Packard Forum Index » Shows and Events

Gents,

I'm contemplating making the 12 hour drive from Atlanta to make the Hershey Fall meet in October. Armed with a map and a gas card I hope to make it this year. I have never been and a novice on where to stay.

Can you veterans of this Meet offer some hotels in the area that may still have some rooms available? Thanks and hope to meet some of you guys there.

Robert.

Hoo-Boy, you are coming into this at the last minute. Start calling around NOW and put your name and CC# on waiting lists and hope to catch a cancellation. The motels/hotels for a 40 mile radius sell out for Hershey. we stay to the east of Hershey along 422, which sees less traffic in the morning than coming from the west. Once you get a hotel room, if it's a good location and you are happy there, pay for next year in advance--when you check out this year. That way you are assured to get the lodging you like every time.

Mr. Pushbutton thanks for your advice.

My first trip next month will definitely be a learning experience and I will plan ahead for next year.

Regards,
Robert.

I have been going to Hershey for about the last seven years in a row. Unless my grandson wants to go this year, I think I am going to pass on Hershey this year. With the price of gas and having to pay $10.00 to park in a mud hole, with ruts deep enough, that I had to use my four wheel drive to get out of last year. The luster of going to Hershey is kind of fading for me.


John F. Shireman

John -

Very interesting that it only took you seven years to get tired of Hershey.

With a few exceptions, I had been going to Fall Hershey each year since my first visit in 1978 (blowing off Homecoming Weekend at college). Although limited finances initially meant car-pooling and even sleeping in the car, I started going solo and gave into a nice clean warm hotel room in later years.

However, it didn't take long for the gilding to start to wearing off the lily.

More and more hotels and motels started doubling their rates during the event, with some requiring you pay for three or more days - even if you only needed a room for one night. The cost of parking kept going up as Herco bought more land and the township worked to eliminate "free parking" within reasonable walking distance. RVs and trailers were charged Herco's overnight parking rate for a full week - even if you only stayed for a night or two.

Yes, I've seen plenty of pig-headed rent-a-cops directing people to park in mudbogs and their vehicles being damaged when they had to be towed out. Mud was an even greater problem as the swap meet fields were expanded into bottomland over the years.

I got past the latter with a reasonable investment in some hi-tech, lightweight hunting boots. I even picked up and old Army-Navy surplus backpack and stocked it with plastic bags to try and protect my purchases. Yet, many vendors would pack everything up early and go home when it started to rain, while claiming that show day took too much traffic away from them.

With the expansion of Hersheypark and - more recently - the construction of the Giant Center (arena), it seems like the meet layout gets reshuffled every year, which is very disorienting for repeat visitors. A lot of the swap meet fields are now paved (making my boots worthless), but vendors still close up and go home when it starts to rain - even those with tents. All that pavement sure is a lot harder on my legs.

Well, I got tired of dealing with the rainy weather, high cost of lodgings and parking, the confusing layout, and the spiralling price of gas, and I haven't gone back to Hershey since 2002, IIRC. With Gov. Swindell and all the other crooks in Harrisburg trying to lease the turnpike to some privateers and make I-80 a toll road, I probably won't venture east very often in the future.

Meanwhile, I've read that the car show is now held on what was once a golf course; while that parcel was good for day parking (and cost less than what Herco charged), I don't think it will hold up to all the car and foot traffic for a show if has rained. (Rumor has it that course was under three feet of water a few years back.) Although I do enjoy a show on grass and the shade of trees on a hot summer day, I preferred the Hershey Show Field on the paved lot around the old stadium (with real restroom facilities - not outhouses), given the generally cooler, wetter autumn climate in that part of the country.

BTW, I saw an ad for this year's event stating you had to be a member of the ACAA to get a space in the swap meet or car corral. Is this a change from previous years? Full-time vendors can write off the membership expense as advertising, but I suspect it will have a negative impact on hobbyists wanting to sell a car or a pick-up truck load of parts. Perhaps that's an attempt to recruit new members, but it seems like some people are ignoring the competitive aspect of eBay and other events.

While Fall Hershey can be a good thing, it is becoming a "white elephant" and a real example of the excessive greed in our culture.

However, I still recommend that any old car enthusiast check out Fall Hershey at least once and make up their own mind. Just be sure to go prepared for all sorts of weather, terrain and expense, but don't waste a trip if the forecast calls for much rain.

Cavet emptor

Robert,

For some of my last trips to Hershey, I made good use of the Internet to scout hotel/motel locations, but used 800 numbers to call and check room availability and price. I actually had better luck finding a room just a couple of weeks before the event, which I suspect was due to unexpected cancellations. However, beware of "recently remodeled" accomodations in the area; those are typically older run-down constructions that got little more than a fresh coat of paint and new linens.

One of the best things the AACA ever did for the swap meet was setting up tents at entrances to each field, offering apples and cider for a donation. A cup of cider sure quenched my thrist better than a cup/can of soda laced with high-fructose corn syrup, and an apple is a lot safer than some of the "carny" food. However, don't waste your money on the meet program that they hawk at those tents. Instead, visit the AACA website in advance of your departure and find, download, and print the maps of the meet layout.

You will find many Packard vendors in the swap meet fields that you recognize from their advertisements (who usually include their space number as the event approaches), but look for Bob Stoltzfus' tent. He has a lot of good postwar parts - new and used - and quite a bit of literature. There may be other vendors with as much or more parts at the meet, but if you don't see what you need in Bob's spread, ASK! He lives close enough that if he has it but didn't bring it with, he can fetch it for the next day.

You'll find some interesting stuff for the V8 cars at PI's tent - more than I ever found at PAC's tent. Also, Steele Rubber usually brings a tractor-trailer load of rubber goods, which will save you plenty on S&H. Check Eastwood Company and T-P Tools for some interesting restoraton supplies, too.

My trips to Fall Hershey got to the point that I had to bring not only a want list, but an inventory of what I already had, and a notepad to record my purchases so I could keep track of things and not end up with so many duplicate purchases.

Last, but not least, be sure to bring some heavy-duty bags for any free catalogs that many full-time vendors will have set out. (Catalogs are all that Kanter brings anymore.)

The fall meet at Hershey is put on by the AACA for their members to show their cars and vend parts. Nothing has changed in that reguard since it started. Car clubs all over the country put on events throughout the year for their membership to participate in. The public is usually encouraged to view their members event.

Make sure to hit up Bob's wife Chris for one of her excellent brownies when you are shopping at his booth!

Hershey is still the big dance for us. We plan all year to be there, away from work, home, honey-do lists etc. to be with 150,000 other like minded people. Maybe I would feel different about it if it were in my backyard.

Guys I appreciate all the advice and comments on the Hershey experience. I have been trying to get to this show for the past 3 years and something always comes up to conflict with attending. So rain or shine, sleet or snow, I'll be in attendance. Especially now with the extra incentive a free brownies :)

I hope to meet some of my like minded Packard bretheren on Packard Row and will walk around until I drop. There's nothing like the first time!

Robert.

Pushbutton: I guess the main attraction for Hershey to me, has been he car coral, and the preview showing for the AACA auction. The quality of the cars being auctioned has been on the decline the last couple of years. Just my opinion.

I have never been one to go to Hershey, just to walk around going through the fields of vendors selling parts.
I have found just like the people selling cars at Hershey, the prices that a lot of vendors ask for their parts or literature are highly inflated in price.

The final thing that pissed me off last year, was the parking and the changes in parking that they made. $10.00 bucks to park in a mud hole, with ruts deep enough to almost come up to the frame rails on my truck. I was sure glad my Ford Ranger has four wheel drive, if it had been two wheel drive I would have been SOL.

John F. Shireman