RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
Top Tips To Maximize The Hershey RV Show with a 20-Year Veteran
Ready to unlock the secrets of maximizing your Hershey RV show experience? Join me, Patti Hunt, on the RV Life Podcast as I chat with John DiPietro, a veteran in the RV industry with over two decades of insider knowledge. Together, we explore the essence of RV shows, discussing how to navigate these events efficiently, the importance of hands-on use of your RV, and the magic moments that make RV travel unforgettable and so much more to learn on today's episode.
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•LITO - ...
How can you get the most out of an RV show? My name is Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. I love going to RV shows. Over the three years that I've been traveling full-time, I've been to more than I could count, been to the Hershey RV Show several times, the Tampa RV show, the court site. I've been to many big and small RV shows and I really enjoy them. Now today's guest has been to probably triple the number of RV shows that I've gone to. He's been in the RV world for over 20 years and he is here today to help us get the most out of an RV show. The RV Life podcast for those of you who don't know was created to educate, entertain and explore the RV lifestyle, and it is my mission to inspire you to get out and live life to the fullest. To inspire you to get out and live life to the fullest. Today's episode is for you if you're full-time, part-time sometime or dreaming of the RV life, and I cannot wait to talk to my guest today. I'm so honored to have him on again, with 20 years of experience in the industry.
Speaker 1:Now, before we get to him this week, on what you Need to Know, which is brought to you by Open Road Resorts. They have five incredible locations. Two of them are in Montana, one is in Idaho, one in Texas and their newest location is in Nebraska. In doing some research, I found out that some of the best months to visit Yellowstone National Park, if you want to avoid the crowds, is September and October, so you still have time to plan that trip to Yellowstone. And if you are planning that trip to Yellowstone in September and October, you could stay at Red Rock RV Park, which is just outside the western entrance of Yellowstone National Park. And if you want to invite your friends and they don't have an RV they have tiny homes there and Airstream rentals. This week's what you Need to Know is brought to you by Open Roads Resort.
Speaker 1:Now what I want you to know this week is talent. Who of my RVers has talent? Because RV TV has a new show called RVers Top Talent America's Got Talent, those types of shows and you could have any type of talent at all and you have a chance to win $5,000. They are taking your submissions starting now. Get those in. It doesn't matter what kind of talent you have. If you go to their website, rvtvtv RVTVTV you can find out all the information. I was talking to Dan Dominski, who is from RVTV. His episode was July 31st, I believe, and he talked all things RVers Top Talent. He said even if you have some cute grandkids, you could get them on the show with a chance to win $5,000. I wish I had a talent.
Speaker 1:Now, my guest today, john DiPietro, and his family have been active RVers since 2003, and they currently drive a Class C RV and they reside in the Boston area. His professional background includes a very successful career in the media business on both the advertising and public relations side. John has worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment, such as Kenny Rogers, neil Diamond and the wrestlers from WWE and even the clowns from the Greatest Show on Earth, wwe, and even the clowns from the greatest show on earth. He has written for many national RV publications, hosted TV shows on network affiliate stations and currently hosts two national RV theme shows the Camper Report Show and RVing in New England with his media partner, bob Zagami. John, welcome to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you much, very Patty.
Speaker 1:We are off to a good start, thank, you very much, Patty.
Speaker 2:It is a pleasure to be here. I'm reading the cue card. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:So there are no cue cards and, as I told John, and I tell all my guests before they get on to record the RV Life podcast, we don't edit, so if we screw up, our audience hears it. You said you do the same on your show.
Speaker 2:You can have all the cue cards and notes you want, but if you can't read it, it doesn't make any difference difference.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, and you and I both like authentic and natural and we are letting it flow.
Speaker 1:Today we are going to talk about yes, we are going to talk about how to navigate the large RV shows. Hershey is coming up within three weeks of when we post this episode, so we are going to help people understand how to navigate the First Year RV Show, which they could also use if they choose to go to the Tampa RV Show, and I will say either of these shows, that's not what they're actually called, so we're going to clarify that too. But before we jump in, your family has been active RVers since 2003. Where did it start? How, why, what was the conversation?
Speaker 2:It's interesting because whenever we would drive somewhere on an interstate highway there'd always be one of those little pop-ups in front of us that would bounce all over the road. So I'd always tell my wife stay away from behind these guys here, because you never know if it's going to fall off or inflate or whatever. So I didn't really have that much of a interest in RVing. Then my sister and her husband bought one and I said, wow, this is really cool. So we looked and looked and just to show you how much of a diversity there is in what people call RVs, we started looking at 45-foot Prevost conversions, which back then were only a million dollars. So we said, well, when we have our first million we'll look at that.
Speaker 2:But as we will discuss today, it is a challenging road to follow to figure out what RV is best for your family at a specific time in your life. And right now, where we've got six grandkids behind us here that love to travel with us, there are times when we could use a bigger RV, but most of the time, when it's just my wife and myself, what we have now a 24 foot Class C is perfect and we'll get into all the different types of RVs that are out there and if I can share any of the mistakes that I've made with our audience today, then it will certainly cut down the time it takes to find the right unit and go RVing.
Speaker 1:Yes, and again, I think for both of us. We love to inspire people to live life to the fullest. I was full-time in an RV for over three years. We sold it all, sold everything, even got rid of the storage unit after a year and jumped in with both feet. But that's not for everybody. Now, when you have a house in the Boston area and you go, you probably go more than sometimes, like you're not full time, but it's probably more than a sometime thing.
Speaker 2:The interesting thing is, because we're located in New England, you really have April to October as your window when you can go anywhere and stay within three or four hours, because they have this thing called winter and it's not good to RV in winter because water freezes and that's if you have an RV that's had frozen pipes. That's not a good thing to have. There are people that hit the road and follow the sun. We haven't done that yet because right after my wife retired from teaching 12 years ago, the grandkids came along one by one. So for 12 years we or she would say she babysat the kids. So a year or so ago our youngest one hit kindergarten age and we were given more of an opportunity to hit the road. So last winter we did the Florida thing and she's ready to go again.
Speaker 1:So you're more in the anytime category. You go anytime you guys decide you want to go, and now that you're not raising your grandkids as much, you get to go more often. Okay, we did talk. We're going to talk about a lot of things Often. Okay, we did talk. We're going to talk about a lot of things, share a lot of information. I want to jump in and talk about the Hershey RV show, which is actually called America's largest RV show.
Speaker 2:Where you and I met a few years ago.
Speaker 1:Yes, we did. We met there. We were walking around. You did an interview with Dan and I walking around, you did an interview with Dan and I. We sat and chatted, we hit it off and the rest is history, as they say, because I've now met you quite a few times since then and we're going to see each other in a couple of weeks in Hershey. Right, you are going to be there, okay?
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So let me just fill people in this year Hershey and I'm going to call it by its right name, because the event does get a little perturbed if we don't. It's called Largest RV Show, so they dubbed themselves the Largest RV Show, the Tampa Show, which is called Florida's Largest RV Show. I have that somewhere. That's also not Tampa Show, it's not what it's called. But we'll get to that and we're going to focus on a little bit on Hershey. The tips we're going to give will fit any event that people go to Any show.
Speaker 1:Any show. Let me get the details. It is September 11th, wednesday, september 11th to September 15th. It is in Hershey, pennsylvania. There are a number of campgrounds in the area, a ton of hotels in the area. It is right by the Hershey Amusement Park. It's on the same grounds as the Hershey Amusement Park.
Speaker 1:Now, the important thing here is September 12th is the third annual RV Life Hershey After Party, which I'm super excited about. We're going to talk a little more about that party, which I'm super excited about. We're going to talk a little more about that. This year, for the first time is the RV Entrepreneur Workshop and that's from 9 to 4 on September 12th, and that workshop is going to be amazing. So Rose Woodard, kimberly Crossland and Jim Nelson are running that event.
Speaker 1:If you've ever listened to the RV Entrepreneur Podcast which I know you have, john, they have such a wealth of information. Now I just talked to Patrick Buchanan from RV Life yesterday and tickets are selling fast. I am blown away. More than half of the tickets are already sold and so I expect them to sell out very quickly. Anyway, we're going to talk about some of the sponsors Airskirts, open Road Resorts, cool RV Lithionics, battery General, rv Center, clear 2.0, photo Queen, soft Start, rv Work, campers News, jayco, travelfy, and Open Roads and RDTV. I am talking about these sponsors because they have helped us to make this event bigger and better this year, and there's gonna be thousands of dollars worth of giveaways. Okay, so let's get back to you, john RV publications and RV shows. How did you get started in that? I've listened to your shows, I've seen you interview, I've been interviewed by you. You're great, you're natural. How did that start?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I appreciate the kind words. My background has been in radio and TV and PR, so I've been on the camera many times and taking it into the RV arena was just a natural extension of what I have done, although I did spend the bulk of my career on the sales side and only in the last few years did I jump into the other side of the camera. This way here I have to comb my hair and brush my teeth and shave stuff like that every once in a while. It's easier on the other side.
Speaker 2:But the thing is this the RV industry, because of its breadth and width of products, there's no one person that really was ever the spokesperson for the industry and subsequently there are tons of people out there. Today they call them influencers, they used to call them spokespersons or whatever, but it was a wide, open arena to get in to just talk about people, plus the technology. Patty, look, you're in Pennsylvania, I'm in Massachusetts. We're doing stuff that 15 years ago would not be possible at all. Right, and the advances in technology are absolutely amazing. So it made it a lot easier to do what I wanted to do, which is tell people about the fun of RVing, because buying the RV is the means to the end. It's not the end in itself, because if you have an RV and it sits in your yard, what good is that? Okay, so you have to use it. And because people drive on beat up highways, rvs get beat up and they need to be fixed, so you have to figure out how you can fix it. Where can you buy insurance products that, if something breaks while you're the owner of it, how can you get that taken care of without spending an arm and a leg on it? So going to RV shows is really a one-stop opportunity to learn virtually everything about the RV industry and camping and backpacking and everything that you do.
Speaker 2:A lot of people drive their RV to a remote location and then go sleep in a tent. That's not for us. We like the running water. We like the cable TV, not cable TV, we like the satellite TV. What we want to do today is give people some of those tips that allow them to skip a few of the steps to get there quicker, because the end result here's the end result, patty, and I'm sure you've experienced it the smell of bacon cooking on a blackstone griddle at a campground.
Speaker 2:Imagine that you're walking around the campground. You've got a mug of coffee in your hand, you're half asleep, you haven't combed your hair, okay, and you're either walking the dog or you just, you know, want to get around, but somebody's cooking bacon and somebody's making coffee and you know what it's still the leaves aren't shaking on the trees because the wind hasn't picked up. It's a magical feeling. Or another magical feeling at another time of day is at night, when you're at the campfire and you look across the campfire and you see your kids or grandkids or your spouse holding onto a stick with a marshmallow on it. Any magic in their eyes. Jim Rogers, the former CEO of KOA, used to talk about the magic of the campfire. There's magic to it, but you have to have an RV.
Speaker 1:And I'm sitting here just in awe because I've done those things and you painted that picture so well for our listeners, because some of our listeners are people dreaming of going RV and for some it may be in a tent. I've met people that use their van or their car and they make it so they can sleep in there for a couple of days. But those magical moments is what it's all about. I loved nothing more. And again we traveled across the country back and forth three times. We've had many incredible experiences, but making now I make a cappuccino every morning I had to have my espresso machine on board You're making faces of a little high maintenance and to take that cappuccino and sit outside and hear the lake right there at my campsite go by there is. To me there's nothing more magical, as you called it, and sitting around those campfires and meeting the people that's the magic of this. I agree with you and I love that.
Speaker 1:So now we're going to talk about America's largest RV show in Hershey and we want to fill in for people who have been there before. Maybe they're going for the first time, maybe they have the RV or they don't have the RV yet, because the show is not just about buying an RV or looking at the RVs. You could spend your entire time going to seminars, meeting people. There's vendors, there, a ton of vendors. So let's break it down. When people say, okay, I'm going to go to the Hershey RV event, where should they start with this whole thing besides buying their ticket?
Speaker 2:Let me give you two timeouts before that, because it's important to remember this. There might be somebody that's listening to this podcast, that lives in Bend, oregon, that says I'm not going to fly across the country to go to Hershey. The principles that we're going to talk about today are the same for every RV show, wherever they are in the country, and whether they're huge or whether they're three dealerships, or whether you're just going to an RV dealership in your neighborhood. The principles are all the same. So keep in mind that we're talking about two of the big ones, but it doesn't mean that you have to go to the big ones. Actually, they're all year now, but usually right after the first of the year is the big show season, january through March. So again, if you're in Oregon, if you're in California, they're all over the place. So take these principles and follow them, regardless of where you go. And secondly, you're talking about the espresso machine and the campfire, et cetera, and so many people that I've talked to about that machine and the campfire, et cetera, and so many people that I've talked to about that, they said when we're ready to retire, that's when we're going to do it.
Speaker 2:Stop, stop, stop. You have no guarantee that you're going to live till the time that people traditionally retire? Okay, and when you do retire say you retire at 65, say you take the traditional route, retire. Say you retire at 65, say you take the traditional route. Your body doesn't have the same capability at 65 than it did at 35 and 40 to get up and go out and do things and to travel. You've got medical appointments, you've got other things to deal with. Don't wait. Do not wait, because there's no guarantee. Patty, it sounds morbid, but I know people that were. Physically they were actually. They got sick two months before their scheduled retirement date and on the day that they were going to retire, which was December 31st, that was the day that their funeral was and they were put into the ground. Okay.
Speaker 1:You're speaking to the choir here and I'm glad you're saying this Again. I want to let my audience know this is not scripted. You and I just said hey, we're going to flow with this. This is so incredibly important and I think it's an important time to bring up. In March, dan became ill. That was three months before he turned 65. Now there was no plan of us retiring and in April he was hospitalized and I've given some updates on that. But I just want to make it clear we were out, we were traveling and that stopped in a blink of an eye. Traveling, and that stopped in a blink of an eye. So there is no guarantee. And again, you and I are both about inspiring people. Get out, do it now, don't wait. I am with you. You don't know what tomorrow holds. So thank you for sharing that. That is really important.
Speaker 2:We had a tour, a national tour actually, from Maine to Florida, called the Do it Now Tour in 22,. Because that was the height of everybody putting stuff off because of the COVID thing, and I said, look, you're not guaranteed next year, you're not guaranteed next year, so you have to do it when you're mentally and physically able to do it. And now, with technology, there's so many because of COVID, because of bad stuff, good things have happened because you see so many young families that are hitting the road right now because both of the people in the family or there could be single family, single parent families that are hitting the road because they can teach the kids from the road and they can do their job from the road. So it doesn't mean that if you're on the road you are playing all day long, you can still work from an RV.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely Okay. So I'm glad you prefaced it with that. That's great. So let's jump in and talk about how to navigate these bigger shows.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Where's a starting point?
Speaker 2:Number one prepare to be confused. Okay, there are so many. How can I say that? Because I went to a first RV show. Number one you got to decide are you going to tow it or are you going to drive it? Okay, some people already have a pickup truck. Some people already have an SUV that allows them to tow. Okay, right now, 80% of the market is towable because the barrier to entry is much easier. You can buy a pop-up for $10,000, $12,000. You can't really buy a motorized product for that amount of money. So a lot more people enter RVing.
Speaker 2:It used to be the traditional order of the ascent was a tent, then a pop-up, then a travel trailer, then a fifth wheel or motorized and then a class A diesel pusher. Now class A diesel pushers are not in demand like they were 20 years ago when we started in this industry. But that's the first thing. Do you want to drive it or do you want to tow it? So if you want to drive it, then you only look at motorized. And when you look at motorized, then you say wait a minute. Do I want a class A which looks like a bus? Do I want a class B which looks like a FedEx truck, okay. Or do I want a class C, which could be a FedEx truck body with a box in the back? Okay, that's what we have. I call it a FedEx truck on steroids. It's the Mercedes Sprinter body chassis that it's on. It's made by one manufacturer, and then the back, the house part, could be made by Thor, it could be made by Winnebago, it could be made by Tiffin, and that's the back end. You've got those things to look at first, drive it or tow it. No, once you do that you've got to figure out.
Speaker 2:Go to a few dealers around my area, and RV dealers are not like car dealers. They're not as prominently, they're not as densely located. So sometimes you may have to drive and just like a car dealer though, you're not going to find every brand at every store that you go to. And the other thing is this Up until a few years ago they all looked alike. They were all white with decals. They were all white with decals. So they all look alike white with decals. So they all look alike. But the other thing on the drivables is do you want to have a gas engine or a diesel engine? And the gas engine will cost you much less, but the diesel engine will cost you more and get better miles per gallon. Again, patty, everything is a trade-off.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and what I like about this road that you're going down. For people who are looking for the first rv or their next rv, the show is definitely a great place to go. You could check out different dealers, different manufacturers, and people always ask this question is an rv show the best place to buy the RV? And what I've learned and John, I'm sure you have more of an answer to this what I've learned is when there is an correct me if I'm wrong when there's an RV show like Hershey or Tampa that's what I'm going to call them the two shows If it is a certain time on Sunday when the show is now closed, you can have that dealer on Monday and get that same deal because manufacturers are giving money for buying at the show. Am I right about that? Is that accurate?
Speaker 2:That's an excellent point, patty, and that's one of the things that I have written down here that I said you must buy from a dealer, not the factory. So let's use Hershey as an example. You walk in and to the right is a gigantic display of Winnebago products. They're not owned by Winnebago anymore, they're owned by a local dealer. So Winnebago sells those displays to local dealers and they're usually Hershey or Philadelphia-based dealers in that area. They're not going to sell them to a national company that has to transport them back to Washington.
Speaker 2:So, consequently, when you go to a dealer and buy a product at an RV show, they'll put a sold sign up on that unit and sometimes the first one to buy it is the best deal, because they don't want to, they don't want to have to hold onto it after that. Now you can't pick it up at the show. It has to go back to the dealership. It's not going to go back to Indiana, where the bulk of them are made, or to forest City, iowa, where Winnebago's made, or to Red Bay, alabama, where Tiffin's are made. Okay, but the deal is closed. But on a Sunday afternoon at two o'clock, when the show's at four o'clock, if they don't have a unit sold, they might want to say look, we sold all our stock the following day. Now, again, depending upon the show and depending upon the dealership some retailers, the dealers will honor show pricing for a week to 10 days after that.
Speaker 1:And again maybe I'm going to you have the experience I'm going to. I think, from what I understood and I don't like to challenge you from what I understood at those shows when there's a manufacturer incentive, so the manufacturers actually give the dealers money towards selling that RV, what I was told is that ends when the show ends, that you will not get that manufacturer money if you go into the dealership the next day. Now you're saying the dealership might be motivated to put money out because there's two ways that they could put money reduce the price of an.
Speaker 2:RV. Yeah, you know what? I think it's on a case-by-case basis, because not every manufacturer handles their dealer incentives the same way. Sometimes you have to sell X number of units before you qualify for a rebate on those, but the dealer wants you to come back to the dealership anyway.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Because they want you to buy stuff from the store, they want you to buy an extended warranty, they want you to buy other products that go along with it, so ultimately, they want you back at the dealership.
Speaker 1:So let's just sum up this part of it. If people are going to the show to look at RVs, to decide what kind of RVs they're looking for, it is a great way to walk in and out of as many RVs as you want. You could sit in the driver's seat, you could check out the bed, you could lay on it.
Speaker 2:You could open the bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Dan and I have done video on this where we recommend sit on that couch in the living room and picture yourself in that space, picture yourself going down the road, picture yourself at the campground, really immerse yourself in it. So going to any of these events is a fantastic way to buy a new RV. Buy your second, third, fourth RV. Decide the kind of RV you might want. This is a great place for that. There are so many different details that you could probably give my listeners as to how to go through that process of buying an RV and we'll lead them to some guides as to what to look for and how to do that.
Speaker 1:You're walking in. Like you said, pick the dealership you like. Decide on the manufacturer. Dan and I spent years trying to figure out what manufacturer we knew we still wanted a class A diesel and which manufacturer was the right one for us. So now we are going to talk about the people, because many of the I think there's something like 80 to 100,000 people that show up at these shows Many of them are not there to necessarily buy an rv. So what else?
Speaker 1:are they there, for we're going to talk about that in a minute. I just need to talk a little bit about some of my sponsors that I hope are helpful to my listeners, and one of them is the open roads fuel card. You said that your class c is a diesel. Our, our Class A is a diesel and the OpenRoads fuel card saves money every time we go for diesel fuel. Every single time, the card is absolutely free to sign up for. You go to myopenroadscom the link is in the show notes and you pull into a truck stop that is on your app and you save money on diesel fuel. That is the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:Dan and I traveled all over the country. We used a lot, but even if you're not traveling that much, it's a great savings. So I highly recommend people check that out, john. I'm going to recommend you check that out. People check that out, john. I'm going to recommend you check that out. And okay, so let's talk about the show, because there are so much more. You could spend five days at the Hershey show and never even look at an RV not want to. So let's talk to people about some some other things that they might want to go to the show for checkout at the show Okay, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And keep in mind one thing when you go to the show, try to get there as early in the day as possible, because of the fact that it gets extremely crowded. In fact, there's a line to get into Hershey that I always take video as far as I can see, okay. But after that first half hour that line is dissipated and the crowd goes all over the place. So you're not going in line together from booth to booth. You get in and go. What I tell people to do is this when you get into a show and there's a line to start with, go to the far end of the show and then work backwards, then you're working against the crowd, so you're not fighting to find the sales rep.
Speaker 1:And that's for the RV side, and then we'll talk about the vendor side of it, because there are two different sides in Hershey.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea.
Speaker 1:Also a good tip if you're going to Disney World.
Speaker 2:Well, exactly Exactly. You go to the far end because most people come in and go to the right, so you come in and go to the left and then you go clockwise. But keep one thing in mind before you even enter the show, before you even start driving to the show research online. It saves you so much time, time and one place to go before you even do the research. I'll give our audience here a little bonus. If they've never owned one before, they can go to a campground, and so many campgrounds today either have cabins or park models or units that are for rent. Rent for a night. Sometimes you have to rent it for a whole weekend.
Speaker 2:There's a place up in Maine called Bailey's Camping Resort that we go to. That has 800 sites, but they rent out about 100 of them where the RV is already there. You go in that RV and spend some time in it, use it, but, more importantly than that, patty, walk around the campground and if there's something that you see that you like, talk to the people that own it. One thing about RVers there is no shortage of opinions with every RVer. They all like to talk about what they own and what they like about it and what they don't like about it. So the RVer has no reason. The RVer over in Site 12 has no reason to tell you something about buying a product if it's not working for them.
Speaker 2:They'll say stay away. They'll say stay away from certain dealers. They'll stay away from that type of thing. So you get to the show, so you find out about RVs at a campground, you spend 50 or 100 bucks, whatever it costs, to stay for the night, and you can save yourself thousands of time, thousands of dollars or tens of thousand dollars by staying away from the brand that. Keep in mind one thing they all look beautiful when they're brand new.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:RVs are like puppies. When they're all eight weeks old, they're all beautiful. Go back and look at that puppy a year and a half later, right, and the big ugly dog.
Speaker 1:Okay, you never know what you're going to get, and that's great advice. Now I love what you said about going to the website. Hershey has America's Largest RV Show has a website. So whether you type in Hershey RV Show or America's Largest RV Show, it's going to come up. I'd like what you said Do your research before Now, if you're there.
Speaker 1:So the other reason somebody goes to a show is to check out vendors what's new, what is the best product? Checking out products, checking out services, checking out campgrounds. You could go in and talk to campground owners. You could go in and talk to product or services. There is a huge arena of vendors that are going to be there. You could go in and talk to product or services. There is a huge arena of vendors that are going to be there. You could talk to people that are in the RV industry. People could come up and talk to you and pick your brain with 20 years of experience.
Speaker 1:People could go to seminars. There's community there. People get together and they share information. It's a cool place to gather, get to meet other RVers. I've met a lot of incredible people while I was there. So let's talk more about that side of it. Let's talk about the seminars that you could go to. So you go on the website. If you're the kind of person that wants to learn, go through and look at those seminars Now. Have you ever experienced the seminars in Hershey?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. And one of the things with Hershey is I know several of the people that are giving the seminars, like Chris Daugherty is. You've got one too. Okay, chris Daugherty is doing one, several on stuff. Okay, mike Stokel is Mr Electricity. We call him Mr Wizard. He always wears a red shirt, but electricity in your RV is amazingly important. There's the RV, the company about weighing your RV. They have seminars there. Now, keep in mind that there are two kinds of seminars. There are informational seminars, which the person who is doing them usually has experience in that field and is not representing a certain brand, so they're giving you pure information about how to fix something OK or how to buy something OK, whereas there are also sales seminars that are there strictly to sell something.
Speaker 1:And on that note, a couple of things. First of all, I'm looking now there is a seminar on how to purchase an RV. So, as we talked about before, that might be a good seminar for people. So past two years, I've done seminars where I've spoken about trip planning. Obviously, rv Life is the top trip planning product out there. Rv Trip Wizard is number one. They are the best. I don't just say that because this is the RV Life podcast. I've been using it for over three years, tried them all. It's truly the best. So I've got to give a plug for that.
Speaker 1:When I did that seminar, when Dan and I did those seminars, it was all about education. In the end, it's the education we did was look, this is going to apply for almost any product that you use. We chose RV Life and offer a 25% discount for anybody who wants to try RV Life. They could try it for seven days discount for anybody who wants to try RV life, they could try it for seven days. So even with the seminars like escapees will be doing a seminar, thousand trails will be doing a seminar I find that they don't push for it to just be salesy.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, hershey has a policy of it not being just about selling something. So I just want to put that out there. But if people go to the RV show and they go to seminars, they are listed there. I highly recommend people go in and plan their schedule. Some people are only going for a day and they want to hit certain seminars. People came into our seminar we did five days last year and it was packed Like people were literally sitting on the floor. It was so packed Don't tell the fire marshal that and then they were disappointed because they were only there for the day. So if you are going to plan seminars, plan your schedule, get to the seminar early. They do fill up. So I just want to give that as somebody who's given seminars this year.
Speaker 2:I will not be doing seminars, but if somebody has questions, One thing about the seminars at Hershey is the rooms are all small. There's not really a good area for seminars there, that where they can pack a hundred people into a room and give them it's a football stadium.
Speaker 1:The place is places in football stadium, which makes it great for having all those RVs out there. Let me just take a minute and talk about Clear 2-0. Clear 2-0 is always at the big events. This year they won't be in Hershey, but Clearstage filters and it is the best water filtration product I have seen. I've used many of them over the last three years. They are offering a 15% discount. They are a sponsor at the RV Life Hershey After Party and there will be our Clear Toil products. That they're doing as a giveaway so people have the chance to win. If you don't win it, you're not going to be in Hershey. Go to Clear2Ocom. There's a link for 15% off, so I just want to throw that in there as we go through this. Okay, so we have the seminars.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about what the vendor area looks like talk about what the vendor area looks like, what people can expect there. That is an amazing aspect, because at Hershey there are like two or three different areas for vendors. There's some outside vendors that are mixed in around the RVs, but basically it's the arena and the arena floor. Now you think, once you've spent $40,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 on an RV, that you don't have to spend anymore. Actually, that's the tip of the iceberg, because regardless of what you get, there are things that you want to enhance it with. And even if you have an older RV, like Truma has a hot water system that you can put into an older RV, trade out your old one and put it into that, so you'll find Truma there. You'll find everything from campgrounds all over the place and again you'll find the same thing. And with every RV show you go to, you're always going to find the local campgrounds Because again, once you buy your RV, you got to go somewhere.
Speaker 2:Some people like to take their RV and plop it at one place. I shouldn't say plop it, but keep it stationary in one season at once and just drive to it because it's within an hour of their house. Then you look at a seasonal park okay. Or a seasonal site at a park that has both seasonal as well as retail people going to it. You'll find campgrounds. You'll find everything from a few years ago. The big thing, Patty, was LED light bulbs, okay. So there are a million different vendors that show up, and these are vendors. This is not like Walmart and Kmart, et cetera. These are usually small, single entrepreneurs that are selling or reselling products that they don't even make. So there's something there for everyone magazine will be there.
Speaker 1:They have a podcast. They have a magazine. Friends of ours really love these people so you could go and talk to them Again. They have a wealth of information. You want to know about a cool destination in Oregon? Go talk to them. You don't have to buy their product. The people that are there are there to chat. We were talking about people leaving the winter, the cold area. I just spoke with Allie Rasmussen from Spacious.
Speaker 2:Guys.
Speaker 1:Campgrounds yes you know her, she's got a campground in New Jersey which I'm hoping to visit in the next month.
Speaker 2:All the way down 95.
Speaker 1:I said to her. I said so. Your campground in New Jersey closes in October. Most of the campgrounds in the Pennsylvania area and your area in Massachusetts close the end of October. She said no, that Wednesday is open year round and my friends at Airskirts, who is a sponsor of the event, they will be there. So if you're winter camping, they're great people to go speak with because they have just that it's an air skirt. Go onto their website. They are fantastic. Like I said, thousand Trails will be there, which is a membership campground. Membership Escapees will be there, which we know. Harvest Toast, which will also be there just acquired escapee. So again, I think we're getting carried away a little bit, but there's so many cool vendors.
Speaker 2:And keep in mind that so many times when you see these types of vendors there, they are offering show discounts yes, okay, and you can tell because you know what the regular pricing is, and say, for example, like Harvest Host, which is normally $99 a year, now then you've got add-ons for golf or other features that they have. It says it right there, like I bought an FMCA membership there last year because it was $40 instead of $70. I'll even look around and buy stuff there myself. Keep in mind one thing, and here's a good part about Hershey the way it's set up. It is a hockey arena. Oh, hockey, I can't talk football. No, football's right over.
Speaker 1:Why am I saying football that's outside?
Speaker 2:I should know that it's right over to the other end. Wow, big mistake Because of the way it's set up by 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If these people came in at 8.30 in the morning when it opened. They need a break. So they're sitting in those arena seats, Okay, they talk to each other. You say, hey, what do you have right now? Or have you ever thought of taking a tour to Alaska? Oh yeah, we did that a couple of years ago, because there's always a couple of vendors there that do those guided tours.
Speaker 1:Fantasy tours is one of them.
Speaker 2:Yes, Fantasy tours, adventureours, et cetera. You know it says that they're discounting at 30%. Yeah, but if you wait until two weeks, I'm going to say but if you wait until two weeks before you can get it at half that price, or they don't tell you about this thing that you have to add on to the price, et cetera. Rvers. There is no shortage of opinions with RVers on every aspect of RV living, of RV life, okay. I think some of you are using that term RV life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some of us are using that term. It's a great term, absolutely. Now to your point. You're talking about beating people.
Speaker 1:Rv life for me is all about community, the community, the industry, the people within the industry is like no other industry I've ever been part of. This is also a place to be part of community. I know people that go to a campground to be part of the community during the Hershey event and they're not even going to the Hershey show. They want to be part of the event. So, like you were talking about before, there's content creators that are going to be there influencers, call them what you want and there are meetups, there are get togethers. There are people just saying, hey, come over, and they do a big campfire. There is a lot of community and I believe that the Hershey Show there are meet and greets that are set up for people that want to meet that influencer.
Speaker 1:There is a content creator event. I believe it's on Wednesday, Double check it. Joshua Sheehan is doing a content creator event and it's just so nice whether it's just getting together with other campers, other RVers or content creators. Again, I'm going to talk about the RV entrepreneur event from nine to four. If you're thinking about being an entrepreneur. You are an entrepreneur. Go to that event. You're going to get breakfast, you're going to get lunch. It is going to be packed with information and the people that you meet at that event is going to be the most important part of your RV entrepreneur adventure.
Speaker 2:And keep in mind one thing with the RV community You're at a campground and the person next to you will help you back in, or they'll laugh while you're trying to back in. Okay, they can be any different make or model as far as what their occupation is. So when you're at the campground, you throw away the corporate titles the bank president versus the insurance executive, versus the plumber, versus the electrician versus the home handyman. If I was at a campground, I'd want my neighbor to be that home handyman or the plumber or the electrician, because the bank president's not going to be able to help me. My water tank is leaking, okay, or my black tank is leaking, that type of thing.
Speaker 2:Every different social and economic strata of life is represented at a campground and you really meet some interest. You talk about the community. On the business side of it is one thing, but on the retail side, on the user side, is even more diverse, because people need time away from doing what they do. 50 weeks a year, they need time away period. I don't care what you do, you need time away.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And again, there's people that are looking to be out on the road more and become entrepreneurs. How do I do that? And whenever Dan and I have been around people where that comes up of working on the road. You know Dan turned 65 in June. I'm not going to share how old I am, but certainly nearing retirement.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not even nearing retirement age.
Speaker 1:You do know you'll have to keep my secret, the point being I'm working quote unquote working more now than I did when I was a high school teacher and getting together with other people to learn what it takes to be on the road. And quote unquote work because I only do what I love. I only have guests on that I love. I only deal with sponsors that I love truly. So I really enjoy what I'm doing. So calling it work is a tough one, but I see our time is again. It's my podcast a week ago, as long as I want, but I guess I should be moving things along just a little bit here. And I do want to talk about dealerships, and I am.
Speaker 1:As people know, I drove a Class A. I was looking for a new Class A. Life has changed for me. Where that goes, I'm not sure yet. The next chapter is going to start to be written For me a Class A motorhome will be bought from National Enduro RV Centers. They're the people that I truly like.
Speaker 1:But as we get into starting to see those colder months, we want to think about storage, because a lot of people are not full-time. They're going to store their RV, and IRVC for short is concierge-level services. That truly takes the hassle out of motor coach ownership. And NRVC started 10 years ago as a storage company and they believe storing your coach should be stress-free and convenient. Their valet team at each of the six locations specializes in managing storage operations. To get the treatment that you want and deserve. I highly recommend National Indoor RV Centers and you could go there by going to NIRVCcom. Let them know you heard about it on the RV Life podcast.
Speaker 1:I also want to just take a minute to talk about if you have that motorhome tire. So, as people think about storing and while it's in storage, maybe it's going to be having some service done you certainly want to check those tires Motorhome tires, absolutely. They will come to any location to install your tires for you. They make sure you're aware of the date code and they do it right. And motorhometirescom and there's a discount code for it. So I love being able to offer that to people. Yeah, john, you wanted to say something.
Speaker 2:The tires are very important and you know what you do and this is getting off topic a little bit, but it's important what you said when you're getting ready to stop using your RV because of seasonal issues or whatever reason, what you do to prep it before you put it into storage is absolutely vital, and there are even seminars there about how to store your RV and get food out, because once you get those little four-legged creatures in there, once they welcome themselves to your home, it's their home. It ain't your home, no more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. You better go to a show to buy a new RV. Is what's going to happen there? Good advice on that. There are companies that do stores, like NIRVC that takes care of all that. Make sure you're storing it properly. I'm sure there are other companies that you can check out. Okay, so we covered some basics on buying an RV, looking at RVs when you attend the shows, checking out different types. We talked about making sure you understand the seminars and planning. You have to plan for the seminars. We talked about vendors. We talked about community. Is there anything else that you think people should know before they go to the Hershey RV show?
Speaker 2:One thing that I think is important that when you're at a show, regardless of which show it is at the big shows have manufacturers reps there as opposed to salespeople from the dealership. They tend to know more about that particular product than the local person because the local person might be seeing that new product for the first time. You can check out the clothing that they wear. It'll say a manufacturer's on it or, more importantly than that, their name tag will say if they're from a dealership or if they're from the manufacturer. I would always use a combo of both. But if you have a specific question, say you're an engineer and you want to find out about the amperage and volts and all that other stuff the sales rep is not going to a combination of, because the manufacturer guy is not going to give you the price. The dealer is going to give you the price, but the manufacturer might be able to help you on issues that the dealer can't. So again, that's a combination.
Speaker 1:That's a fantastic point. And again, being at the shows, I will say that again, I'm class X, so when I've been in and out of the fifth wheels, I know a lot of the names of the different fifth wheels travel trailers, vans. So I look at the class A's and Dan and I were trying to decide between an Integra, a Tiffin and a Newmar. All of those presidents so Ken Walters from Integra, lee Tiffin's grandfather, Bob Tiffin, the famous Bob Tiffin, and his wife Judy, will be at the event. They will sit in a coach and they will greet everybody that walks in. That's what they've done at the last shows that I've attended.
Speaker 2:What's that Usually in an Allegro bus?
Speaker 1:what's that? Usually in an allegro bus.
Speaker 1:So they have so well, bob tiffin, lee tiffin created the bob tiffin special he was 82 for his 82nd birthday and they bring bus number one to the show and that's where bob and judy will sit, and that is a beautiful coach. Casey Tudman from NUMAR will be there at the show. He is happy to answer questions. So when you see these presidents this is a great point, john when people see these presidents, they need to go up and talk to them. They're regular people and that's what I love about the RD industry these are regular people. So if you go up to Casey Tudman and you say, why should I? I'm thinking about this or I'm thinking about this, what do you think about this? He will tell you, he will talk to you and he will. And all of them, all of the presidents, the vice presidents I had the opportunity in June to be at the Music City Motorhome Expo.
Speaker 1:It was the first annual took place in Tennessee. It was class A, b and Cs and IRVC put it on and they had all of the brand new 2025s from all the lead manufacturers. I think there was eight, nine, 10 different top manufacturers were there and I had the opportunity to talk to all of the presidents, vice presidents, ceos, but whoever the top people were, they were present at that event, I actually did a seminar with all of the presidents men, so to speak where I asked them all a question. That was pretty intimidating, but really cool.
Speaker 2:Was that over at Everland?
Speaker 1:It was at the beautiful fairground in Lebanon, tennessee.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1:It's right near the Tennessee NIRVC dealership, so because those RVs went to NIRVC's location. But, to your point, these were all real people. These were all people that I could just have a conversation with, and that is a great thing. So both of us are making the point that when people are thinking about a certain manufacturer, go talk to the people, go get the information direct from the people. Okay, so it is now time for the question of the week, and it is brought to you by Open Roads, innovative Toll Solution.
Speaker 1:And, john, before we got on, you said you hadn't heard of this, and that is my point, because this is the best kept secret that we no longer want to keep a secret. This toll transponder covers any toll road in the country and it covers all 48 states. Now, john, you and I know Pennsylvania Turnpike. I'm sure you've been on it. It is the most expensive toll road in the world. Okay, the toll pass is going to get you on that road. You don't want to have to pay a fine.
Speaker 1:The Innovative Toll Solution has concierge service, so if you have an issue, they will take care of it. The big thing is one price $24 a year. It covers all 48 states. I'm really excited about that product and it is working fantastic. So the question now is for you, john. I know you've done a lot of travel, but I'm going to ask you to suggest a bucket list item for my listeners, putting you on the spot. The more you travel, the harder it is for people to come up with it. And John is now thinking and we should have one of those clocks like they have on a game show Jeopardy, yeah, jeopardy.
Speaker 2:Give me that question one more time.
Speaker 1:What is a bucket list item that you would recommend for our listeners? A place, an experience, an adventure that you would highly recommend our listeners to do?
Speaker 2:Oh, we've been to so many, you know. I think a lot of times you'd expect to say, oh, you got to go to Disney World or you got to go to a big park, find a park in the middle of nowhere and listen to the silence. Listen to the silence at midnight or five in the morning, before everybody stirs, and it'll be pitch dark and it'll be totally go silent that it makes a noise in your ears. And then you say I'm just so glad that we're able to go RVing or camping. And we had that happen just a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2:Where were we Up? In upstate New York or in Canada? It was in Canada. It was in Canada, bob Cajun, ontario where we pulled up to a canal. There's canals all over Canada and there were houseboats on there and we just parked there for the night because there was no campgrounds around. Normally I do a campground and we just parked there for the night because there was no campgrounds around. Normally I do a campground, but this night and it was small town Canada, and it can be small town USA, it can be small town Alaska, but again, I've been to the Disneys, I've been to all the big places. After a while they're cool. Or the opposite, patty, you ready for this?
Speaker 1:one Okay.
Speaker 2:Ready, find a Buc-ee's to go to. Okay, you've been to a Buc-ee's what's?
Speaker 1:an experience. I have been to a Buc-ee's. I can check that off my bucket list. Yes, I love those mornings. We talked about it sitting by the river, sitting by the, the lake. I love the sound of water. Um, I'd like to be in a forest. For me, my bucket list and I've told my listeners before is alaska. I want to see the northern light.
Speaker 2:I absolutely and that's that same feeling of you just have to be there and be present let me make it easier for people with that, because people say, oh, I don't want to, I live in Georgia, I don't want to drive all the way to Alaska, you don't have to. Okay, there's this company in Atlanta called Delta Airlines that flies nonstop from Atlanta to Anchorage.
Speaker 2:How do I know? Because I've flown from Anchorage to Atlanta. Okay, and then, as soon as you get out of the airport, there are several RV rental companies that you can take advantage of. I'm not going to pitch any specific name because I have no interest in promoting that.
Speaker 1:And I agree. I want to fly there. I don't want to drive. I don't want to be driven, I don't want to take the tour. That's just me. I want to get in a plane, I want to fly, I want to arrive Now. I just had a guest on the show they kept talking about. Sometimes you want to be in an RV and sometimes you want to be in the Ritz Carlton, and I get that. There are times I want both. I could do either. Going and being in a campground sounds fabulous. I do have a connection to Fireside RV Rental.
Speaker 1:The owner of the company is somebody I know. I do believe he does rentals there and I'm sure they handle them fantastic. So there's a suggestion for people. But, to your point, there are a lot of rental companies. It'd be great to get a van, the bed in the back, with the doors opened and at night, to see the lights and what you said. Let's circle back to the beginning. Do it now. Sometimes the bucket list is in the future, the someday. No, I want it now. I want to go in September, this September, like next month.
Speaker 2:I want to challenge you on one thing. Oh no, you said you'd like to get a van with the bed in the back looking out. Okay, in Alaska, because I've been there, I would want to be in a giant class A where I could look out, because there are bears that walk around.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, Good point, John.
Speaker 2:And I don't want bears having me for lunch.
Speaker 1:You'd have to take over the RV Life podcast. Okay, valid point. Need something bigger.
Speaker 2:Another show, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, another show, just what you need. All right, so now it is time for the featured campground of the week and it is brought to you by RV Life. This campground is called Beth Page Campground and it's in Urban Urbana, virginia. It is a Thousand Trails campground. They've got 1,034 sites, so this is a big campground. They do a full hookups. They have pool, tour sites, the dog park, all the usual. They have cottages and cabins. This is Virginia's highest rated waterfront resort, so this resort absolutely calls my name Got waterfront, and I love that. It's got a 7.9 rating on the RV Life campgrounds with 130 reviews. What's nice? When you go to campgroundsrvlifecom and you hit Bethpage Campground Resort, you can go right from that page and book your stay, and that is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Campgroundsrvlifecom you can see all the photos. I spent yesterday looking at the photos in and around this. Campgroundsrvlifecom. You could see all the photos. I spent yesterday looking at the photos in and around this campground. Just beautiful. There's tips there. There's a full list of amenities about the property. You could also go to campgroundsrvlifecom for other RV parks, campgrounds, resorts, city, state, national Parks they have it all. So that's campgroundsrvlifecom. If you're not an RV Life member, you can go to that site and get some information. If you want to be an RV Life member, there is a 25% discount in the show notes. John, this was an incredible show Because of you. I so appreciate your knowledge. It was so much fun and I want to thank you for being on the show. Tell people how they can get to you.
Speaker 2:They can reach me at johnd at gmailcom and check out our show called the Camper Report Show on YouTube. And again, we're sisters in that you've got the RV Life podcast. We do the Camper Report show as part of RV Life and also RVing in New England. On Facebook you can catch that We've been doing that show just about 10 years every week every Wednesday night 10 years but they're all archived on Facebook under New England RV Dealers.
Speaker 1:And I will have all of that in the show notes. People can reach out to me on the RV Life podcast on Instagram and Facebook. We have a website. Any questions that you have for John, I could pass along. This show has gone in many different directions, so I will definitely put that in the show notes and let people reach out to you, john, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 2:Pleasure being here. Thank you so much. Let's go RV.
Speaker 1:Yes, I will see you in Hershey in less than a month now, can't wait. You have been listening to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Patty Hunt, wishing you a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.