A BOAT SHOW +

In past years, the annual boat show has been primarily the local dealers and manufacturers getting together to show off their latest and greatest. This year, with the date of the show moved to the weekend before Desert Storm (A huge performance boating event), and a large increase in vendors, and all things related to boats and performance products, this years show was 2 or 3 times bigger than years past.

In addition to all of the exhibits, there were water ski racers competing in different categories and age groups. Bob & Diana joined us in walking through all of the exhibits and displays, including a classic car show, and by the time we made it down to the beach, a couple of hours had passed.

If you look closely, this unique engine is not only twin turbocharged, but there's also two superchargers sitting on top.

Patty, Diana, and Bob admiring this huge boat that had a Phantom of the Opera theme.

This is the type of boat that dominated the performance scene back in my day.

In the classic car show, there were several of these mostly 70's, V-drive, flat bottoms, with big engines that were chromed, or polished to the max. These are what I call "real boats", and took me back to the days when the kids were little, and we had a Hondo, 18' jet drive, with a big block Ford. Mike and Marc learned to water ski behind that boat, and later when the kids were high school age, I picked up another Hondo flat bottom, that was a V-drive, powered by a big block Chevy. We had lots of fun with those boats, and the urge to own and drive another one is still there.

I doubt if this car towed the attached boat to the show, but it made for a good display.

Boats like this need a sign on the dashboard that says "sit down, shut up, and hang on"!

By the time the noon hour rolled around, we had checked out just about everything at the show, and the temperature was rising fast. We said adios to Bob & Diana, and after a few errands, it was back to the air conditioned house, where we hid from the triple digit temps outside.

This retro, 50's dinner style motor home was one of several unique displays at the boat show.

With most of the western states boat manufacturers in attendance, and several from back east here for the first time, the Lake Havasu Boat Show took a big leap forward towards becoming one of the premier boat shows in the country. There were so many "Big Boys Toys" on display, that I'm surprised there wasn't a vendor present selling bibs to catch all of the drool!