Has a roadmeet ever been completely ruined for a majority of participants?
I almost killed all of the occupants of my van during the Seattle roadmeet in October. I was merging onto I-5 during the rain and the Sienna started to lose control. Steve (Alps) grabbed onto the ceiling of the car (or something) and Kacie Jane in the middle was actually pretty calm, but his two friends in the rear were losing it (so far as I remember).
So, it wasn't ruined, but it was damn close.
I heard somebody farted at one of the meets in Kentucky and ruined it for everyone.
Quote from: bugo on January 27, 2015, 02:55:57 AM
I heard somebody farted at one of the meets in Kentucky and ruined it for everyone.
At each roadmeet I've been to, the number of bunker blasts I've detected has doubled from the previous meet. The Huntington/Ashland meet had 1, the Cincinnati meet had 2, the St. Louis meet had 4.
All were hilarious.
Quote from: jakeroot on January 27, 2015, 02:41:04 AM
I almost killed all of the occupants of my van during the Seattle roadmeet in October. I was merging onto I-5 during the rain and the Sienna started to lose control. Steve (Alps) grabbed onto the ceiling of the car (or something) and Kacie Jane in the middle was actually pretty calm, but his two friends in the rear were losing it (so far as I remember).
So, it wasn't ruined, but it was damn close.
At one of the roadmeets I was at - I'm not going to say which one - I almost threw up all over the inside of the car. We were pulling into a business, and the driver jerked the car suddenly because he got mad at a joke that someone else told.
I'd been warning people in the hour or so leading up to this that I was getting carsick, but this warning was to no avail.
This wasn't a roadmeet, but a few years ago I flew from Fargo to Tulsa with a layover in Chicago. Despite taking several Dramamine and a quarter bar of Xanax, I nearly puked when the plane suddenly slowed down when getting ready to land at O'Hare. I mean NEARLY puked. I don't know how I kept from ralphing all over the plane. During the layover, I ate something and took another quarter bar and a handful of Dramamine and had no problems when I landed at TUL.
At the Youngstown meet a few years ago, the chosen lunch location was in fact not open for lunch, so we found an alternative restaurant.
I've also attended some rainy meets (Chattanooga 2013 is probably the wettest one I've been to), but never been to one that was a total washout.
On an individual basis, my two worst incidents occurred in 2013. I got deathly ill at the Portsmouth, NH meet. I'm not sure what happened, but it's possible I was adjusting to a new medication I'd started just a couple of days prior. And then I had car trouble on the way to Wichita later that year.
Quote from: jakeroot on January 27, 2015, 02:41:04 AM
I almost killed all of the occupants of my van during the Seattle roadmeet in October. I was merging onto I-5 during the rain and the Sienna started to lose control. Steve (Alps) grabbed onto the ceiling of the car (or something) and Kacie Jane in the middle was actually pretty calm, but his two friends in the rear were losing it (so far as I remember).
So, it wasn't ruined, but it was damn close.
That's how I feel when my 19 year old is driving
I'm sure I said something wrong or just insanely stupid at the meets I went to and ruined it for everyone else! :-)
Every road meet seems to have a strange thing happen to it.
Most "ruined": St. Louis, 2014. After viewing the new I-70 bridge from a dicey area near downtown St. Louis, we attempted to get to an ice cream place way on the SW side of St. Louis. Several of us didn't make it due to traffic. I had to pull out every Chicago trick to get through that crap and almost got there (I-44 & Hampton). We toured I-170 to get back to the Chain of Rocks (where one of our vehicles already was). We met the others there, and a certain commenter here ran off with three others almost immediately (before the host arrived). It got screwier after that. We tried to make a ferry across the Illinois River. I made the turn after missing it with another vehicle. Two other cars drove on to Hardin. We went through Calhoun County, Illinois, and then across the Mississippi River ferry before going back to Collinsville, Illinois.
Port Huron/Sarnia was done in and out of the rain. That included a massive downpour at one stop.
I lost someone at the Starved Rock meet between the Starved Rock Lodge at the top of the bluff and the parking lot at the bottom of the bluff.
Quote from: Brandon on January 27, 2015, 02:15:05 PM
Most "ruined": St. Louis, 2014. After viewing the new I-70 bridge from a dicey area near downtown St. Louis, we attempted to get to an ice cream place way on the SW side of St. Louis. Several of us didn't make it due to traffic. I had to pull out every Chicago trick to get through that crap and almost got there (I-44 & Hampton). We toured I-170 to get back to the Chain of Rocks (where one of our vehicles already was). We met the others there, and a certain commenter here ran off with three others almost immediately (before the host arrived). It got screwier after that. We tried to make a ferry across the Illinois River. I made the turn after missing it with another vehicle. Two other cars drove on to Hardin. We went through Calhoun County, Illinois, and then across the Mississippi River ferry before going back to Collinsville, Illinois.
I thought this meet went really well, but it turned into sort of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" meet after we did the part just north of downtown.
After all, this was the roadmeet to end all roadmeets.
QuoteI lost someone at the Starved Rock meet between the Starved Rock Lodge at the top of the bluff and the parking lot at the bottom of the bluff.
During the 2013 Cincinnati meet, one of the cars in our motorcade disappeared without a trace. A few days later, they finally turned up. I think they said they had a family emergency or something.
Quote from: bandit957 on January 27, 2015, 02:32:41 PM
Quote from: Brandon on January 27, 2015, 02:15:05 PM
Most "ruined": St. Louis, 2014. After viewing the new I-70 bridge from a dicey area near downtown St. Louis, we attempted to get to an ice cream place way on the SW side of St. Louis. Several of us didn't make it due to traffic. I had to pull out every Chicago trick to get through that crap and almost got there (I-44 & Hampton). We toured I-170 to get back to the Chain of Rocks (where one of our vehicles already was). We met the others there, and a certain commenter here ran off with three others almost immediately (before the host arrived). It got screwier after that. We tried to make a ferry across the Illinois River. I made the turn after missing it with another vehicle. Two other cars drove on to Hardin. We went through Calhoun County, Illinois, and then across the Mississippi River ferry before going back to Collinsville, Illinois.
I thought this meet went really well, but it turned into sort of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" meet after we did the part just north of downtown.
After all, this was the roadmeet to end all roadmeets.
It was very poorly planned (Sorry, Pha, but it was) but we made it into something great. I wish that everybody had stopped at the CoR bridge because it was the highlight of the meet. We could all walk around and stretch our legs and talk to each other without being cooped up in a car. But some of the cars headed to cross some stupid ferry or something and left us behind. Their loss.
Quote from: bandit957 on January 27, 2015, 02:32:41 PM
Quote from: Brandon on January 27, 2015, 02:15:05 PM
Most "ruined": St. Louis, 2014. After viewing the new I-70 bridge from a dicey area near downtown St. Louis, we attempted to get to an ice cream place way on the SW side of St. Louis. Several of us didn't make it due to traffic. I had to pull out every Chicago trick to get through that crap and almost got there (I-44 & Hampton). We toured I-170 to get back to the Chain of Rocks (where one of our vehicles already was). We met the others there, and a certain commenter here ran off with three others almost immediately (before the host arrived). It got screwier after that. We tried to make a ferry across the Illinois River. I made the turn after missing it with another vehicle. Two other cars drove on to Hardin. We went through Calhoun County, Illinois, and then across the Mississippi River ferry before going back to Collinsville, Illinois.
I thought this meet went really well, but it turned into sort of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" meet after we did the part just north of downtown.
After all, this was the roadmeet to end all roadmeets.
Hence my "ruined" in quotes. The original itinerary was ruined, but it got somewhat epic after that. Hell, we took two carferry rides and went through the most Appalachian of Illinois counties.
The Columbus meet (sometime in '05—'10 inclusive) tour got interrupted by heavy rain. We stopped at McDonald's in Hilliard to wait it out; at least a couple of people got drenched running in to use the bathroom there.
Quote from: Brandon on January 27, 2015, 02:15:05 PM
Every road meet seems to have a strange thing happen to it.
Most "ruined": St. Louis, 2014. After viewing the new I-70 bridge from a dicey area near downtown St. Louis, we attempted to get to an ice cream place way on the SW side of St. Louis.
"I must go to THIS ice cream place across town"
I have to admit Chattanooga was a complete wash out, my roadmeet last March had weatehr issues to as it was unusually cold and windy for middle Tennessee in March but overall it worked out good. And despite the cluster that was St Louis last year, it was still a fun meet :-)
Quoteand a certain commenter here ran off with three others almost immediately
I was kidnapped!
Quote from: texaskdog on January 27, 2015, 05:04:53 PM
Quote from: Brandon on January 27, 2015, 02:15:05 PM
Every road meet seems to have a strange thing happen to it.
Most "ruined": St. Louis, 2014. After viewing the new I-70 bridge from a dicey area near downtown St. Louis, we attempted to get to an ice cream place way on the SW side of St. Louis.
"I must go to THIS ice cream place across town"
Was it Ted Drewes?
The Flint roadmeet was ostensibly ruined when the host didn't show up and no one knew the plans, but they improvised and turned it into a Dead Flint meet, so it wasn't really ruined. I think that even when a meet is "ruined" as far as the driving goes, it's the people that you have at the meet that turn it into a good time regardless.
Looking back, there was another road meet that for me I had to cancel going even though I had the time off from work and was even going to set up at a small toy show the next day, this was the first St Louis Road Meet back in April 2008, my father in law passed away and Steph and I were in central PA for 2 weeks, but a silver lining came when Steph and I were able to go to Doug Kerr's Hartford, CT road meet the next weekend.
Quote from: jpi on January 27, 2015, 06:26:21 PM
I have to admit Chattanooga was a complete wash out, my roadmeet last March had weatehr issues to as it was unusually cold and windy for middle Tennessee in March but overall it worked out good. And despite the cluster that was St Louis last year, it was still a fun meet :-)
The 2014 St. Louis meet turned out to be a great time, despite the issues that happened during the course of the meet.
Quote from: Alps on January 27, 2015, 11:07:39 PM
The Flint roadmeet was ostensibly ruined when the host didn't show up and no one knew the plans, but they improvised and turned it into a Dead Flint meet, so it wasn't really ruined. I think that even when a meet is "ruined" as far as the driving goes, it's the people that you have at the meet that turn it into a good time regardless.
Was it Michael Moore?
Quote from: texaskdog on January 28, 2015, 08:13:26 AM
Quote from: Alps on January 27, 2015, 11:07:39 PM
The Flint roadmeet was ostensibly ruined when the host didn't show up and no one knew the plans, but they improvised and turned it into a Dead Flint meet, so it wasn't really ruined. I think that even when a meet is "ruined" as far as the driving goes, it's the people that you have at the meet that turn it into a good time regardless.
Was it Michael Moore?
No, we visited two dead malls and did some ruin pr0n drives of Flint.
Slightly OT, but for some reason I have been wondering if the goat sighting on the 2013 Pikeville meet was the beginning of the end of Alanland. (or ruining I should say)
Not really "ruined", but I recall one meet (Laura's ICC meet IIRC) where the restaurant we intended to eat at was closed, so we had to do a spot improvisation.
Quote from: froggie on January 28, 2015, 11:05:28 AM
Not really "ruined", but I recall one meet (Laura's ICC meet IIRC) where the restaurant we intended to eat at was closed, so we had to do a spot improvisation.
We did similar at the recent Cape May meet; no big deal since there was an alternative place that was open within walking distance.
Quote from: froggie on January 28, 2015, 11:05:28 AM
Not really "ruined", but I recall one meet (Laura's ICC meet IIRC) where the restaurant we intended to eat at was closed, so we had to do a spot improvisation.
This is what happened at Youngstown a few years ago, so it's interesting to know that it has happened more than once.
Quote from: Alps on January 27, 2015, 11:07:39 PM
The Flint roadmeet was ostensibly ruined when the host didn't show up and no one knew the plans, but they improvised and turned it into a Dead Flint meet, so it wasn't really ruined. I think that even when a meet is "ruined" as far as the driving goes, it's the people that you have at the meet that turn it into a good time regardless.
Something similar happened at the most recent Dayton meet.
Can't say it was ruined, but there was a minor fender bender during the December 2002 Queens meet involving Doug Kerr's Justly Famous CR-V™.
Quote from: hbelkins on January 28, 2015, 01:26:13 PMso it's interesting to know that it has happened more than once.
QuoteWe improvised, we adapted, we overcame!
-Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway :sombrero:
Quote from: NJRoadfan on January 28, 2015, 06:22:22 PM
Can't say it was ruined, but there was a minor fender bender during the December 2002 Queens meet involving Doug Kerr's Justly Famous CR-V™.
Also had one during the most recent State College, Pa. meet. One of the drivers was Oscar Voss but I can't remember the other driver.
Quote from: hbelkins on January 28, 2015, 08:10:48 PM
Quote from: NJRoadfan on January 28, 2015, 06:22:22 PM
Can't say it was ruined, but there was a minor fender bender during the December 2002 Queens meet involving Doug Kerr's Justly Famous CR-V™.
Also had one during the most recent State College, Pa. meet. One of the drivers was Oscar Voss but I can't remember the other driver.
It's now a verb. Oscar was Denny Pined.
Quote from: jpi on January 27, 2015, 06:26:21 PM
I have to admit Chattanooga was a complete wash out, my roadmeet last March had weatehr issues to as it was unusually cold and windy for middle Tennessee in March but overall it worked out good. And despite the cluster that was St Louis last year, it was still a fun meet :-)
And that Chattanooga meet was in the middle of the summer, which isn't supposed to be rainy. I try to plan my meets when it isn't supposed to be rainy, but it didn't work out that time. :-/
The Middle TN meet wasn't that bad...aside from lunch starting an hour earlier than I was led to believe. But I worked around it. As it was, I only had time to stop for the lunch, but it was a convenient excuse to detour through TN on my way home to MN.
As for "close calls", there was one meet a few years ago where a member of my carpool almost twisted his ankle at a stop we made before we even got to the meet. I'll leave it to him to explain... :cool:
Come to think of it Froggie, the 2010 Baltimore meet my wife had to "retrieve" your camara at the restaurant :-P
Quote from: NJRoadfan on January 28, 2015, 06:22:22 PM
Can't say it was ruined, but there was a minor fender bender during the December 2002 Queens meet involving Doug Kerr's Justly Famous CR-V™.
Compared to what happened to my car in January 2003, I can't say that was ruined. Nothing ruins your day quite like a giant chunk of ice the size of a full grown person falling from the roof of your house onto the roof of your car while you're showering.
Quote from: hbelkins on January 28, 2015, 01:26:13 PM
Quote from: froggie on January 28, 2015, 11:05:28 AM
Not really "ruined", but I recall one meet (Laura's ICC meet IIRC) where the restaurant we intended to eat at was closed, so we had to do a spot improvisation.
This is what happened at Youngstown a few years ago, so it's interesting to know that it has happened more than once.
Though the restaurant wasn't
closed, I remember another last-minute restaurant switch: on one of the days of the 2009 Indianapolis meet, we were supposed to eat at a bar, but I wasn't 21 yet and they wouldn't let me in. We wound up at Cracker Barrel instead.
Quote from: hbelkins on January 28, 2015, 01:26:13 PM
Quote from: Alps on January 27, 2015, 11:07:39 PM
The Flint roadmeet was ostensibly ruined when the host didn't show up and no one knew the plans, but they improvised and turned it into a Dead Flint meet, so it wasn't really ruined. I think that even when a meet is "ruined" as far as the driving goes, it's the people that you have at the meet that turn it into a good time regardless.
Something similar happened at the most recent Dayton meet.
Hmm... that's strange. You'd almost think it was the same host or something... :spin:
Quote from: getemngo on February 05, 2015, 07:43:37 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on January 28, 2015, 01:26:13 PM
Quote from: froggie on January 28, 2015, 11:05:28 AM
Not really "ruined", but I recall one meet (Laura's ICC meet IIRC) where the restaurant we intended to eat at was closed, so we had to do a spot improvisation.
This is what happened at Youngstown a few years ago, so it's interesting to know that it has happened more than once.
Though the restaurant wasn't closed, I remember another last-minute restaurant switch: on one of the days of the 2009 Indianapolis meet, we were supposed to eat at a bar, but I wasn't 21 yet and they wouldn't let me in. We wound up at Cracker Barrel instead.
Too bad I was not at the meet with you guys, I could have given you guys my discount! ;-)
--quotefix --sso
Quote from: getemngo on February 05, 2015, 07:43:37 PM
Though the restaurant wasn't closed, I remember another last-minute restaurant switch: on one of the days of the 2009 Indianapolis meet, we were supposed to eat at a bar, but I wasn't 21 yet and they wouldn't let me in. We wound up at Cracker Barrel instead.
I don't remember that. On Friday we ate lunch at Hardee's in Washington, then a very late dinner at some pizza place. Saturday's lunch was downtown at a Chipotle or something. Maybe it was after the meet broke up at that KFC on the west side of Indy and several of us went our separate ways.
Quote from: hbelkins on February 05, 2015, 10:25:56 PM
I don't remember that. On Friday we ate lunch at Hardee's in Washington, then a very late dinner at some pizza place. Saturday's lunch was downtown at a Chipotle or something. Maybe it was after the meet broke up at that KFC on the west side of Indy and several of us went our separate ways.
Actually, I think that was the night before the start of the meet (wasn't it a Saturday/Sunday meet?). So it goes from barely counting to definitely not counting.
Quote from: getemngo on February 05, 2015, 11:11:00 PM
Actually, I think that was the night before the start of the meet (wasn't it a Saturday/Sunday meet?). So it goes from barely counting to definitely not counting.
Could have been. I went county-collecting in the northeastern counties of Indiana the day before the meet started and didn't get to Indy until very late.
Quote from: getemngo on February 05, 2015, 11:11:00 PM
Actually, I think that was the night before the start of the meet (wasn't it a Saturday/Sunday meet?).
I'm pretty sure it was a Friday/Saturday meet.
As usual, I'm chiming in way late in the conversation, probably after everyone else has moved on.
I know what Brandon means by " ruined" (in quote marks). The St. Louis meet really was not ruined. The lunch venue was well chosen. Some frustration got near the boiling point. Kim did a pretty darn good job scouting. The vantage point for the view of the Stan Span was probably the best available. The viewing spot was amid industrial ruins, but was not nearly as dangerous as some have said. The exit from there was a cluster cluster, but how do you scout in advance for a major parade and a near-simultaneous 100K marathon, each of which has massive mega-security? The choice of Ted Drewes for a break stop was not frivolous. This place is an icon of old US-66. I agree with Jeremy about the Chain-of-Rocks Bridge. The folks who passed this by missed the best part of the tour. From a hosting point-of-view, in a sense, this meet was a victim of its own success. It is ten times easier to herd ten cats than twenty. My biggest regret has nothing to do with planning or scouting. There were a lot of people there that I wish I could have had more time with, new people that I should have spoken with but didn't. In retrospect, St. Louis would have been a really good two-day meet.
Dayton and Flint suffered from a common source problem, but succeeded for a common reason. If the host fails, the participants are left to their own improvisational creativity. In both cases, those who attended made it work. Whether a meet works or not depends in major part on who shows up. As these two meets proved, sometimes the phantom host becomes irrelevant.
The two-day in Indy was big fun for me. Not ruined in any way. I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I did.
Quote from: brianreynolds on February 15, 2015, 10:57:13 PM
I know what Brandon means by " ruined" (in quote marks). The St. Louis meet really was not ruined. The lunch venue was well chosen. Some frustration got near the boiling point. Kim did a pretty darn good job scouting. The vantage point for the view of the Stan Span was probably the best available. The viewing spot was amid industrial ruins, but was not nearly as dangerous as some have said. The exit from there was a cluster cluster, but how do you scout in advance for a major parade and a near-simultaneous 100K marathon, each of which has massive mega-security? The choice of Ted Drewes for a break stop was not frivolous. This place is an icon of old US-66. I agree with Jeremy about the Chain-of-Rocks Bridge. The folks who passed this by missed the best part of the tour. From a hosting point-of-view, in a sense, this meet was a victim of its own success. It is ten times easier to herd ten cats than twenty. My biggest regret has nothing to do with planning or scouting. There were a lot of people there that I wish I could have had more time with, new people that I should have spoken with but didn't. In retrospect, St. Louis would have been a really good two-day meet.
I think that a lot of the problem with the STL meet was the number of people, sequencing of the stops, and going through downtown during the parade and marathon. However, being able to time everything so that we got to Ted Drewes at a good time for it to be a break would have been difficult without sequencing it the way it was. Maybe we should have done all of the Illinois stuff first (Ketchup bottle, the stuff along the Illinois River, the Chain of Rocks bridge), then do Ted Drewes, then the Stan Span when the lighting would have been best at the viewpoint we had. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. Despite all of the issues of the meet, it was a successful meet, and, if anything else, will not be soon forgotten.
Quote from: brianreynolds on February 15, 2015, 10:57:13 PM
The two-day in Indy was big fun for me. Not ruined in any way. I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I did.
I suspect Steve didn't enjoy it as much, because he got sick and had to bail at Bloomington.
Well, regarding the r00ined St. Louis meet, someone told "my" car, a certain now-deceased turbocharged Hyundai (may it rest in peace) owned by a certain resident of TEXAS who believes cow is better than pig, that we were going to CoR after stopping at the world's largest bottle of gross sauce OOPS I mean ketchup.
Then we got disconnected from the group almost immediately thereafter because traffic lights. Then we found out the hard way that the group was actually heading for downtown, after we were already committed to exit onto I-270.
Then we started heading downtown in a rather round-about way, involving a bit of a ghetto tour, and upon arriving downtown, we found that getting around was Virtually Unpossible™, and after some frustrating phone calls and texts, being unable to figure out where to go, frustrations hit the boiling point, jokes were made at someone's expense, and we just headed back up to CoR.
While enroute to CoR, an epic driving manoeuvre, committed by a certain resident of TEXAS who believes cow is better than pig, inside a certain now-deceased turbocharged Hyundai (may it rest in peace) involving an illegal U-turn on the Interstate, was committed.
After the best part of the meet, aka CoR, we drove around some more, through "The Appalacians of Illinois" where we proceeded to lose a car or two, I guess they took a ferry. We then went over an epic truss bridge, after which it was my turn to pilot the certain now-deceased turbocharged Hyundai (may it rest in peace). During this turn behind the wheel, I decided I really couldn't wait for Steak N Shake, and as soon as a solid concrete barrier appeared in the median, I turned the certain now-deceased turbocharged Hyundai (may it rest in peace) into a streak of motion blur. This may or may not have been witnessed by the occupants of a certain graphite-colored Chevrolet Impala rental car.
Once at Steak N Shake, a certain resident of TEXAS who believes cow is better than pig emitted an utterance confirming that pig is in fact better than cow. After Steak N Shake, we retreated to the hotel, played a hilarious game, and I retreated to my big red walk-in closet on ten wheels and went to bed.
The end.
P.S. This was the greatest road meet ever, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
The REAL end.
If a roadmeet gets ruined, I shall do the "ruin dance." This consists of a gesture resembling splitting a blade of grass down the middle and saying "keek! ruin!" in a funny voice.
Quote from: Brandon on January 27, 2015, 02:15:05 PM
I lost someone at the Starved Rock meet between the Starved Rock Lodge at the top of the bluff and the parking lot at the bottom of the bluff.
I still don't know how we did that. Starved Rock State Park is not a difficult place to navigate.
he missed a right turn.