The Hershey RV Show is billed as the largest RV show in the U.S., although the Tampa Super Show also makes that claim. Never having been to the Tampa show I cannot say for sure, but this one is BIG! The photo above shows the Hershey Giant Center where the show is located, and there are over 33 football fields-full of RVs on premises, everything from tiny teardrop trailers to million dollar coaches. In addition, many RV manufacturers premier their latest models at this show. HGTV always does a special on the show that airs around the first of the year so you might want to watch for it. We always hope to see the filming crew, but no such luck this year.
What's this show like? If you are a weaver, spinner, or knitter, I would tell you that the Hershey Show is like Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival for RVs. You can become pretty overwhelmed with a show of this magnitude so we always go in with a plan. This year Bob and I were researching class Bs and small class Cs, with the though that we might want to get a small run-around rig if we decide to establish a home base out west in a couple of years. We were able to get a ride into the park from one of our friends at Colton RV, where we had bought our Tiffin three years ago. Bob Tiffin was at the show again this year so we stopped by and asked him some questions. It's great to be able to talk to the head guy.
After looking at the prototype 2017 Tiffin Breeze (which we loved, by the way,) we continued on and checked out the Born Frees, Renegades, Leisure Travel Vans, RoadTreks, Airstream vans, and more. Here, Bob is relaxing in a PleasureWay Plateau XLMB, which was very nice. This one features a Murphy Bed that gives loads of living space.
The temperatures climbed as the day went on, finally reaching over 90 degrees. We spent the first part of the day going in and out of rigs, before heading into he air conditioned Giant Stadium to find a cell phone booster.
Downstairs in the stadium you can see Camping World at the far end, plus a lot of small vendors. There are more vendors upstairs all around the perimeter inside the building, and that is where we located TechnoRV. We had met Eric and Tami Johnson of TechnoRV in Bradenton, FL last year at the Gathering, and they helped us get our wifi booster and a Tire Pressure System for our car (we already had a system for the RV tires.) Now we were ready to purchase a cell phone booster to help in those areas where the cell (and hotspot) signal is weak.
The booth was hopping but we found just what we were looking for:
This little beauty, when aimed at a nearby cell tower (and there's an app to find where the nearest towers are) will amplify the cell signal when necessary. We have already found it very useful at the campground where we are staying. Eric and Tami answered all our questions during set up, and it looks like we will get a lot of use out of it when signals are weak.
We were exhausted when we got home, but very happy--it was a good day. Bob and I are a little closer to finding a small rig that may work for us one day even though we are not anywhere near ready to buy. We like to do a lot of research first, and that is the fun part.
It looks like we will be relaxing for a couple of more days before heading south towards Dollywood, our next place to explore.
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