Elko, Georgia, Sunday, April 18
It's been a while since my last post (9 weeks, to be exact, but who's counting?)
Since my last post, quite a bit has happened. We took a couple of weeks off from doing shows, from Feb. 16th to March 5, to relax(???) after a busy January and February. I will not bore you with more pictures from shows we've done since my last post. Guess you've seen enough shots of our booth and our shows.
During our hiatus we've visited with Dick and Elaine in Venice, FL at their new condo, which is very, very nice, by the way. We had lots of laughs with them. Be sure to ask Dick about his "haircut experience" in Venice. We had quite a laugh over that one.
After returning to Port St. Lucie from Venice, Chris, Jen and Aaron flew down to visit us for a few days. They arrived on a Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning, when they departed for Venice to visit with Jen's grandmother. While they were here, we visited a couple of zoos, a nature preserve at the seashore and, of course, the swimming pool at our resort. Mimi and Pepere had lots of fun with them and wished that they could have stayed longer.
After Chris, Jen and Aaron left, Don and Toni came in on Monday afternoon, after flying into Fort Lauderdale and driving up to PSL. Meanwhile, Uncle Bob and Sidney came over from Cape Coral on Sunday, but they waited until Monday to come out to visit us at the resort. We spent the afternoon chatting, while waiting for Don and Toni to arrive. When they finally did arrive, we all went out to dinner to Olive Garden. Bob and Sidney stayed over on Monday night, since it was too late to drive back to Cape Coral after dinner.
While Don and Toni were with us, we had lots of fun and lots of good food. We visited some of our favorite "haunts", plus a few new ones. One of the "highlights" of their visit was the infamous "lot crawl" at our resort. This has become an annual event at the resort and it involves the participants driving around in golf carts to various "themed" lots for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. The drinks flow freely, and everyone has a great time. At the end of the evening, everyone returned to the clubhouse, where there was a live band and dancing and MORE DRINKING!
A "not so High-light" of their trip came on the afternoon we had planned to go to lunch down in Stuart, FL, at a neat little restaurant called the Key Lime Tiki Bar and Grill. As we were heading out, we got a call that the wicker dip coolers we had ordered were being delivered. We decided to turn around so that we could meet the truck at the resort. On the way back, we got a call from the driver that they were lost and were not able to find us. After ascertaining their location, I advised them to park their truck and we would find them. Getting their exact location proved to be a problem, since they are Mexican, and their English skills were somewhat lacking. I finally figured out that they were parked in a school parking lot, and the name of the school was "Citrus Grove Elementary School". We tried to find the school with the GPS, but could not. However, since we had a kind of general idea where they were, we headed out to find them. After driving around for about 30 minutes and not finding them, we stopped at a Fire Station to ask the whereabouts of the school. As luck would have it, they never heard of the school. In fact, the ONLY school with that name that they knew of was up in Vero Beach, some 30 miles north. Undaunted, I climbed back into the Odyssey and continued down the same road we originally were on, thinking that this HAD TO BE the right way, based upon the last conversation I had with them. As luck would have it, after another 15 minutes of driving, we found the school!! The reason it would not come up on my GPS is that it was a brand-new school, and it was in another county, south of St. Lucie.
Two hours and twenty minutes later, we had our delivery, and Don got two bags of "HOT" peanuts from the Mexicans.
After Don and Toni left, we headed north to Titusville, FL, to spend the month of March with John and Nancy. While staying in Titusville, we did two more shows in Orlando, which is only about 40 minutes away. We also had an opportunity to set up our booth at the Great Outdoors Fun Fair, which is an annual event at TGO. We had a ball doing the fair. While at TGO, we met lots of John and Nancy's friends and shared a few meals with them. We decided that we really liked being up in Titusville for the month, since there was so much to do there, and it is centrally located (more so than Port St. Lucie) to the shows we do in Florida. We have made a decision to try to rent our lot at Port St. Lucie next season and spend the season up at The Great Outdoors.
We left TGO on March 27th to travel up to Red Bay, AL to have some work done to the coach. We spent 5 days in Red Bay while our coach was being serviced, but they were enjoyable, relaxing days. The work was finally completed on Friday afternoon, so we headed out of Red Bay with intentions of going down to the Florida panhandle to spend some time relaxing at the shore. We got just south of Birmingham, AL before stopping for the night at a Walmart. While there, Kathy spoke to Nancy and we learned that there was going to be a shuttle launch on Monday morning. Nancy suggested that we come back to TGO for Easter dinner with them, then we could take in the launch on Monday morning. Needless to say, we quickly changed our plans and headed back to Titusville, arriving there Saturday evening. Easter dinner on Sunday was wonderful. We were with all of the people we had come to know while we were there in March, and we were treated to a sumptuous repast of lamb, turkey, lots of salads and vegetable dishes, and some fabulous desserts! Mmmmmmmmm!!!!
On Monday, we arose at 4AM to get ready to go down to see the launch. We went with a group of about 8 people, and we went to the local Moose Lodge, which is located right on the intra-coastal waterway, directly across from the launch pad (about 8 miles away). We arrived at the Moose Lodge at 5:15AM, and they were serving coffee and donuts prior to the launch. This is a BIG DEAL down here every time they launch a shuttle. People come from everywhere to see this! The parking lots are filled with cars and motorhomes; there isn't an available parking spot on the road or along the parks bordering the waterway. We were fortunate enough to have John, since he is a member of the Moose, and that's how we ended up there. Anyway, the launch was scheduled to take place at 6:21AM, weather, et al, permitting. As it turns out, the weather was perfect - clear skies, almost no wind - ideal for the launch. The actual launch (click this) went up at exactly 6:21AM, and it was SPECTACULAR to see in person!! If you ever get the chance, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Unfortunately, there are only 3 launches left before the shuttle program is dismantled. We are so glad we got to see one before the program ends.
We left TGO again on Tuesday, April 13th, headed for Dothan, AL for another show. We are now in Elko, GA relaxing before we head into Perry, GA for another show this Thursday. From Perry, we will be heading up to Concord, NC to do another show before we finally begin the trek back to MA. Our only other stop will be in Rye Brook, NY to visit with Mike, Lisa and Ava.
See y'all real soon!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Brooksville RV Show, visit to Venice, etc.
Estero, Florida - Thursday, February 11, 2010
We arrived here in Estero this afternoon. The weather was/is very nice for the trip and after we arrived. We spent the past three days visiting with Uncle Rich and Auntie Elaine in Venice. We got a chance to see their new (to them) condo, which just happens to be in the same complex as Terry and Wenke Holmes' condo. Their condo is very nice and in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, their furniture did not arrive as promised, so they are sitting on folding chairs in their living room. They do have bedroom furniture, though. I spoke with Uncle Rich this afternoon, and they found another furniture store and hope to have their living room furniture by next Wednesday!!
As the title mentions, we just finished doing another RV show, this one in Brooksville, Florida. Of all the shows we have done, we were most favorably impressed with the Brooksville show.
Our motorhome was parked within 100 yards of the vendor tent, so once we got set up, taking care of the dogs during the show was a piece of cake. We could walk back to the motorhome in less than two minutes. We truly enjoyed doing this show, as the people who attended were motorhomers, like us, and they appreciated all the vendors and bought lots of products. Also, the people who run the show were very attentive and caring to the vendors. As they explained, if not for the vendors, there would be no RV show. It was nice to feel appreciated!
For this show, since we could not get a corner booth, I came up with a booth design which makes any booth location a "corner" booth.
The new set-up worked out very well, and people were very appreciative that they could get closer to the items we had for sale. Unfortunately for us, we ran out of wicker coolers, and only had ceramic one to sell. We had purchased some new ceramic coolers, which we had shipped to Brooksville, and we displayed them for the first time at this show. They were well accepted, and we sold half of them during the show.
Tomorrow, we will finish setting up our booth here in Estero, at the "Big Boy Expo". We got a head-start on it this afternoon, but decided to wait until tomorrow to finish it up, since the show doesn't open until Saturday morning at 10:00. This will be the shortest duration show we have done, 2 days. The show opens Saturday morning and will close at 5 PM. It will open again on Sunday morning at 10 AM and will close at 5 PM. We will pack up the booth and load everything into the motorhome and car after 5PM on Sunday, then head back to Port St. Lucie on Monday morning. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good show for us. This is a showcase for "big boy toys"!!
Here are the links to the photo albums for today:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/IPhone2010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARVRally23To72010?feat=directlink
We arrived here in Estero this afternoon. The weather was/is very nice for the trip and after we arrived. We spent the past three days visiting with Uncle Rich and Auntie Elaine in Venice. We got a chance to see their new (to them) condo, which just happens to be in the same complex as Terry and Wenke Holmes' condo. Their condo is very nice and in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, their furniture did not arrive as promised, so they are sitting on folding chairs in their living room. They do have bedroom furniture, though. I spoke with Uncle Rich this afternoon, and they found another furniture store and hope to have their living room furniture by next Wednesday!!
As the title mentions, we just finished doing another RV show, this one in Brooksville, Florida. Of all the shows we have done, we were most favorably impressed with the Brooksville show.
Our motorhome was parked within 100 yards of the vendor tent, so once we got set up, taking care of the dogs during the show was a piece of cake. We could walk back to the motorhome in less than two minutes. We truly enjoyed doing this show, as the people who attended were motorhomers, like us, and they appreciated all the vendors and bought lots of products. Also, the people who run the show were very attentive and caring to the vendors. As they explained, if not for the vendors, there would be no RV show. It was nice to feel appreciated!For this show, since we could not get a corner booth, I came up with a booth design which makes any booth location a "corner" booth.
The new set-up worked out very well, and people were very appreciative that they could get closer to the items we had for sale. Unfortunately for us, we ran out of wicker coolers, and only had ceramic one to sell. We had purchased some new ceramic coolers, which we had shipped to Brooksville, and we displayed them for the first time at this show. They were well accepted, and we sold half of them during the show.Tomorrow, we will finish setting up our booth here in Estero, at the "Big Boy Expo". We got a head-start on it this afternoon, but decided to wait until tomorrow to finish it up, since the show doesn't open until Saturday morning at 10:00. This will be the shortest duration show we have done, 2 days. The show opens Saturday morning and will close at 5 PM. It will open again on Sunday morning at 10 AM and will close at 5 PM. We will pack up the booth and load everything into the motorhome and car after 5PM on Sunday, then head back to Port St. Lucie on Monday morning. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good show for us. This is a showcase for "big boy toys"!!
Here are the links to the photo albums for today:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/IPhone2010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARVRally23To72010?feat=directlink
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Catching Up from Brooksville, FL
Tuesday, Feb. 2 (Groundhog Day) - Hernando County Airport, Brooksville, FL
We arrived in Brooksville yesterday morning in the rain. The drive down from Ocala was short and uneventful, and we arrived in good spirits, despite the rain. After checking in, we were led to our site for the duration of the show. We are parked in a grassy field, directly across from the entrance to the Vendor Tent, about 100 yards away.
After getting the motorhome set up, we made our way over to the tent and began to set up our booth. The booth configuration we are using is something I thought up before we arrived here. I came up with a configuration which provides us with a "corner booth", even though we do not have a corner.
This is new for us, and we will try it out to see how it goes. Stay tuned for a final critique of this setup.
Looking back over the last couple of shows, Fort Myers was a good show for us. We will certainly keep that show on our schedule. Ocala, on the other hand, was not so good for any of the vendors (that we spoke to, anyway). That show (Ocala) opened last Thursday, 1/28. Traffic was pretty good, but nobody came to buy anything, so we had a "slow" day. In the end, we covered our booth and camping expenses, but nothing else. The rest of the show went downhill from there! In fact, on Saturday, a day when every vendor expected things to improve, the rains came. By early afternoon, it was raining so hard that they closed the gate and people who came in were allowed to enter for free. The show coordinator came to each vendor and told us that we could close down our booths if we so desired. Since water was dripping on our products from a couple of holes in the tent, we decided to close up. We were out of there by 2PM. We hoped that Sunday would get better, but it was soooo cold that not that many people came out, and those that did were not spending. Bust!!! As a result, we will not do the Ocala show again.
So, now we are in Brooksville, FL, at the FMCA Southeast Area Rally. We have decided that we really like doing the FMCA rallies. We went to a "pot luck" supper last night, sponsored by the Family Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we are new members, since Fort Myers). That was a great time. We met lots of other vendors and got lots of valuable feedback on other shows, in addition to having some good "comfort food". Tonight, we were invited to another dinner meeting with the Professional RV Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we have been members since Farmington, NM, last October). After a short meeting, we were treated to some very tasty sandwiches, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, etc. Again, we met more vendors who imparted more information about shows. As a result, we are now considering changing our show schedule for the coming months so that we can do more FMCA rallies.
Please be sure to check out the photo albums below. I have included photos not yet seen from Fort Myers, and from Ocala and our set-up here in Brooksville. I certainly hope you enjoy the photos.
Here are the links to the web albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShow118242010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OcalaRVShow128312010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARally2372010?feat=directlink
We arrived in Brooksville yesterday morning in the rain. The drive down from Ocala was short and uneventful, and we arrived in good spirits, despite the rain. After checking in, we were led to our site for the duration of the show. We are parked in a grassy field, directly across from the entrance to the Vendor Tent, about 100 yards away.
After getting the motorhome set up, we made our way over to the tent and began to set up our booth. The booth configuration we are using is something I thought up before we arrived here. I came up with a configuration which provides us with a "corner booth", even though we do not have a corner.This is new for us, and we will try it out to see how it goes. Stay tuned for a final critique of this setup.
Looking back over the last couple of shows, Fort Myers was a good show for us. We will certainly keep that show on our schedule. Ocala, on the other hand, was not so good for any of the vendors (that we spoke to, anyway). That show (Ocala) opened last Thursday, 1/28. Traffic was pretty good, but nobody came to buy anything, so we had a "slow" day. In the end, we covered our booth and camping expenses, but nothing else. The rest of the show went downhill from there! In fact, on Saturday, a day when every vendor expected things to improve, the rains came. By early afternoon, it was raining so hard that they closed the gate and people who came in were allowed to enter for free. The show coordinator came to each vendor and told us that we could close down our booths if we so desired. Since water was dripping on our products from a couple of holes in the tent, we decided to close up. We were out of there by 2PM. We hoped that Sunday would get better, but it was soooo cold that not that many people came out, and those that did were not spending. Bust!!! As a result, we will not do the Ocala show again.
So, now we are in Brooksville, FL, at the FMCA Southeast Area Rally. We have decided that we really like doing the FMCA rallies. We went to a "pot luck" supper last night, sponsored by the Family Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we are new members, since Fort Myers). That was a great time. We met lots of other vendors and got lots of valuable feedback on other shows, in addition to having some good "comfort food". Tonight, we were invited to another dinner meeting with the Professional RV Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we have been members since Farmington, NM, last October). After a short meeting, we were treated to some very tasty sandwiches, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, etc. Again, we met more vendors who imparted more information about shows. As a result, we are now considering changing our show schedule for the coming months so that we can do more FMCA rallies.
Please be sure to check out the photo albums below. I have included photos not yet seen from Fort Myers, and from Ocala and our set-up here in Brooksville. I certainly hope you enjoy the photos.
Here are the links to the web albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShow118242010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OcalaRVShow128312010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARally2372010?feat=directlink
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tampa Bay RV Super Show Wrap-up and Fort Myers RV Show Setup Day
Thursday, January 21 - North Fort Myers, FL
We arrived here in Fort Myers on Monday afternoon. Since we were not able to begin our setup until Wednesday morning, we had two glorious days to relax in the warm Florida sunshine here in Fort Myers. Wilson and Beasley appreciated the "down time", because they got to sit outside and enjoy the weather, as well.
To recap Tampa, approximately 50,000 (+/-) attended this show. Most were seasoned RV show attendees and behaved accordingly. Others were only there to see what they could get for FREE! After a particularly busy onslaught at our booth, the vendor in the booth next to ours told me about one older gentlemen who "grazed his way through" every one of of our samples, then took a handful of animal crackers (which we put out for sampling our "sweet treat" dips), then proceeded to walk over to the next booth, look around, then ask the vendor at the booth "got anything for free?", as he munched on our crackers. In the 5-day show in Tampa, we went through 80 pounds of pretzels, and 8 pounds of animal crackers. It got so bad with people taking animal crackers to sample the savory dips and cleaning them out that we removed the cookies altogether, and only served pretzels!
I can't tell you how many asinine remarks I heard during the course of the 5 days about our "NO DOUBLE DIPPING" signs. I got so tired of hearing the stupid remarks that I had to walk away from the booth for a while. One pea-brained idiot actually asked if he could use all ten fingers, would that be considered "DOUBLE DIPPING"? I just looked at the idiot and turned away. I actually believe that some people should take a course on attending trade shows where vendors have promotional items available for the attendees. If you are going to take the freebie, at least be courteous enough to listen to the vendor's speil. Instead, they try to take the items without being detected. Geez! But, I have to tell you on that the evening of the opening day in Tampa, a dinner was held for all vendors (free), and they awarded "door prizes". Kathy won the very last, and biggest prize, $100! Kinda took the sting out of all the negative stuff that came later.
Before I forget, to see pictures of the vendors at the Tampa Bay RV Super Show, simply click the link below:
http://www.tampabayeye.com/rv-show/01-16-10/index.html
OK! Enough about Tampa! On to Fort Myers. I have included pictures of our setup process at the end of this blog. Setup day was Wednesday and the show opened this morning at 10:00AM. This was a very busy day for The 'DIP'lomats! Right from the start, we had crowds around our booth all day long. We had the only "free food" booth at the show where you could graze your way around our booth. The people attending todays opening day were seasoned RV show veterans, and behaved as they should. We had a very successful first day, and only went through 9 pounds of pretzels. We have 3 days to go here, and we are looking forward to each one. This is a good show for us, as we are with other vendors we have worked with in the past 3 shows, and we have made many new friends.
To top it off, our booth is the best looking booth at any of the shows we have attended, to date.
Stay tuned to this site, as updates will be coming regularly (I hope).
Here is the link to the web album for this entry:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShowSetupDay?feat=directlink
Thursday, January 21 - North Fort Myers, FL
We arrived here in Fort Myers on Monday afternoon. Since we were not able to begin our setup until Wednesday morning, we had two glorious days to relax in the warm Florida sunshine here in Fort Myers. Wilson and Beasley appreciated the "down time", because they got to sit outside and enjoy the weather, as well.
To recap Tampa, approximately 50,000 (+/-) attended this show. Most were seasoned RV show attendees and behaved accordingly. Others were only there to see what they could get for FREE! After a particularly busy onslaught at our booth, the vendor in the booth next to ours told me about one older gentlemen who "grazed his way through" every one of of our samples, then took a handful of animal crackers (which we put out for sampling our "sweet treat" dips), then proceeded to walk over to the next booth, look around, then ask the vendor at the booth "got anything for free?", as he munched on our crackers. In the 5-day show in Tampa, we went through 80 pounds of pretzels, and 8 pounds of animal crackers. It got so bad with people taking animal crackers to sample the savory dips and cleaning them out that we removed the cookies altogether, and only served pretzels!
I can't tell you how many asinine remarks I heard during the course of the 5 days about our "NO DOUBLE DIPPING" signs. I got so tired of hearing the stupid remarks that I had to walk away from the booth for a while. One pea-brained idiot actually asked if he could use all ten fingers, would that be considered "DOUBLE DIPPING"? I just looked at the idiot and turned away. I actually believe that some people should take a course on attending trade shows where vendors have promotional items available for the attendees. If you are going to take the freebie, at least be courteous enough to listen to the vendor's speil. Instead, they try to take the items without being detected. Geez! But, I have to tell you on that the evening of the opening day in Tampa, a dinner was held for all vendors (free), and they awarded "door prizes". Kathy won the very last, and biggest prize, $100! Kinda took the sting out of all the negative stuff that came later.
Before I forget, to see pictures of the vendors at the Tampa Bay RV Super Show, simply click the link below:
http://www.tampabayeye.com/rv-show/01-16-10/index.html
OK! Enough about Tampa! On to Fort Myers. I have included pictures of our setup process at the end of this blog. Setup day was Wednesday and the show opened this morning at 10:00AM. This was a very busy day for The 'DIP'lomats! Right from the start, we had crowds around our booth all day long. We had the only "free food" booth at the show where you could graze your way around our booth. The people attending todays opening day were seasoned RV show veterans, and behaved as they should. We had a very successful first day, and only went through 9 pounds of pretzels. We have 3 days to go here, and we are looking forward to each one. This is a good show for us, as we are with other vendors we have worked with in the past 3 shows, and we have made many new friends.
To top it off, our booth is the best looking booth at any of the shows we have attended, to date.
Stay tuned to this site, as updates will be coming regularly (I hope).
Here is the link to the web album for this entry:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShowSetupDay?feat=directlink
Monday, January 18, 2010
The "SUPERSHOW"
Monday, January 18 - Fort Myers, FL (Martin Luther King Day)
We have arrived in Fort Myers from Tampa. Our trip took approximately 2 hours, leaving Tampa at noon and arriving here at the Civic Center in North Fort Myers at 2PM.
This blog entry will cover the Tampa RV Supershow at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, FL.
We left Port St. Lucie on Sunday, January 10th, at noon. We spent most of the morning loading up the motorhome at our storage unit. Our trip to Tampa was uneventful, except for the fact that we had to wait in line at a Flying J fuel stop in Tampa for over an hour to get propane. Based upon our experience here, we should have been prepared for what we encountered at the RV Supershow. While waiting in line for propane, people with 20lb. tanks kept cutting in front of us in the line. Several times, I had to get out and go over and rap on their windows to tell them where the end of the line was. Several people looked at the length of the line and decided not to wait for propane. Others refused to budge!
SUPERSHOW Recap:
The show started on Tuesday with "Industry Day", where all the vendors and dealers get to walk around and check out the other vendors and dealers booths. We had to be in our booth (at least one of us) during "Industry Day", in case other vendors wished to purchase dips. This was probably the longest day of the entire 5 day event.
Wednesday was opening day for the public. According to our information, there were well over 11,000 attendees on Wednesday! This "grazer" is a person who starts at one end of the samples display and tries every one of our flavors, some more than once, then moves on to another vendor display. We had so many "grazers" on Wednesday and Thursday, that I had to go out and purchase another 65 bags of pretzel sticks, hoping that would get us through to the final day of the show. We made it!
But here's what I learned during these last 5 days in Tampa - people are inherently greedy and feeling entitled to do as they please because they paid to gain entrance to the show. Some observtions: We use large containers to serve our pretzels and cookies for sampling the dips. People coming to our booth would reach into these containers and pull out handfuls of either, to the point where we went through 12 pounds of cookies (we buy the 4lb plastic containers at BJs or SAM's clubs), and 40 bags of pretzels from Wednesday through Thursday evening. On Friday, we attempted to cut down the volumes we were going through by putting tongs into each container for people to use to get a pretzel or cookie. What we observed was that they would put the tongs into the container and try to get as many pretzels/cookies as possible, thus dropping half of them either into the dip samples or on the floor! Some people even grabbed handfuls of either and continued walking toward the next booth, without even sampling the dips. By Friday, we discontinued putting out cookies, only pretzels. This helped, somewhat.
What I learned from this show was that children, especially the younger ones, have to be watched very closely. Our containers for the pretzels and cookies are very tall, so much so that they are really too high for children to get anything out of using the tongs. Now, you would think that parents would be aware of what their children are doing while the parents are sampling the dips. They are not, nor do they care! As a result, we have to watch them and try to keep them from reaching their little hands (who knows where their hands have been) into the containers (both dip and pretzel/cookie), or "double-dipping" (what small child understands the term "double-dipping?). At times, we have to reach out and physically prevent them from dipping into a container after they have taken a bite out of the pretzel they are holding. Some parents are visibly pissed that we would have the audacity to touch or reprimand their child and they verbally assault us, others apologize and take control of the child. One such confrontation on Sunday afternoon almost came to blows when a father accused me of "terrorizing his 5-year old". A scary moment, indeed!
We have not had time to tally up the results of our first big event, but we feel that, in spite of everything, we had a good show. Most of the attendees were very friendly and in a "buying" mood. We met some new friends, and some old friends (vendors), whom we hope we can remain in touch with. Most of them have been doing this for many years, and they know the ins and outs of these shows, which are good ones, which are not-so-good ones. This is valuable information for us, since we are just starting out. We are looking forward to the Fort Myers show, which starts on Thursday morning and runs through Sunday afternoon. I will post another entry following that show.
From Fort Myers, we will be heading up to Ocala for another show beginning on January 28, and continuing through Sunday, January 31. Stay tuned!
All in all we had some fun, met lots of people and made some $$$. We find that we are meeting and making friends from all over. As we travel, we hope to visit new friends all over the US.
Here's the link to the web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TampaRVSuperShow?authkey=Gv1sRgCKCopoaBy9np-wE&fat=directlink
We have arrived in Fort Myers from Tampa. Our trip took approximately 2 hours, leaving Tampa at noon and arriving here at the Civic Center in North Fort Myers at 2PM.
This blog entry will cover the Tampa RV Supershow at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, FL.
We left Port St. Lucie on Sunday, January 10th, at noon. We spent most of the morning loading up the motorhome at our storage unit. Our trip to Tampa was uneventful, except for the fact that we had to wait in line at a Flying J fuel stop in Tampa for over an hour to get propane. Based upon our experience here, we should have been prepared for what we encountered at the RV Supershow. While waiting in line for propane, people with 20lb. tanks kept cutting in front of us in the line. Several times, I had to get out and go over and rap on their windows to tell them where the end of the line was. Several people looked at the length of the line and decided not to wait for propane. Others refused to budge!
SUPERSHOW Recap:
The show started on Tuesday with "Industry Day", where all the vendors and dealers get to walk around and check out the other vendors and dealers booths. We had to be in our booth (at least one of us) during "Industry Day", in case other vendors wished to purchase dips. This was probably the longest day of the entire 5 day event.
Wednesday was opening day for the public. According to our information, there were well over 11,000 attendees on Wednesday! This "grazer" is a person who starts at one end of the samples display and tries every one of our flavors, some more than once, then moves on to another vendor display. We had so many "grazers" on Wednesday and Thursday, that I had to go out and purchase another 65 bags of pretzel sticks, hoping that would get us through to the final day of the show. We made it!
But here's what I learned during these last 5 days in Tampa - people are inherently greedy and feeling entitled to do as they please because they paid to gain entrance to the show. Some observtions: We use large containers to serve our pretzels and cookies for sampling the dips. People coming to our booth would reach into these containers and pull out handfuls of either, to the point where we went through 12 pounds of cookies (we buy the 4lb plastic containers at BJs or SAM's clubs), and 40 bags of pretzels from Wednesday through Thursday evening. On Friday, we attempted to cut down the volumes we were going through by putting tongs into each container for people to use to get a pretzel or cookie. What we observed was that they would put the tongs into the container and try to get as many pretzels/cookies as possible, thus dropping half of them either into the dip samples or on the floor! Some people even grabbed handfuls of either and continued walking toward the next booth, without even sampling the dips. By Friday, we discontinued putting out cookies, only pretzels. This helped, somewhat.
What I learned from this show was that children, especially the younger ones, have to be watched very closely. Our containers for the pretzels and cookies are very tall, so much so that they are really too high for children to get anything out of using the tongs. Now, you would think that parents would be aware of what their children are doing while the parents are sampling the dips. They are not, nor do they care! As a result, we have to watch them and try to keep them from reaching their little hands (who knows where their hands have been) into the containers (both dip and pretzel/cookie), or "double-dipping" (what small child understands the term "double-dipping?). At times, we have to reach out and physically prevent them from dipping into a container after they have taken a bite out of the pretzel they are holding. Some parents are visibly pissed that we would have the audacity to touch or reprimand their child and they verbally assault us, others apologize and take control of the child. One such confrontation on Sunday afternoon almost came to blows when a father accused me of "terrorizing his 5-year old". A scary moment, indeed!
We have not had time to tally up the results of our first big event, but we feel that, in spite of everything, we had a good show. Most of the attendees were very friendly and in a "buying" mood. We met some new friends, and some old friends (vendors), whom we hope we can remain in touch with. Most of them have been doing this for many years, and they know the ins and outs of these shows, which are good ones, which are not-so-good ones. This is valuable information for us, since we are just starting out. We are looking forward to the Fort Myers show, which starts on Thursday morning and runs through Sunday afternoon. I will post another entry following that show.
From Fort Myers, we will be heading up to Ocala for another show beginning on January 28, and continuing through Sunday, January 31. Stay tuned!
All in all we had some fun, met lots of people and made some $$$. We find that we are meeting and making friends from all over. As we travel, we hope to visit new friends all over the US.
Here's the link to the web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TampaRVSuperShow?authkey=Gv1sRgCKCopoaBy9np-wE&fat=directlink
Friday, October 30, 2009
Bryce Canyon, Utah
Since we have not been summonsed to a service bay as yet, I am using the "down time" to catch up on my blogging.
This entry will cover our trip to and visit to Bryce Canyon, Utah. Last fall, we visited Zion National Park, about 50 miles south of Bryce Canyon. At that time, we felt that Bryce would be more of the same scenery we saw in Zion. Well, now I can say that that perception was totally wrong!
From Red Bay, Alabama - Friday, October 30thBryce Canyon National Park is even more spectacular than Zion! That is due to the fact that the views in Bryce are from the top of the canyon walls, while Zion takes you into the canyons from below.
Our "base camp" was a campground in Panguitch, Utah, which is about 23 miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon.
While in Panquitch, we stopped in to the local cafe for coffee after our visit to Bryce Canyon. While there, we got into a conversation with the waitress behind the counter. She told us about where she lived, on Panguitch Lake, about 15 miles south of town, and how beautiful the scenery and landscape was out there. She also told us about another spectacular canyon overlook, which was about another 15 miles, or so, beyond the lake. Since it was a beautiful afternoon, and we had plenty of daylight left, we decided to drive out to see this canyon overlook.
As we started out, we were excited and anxious to see this overlook. However, our excitement began to fade the further we drove. We were out in the middle of nowhere, without a clue as to what to expect. The further we drove, the more we felt that we had been duped into taking a "wild goose chase". Since I was driving, I insisted that we keep going "just a little farther along". Finally, we came to the end of the road, where we had to go right or left. The waitress had told us we would find this, and that we should go to the right, which we did. A bit further up the road, we came to the overlook. As we exited the car, we immediately felt the cold wind and we could see snow on the ground at the base of the overlook wall. Poor Charlie Burch! He was only wearing shorts and a tee shirt. Kathy and I were wearing jeans and fleece jackets, so we weren't feeling AS COLD! But it was well worth the trip and the cold! The views from up here were as spectacular, if not more so, as Bryce Canyon. The bonus was that the rock formations up here had snow on them. Our altitude up here was 11,000 feet! We were quite happy that we "stuck it out" and made it to this spot. We have some great pictures in the web album, so be sure to check them out.
The next morning, sadly, we headed south from Bryce, heading for Flagstaff, AZ, where the weather, we hoped, would be a little warmer. Check the next edition of the blog for that trip.
Here is the link to the web album for today's blog:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BryceCanyonUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCJew4t6H7b315gE&feat=directlink
This entry will cover our trip to and visit to Bryce Canyon, Utah. Last fall, we visited Zion National Park, about 50 miles south of Bryce Canyon. At that time, we felt that Bryce would be more of the same scenery we saw in Zion. Well, now I can say that that perception was totally wrong!
From Red Bay, Alabama - Friday, October 30thBryce Canyon National Park is even more spectacular than Zion! That is due to the fact that the views in Bryce are from the top of the canyon walls, while Zion takes you into the canyons from below.
Our "base camp" was a campground in Panguitch, Utah, which is about 23 miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon.
While in Panquitch, we stopped in to the local cafe for coffee after our visit to Bryce Canyon. While there, we got into a conversation with the waitress behind the counter. She told us about where she lived, on Panguitch Lake, about 15 miles south of town, and how beautiful the scenery and landscape was out there. She also told us about another spectacular canyon overlook, which was about another 15 miles, or so, beyond the lake. Since it was a beautiful afternoon, and we had plenty of daylight left, we decided to drive out to see this canyon overlook.As we started out, we were excited and anxious to see this overlook. However, our excitement began to fade the further we drove. We were out in the middle of nowhere, without a clue as to what to expect. The further we drove, the more we felt that we had been duped into taking a "wild goose chase". Since I was driving, I insisted that we keep going "just a little farther along". Finally, we came to the end of the road, where we had to go right or left. The waitress had told us we would find this, and that we should go to the right, which we did. A bit further up the road, we came to the overlook. As we exited the car, we immediately felt the cold wind and we could see snow on the ground at the base of the overlook wall. Poor Charlie Burch! He was only wearing shorts and a tee shirt. Kathy and I were wearing jeans and fleece jackets, so we weren't feeling AS COLD! But it was well worth the trip and the cold! The views from up here were as spectacular, if not more so, as Bryce Canyon. The bonus was that the rock formations up here had snow on them. Our altitude up here was 11,000 feet! We were quite happy that we "stuck it out" and made it to this spot. We have some great pictures in the web album, so be sure to check them out.
The next morning, sadly, we headed south from Bryce, heading for Flagstaff, AZ, where the weather, we hoped, would be a little warmer. Check the next edition of the blog for that trip.
Here is the link to the web album for today's blog:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BryceCanyonUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCJew4t6H7b315gE&feat=directlink
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Mesa Verde National Park, CO and Moab, UT
Thursday, October 29 - Red Bay, Alabama
We are currently located in Red Bay, Alabama, at the Tiffin Motor Home factory. We arrived here yesterday morning to have some warranty work done on our coach before heading to Florida. But, more on that in another blog.
I know that it's been a while since my last blog entry, but we are not able to get WiFi access every night, so I have to wait until we get to a spot where we are able to access the internet reliably. I have some catching up to do, so this blog will cover our visit to Mesa Verde National Park and our trip up to Moab, Utah from Colorado.
We had originally intended to travel west from Farmington, NM to Kanab, Utah to meet with Lol and Cal Hargreaves before they headed back to MA, and we headed up to Bryce Canyon N.P. However, after doing some research on the condition of the roads west, we decided to travel north through Colorado, stopping in Durango and Mesa Verde N.P., before heading into Utah toward Bryce. Had we not taken this route, we would have missed some spectacular scenery and sights. I've already mentioned Durango in my previous blog, so I'll start with Mesa Verde in this one.
Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwest Colorado, approximately 30 miles north of Durango. This park was once home to native Americans known as "the cliff dwellers". We got to see the "homes" they built into the sides of the cliffs in this rugged land.
As we learned, at the top of the cliffs, the men would till and cultivate the land and grow crops. Each day, they would climb the sheer cliff walls to tend their fields, and to harvest the crops when the time came. One of the challenges they faced was knowing exactly WHEN to plant, and WHEN to harvest. It is thought that they built their homes in the cliffs to protect them from predators and enemies. Be sure to take a look at the pictures from Mesa Verde in the web album.
From Mesa Verde, we traveled into Utah and on to Moab, where we planned to visit both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Along the way into Moab, we got some great photos of the ever-changing landscape out here. We have been blessed with great weather since we left Albuquerque, but once we got to Moab, we did get rained upon for at least one afternoon.
Fortunately, we had already been to Arches N.P., so we delayed going to Canyonlands until the next morning. Unfortunately, we had to leave the campground we were in and take the motor homes, since the management would not allow us to stay in the campground until early afternoon (they were going to charge us for another night's stay if we did). So, we left and drove to Arches, where we were able to park the motor homes and take a car to Canyonlands N.P. 
As I mentioned earlier, the scenery and landscape changes out here every time you go in a different direction. Canyonlands was NO EXCEPTION! Be sure to check out the pictures from here in the web album.
My next entry will be Bryce Canyon, and the trip there from Moab.
Here are the web album links from Mesa Verde and Moab:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/MesaVerdeNationalParkCO?authkey=Gv1sRgCIHFk6bYtfTnVw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OnToMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCMX3vYSbpPDNqQE&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/ArchesNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCNaj3qvulcOCWQ&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CanyonlandsNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCp_KnRls6B_gE&feat=directlink
We are currently located in Red Bay, Alabama, at the Tiffin Motor Home factory. We arrived here yesterday morning to have some warranty work done on our coach before heading to Florida. But, more on that in another blog.
I know that it's been a while since my last blog entry, but we are not able to get WiFi access every night, so I have to wait until we get to a spot where we are able to access the internet reliably. I have some catching up to do, so this blog will cover our visit to Mesa Verde National Park and our trip up to Moab, Utah from Colorado.
We had originally intended to travel west from Farmington, NM to Kanab, Utah to meet with Lol and Cal Hargreaves before they headed back to MA, and we headed up to Bryce Canyon N.P. However, after doing some research on the condition of the roads west, we decided to travel north through Colorado, stopping in Durango and Mesa Verde N.P., before heading into Utah toward Bryce. Had we not taken this route, we would have missed some spectacular scenery and sights. I've already mentioned Durango in my previous blog, so I'll start with Mesa Verde in this one.
Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwest Colorado, approximately 30 miles north of Durango. This park was once home to native Americans known as "the cliff dwellers". We got to see the "homes" they built into the sides of the cliffs in this rugged land.
As we learned, at the top of the cliffs, the men would till and cultivate the land and grow crops. Each day, they would climb the sheer cliff walls to tend their fields, and to harvest the crops when the time came. One of the challenges they faced was knowing exactly WHEN to plant, and WHEN to harvest. It is thought that they built their homes in the cliffs to protect them from predators and enemies. Be sure to take a look at the pictures from Mesa Verde in the web album.From Mesa Verde, we traveled into Utah and on to Moab, where we planned to visit both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Along the way into Moab, we got some great photos of the ever-changing landscape out here. We have been blessed with great weather since we left Albuquerque, but once we got to Moab, we did get rained upon for at least one afternoon.
Fortunately, we had already been to Arches N.P., so we delayed going to Canyonlands until the next morning. Unfortunately, we had to leave the campground we were in and take the motor homes, since the management would not allow us to stay in the campground until early afternoon (they were going to charge us for another night's stay if we did). So, we left and drove to Arches, where we were able to park the motor homes and take a car to Canyonlands N.P. 
As I mentioned earlier, the scenery and landscape changes out here every time you go in a different direction. Canyonlands was NO EXCEPTION! Be sure to check out the pictures from here in the web album.My next entry will be Bryce Canyon, and the trip there from Moab.
Here are the web album links from Mesa Verde and Moab:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/MesaVerdeNationalParkCO?authkey=Gv1sRgCIHFk6bYtfTnVw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OnToMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCMX3vYSbpPDNqQE&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/ArchesNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCNaj3qvulcOCWQ&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CanyonlandsNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCp_KnRls6B_gE&feat=directlink
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