NEXT YEAR"S PLAN

We kicked the ideas for the next big trip around some while soaking in the pool Sunday afternoon.   What Al did from New Hampshire was perfectly doable, and could be done from several different directions.  What Lancer and Verslagen did from the SC direction was perfectly doable too.  The only change we would suggest would be that if there was someone else on your travel path that wanted to go the travel group could have met up with them on the way and they could have come in together for safety/coverage reasons.

So, everyone who is coming from afar constitutes a "region group" that should try to accumulate co-riders along their travel path.  They would publish their route and actively seek folks would tie into that route so as to have co-rider safety coverage while traveling.

We would all meet up at the Gap Hotel on a slightly longer, more general arrival time span.  This past time we had people showing up between Weds-Sunday time span, literally the entire time we had arrivals and departures going on.  It worked out great.

Al or somebody will likely have a truck up at the Gap that could be used to haul off an injured rider, but other than that we really don't see needing a dedicated follow truck.  The follow truck idea is fairly unworkable anyway as a truck simply cannot keep up with bike riders (unless maybe they are a bunch of slow sedate Harley cruiser types which we definitely are not).

The general time span we used this last time of the weekend at the start of the 4th of July week worked really well as believe it or not there were NOT that many people up at the gap that weekend.  Since it wasn't super crowded the cops weren't all that restrictive and we got in some very good rides.

Next year the planning dates would run around Thursday June 24th through Sunday June the 27th as arrival span times.  Departure would take place as you needed to leave, some of us stayed for a half a week and some only stayed for 5-6 hours.

The group cookout date is the only real stake in the sand this plan requires, and that could fall on June 26th if we still wanted to do it on the central Saturday evening as we did this past time.

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Why this system would work better -- a regional sub group of 3-4 can plan something that fits them better as far as getting here goes.  A group of 3-4 can have more flexibility and create more fun while traveling than bigger groups can do.  Larger groups get difficult to plan for and tend to get a bit inflexible as they deal with more and more circumstances.

This way your travel plans stay small and aimed at your own group's needs, where you stop and what you sideline to go go see along the way should be thought out as we found that the side stuff offers almost as much "fun potential" as the main get together.

What's that old hack saying -- "getting there is half the fun"

This works out better with the "regional group" system.

savagedml wrote on 07/07/09 at 09:32:40:

Same here......... Thats when we are working. plant is shut down and we can get all of our Yearly PM completed on air compressors, back flow preventers and all 5 boilers.

me too.  I'm a go for the weekend before the WEEKEND OF THE 4TH

I'll have to do some figuring because I really would love to make it next year. So I will have to save up the money.

I've been slowly identifying the turns etc., and started it with one song, but if ya'll would like, I can just publish the movie "as is" and hopefully have it up before the night's out. Or would you guys rather wait till I have completely finished the video?

Toymaker wrote on 07/07/09 at 13:03:47:


Thanks Toymaker, look forward to receiving it.

Guys, it should be finished uploading in about 45 minutes. I had to buy the $60 VIMEO Plus version because the video is bigger than the Free version allows. It's about 27 minutes in length. I'll post it when it's done.