Okay, now I have officially seen it all. When we arrived at the Giant Center yesterday, everybody going into the RV show had to pass through a security checkpoint, where sheriff’s deputies were searching all purses, bags, backpacks, briefcases, and such. I asked what they were looking for, and the lady deputy told me they were trying to prevent anyone from bringing alcohol onto the premises.

Are you kidding me? Not guns, hand grenades, or flamethrowers, but booze! Heck, if I was an RV salesman trying to sell some of the crap they make these days, I’d want my customers to be half in the bag. It would make my job a lot easier! Maybe they were worried about the vendors making hot toddies to ward off the chill from standing on the ice rink? In all of our years on the road, working RV rallies from coast to coast, I’ve never seen that before!

Several of the vendors who have worked the Hershey RV Show in the past have been telling us all week that Friday and Saturday would be killer days, and make up for the terribly slow days we had during the week. As it turns out, yesterday was a better day than we had been experiencing, but it wasn’t the killer day they had forecast.

We did see more traffic, and we passed out a lot of sample copies of the Gypsy Journal, but sales were nothing to get excited about, and we were never overwhelmed with customers swarming into the vendor area. But, overall, we had a fairly steady flow of people passing by.

In the last couple of days, we did get the opportunity to see some folks we have met before, and we got to meet some longtime Gypsy Journal and blog readers. Ralph and Cheryl Schey stopped by Thursday, as did Brain Marsh, and Roy Brody. Yesterday Dave and Linda Spindle came by, also Dick and Susan Nevala, Jim Kilpatrick, Gary and Truann Berger, and  I know that there were several others whose names escape this late at night. I hope those who I missed will forgive me.

And here are some photos of the other vendors who are here with us. These three ne’er-do-wells are (left to right) Amy Cannon, Mike Hayn, and Walter Cannon, manning the RVSEF booth.

A few booths down from them, Sandy and Ralph Kinzer were in their booth, displaying Star Lights LED lights for RVs. Switching to LED lights can really help reduce your power usage, and boondockers have eagerly embraced the LED technology.

Now here’s a shady character it there ever was one. That’s my pal Al Hesselbart, historian for the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.

Al may look like a cowboy in that picture, but the picture I can’t get out of my mind is the one of him as one of the Hoosier Honey beauty contestants at our rally in Elkhart a couple of weeks ago. I’ve tried, folks, I really have. But it’s burned into my psyche forever.

Here’s Miss Terry petting one of the rabbits that Flakey the Clown uses when he entertains kids young and old at RV rallies and shows.

The pretty smiling lady on the left is Carrie Freeman, from Round Top Campground in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Carrie is about the most cheerful person I’ve ever met. She’s so happy she depresses me sometimes. I can’t tell you her friend’s name, because she in the federal witness protection program and it’s classified information. Or else I just forgot it, I can’t remember which. When we leave here next week, we’re going to stop at Round Top Campground for a couple of days and get underfoot until Carrie throws us out.

So today is supposed to be the big day at the Hershey Show. We’ll see how it works out.

Before I close, one bit of RV industry news. We learned yesterday that Thor Industries has purchased Heartland Recreational Vehicles. I’ve already heard a lot of comments from RVers about how this will impact the marketplace. I’ve always been impressed with Heartland products, and I hope this will be a good move for the company. It’s obviously good for Thor, based upon Heartland’s record setting history of growth, even when the rest of the RV industry was in a deep slump. What are your thoughts on the deal?

Thought For The Day – I took an IQ test, and the results were negative.

We’re tired, and we’ve just gotten started! Yesterday was the first public day of the Hershey RV Show, and we spent eleven hours in our booth, greeting people, passing out sample copies of the Gypsy Journal, and selling a few subscriptions, books, and CDs.

The main vendor area is on the floor of the Giant Center, which is a hockey rink. They laid down thin sheets of floor covering over the ice, and we added a 1/2 inch thick layer of interlocking cushion mats in our vendor booth, but by the end of the day we were really feeling cold. Today we’ll wear a second layer of socks, and bring long sleeve shirts or sweaters.

We saw several vendors we know from other events, and quite a few of our subscribers and blog readers came by the booth to say hello, including Ed Meyer and Theresa Davis, Mike and Joyce Neilson, Nancy Shaw, and several others whose names I’m afraid I just can’t remember this late in the evening.

We also saw our pal Flakey the Clown, who was tooling around on his Blue Ox powered cart, bringing smiles to young and old alike. I’m not sure if he’s directing traffic in this picture, or telling his rabbit to sit and stay.

A lot of the folks stopping by our booth were either brand new RVers, or wannabes who were at the show checking out the RVs on the market and trying to decide what’s right for them. Since there is no “perfect” RV, it’s hard to find the best rig for you, and going to a big RV show is a good way to look at everything on the market and get an idea of what might suit your needs and lifestyle.

I did my Highway History and Back Road Mystery seminar in the afternoon, which I always have fun with, and at least one person liked it well enough to go back to our booth and buy a copy of my book by the same name.

Our sales for the day were nothing to write home about, but I think we took in enough to cover the cost of our fuel to get here. We also passed out several hundred sample copies of the paper, and we know that when we do that, it’s like planting seeds. Some folks will never get around to reading them, some will read them and forget about it, and some will like what they see well enough to subscribe. Usually a week or two after an event we’ll see a spurt of new subscriptions coming in, and then more will trickle in over the next month or so.

The official vendor hours are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., but by about 6 p.m. things had slowed way down, and several of the vendors closed up shop for the day. We hung in there, and by 7 p.m. it was pretty much a ghost town.

When we left the Giant Center, we stopped for a quick dinner at a nearby diner, then headed back to our motorhome at the Thousand Trails campground. We got home about 9:30, pretty worn out from our long day. But we still had e-mail to check, Terry had to total up our day’s receipts, and I had to write this blog post before we could even think about bed.

Today we’ll be up and back at it early again. It’s going to be a long show!

Thought For The Day -The less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

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With the FMCA rally over, we took in just about enough to cover our expenses getting into the event, and make a small wage for ourselves, if we had been children working in a Chinese sweat shop someplace. Financially, it was just about our worst rally ever, even though there were thousands of RVers in attendance.

The good news is that we made some contacts that may pay off down the road in terms of future business. The bad news is that every negative thing we have ever felt about the FMCA was reinforced tenfold; from the snob attitude so very many of the members exhibit, to the way they run the rally.

Terry and I have been family members of the FMCA for ten years, but we had to also purchase a commercial membership just to qualify to come here and pay them to vend. And they still expect us to maintain our family membership too! What’s up with that! I think when it comes time to renew, we’ll just tell them where to stick both memberships.

For me, the final straw was when a member of the FMCA Governing Board came by our booth and wanted to purchase about $140 worth of our products for $50, because as a Governing Board member, he felt he should get some special consideration. I asked him where the consideration was for the vendors that had to pay double duty just to get into their rally, and sent him on his way.

I think the only people who had to put up with more bulls#&% than the vendors here was longtime Gypsy Journal subscriber Greg Vederoff, who sent me this photograph of his rig after parking at a Flying J. Greg said when they pulled in they parked next to a school bus towing a car, which left and was later replaced by a cattle truck that left him this present. What a mess! 

Okay, enough of that, let’s talk about a fun rally, namely our upcoming Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio in late September. I’ve got some good news for you; the folks from Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) will be at the rally giving a couple of great seminars, and weighing RVs. If you have not had your rig weighed, that’s something you really need to get done.

An overloaded RV can be a very dangerous thing, and cost you not only in terms of premature equipment failure, but also in your very safety. Check out the RVSEF website to learn a lot about weight issues in your RV, and while you’re at it, go ahead and register for their RV Lifestyle Safety and Education Clinic too!

My pal Henry Gartner, aka Flakey the Clown, will also put in an appearance at the rally. If you don’t know this wonderful, gentle man, you’re in for a real treat! I profiled Henry in my Today’s Hero Blog a while back. Read Henry’s story and the comments by so many people who love him, and I think you’ll be impressed. Henry has promised to teach us all some easy magic tricks we can use to amaze and delight our grandkids. I’m looking forward to it.

Before I sign off, I want you to check out a brand new free website called ChatRV.com, which was unveiled at the FMCA rally. The owners tell me it’s sort of a Facebook just for RVers. Since our Verizon air card signal has been so poor here, I have not had the opportunity to spend much time looking it over. It’s got a long way to go, but could this be the next new rage for RVers? Tell me what you think.

Thought For The Day – When in doubt, just take the next small step.

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