"Jason Bleazard" <dml@bleazard.net> wrote:
: On Tue, November 23, 2004 2:32 am, jon@dakota-truck.net said:
:>
:> So, I would probably be looking at flying out and
:> renting something.
: We'd be more than willing to transport your Ram 3500 out there so you can
: have your own vehicle available to drive around while you're there :-).
Hehehe! In front of your travel trailer no doubt? You are too
kind. ;-) That might run counter to my attempt to keep the mileage
down on that truck. :-) I've got an excel spreadsheet set up where
I log the mileage and it estimates how long before or after the
7 year mark my warranty will expire. (Trying to get it to expire
based on time, rather than the mileage.) :-) A trip that long
would result in quite a bit of downtime to compensate. ;-)
:> or if we were in the Moab area one of
:> those Jeeps Jason was talking about would be cool, especially if
:> we were going to do any trail riding.
: Well, I just did a Google search for Moab Jeep rental and found at least 5
: different companies. Not much in the way of official web sites, they're
: mostly listed on travel guides. I thought there were only 2, so obviously
: it's a booming business. Even the Thrifty in Moab rents Wranglers.
Exxxxcellent. :-)
:> Camping sounds like a good money saving idea to me. :-)
:> Obviously I wouldn't be able to pack in much if I were flying in,
:> but doing some "bare bones" camping could be fun. Would be nice
:> to have access to a shower at some point though.
: We'll have our trailer, feel free to stow some gear in it before we leave.
: And, if we're camping someplace with trailer hookups, you can use the
: tiny closet shower as well.
Schweet. Thanks! :-) (Heh - you should set up a turnstyle
with a donation can, perhaps you can recoup your gas expenses
by selling showers. :-) Or if you're feeling REALLY motivated,
open the RV up as a chuck wagon and Norah can whip up batches
of her "Awesome Spaghetti". ;-)
:> I have this mental picture of a bunch of Daks parked in a
:> picturesque forest setting, with a waterfall, up in the mountains,
:> and tents all over. Would be cool to get into a national park or
:> something somewhere to set up a "base camp" like that. Maybe
:> someplace where we could do some trail riding, possibly even some
:> hiking or orienteering, etc.
: That would be cool. I prefer an organized campground with water and
: electricity, but we can go self-contained with the trailer if need be.
: There just won't be much showering.
Hmm, yeah, it would be cool to find a place that might have both.
I haven't done much camping so I probably don't have an accurate
mental picture, but I am picturing any place that would have hookups
to look sort of like a mobile home park, lots of pavement, trailers
packed in there, screaming kids... :-)
: There's a huge amount of public land out west where you can just find a
: flat spot and pitch a tent, if that's your thing. I've done it many
: times, but that was when I was young and didn't ache in the morning after
: sleeping on the ground.
That's more the mental picture I had. :-) (You know, like
in all those Nissan/Toyota/whatever ads where people just drive
places and pitch a tent.) ;-)
:> perhaps with this being a relatively
:> big milestone year on the DML, we will stand a chance. :-)
: Plus I think it's good that we're giving ourselves lots of time to get it
: organized. IIRC, when this sort of thing has come up in the past it was
: usually about February or March of the year in question.
Definitely. I'm already getting excited about it. Doing it
this far in advance, hopefully will allow people to work their
other plans around this event, instead of the other way around.
:> I agree that it would be good to get an event profile going
:> and start collecting names and such to gauge interest. This
:> also brought another thought to mind. I suspect that as we
:> discuss the idea, certain locations will be suggested, and
:> there will no doubt be several different ideas that will
:> materialize about what the meet should be, and where it should
:> be held. I don't know if this would be worthwhile or not, but
:> should such a group of potential meets materialize, we could use
:> the same system that we use for voting for the DML Calendar for
:> the meet.
: Good idea. Maybe we should gather together every idea that anyone has,
: then do a multi-stage voting process to narrow it down. Start with any
: weird idea, be it Hawaii or Jon's backyard. Then take the top half or so
: as the serious suggestions and vote again on those. Just a thought, I
: wouldn't want anyone to hold off on nominating a location because they
: think it wouldn't be popular. Who knows? Maybe we haven't thought of
: something that would turn out to be really cool.
Yep, I like the idea of a multi-step process, as opposed to just
one. Perhaps we need to have a similar sort of process based on what
events/activities people would like to participate in, independent of
a particular location? Then it would be a matter of finding a location
that met all/most of the popular ones? I dunno, haven't given it a
huge amount of thought, just thinking out loud here.
:> I'm inclined to think that the 4th of July area is probably not
:> the best time, based simply on my BBQ experience. That's the main
:> reason the BBQ was moved to the end of July; I used to have it the
:> first weekend, which was the July 4 weekend, and it just seemed to
:> conflict with too many people's July 4 plans. The second weekend is
:> of course Carlisle, and you wouldn't want to compete with that.
:> Another time to avoid is the 2nd weekend in August as that is
:> the Mopar Nats.
: I think we'll need to determine a location first. If we're going to be up
: in the Rocky Mountains, July or August is the best bet. If we're going to
: be more in the desert area, we do not want to be there in August. April
: or May would be better. Trust me, we spent a couple of July 4 holidays at
: Lake Powell, it was over 100 there by that time.
Good point. Probably makes sense to nail down a location before
a timeframe since the climates can be so varied.
:> It is *probably* a mistake to make a long event like this be about
:> one type of thing. For example, going to the drag strip for a day is
:> cool, but most people probably wouldn't want to go there 10 days in a
:> row. :-) The same could be said for offroading, from the perspective
:> of the drag racers. (Though perhaps to a lesser extent, since at
:> least with offroading, the scenery changes.) :-)
: Good point. I tend to forget about that. I could go camp out for the
: entire summer and probably never get bored, but I have a pretty high
: tolerance for just sitting around in a hammock looking at the scenery.
Yep, I do tend to like to cram as much in as possible in general,
but I can definitely kick it down into a "take 'er all in" mode. :-)
Just depends on what sort of experience we want it to be I guess. (And
if we have optional side groups and events, it could almost be tailored
to someone's own preference - if they want to go out and do and see
everything, they can do that, if they want to sit around and soak it
all in, that's doable also.) :-)
:> Oh, and before I forget - if such an event comes off, we'll have
:> to be sure to get a group photo, of Daks and of DMLers - good DML
:> Calendar fodder. :-)
: Only one? I was thinking several hundred :-).
That'll work. (I must remember to pack additional batteries
for the digital camera.) :-)
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 1970 Barracuda - 1990 Dakota 'vert - 1992 Ram 4x4 - 1996 Dakota |
| 1996 Intruder 1400 - 1996 Kolb FireFly - 2001 Ram QC 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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