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Florida RV SuperShow – Day Two in Tampa

| Updated Jan 16, 2015

displayAfter a refreshing night at the Brandon Walmart, I headed back into the Tampa RV SuperShow, hiding my new CS Adventurous way back in the tall grass by the fence to keep it away from prying eyes. Didn't do any good, though – an observant Facebook reader spotted me on the way in, but promised to help me maintain a low profile. It must have been Facebook friends-in-person day – Harry Brewster and Tony Davis showed up as well as a dozen other folks who are on the Roadtreking Facebook group, or have heard of me one way or another said hi throughout the day.

Roadtrek's pavilion is inside, in the covered and heated portion of the RV show, and this cool, drizzly weather we have been having has certainly put a damper on the non-covered part of the show. No problem in here – we have had a steady stream of people coming by. The salesmen are running around like like one of those plate-spinning acts where the guy tries to keep all these plates going at once.

rubyred
A prospective buyer peeks into the back storage area on the extended length ruby red E-Trek on display.

The salesmen from the two RV World dealerships in Nokomis and Lakeland also figured out who I am – many of them have also heard of me one way or another. One of them was telling the story of how he was puzzled when a customer came in and asked for a “Campskunk bed” – he thought it must be some new factory option he hadn't heard about because he had been out on vacation.  Actually it is, just ask for a permanent bed if you order your unit special build from the factory. It ought to be a called a Sharon or a Fiona bed, anyway, not a Campskunk bed 😉

jim
Here's Jim Hammill, President of Roadtrek Motorhomes, jawboning some attendees.

Yesterday I had been hanging out with Roadtrek's road warrior Joe Morales and his lovely wife Tammy, who is the regional sales manager for Roadtrek down this way. Today, Roadtrek's president Jim Hammill and vice president of sales Paul Cassidy showed up, and things were again hectic in the Roadtrek pavilion as much sales talk ensued and many of the models on display rapidly sold out.  Jim scared me to death when he announced that he had just managed to sell my new unit – I was kinda planning on living in it, but the way things were flying around here I was genuinely worried.   These guys were selling everything that wasn't nailed down.  Demand remains high, and it's a two months plus wait for new orders.

mime
Here's the mime – the guy on the right coming up behind her is about to get a surprise.

The circus continued out on the floor – I got some photos of the mime, who would set up her box in the main aisle and stand there like a statue until some unwary attendee wandered by, and then move suddenly, startling them. People who were in on the joke would be standing around watching, and get quite a kick out of it.  It was all in good fun, though, and nobody had a heart attack.

Real pirates have a wheel on the bottom of their string bass for easy relocation.
Real pirates have a wheel on the bottom of their string bass for easy relocation.

I also tracked down the pirate band – it's a musical band, not a raiding party. We probably have quite a few pirate bands here in Florida who are between gigs, since it's not Gasparilla yet, or maybe they're Disney World pirates and just moonlighting, but anyway there they were in full character, swashbuckling around the RV show.

The show runs through Sunday, but you better hurry if you expect to see anything that's still for sale. I took off back to Jacksonville before mine disappeared for real.

 

RV Lifestyle

Published on 2015-01-16

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