Today is the last day of the Hershey RV Show, and it couldn’t end soon enough for us. We are worn out physically and mentally, and just want to go to bed and sleep for about 48 hours straight.

All week long the show promoters and other vendors have been telling us “Just wait until Friday and Saturday. This place will be a madhouse!” Well, Friday came and went, and it was nothing special. A little busier than earlier in the week, but still very slow by RV rally standards.

Yesterday (Saturday) the Giant Center was packed in the outside RV display area, and on the upper indoor vendor area. But for much of the day down on the main vendor floor, it was a still pretty slow. We would have occasional rushes, when the crowds were so heavy that nobody could stop and talk to a vendor even if they had wanted to (and most didn’t want to), but then things would slow back down again.

And just like the rest of the week, by 6 p.m. everybody had pretty much disappeared, and all of us vendors spent the next two hours staring at each other across the aisles. When we got back to our motorhome, parked at the Hershey Thousand Trails campground, Terry added up our sales figures for the day, and we had taken in even less money on Saturday then we had on Friday! So much for the predictions of huge sales Friday and Saturday.

The folks running the show claim that last year they had over 37,000 attendees, and said this year the show was going to be even bigger. Yesterday, they said that from Wednesday to Friday of this week, they had just over 15,000 people coming through the gates. I very much doubt that figure is accurate, based upon what the vendors saw. And even if it is a true figure, there’s no way they will come anywhere near that 37,000 figure by the end of the day today. A lot of vendors and show attendees have told us that the show was much better when it was held in Harrisburg. I think it would have to have been, because it darn sure couldn’t have been any worse!

At least we got to make some new friends while we were here, and we also got to see some folks we have not seen in a while. Yesterday, Paul and Marti Dahl stopped in to say hello, and it was nice to talk to them. Paul is a Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, and Marti is a nursing home administrator. They are counting the days until they can retire and travel fulltime in their Class A motorhome. 

Another couple we got to talk to for a while were blog readers Ed and Blondie, whose last name fails me now, I’m afraid. But they were fun people, and they also sat in on my Highway History and Back Road Mystery seminar.

Sean Magee really flattered us when he told us that he drove 90 minutes to come to the show, just to see Terry and me. I really felt a connection with Sean, he’s a very special guy who has a lot of love for his fellow man, and especially children.

There were others who stopped by our vendor booth to say hello, and I’m sorry, both Terry and I are so foggy right now that we just cannot remember everybody’s names. But we really were happy to see all of you, and we really appreciate the time you took to stop and introduce yourselves.

Today is a shorter day, only 8 hours instead of the 11 we’ve been working all week. Of course, then we have to pack everything up and load the van before we’re finally through with this sad excuse for an RV show. Miss Terry and I have an agreement that if I get forgetful someday and say I want to come back here again, she can bash my head in with a frying pan, and then drag my bleeding carcass out to the curb and leave it.

Thought For The Day – Hard work never killed anyone, but why give it a chance?

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.

Click Here To Register For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Yesterday we drove over to the Giant Center in Hershey to pick up our name tags and parking pass for the Hershey RV Show. It was a lesson in frustration.

First, there had been some miscommunication about what the show expected from me, in terms of being a speaker, as well as our vendor booth. Like any big operation, there seems to be a lot of people in charge of something, but apparently they don’t always communicate with one another about anything.

We drove around the massive Giant Center twice before we could find a place to park, and then went to the Registration Tent, only to find nobody there. So then we had to find the show office. The ladies at the ticket booth didn’t know where that was, so they had to make a telephone call or two. Once they pointed us to the show office, we were told to go to the tent. I told them nobody was there, and was told they were there now. So back we went.

Sure enough, the girl was back, and she quickly located our packet. Now the only problem was that it contained the parking pass and my name badge, but not Terry’s. The young lady was very nice, and quickly made Terry a name badge, but she insisted that the mistake had to have come from our end, not theirs. Apparently they are all infallible.

Next, we went down to the main vendor floor to locate our booth space, and ran into our friend Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart. Al brought a beautiful old 1915 Model T camper to display, and he will be presenting two seminars a day during the show. They have me down for my Highway History And Back Road Mystery seminar every day during the show, and as it turns out, Al will be doing his seminars in the same room. According to the map, it looked to Al and I like the room was upstairs, so we went up and walked all the way around the arena, with no success.

Then Miss Terry called to tell us that she had found the room, and it was down on the main  floor, just a few steps from where we started. The Giant Center is a huge sports complex and hockey arena, so Al and I had to trudge all the way back down the steep steps to the main floor, which is actually the ice rink, which is covered by thin temporary flooring. We could see ice under the edges in a couple of places. Note to self – wear warm socks to the show.

Miss Terry was looking over the schedule, and discovered that my seminars are Wednesday through Saturday from 4 to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 2:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M.  That’s going to be one heck of a long seminar! I’m good, but I really think I’m going to be hard pressed to find enough to talk about for thirteen hours! I’d think it was just a typo, if I didn’t know that the show folks are infallible.

We unloaded a truckload of Gypsy Journals to pass out to the show crowd, and then we retired to Al’s Newell motorhome for a cold drink and a chat. Then we all three piled into the van and drove to a nearby Fuddruckers for dinner.  I found the restaurant in my GPS, but when we followed the directions it gave us, we ended up at a retirement and rehabilitation home. Al and I agreed that we probably need rehabilitation, but we decided we didn’t need it that day, so we drove another mile or two, found the restaurant, and had a nice dinner.

After we dropped Al back off at his motorhome, we stopped at Sam’s Club in Harrisburg for a couple of items, and then drove to a Verizon company store, where a very nice and helpful young lady named Carin helped us select new phones. I replaced my Blackberry Storm with a Droid Incredible, which I think will be a major improvement. Miss Terry replaced her LG Decoy with a Samsung Alias 2.

Unlike the pushy guy at the mall in Lebanon the day before, who just wanted to sell something, Carin was very patient, explained the pros and cons of several different phones, and then transferred all of our contacts from both phones, and set up our e-mail on the phones. Unfortunately, while Terry’s e-mail works fine, mine didn’t take for some reason, so I have to give Carin a call and have her try to walk me through setting it up.  Once I get a little more familiar with the Droid, I’ll have more to report. 

In yesterday’s blog, I reported that we had opened registration for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma next March. Dave and Lynn Cross wasted no time being the first to register. A couple of folks e-mailed me to say that they were having a problem with the registration link when they tried to pay, but I think that was a temporary glitch that has been cleared up now. If you run into any problems, you can just log onto www.paypal.com and make payment to editor@gypsyjournal.net, and make a note that the payment is for the rally.

Today we’ll go back to the Giant Center and finish setting up our booth for the show. The show hours are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., so we’re going to be very tired by time it’s over.

Thought For The Day – Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

Click Here To Register For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally!

I’m a short round guy, but sometimes I feel stretched so thin that I just can’t cover all the bases, no matter how hard I try.

We have a lot of folks from our rally who are still here at Elkhart Campground, or else are at the fairgrounds in Goshen, waiting for the Escapees Club Escapade rally to start.

Before and during our rally, and since it has ended, we have had many offers to take us out for lunch or dinner from more people than I can count. We appreciate that, and it’s very flattering that so many people want to treat us to a meal and have some time to visit, one on one (or two on two, as it is).

But, there are only so many days in a week, and so many meals we can eat. Plus, we are worn out from the rally, and just need some down time. And we still have a ton of post-rally work to get done before we leave for the Pennsylvania RV Show in Hershey on Wednesday.

We don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings or act like we are too good for our many friends and readers, but sometimes we just have to say no. In at least a couple of cases, that has resulted in hurt feelings, which I really regret, and which really stresses me out. But what can we do?

My dad used to say never complain and never explain, because you’re friends don’t need it, and your enemies won’t believe it. I don’t have any enemies that I know of, if you don’t count ex-wives, but I sure hope our friends understand that there are times when we have other obligations, and times when we just cannot accommodate everybody.

Yesterday Miss Terry and Gita Patel from Elkhart Campground reconciled the numbers for the rally, and arrived at the amount we owe the campground. This rally has been a real shot in the arm for Bob and Gita, and we’re glad we could bring them so much business, and were able to introduce so many new people to their RV park.

I spent some time going over the schedule for the Hershey show, and it looks like I will be presenting my Highway History And Back Road Mystery seminar every day of the five day show. We’re looking forward to introducing a whole new audience to the Gypsy Journal and our books.

After we get done in Hershey, we’re not exactly sure what we’re going to do. We want to go back to Washington, D.C. again, and there are several things in Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland I’d like to see and do stories on.

We may return to Elkhart to get the next issue of the paper printed, and some dental appointments out of the way. I also have to spend some time in Lexington, Kentucky, getting my annual medical checkup at the Veterans Administration hospital. We know that we’re going to be in Florida for part of the winter, but we’re not sure exactly when we’ll get there. That’s the great thing about the fulltime RV lifestyle – our plans are always written in Jello.

Bad Nick has been quiet for too long, but he just posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Combat Knows No Calendar. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder. – Ronald Reagan

Holding an RV rally is a lot of hard work, and as I have said before, there is no way we could do it without all of our dedicated volunteers. There are a hundred and one details that have to be handled as they come up, everything from a seminar presenter who needs a quick lesson in how to operate a digital projector, to reuniting somebody with their lost car keys, to listening to a rally attendee vent because they wanted a full hookup site and none are available, to finding the maintenance folks to tell them that the ladies room is out of toilet paper. I know, because I dealt with all four yesterday.

But with all of the hard work, there is still plenty of time for fun. I really enjoy getting up on stage, acting like a goofball, and passing out door prizes. Somebody said maybe I want to be the next Saint Nick. Now that’s a job I could handle – everybody loves you, you only have to work one night a year, and people give you milk and cookies!

One of my favorite parts of an RV rally is having the opportunity to socialize with so many of our friends, as well as making new friends of the people we meet here. That’s what it’s really all about.

When I wasn’t putting out fires and giving my Highway History And Back Road Mystery seminar yesterday, I had a lot of time to just visit with folks. We cross paths with most of the vendors that are here at different rallies across the country, and it is always fun to get together with them. We met Ben and Gay Miller, from Coyote Sales, at our very first RV rally, back in 1999, and we have run into them everywhere from a small bus rally in Arizona to mega-rallies all over the country.

Daryl Lawrence, from Lawrence RV Accessories, has a warped and twisted sense of humor, and I always enjoy bantering with him. Another vendor with a good sense of humor is Butch Williams, who is here with his lovely wife Fonda, selling their convection cooking hot plates and pots and pans. Yesterday I stopped at the outside food vendor and bought myself a brat for lunch, and as I walked past Butch’s booth, he just reached out and snatched it away, and had his own lunch! I’d have tried to grab it back before he sunk his greedy teeth into it, but I know better than to get my fingers in front of his face when he’s in a feeding frenzy. It was safer to just go back and buy another sandwich, which I took into a corner to eat, away from any other predators.

One special friend here at the rally is my buddy Carey McGleish, who we first met when he was a student at Life on Wheels. Back then Carey was a total greenhorn and very unsure of himself in his new fifth wheel, but he’s come a long way in the last few years. He was helping distribute door prizes last night, and I told the audience that I had raised him from a pup. Everybody got a big laugh out of that, including Carey himself. 

That’s how it goes at an RV rally. A little learning, a little nonsense, and a whole lot of fun.        

Somebody said yesterday that we should change the names of our rallies from Gypsy Gatherings to Gypsy Journal Family Reunions, because he feels that way when he comes to one of our events. Yeah, we kind of feel that way too.

Thought For The Day – Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?