Tampa RV Supershow (aka... Friends>Frustrations)

Our next major destination was the Tampa RV Supershow at the Florida State Fairgrounds, but we made a few stops along the way.  First, we had to make a trip north to Sanford, Florida (near Orlando), to the dealership where we bought our RV, La Mesa RV.  We bought our RV used, but the previous owner only had it for three months and drove less than 3,000 miles.  In the short time that he had it, however, he managed to break the lever on the driver’s seat that allows you to adjust the seat back and forth to accommodate drivers of different heights and sizes.  We discovered this by having the RV inspected before we bought it (there were a few other minor things wrong that the dealer fixed immediately), but they said they needed to order the part for the driver’s seat mechanism.  When we came back on Labor Day to take possession, they said the part hadn’t arrived, but we took possession with their promise to fix it.  Now, after TWO MORE trips back to the dealership over the last five months (both times they “said” they ordered the SAME wrong part), the issue is still unresolved.  La Mesa manually adjusted the driver’s seat for Tim to drive it comfortably, since Tim is probably going to be doing about 75% of the driving.  This meant, of course, that Pat could not yet drive the RV long distances.  Now, we will have to return to La Mesa AGAIN to get the part installed before we leave Florida at the end of February.  Needless to say, we were very aggravated about this turn of events as our park reservations have already been made through the end of February.  This has been the most frustrating part of our purchasing experience.

When we left La Mesa, we headed to Seffner, Florida, to stay at Lazydays RV Resort, which is located close to Tampa.  Lazydays RV is the worlds largest RV dealership.  This is the flagship location so it has a large RV Park, located across the street from the dealership.  We arrived at the RV Park very late since we left La Mesa so late in the afternoon.  We completed our set up in the dark and then relaxed in the RV for the evening.

The next day, we had arranged to grill burgers for our friends Chris and Steve who live in the area.  Chris and Pat are huge drum corps fans and even competed together (Chris was the founder and director) in an all-aged corps when they were both living in Dallas.  We have not seen Chris since moving to New York, and had not yet met his boyfriend, Steve, who we loved immediately!  We had so much fun at lunch, catching up and getting to know Steve.  Luckily, Chris and Steve were able to block off a few hours to visit even though it was a workday.  We hope to see Chris and Steve again at the end of February, when we go back to the Sawmill Campground before we leave Florida.

After lunch with Chris and Steve, we did some laundry and had an early evening drink at the campground restaurant/bar called “Exit 10.”  Pat accidentally left his credit card at the bar, so we had to return the next day (more on that later in this blog entry as we talk about our evening after the RV Supershow).

Following our second night at Lazydays RV Resort we woke up early to drive to Tampa, Florida, to attend the Tampa RV Supershow.  We had a reservation to park the RV at the Florida State Fairgrounds where the RV Supershow was held.  This brought us our first experience in “boondocking,” which means that you are parking where there are no hookups for electricity, water, or sewer.  For water, we used our freshwater tank as we had done many times already when the temperature dropped below freezing.  We had also not used sewer hookups at other times, either because the temperature was below freezing or there were no sewer hookups where we stayed.  This was our first experience at not having an electrical hookup.  We had run the generator once before when we lost electrical power at the park in South Padre Island, so we knew how to run the generator.  Our RV is also equipped with an automatic generator start (AGS), which allows us to set certain parameters for the generator to automatically start (thermostat, battery levels in the “house” part of the RV, and “quiet hours” at night).  We had not yet used the AGS, so the night before we arrived at the Fairgrounds we studied how it worked and successfully used the AGS system while we were at the Fairgrounds.  This boondocking experience was helpful for the future, as we will be boondocking and using the AGS when we tailgate for football games.

The Tampa RV Supershow is the largest RV show in the world (Hershey PA disputes this so we will have to check that one out too).  We arrived at the Supershow at about noon and quickly walked through as many RVs as we could to see if there was anything in particular in the RVs that we might want to have in the future.  The Supershow also offers educational seminars, tourism and camping information, entertainment, and the latest in innovative RV supplies and accessories.  We spent the entire day at the Supershow until it closed at 6:00 p.m. and bought a few supplies.

Our friend, Michael, who lives in Tampa, joined us at the Supershow mid-afternoon.  Michael is interested in purchasing a Class C Motorhome for travel after he retires.  Class C Motorhomes are most often smaller in size than a Class A Motorhome (the type that we have).  After the Supershow closed for the day, we got an opportunity to show Michael around our RV.  Michael then drove us to Lazydays RV Resort to pick up the credit card that Pat had left in the restaurant/bar there.  Afterward, Michael drove us to one of his favorite Cuban restaurants for dinner, called Capdevila at La Teresita, where we had delicious roast pork, red beans, and salad.  Next, Michael took us to one of his favorite bars nearby before taking us back to the Fairgrounds and our RV.  We were really happy that we got to spend almost an entire day with Michael, and hope to see him again before we leave Florida or convince him to come on a cruise with us.

Review of Lazydays RV Resort

Lazydays RV Resort has over 300 RV sites with full hookups.  It has a screened, heated pool and hot tub; restaurant/bar; golf cart rentals; a 12,000 square foot “rally center” (RV talk for mini conventions); children’s playground; basketball, pickleball and tennis courts; laundry facilities; shuttle service to the Lazydays RV Dealership across the street; and is not far from a Cracker Barrel.  Propane delivery is available to RV sites, as well as an RV washing/detailing service.  We only stayed two nights at Lazydays and didn’t take advantage of many of the amenities except for the restaurant/bar and the laundry facility.  Like some of the other large campgrounds that we have visited, Lazydays is located close to an interstate, so there is a lot of vehicle noise at night.  The sites are laid-out pretty close together but rumor is that a spring remodel will resolve that.  Otherwise, we enjoyed our stay there and would consider going back.

We won’t write a review about the Florida State Fairgrounds parking since it isn’t an actual campground but it was great to get to experience boondocking for the first time.