Hi Jon,
Jon Steiger wrote:
>
> DML meet... Better late than never I guess... :-)
>
> For those of you who couldn't make it, I feel sorry for 'ya. :-)
>
> I had a great time. I'm not exactly a very social person (as some
> people at the DML meet may have noticed) but I'm working on it... :-)
> I've always been pretty isolated and uncomfortable around people, but
> meeting my fellow DMLers was like being reunited with old friends... It
> was nice to be able to see the faces and get to know the "real" people
> behind the e-mail addresses. When I correspond with someone by e-mail long
> enough, I get a mental picture of what I think they look and act like.
> I'm surprised at how often I'm wrong. :-) Its nice to meet the real
> people and gain an even deeper perspective on their e-mail messages.
> Well, enough about that. :-)
It sure was nice to meet everyone. I was just sorry that the weather
wasn't warm enough for us to stay outside longer. Funny thing was that
yesterday the temp here was 14 C (57 F), sunny, and calm. These weather
guys seem to be as unrealiable as the weather itself! :)
> The plan was to meet in the Playdium parking lot at 9:30. Jason and
> Norah got there early, and I was the second to arrive at a few minutes
> before 9:30. I started talking with Jason and Norah, we checked out
> each others' trucks, etc. As each new Dak rolled in, the whole process
> repeated itself. :-)
I found it quite exciting to watch each Dak roll in. We kind of stood
taller and spoke out: "Look another one - YES!!! I wonder who that is?"
> I believe the third to arrive was Bob Tom and his
> son, followed by Randy Drew, then Eddie and Lisa Estoppey. There were
> 5 Daks and 8 people there. The weather wasn't quite as cooperative
> as it could have been; there wasn't any rain or snow (to speak of), but
> the temp hovered around 34 degrees F (what's that, 1-2 degrees C?) and
> there was a brisk wind, so it was pretty cold. We stood around for a while
> talking, checking out Daks, and taking pictures. We were frozen pretty
> solid by then, so we went across the street to a Starbucks for some
> coffee and hot chocolate, displacing a few patrons in the process... ;-)
DMLr's just naturally take over any place, don't they?
> After that, it was back outside for a quick nicotine fix then across
> to the Playdium, which was a really fun time. :-) I was fairly decent at
> the Harley Davidson street racing game, but I sucked at most everything else
> I tried. :-) I tried to enter "DML" in the high score box, but I ran out of
> time, so its just "D ". :-P
It's too bad that you didn't make it back to the Indy Cars in time to
race with us. It was kind of ironic that there were 8 of us and exactly
eight cars. Eddie won that race. I hate to spill the beans here, but
when you and Eddie raced the Indy cars again, I couldn't help but notice
that you were both beat by a kid around 9 or 10. Hey, you never know
though, he may have been Jacques Villeneuve's son or somthing?
> We sort've split up into smaller groups,
> merged back together, and split up again the entire time. After a successful
> search for Randy's AWOL pager in the virtual roller coaster, we packed it up
> and headed back out to the parking lot.
Did you notice that both Eddie and Randy seemed a little unsteady when
they got out of that thing? They're a lot braver than I am :)
> Bob and his son had to take off then,
> but the rest of us headed out to Jack Astors for some lunch. After a short
> detour (and some off-road showboating by Jason and Norah) ;-) we were there.
Well..... we were the only 4x4 in the group? After listening to your
Dak (BTW, sounds like a dream), seeing Bob's red rocket (check out the
underside of his hood and his wheels if they're in any pics), Randy's
black beauty that was much lower than ours, and Eddies blue road demon,
we had to do something. BTW Jon, get me a recording of that music that
eminates from your Dak so I can place a small speaker under my Dak
(hehehe). I'd love to have that sound, but my Dak's only leased for now
and I can't do any major mods. I can't break down and actually buy a
Dak, as I seem to always want a newer one when the lease is up.
> Speaking of which, Eddie, I forgot to let you drive my truck over! :-( Next
> time we get together, remind me; you're more than welcome to drive it. We
> had a great lunch, and everyone signed the paper "tablecloth" which is
> now hanging on the wall of my home office. :-) When we left the
> restauraunt, we spent some more time hanging out in a chilly parking lot,
> took some more pictures, everyone took the opportunity to ask what was
> going on with the stickers ;-) then we said our goodbyes and headed home.
Jon, you really should scan the tablecoth and put it on the page. That
day was truly a great day for us as well. And as for you "not being a
social type of person".... bah! You're no different than Jason and I
are in that respect. Ok, ok, I'm getting a little mushy here, but.....
"Hello, my name is Norah and I have a problem. I'm addicted to my dak
and those who love theirs as well. And I hope to God there ain't no
cure!" :)
> The worst part about the whole thing was going home... As I was driving
> away, I got this sinking feeling in my stomach like I just lost my
> best friend or something. After a 2 1/4 hour drive home, I was
> happy to be off the highway, but I would have gladly jumped back in the
> truck and drove another 5 hours round trip just for another hour of
> the DML meet. :-) We're definitely going to have to do this again!!
YES!! YES!! YES!! Let's do it again. Jason and I were talking about
maybe a Group DML camping trip up into Algonquin. Don't worry about
your non-4x4's, we'll stay on safe roads. :) There's always the Mopar
Spring Fling that Bob promised to look into as well. You're just going
to have to save some vacation time Jon and come on up here. You're
welcome up here anytime you'd like, even if it's not an official DML
gathering and you just want to get away. :)
I'm also glad to hear that Jason and I weren't the only sad ones that
night. We all seemed to hit it off quite well and it was starting to
feel like a little DML family. We really didn't want to go home.
> I had a thought as I was heading home; it might be neat to get a
> DML group picture at the top of the CN tower... Maybe at a future
> Toronto DML meet? :-)
Sounds good to me, the only problem is trying to find parking down
there. Truly an adventure!!!
> I've already got my pictures developed and scanned in. I'm about
> to create a page so everyone can check out the Toronto meet.
> Unfortunately for me, eveyone else there is a heck of a lot more
> photogenic than I am. Oh well, I guess I'll post 'em anyway. :-) I
> believe Norah and Jason have some pics too that they're going to send
> me to scan for the page. Norah: I'm such a doofus... I didn't think of
> this at the time, but I should have just taken your film home with me,
> then I could have gotten all the pics developed at once! Doh!
We thought about giving you the roll as well, but we couldn't as there
were a few wedding pictures on there as well.
> If you've got a few DMLers in your area, I highly recommend getting
> together! Its a LOT of fun! We spent about 5.5-6 hours together, but
> to me it felt like half an hour; it was over too quickly. I can hardly
> wait for the next one!!!
Then let's do it!
TTYL,
Norah
-- current: '98 Dakota Sport black 4x4 CC V8/5.2L/Auto current: '95 Dakota Sport white 4x4 Reg Cab V6/3.9L/5spd RIP: '95 Dakota Sport black 4x2 CC V6/3.9L/Auto previous: '93 Dakota blue 4x2 CC V6/3.9L/Auto
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:11:06 EDT