Sham WOW!

At 7:00 Thursday morning we found ourselves headed south on I-75 headed to Tampa for America's Largest RV Show to arrive in time for the 9:00am opening. It was a two hour drive for us (which included a Burger King breakfast along the way.) We were meeting up with Pam and Dennis to check out all the RVs we could never afford plus all the vendor booths offering Sham-Wahs, 400 count RV sheets, and brochures from every campground in North America. Even though we were coming from two different parts of Florida, we managed to arrive within 2 minutes of each other, and park six cars apart. No small feat since thousands show up for this spectacle.

We found motor coaches that sell for over a million dollars, down to truck campers for a mere ten thousand dollars. There is truly something for everyone - if you have the money. One of our favorites, appropriately named Veranda:

Mark and Dennis look quite dashing on the slide out veranda!

The only purchase, outside of the over priced hot dog and hamburger, was a screen that will attach to our awning. I'll post pictures once we install it.

Around 4:00pm Pam and Dennis headed back to their RV park since they had pets waiting for them. We headed to the Hilton where we had made a reservation. Since we celebrated our anniversary this week, we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel that had a working hot tub - especially since we had been walking for seven hours around the Florida fairgrounds. The weather was very cloudy and cool (60ish) all day. The mad dash outdoors to get in the tub was chilly, but well worth it! We kept jumping in the pool to cool off. Everyone who passed by took the time to tell us we were nuts.

Next was the Seminole Hard Rock casino for dinner and a shot at the slot machines. The food was very good; the casino was not. The entire state of Florida is smoke-free - except the Indian casinos! I think the casino was maxed out on their occupancy capacity. We have never seen so many people in one place. Most slot machines are nickel, dollar, five dollar, and up. We, of course, only like the penny ones. Mark said he saw a few, but none were open to play. Upon finding an empty 2 cent machine, we lost $5 immediately. We walked throughout the entire place, and finally found an empty nickel machine. That took slightly less than 5 minutes to lose another $5, so we got up and left. The parking lot was like the day after Thanksgiving at the Galleria where everyone fights for a parking spot. We're pretty sure we'll never go back there again. Just not worth the hassle.

This morning we got up and took the scenic route home, checking out RV parks along the way for next year. Pam and Dennis had been doing the same thing for the past week, so we had our minds made up on where we wanted to look. The criteria was grocery stores, golf courses, and Walmart within five miles, a heated swimming pool, and the park not being filled with all extremely old RVers. We believe we have found a perfect one for next year. It is 100 miles south of where we are now. That should make it a lot warmer. Yesterday Mark had to scrape the ice off the windshield before we could leave! That's a first for us in FL.

We made it back to our park by 5:00pm, in time to get the weekly mail we receive from the USPS. Now we're totally worn out and trying hard to stay awake until 11:00pm.