Mini Helps Grow Membership

[Deep C]

Admin John does so much more fore this site than any of you can ever dream of. In order to expand our horizons here he has started a nation wide tour of shows to help build our population and bring even more great features to this site. He called the other night asking if I could help him find some help in spreading the word. My answer was yes.
Mini Deep and her friend Kat-Fish joined me today to help Admin spread the SFC gospel and pass out a few thousand stickers...
We got to town and though I have either worked it or had something to do for about 22 years this year it was a changed show. That was evidenced by the locals understanding what a premium parking spot is worth. Barfing up $50 for a one day parking spot was not what I wanted but after an hour of scouring South Florida for another within walking distance there was none to be had.
I gathered the SF dot Com"ettes" and met up with Admin to stock up on stickers and croakies and a couple SFC shirts for uniforms... The buz cut he sported tossed me for a loop as I'm used to sloppy hair John instead of "Curly" of stoogedom...
I wasn't gonna mention it but felt I needed to. John is a giving person and in typical Admin fashion he saw a guy on a OC Chopper bike having a tough time backing over a curb into a parking spot. He was right there to help and in a second the mans bike was in position. The exhaust pipe through the bike behind hims spokes would insure that it wouldn't roll away.
We marched into the show and as they passed stickers, I talked with people who looked like they had unique or nifty products about the benefits of letting our family see them. So that would be the game for a couple square miles of show in two locations to work. Stopping once in a while for a $5 dollar dog or lemonade we made the rounds.
I saw many of my old co-vendors of years gone by. They had that look that I could recognize having done it for so long. That permanent exterior smile as they are on stage for all the working hours of the show can't hide that tired "not another show" burnt out one. Working these shows is brutal. You will have 300,000 people come past you over the next few days and you will be expected to be animated and quick for every second of it... At night when the people go, your ears ring and you can't feel your feet. You eat but not huingry. The vendors develop their own community inside. Doesn't have to be the same kinds stuff. Just need to be vendors... My old comunity had people from the fishing world, boating world, the water maker, the fender salesmen, electronics guys and even a beef jerkey vendor...
It was tough for the girls to grasp what they were looking at on the mega yacht row. This one has grown out of hand. Where 120' $15 -20 million dollar rigs were dwarfed and made to look like dinghies next to some of the beasts they had in house today. I pointed out that some of the real big ones cost more than our entire community of 140 houses...
We stopped by and talked to Wayne at Jersey Cape and wished him well from all of us at SFC. I crawled up Albemarles butt about tossing me some bones since I have walked a couple dozen people into buying their boats. I stopped at smart rails (My lifting rails maker) to negotiate a new set of the improved ones...
We coursed the Bahia Mar venue for hours and then jumped the shuttle bus to the convention center. Another new experience popped up. The bus loop actually had us go through the gates of Port Everglades and a homeland security guy boarded the bus wanting photo ID for every one on the bus. This war on terror shit has gone too far as I watched him pluck two elderly men and a woman from their seats and took them away. NO PLACE DID THEY ANNOUNCE PEOPLE NEEDED PHOTO ID TO SEE A F*****G BOAT SHOW! I felt bad for the humiliated ones and even worse for the poor bus driver when he had us pull over and wait until they ran computer checks!!!
Inside the convention center. We passed stickers and I did some more one on one trying to enhance our member ship. The girls popped on a few boats. "Dad you gotta see this" as they checked out all the latest gadetry. One new item concept I saw was Raytheons new system that hooks up to sirius for right now weather + forecasts dialed in to the gps, Sirius TV and
even the latest SST shots again dialed into the gps.. Amazing stuff...

We worked every booth and display in the place and headed back to the Bahia Mar... For grins I tried to get them a boarding pass to see a mega yacht and was really taken back by the stuck up bullshit attitude. First we must be prequalified and have $100,000,000 at least in a Swiss Bank acount for a deposit. Then we needed to have our own private broker approved by them. Then make an appoinment for showing a year in advance...
That bullshit made me cringe. Hell for all they knew I could have been a rock star or internet mogul with heaps of cash and in a mood to buy... For fun I turned to one of the stuffy bitches who gave me their "demand lost" and told her I had a 138' dutch built DeVries I capatin that my owner wanted to dump and he asked me to pick out a new fed ship. Then I dropped a boats name they would recognize... She went white as a ghost! "Oh sir. Hold on for a moment... Let meget"
"Nah forget it... I'll just head over to Ardell (their biggest competitor) . They know how to treat people..."
Down the line I saw a guy fueling one of the big ones and stopped to talk. "Just topping off the generator tank. Been here a few days. "
I watched him take 1400+ gallons, he was topping it to keep the boat weight even keel. 1400 gallons weighs about 10,000 pounds!
So as the sunset I could see that I had visibly flattened the flip flops on the girls and 2000 or so stickers later. I took them for a celebration dinner then came back here...

[Deep C]

The Dot com "ettes" flank the SFC Mobile...

A quick Half BILLION BUCKS!

More Money Than Many Small Contries!!!

The HOMELAND SECURITY GESTAPO GETS TOUGH ON OLD PEOPLE!!!

Fishing is big in Florida. The front of the convention center is graced with this multi million dollar fountain as tribute to what helped build the state...

Mini tests the functionality of one of the displays...

Just the generator tank top off for one of the big girls!!!

[Stripersniper]

That's pocket change isn't it???

[Deep C]

Take note all you guys up north grumbling about your fuel prices. Thats our bulk rate fuel and doesn't include 6.5% sales tax!

[Stripersniper]

Deep, when you put it that way we do have decent prices up here compared to you.

[Jer]

Great "boat show report", Deep C! I read it last night in the "money money money" thread and this basically a bump