Personally, I would happily drive 2.5 hours to a herp show. (And have...twice...and I wasn't even in the market to buy anything!) In addition to the opportunity to cherry-pick from a huge selection of animals, the shows are (usually!) totally awesome!


So, if I were in your shoes, I would enjoy looking forward to the next show and go see if they have what I want there, before settling for a "petshop" animal. That's just me....