first order of business was to find the rest rooms.

After getting a tote to use to fill up brochures and goodies from the different vendors, we began our tour of RVs beginning with Prevost.

Just a shell 

 

The only way we would ever be able to afford one of these rigs is to win the lottery. 

One could pay over $200,000 for a used one.

We stopped by the booth offering sprayed on roofing for RVs.  It would cost approximately $5,000 for a roof our size with a 20 year warranty.    Something to think about for the future.

Monte liked this Freightliner

We all have our dreams!

There were so many vendors selling all things RV-related. Too many to take pictures of all of them.

  

Grill mats 

Lights

 There were representatives from many different RV manufacturers and makers of RV parts.

As we walked around the fairgrounds we were entertained by a variety of performers.

 

The sign on the back of this wagon announced that it was the original RV (Range Vehicle)

Antiques

We toured at least 40 RVs.  At the end of the day I was happy to discover that I didn't find one that I liked better than my rig.

We were handed tote bags at several different vendors including Camping World.  They cleverly devised a game that had people stopping at 11 different locations through out the park collecting a pin at each one to attach to a vest.

The end goal of collecting all the pins was the chance to spin a wheel and win a prize.

I was hoping to win a Good Sam membership but ended up with a bar towel

Monte won a nice hat.

There were several different food vendors offering all kinds of things from hot dogs to funnel cake to pizza.

We planned on eating dinner out on the way home but hadn't had lunch so we each had a slice of pizza that was delicious.

We could have easily spent hundreds of dollars on merchandise but we showed great restraint by only spending $120 on a set of landing pads that are guaranteed for life.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the show we "bumped" into Howard and Linda from RDreams.  We hadn't seen them since we attended their rally in Oregon in September of 2012.  We chatted for a few minutes before hugging goodbye.  We will be seeing them next month when we attend their boon docking rally in Fort Ogden. 

Having a taste for a hamburger, we stopped at Steak and Shake on the way home.