Doing the Show

Last night was warm and humid, and neither of us slept really well.  We probably should have used the air conditioner.  We’re just not used to the need for an air conditioner in January.

The largest RV show in the United States is going on right now in Tampa, Florida.  Since it is only about an hour and a half away from here, we reserved this day for the show.  We left camp early and arrived at the show at just after 9am.  I took a few pictures of the parking lot at noon using a drone.  The number of cars and RVs here was incredible. There were almost an equal number of cars when I faced the drone in the other direction.

The first building you walk into is air-conditioned, which felt great on this hot and muggy day.  It housed several of the high-end manufacturers:  Airstream, Prevost, and the like, with rigs running upwards of a cool million dollars or more.  So we got to see how the other half lives. But their booth was not all just a conspicuous display of one’s wealth.  Prevost had one large RV there that was in the process of being built out, so the inside was was completely empty, with plywood floors.  And this one didn’t require removal of your shoes to enter.

Another high-end manufacturer did them one better.  The had just the frame and the engine sitting in their booth next to their million-dollar monsters.

The remainder of the show was outside on the fairgrounds.  We strolled around a few of the vendors, ones that had RVs similar to ours, just seeing what was available and gleaning ideas--not for a new RV, but mainly storage ideas.  Storage is at a premium in a small RV and we need all the ideas we can get.

Even visiting just a few of the vendors required quite a bit of walking and most of the show we did not see.  It’s just too big to see in a day.  

Two buildings housed the smaller displays: the accessories, resorts and campgrounds, and the RV suppliers.  One of these is used as the animal barn during other events and the animal smell hung in the air.  Not real bad, but it was there. We stopped at Kitchen Craft, a maker of high-end pots and pans, for a cooking demonstration.  According to them, anything but their own pots and pans are killing us or giving us Alzheimer’s disease.  The price of their product was a bit to rich for us.  But he was entertaining.  And he made a great salad.

We saw several people signing their papers for a new RV.  I’m a big spender also.  I bought a package of two light bulbs to replace one that’s going on the fritz in our RV.

One of the vendors in the building was Omnia, whose stovetop oven we just got a couple months ago.  They had some samples of brownies made in their oven that we had.  We also talked with them for a bit and ended up buying a thermometer and a silicone muffin insert for our oven.  We’re still learning how to use ours but some of the food we have made has worked out really well.  We’re still refining our cooking on the road.

The heat and all the walking finally did us in.  We went back to the RV, turned on the air conditioner, and made some dinner.  We then drove to a couple nearby grocery stores to pick up some supplies.

On the way home, we stopped at a Culver’s for a concrete mixer.  After that kind of a day, we felt we deserved it.