It is Monday morning, Nov. 30, 2009, and we have arrived in Louisville to attend the RVIA show at the Kentucky Expo Center. The show actually starts tomorrow, but we are taking this day to find our way around, sort of get the lay of the land. We were originally planning to stay at a trailer park about 2 miles from here, but at the last minute we discovered that the Expo Center has its own RV park within walking distance of the show. So, we are now parked at the Expo Center Rv park with 50 amps and full hookups. I wouldn’t call this a “destination” RV park, given that it is really a parking lot with hookups, but the convenience is great, although a bit pricey at $50/nite. The park is well lighted and at arrival we were greeted by a friendly attendent and then after registration was complete, we were ushered around the park on a golfcart, and allowed to select our “space” where it would be convenient to plug in and hook up.
Since we arrived yesterday, after we got set up, we went exploring, and located the registration area and picked up a show program with the phrase, ” MOTORVATION” on the cover. Inside there is a complete listing of exhibiters, including RV manufacturers and other vendors to the RV industry. There is also a nice map of the convention floor with the names of the various manufacturers and the area where they will be located. I went through the list of exhibitors which is a real “who’s who” of the RV family, and even had to “google” a few names I didn’t recognize. It is interesting to see these names, even though I don’t recognize them, because these are the suppliers that the manufacturers deal with for some of the very specialized items they need to make RVs. As an example, the company that makes those really neat air platforms that are used to move RVs through the factory is exhibiting here. If you have never had the opportunity to visit your favorite RV manufacturing plant, many of the makers use these platforms to move RVs sideways through the plant. They literally float on air. I have often wished I had some of these when it comes time to park in a tight space! 🙂
This morning, when we woke up, I took the pups out for a walk and noticed a very nice Newmar Essex parked near us with a custom license plate reading, “BLUEOX 1”, with several pickup trucks nearby, also bearing Blueox license plates. It kinda brings the whole thing into focus for us as first time attendees to this “industry only” show.
Well, Linda is up and ready to go, and on the agenda for today is a trip to Wally World to pick up a few essentials. Gotta go now. More later. Hopefully I will get some good photos to post. Thanks to Geeks on Tour, I am starting to get more comfortable with Picassa. Thanks Chris.