Another Hershey Miracle

One of my favorite posts last year was The Hershey Miracle where I explained the trip out to the annual antique car show, little did I know I would be composing a squeal only a year after. Like the one last October, the trip was only planned in a few short weeks. Rick Krestchmer, a fellow ALPCA member, advertised a room to share in Hershey. If you recall he and shared a room at the 2007 ALPCA Convention in Huntsville AL and have kept in touch via e-mail. So when he was looking for someone to share a room with in Hershey, I jumped! I quickly e-mailed him and Rick responded he'd like room with me. The next thing I knew I was searching for Amtrak tickets into Harrisburg. I also tapped into the Dauphin County Paratransit system to get me from the train station to the Hershey Giant Center, the middle of everything. It was fine only the bus that picked me up broke down enroute to dropoff other passengers we had to wait for another bus, which set back my arrival time tremedously.
I arrived at the Giant Center to find Rick wandering around already mapping out his plan for the next three full days of plate hunting. After exchanging our hellos we quickly made our way to the field and started our search to add to our collections. Unlike last year where Bill sat with Roger while I roamed around, Rick's goal was simple, cover three vendor fields in three days. Well it was a plan worth following. That wasn't to say we were glued at the hip the entire time, but unlike last year where I basically drove between fields for a day and a half, this year I was somewhate orginized. Rick and I had o ur cellphones to keep in touch.
Rick's a very orginized person, just what I needed to keep from drifting all over the place thus using my entire battery in one day. The "one-field-a-day" approach was just the right way to get to see everything. Well almost because I found myself doing more cruising than browsing the first day. Although I did come up with some finds for my collecting, including a MATCH to a 1933 NJ Commercial Municipal plate already in my collection
It has been said Hershey is the biggest car show in the world, well outside of the ALPCA convention, it's the biggest gathering of ALPCA MEMBERS. Besides Rick, I bumped into "Tiger Joe" Sallmen who manged to get a snapshot of me just checking in with Dad. I also got to visit the spot of Mike Glauboch and Chuck Sakryd where I picked up a few neat plates.
* While it isn't as orginized at the ALPCA Convention, the hotel-s usually sell out a year in advance. So people reserve a room for the following year. Rick put the deposit down for next year when he checked out of the hotel the Saturday morning. I said in certain terms I definitely am planning on making it three years in a row, we'll see what happens!!!

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