What a mess. Getting to Tampa show

[tegu69]

Decided to go to the Tampa rv show yesterday. I thought it might be better in the middle of the week. Wrong. I drove the three hours that it usually takes to get to the area, then chaos.
Driving westbound on I-4, about three miles from the 301 exit, traffic was stopped in all but the far left lane which was moving very slowly. It took me about an hour to go the three miles and get parked.
If I would have known, the eastbound exit ramp was almost empty and if I would have got to the left lane, went to the next exit, then got back on I-4 eastbound, I probably could have saved at least 30 minutes or more. Just fyi.

[minnow]

Was there Wed. and Thur. Lots of people. By noon, you can't move. If you want to eat there, suggest doing so before 11:00 a.m. or you'll be standing in line to get a $8 burger and standing up trying to eat it. We actually left and ate off site both days. By 3 p.m. many have left (I presume to go to the local early bird special dinners). A lot of Class "A"s on display. Noted yesterday that more than a few had sold stickers on 'em. Sales dudes were overally aggressive I thought compared to 2014. I mean they were all over us. I started out polite but most of them couldn't get the message. We learned to wait for another couple to go in a rig first and then the sales guy would latch onto them and then we could check out the rigs unmolested.
Got a kick out the the $85,000 Airstreams. A lot of money for not much living space.

[tegu69]

The problem was that several ramps enter just before the 301 exit, so you have that traffic slowing things down. Then you have the people who think they are in more of a hurry than all the rest and stop in the through lanes to cut in. It sounds like the app had it right. I was travelling with someone that had his mh, or I would have squeezed out of my lane and went around from the other way. The show was ok, seemed like a lot of people are seriously looking at buying right now.

[Crowe]

I second the Waze suggestion. It's a fantastic app.

[YC_1]

If you have a smart phone, look at an app called Waze. I recently started using it and it is very simple and informative. We took I4 to the show yesterday and arrived at about 10am. No problems with traffic going West except at the 301? offramp. We went past that and around the place counter clockwise and ended up somewhere on the Southern side. I suspect the signs leading to the fairgrounds stacks the traffic up bad at that offramp. Just got lucky and missed that offramp. My dash gps was telling me to get off there and the Waze was telling me to go on and around.

The show was nice. We saw what we were interested in and bailed. Their booklets are a bit confusing for the first timer. The two main exhibit buildings are far apart.

[photonut4]

How was the show? We are heading there this weekend. Our rig will be in Bushnell, but we are actually getting a hotel room Saturday night 3 miles from the show and we are meeting up with some friends for that night. We will take your advice if traffic is that bad Saturday.