Thursday January 15th 2026

This week started with the temperature a little above normal and is ending Florida cold. Today’s daytime high was in the fifties. Tomorrow morning’s temperature is forecast to be right around the freezing point followed by another day in the fifties.

On Wednesday of this week, before the temperatures got cold, but with rain threatening, I went to the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa. This is advertised as the largest RV show in the country. It has most of the RV manufacturers in North America represented along with a few from Europe. The show represents the first time the public gets to see the new models.

I’ve been to the show many times since 2015. If I was on the East coast and there wasn’t a pandemic ongoing, I went to the show. Most of those years I was only curious about new RVs. I was more interested in accessories and campground information. This year my focus is back on RVs. I want to acquire my next RV to resume the traveling portion of my Rambling Road trip. Now that I have a base camp here in Central Florida, it time to downsize.

I arrived at the Florida State Fairgrounds around 10AM. It was about an hour later than the 9AM opening time I was targeting, but traffic was still backed up over a mile onto Interstate 4. The parking fields were only about half full from what I could judge. Once I got inside it was busy, but I’ve seen it worse. There was still plenty of room to walk without getting trampled or run over by a golf cart. According to my Fitbit, I walked about 6 miles, but I didn’t see everything and went into very few RVs.

This show is big on entertainment. Musicians, clowns, jugglers, acrobats and probably a few other novelty acts were scattered throughout the grounds. The one place there was no room for them was in the halls of merchandise and sales booths. They were jammed full of people trying to buy and learn about all the gadgets.

As intended, I came away with a lot to think about. I certainly haven’t reached any conclusions, although I have eliminated a few things. Since the admission ticket is good for two days, I’m going back tomorrow. I still have to pay for another day of parking. Parking used to cost more than the show admission, now it is a few bucks cheaper.