Tampa, Florida -- Clanking pipes, street barricades being removed, and protective particle boards taken off vulnerable windows are all part of the sights and sounds of Tampa returning to normal, now that the 2012 Republican National Convention has come to an end.
Marc Sanderson is picking up generators, light towers, water trailers and the small equipment around the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
"It is a big mess, because there is equipment all around and in certain areas, it's hard getting what you have to get," he says.
It's not just the streets that are being brought back to how they looked before the RNC; work is ongoing to revert the Tampa Bay Times Forum back to how it was before the convention.
According to Ken Jones of the Tampa Bay Host Committee, it could take workers as many as 10 days to get the Forum back to how it used to look. Jones says he got special orders from Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
"We were talking and he said, 'I hope you put this back together the way you found it.'"
Jones responds, "Of course we will. Every convention center, every forum we do business in, once we leave, it all goes back together perfectly."
Things are slowly but surely coming back together. City Hall is open, although the county building still closed. Lady Justice in front of the courthouse is losing the protective coating, but the police memorial is still covered. The return to normalcy is a welcome sight.
Allen Canady, who was driving through downtown says, "I'm glad to see the city is back to normal. Everybody can get where they need to be without problems."
And most people we talked to are pleased the convention came and just as pleased it is gone.
Marc Sanderson says from the cab of his truck, "Everybody had a good time and is happy. I hope everybody made money everywhere, but like I said, it was a big headache."