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 Fall
ushers in the start of another RV show season. There's
no better venue for seeing all the latest stuff and
finding great deals.
As autumn leaves give way to
the first tendrils of snow, RV show season returns
to Canada.
While we exhibited at just four shows last winter,
in past years we participated in more than a dozen.
We would fly out to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,
Winnipeg and in Ontario, we would do three shows in
Toronto, plus appearances in London, Hamilton, Ottawa,
Kitchener, Pickering, Peterborough and some that we
have forgotten about. The shows start in the fall
and go right into spring.
Camping and RV shows usually run from three days to
five days. To this you have to add move-in days and
move-out days.
Move-in day is really something to see. In Toronto,
we have a show called the Motor Home & Trailer Show
and it is located at the International Center in Mississauga.
This show is advertised as the largest indoor RV show
in North America and takes up seven huge buildings.
Each RV dealer plans the use of their space very carefully,
right down to how many trees, plants, rugs, and even
gas pumps they'll need to make their space look attractive
and unique. This past year one dealer even had race
cars with drivers to attract people to their booth.
One year we saw an RV dealer build a waterfall in
their display and when it was finished, it looked
great.
 Over
the past 25 years that we have done RV shows, we have
seen just about everything. We use to publish our
own RV magazine and we would hand it out free at the
RV shows. Have you ever tried to give someone you
don't know, something for free? People will look at
you and move over to the other side of the aisle,
just so they won't have to take what ever you are
giving away. They will look at the display across
from you or go down another aisle. There's the family
that has to have a copy for each person in the family
and three of them are so young they can't read, the
people who come up and tell us their life story, the
people who go into great detail why they would never
go in a caravan, or pay for camping in an RV park,
or how they go south and park in shopping malls every
night.
By the time you have done a move in, a five day RV
show and then a move out, you are dead tired. Many
of the people who work shows work every hour of each
day of the show. When Sunday arrives, the show people
are counting the minutes.
One of our favorite camping shows is Camperama in
Kitchener, Ontario. This camping show normally runs
from Thursday to Sunday, usually the second week in
March. This is known as Ontario's oldest running camping
show. Every year we go back and we enjoy meeting the
people.
Camperama is more like a family show, something for
everyone, but mostly for the young family. Here is
where they can find something to get started into
camping, like a fold down trailer or even a tent,
sleeping bags, cooking gear for the open fire and
maybe even a satellite dish. Camperama will become
a three-day show in 2004 and is worth going to.
When you attend a camping or RV show for the first
time, wear good walking shoes. Some shows are very
big. Do your homework first, have an idea what you
want to see. Take a pad of paper with you and mark
down what you like about an RV you have seen and what
you didn't like. Check out storage space inside and
outside. Can you stand in the shower? Do you fit on
the bed? Can you sit on the toilet and close the door?
Can you sit at the dinette? Is there storage outside
that you can fit your lawn chairs in? Can you reach
all the cabinets in the kitchen and where are you
going to store the garbage? One fun thing to look
for is where the toilet paper holder is. We once bought
a motor home and the toilet paper holder was in the
shower stall. At one RV show, we had a friend show
us a motor home where the toilet paper holder was
behind the toilet. You couldn't even see it when the
seat was up.
Whether you buy a motor home or a trailer, you want
to take it for a test drive first. You want to know
you can handle it and if you are married, you want
your partner to also test-drive the RV. If this is
the first RV you are buying, you want to check out
the RV dealer you are buying from and you want to
go to the dealership. If they only have one or two
service bays, how long will it take to fix your RV?
Remember, you could be making a very big investment,
so do your homework before you buy.
We look forward to seeing you at the next RV show.
Take care & happy RVing,
M.B. & Karen Wilson
Wagon Masters
rvtours@interlog.com
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