On Thu, November 18, 2004 11:22 pm, Terrible Tom said:
>
> I was thinking that was pretty much what was going to have to be - if we
> were to pull off a national meet.
Okay, here's my 3 Canadian cents...
The idea of having a series of regional meets is a good one for anyone who
can't make a central meet. Maybe we could combine the ideas. Have one
designated "master" get-together, and anyone who can't make that would be
welcome to put together a smaller event in their own area. I like the
idea of video hookups if we could pull that off. It would be better to
make a small regional meet than sit home.
> Pulling out my trusty paper atlas - I see that a state like Missouri or
> southern Iowa or far western Illinois - might be a geographic "center"
> of an area. Making the distance more equalized for most people.
The Debian project once wrote a script to figure out the "center" of where
all their developers were located in order to coordinate bug squashing
parties. All you do is key in the lattitude and longitude of all the
members, and it figures out the most central spot and even draws it on a
map for you. It's kind of cool. If anyone is interested I'll see if I
can dig up the information.
I'm not too concerned about the location as long as I have enough advance
notice. Easy for me to say, two years in a row Norah and I drove 2000
miles each way just to visit my family at Christmas time. If we can do
the Toronto to Salt Lake City drive and back in winter weather for
Christmas (once with my mother in law), none of the rest of you have any
excuse about the number of miles. I'll accept excuses about not being
able to take that much time off work, but not about putting miles on the
truck... it's a vehicle, not a sculpture. It's meant to be driven.
Of course, if anyone wanted to fly in and rent a vehicle, they'd be more
than welcome. We aren't going to refuse admission to anyone on this list
because they couldn't bring their truck. It's better to be there with a
rental than not at all.
I really like Tom's idea of the Four Corners area, but I've always loved
the west desert area. I think Durango, Colorado is pretty close to that
area. That's where the Durango club holds their meets (for obvious
reasons). On the one hand, it's kind of cheesy to copy their idea, but
there are some logistical questions (hotels, etc.) that they would have
already had to have figured out.
Another thing I just remembered about the Moab area. There are several
companies in Moab where you can rent a Jeep decked out for off-roading.
That'd be kind of cool for anyone with a 2wd (or 4wd they don't want to
risk damaging) who wanted to try out some trail driving. Moab isn't
terribly central for people on the East coast, but it's a really cool
area. And Moab does have amenities for large events... just look at the
Easter Jeep Safari. I was about to suggest we could try invading that
event, but I think it would be more fun to have our own event separately
rather than piggyback on someone else's.
> Someone suggested a campground - I think that would be a really cool
> idea.
I'll second that. Heck, we use the trailer even at Jon's place, so you
can imagine that we'd definitely be bringing it to whatever meet gets
organized. There are KOAs just about everywhere, if nothing else. A lot
of those have cabins for anyone who isn't in to the whole camping scene.
> As the DML home page says - there are approximatly 800 or
> some registered members - with only about 200 active. If all 800
> members were to show up - or even half that figure, an average
> campground won't work.
I'd be *really* surprised to get more than 50 people, just based on
interest being expressed on the list. But, maybe I'm under estimating.
The only way to know for sure is to start an event profile and start
collecting names.
Tom, I think you're elected event co-ordinator :-). Count us in.
> One idea that just occured to me - instead of trying to get a meet
> together on the weekend of the 10th anniversary - perhaps the DML BBQ
> for 2006 could be relocated to our 10th Ann. location? Follow me? If
> we celebrated the 10th ann. in the summer of 2006 - instead of in
> November of 2005 - perhaps more people could make it? More people could
> get time off in the summer, better weather, not close to thanksgiving or
> Christmas - both times of the year when money for a long ass cross
> country trek, would be sparce.
Outstanding idea. All very good points. Yes, it would be much easier to
make a meet in the summer, and I think it would be much more fun.
Next question... what dates? Do we want to take advantage of the 4th of
July? That might be easier for many people to get time off work, but it
also might interfere with other things people had planned. If there's any
actual interest in Four Corners, remember that it gets really hot there in
the summer, which is why the Jeep Safari is held in spring.
Actually, it should be rather pleasant there this time of year. Lemme
check... high of 56 today, low of 34. Brrr... not camping weather. Never
mind. Stupid cold desert nights :-).
-- Jason Bleazard http://www.bleazard.net Burlington, Ontario his: '95 Dakota Sport 4x4, 3.9 V6, 5spd, Reg. Cab, white hers: '01 Dakota Sport 4x4, 4.7 V8, Auto, Quad Cab, black
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