AARoads Forum

I'm planning to host a meet in/west of Fort Worth, Texas this coming late winter/early spring someday. Here's the tentative itinerary:

- Taco Brunch and introductions in FW at Los Taco H's on US 287 & Rosedale
- Historic US 80 on our way out of FW
- Catch the western terminus of I-30
- US 180/Historic Bankhead Hwy through Weatherford and Mineral Wells
- North TX-16 to see the Possum Kingdom Bridge
- Back South on TX-16 to I-20
- Dinner at the Smokestack Restaurant in Mingus/Thurber

In addition, there are plenty of other highways and roads in the DFW metro, and interested parties can spend the evening (and/or Friday and/or Sunday) on some of these:
- Clinch loop I-820
- Clinch I-35W or I-35E (or both!)
- See the modern-day western terminus of US 80 in Dallas

But before we can have any fun, we need a date! So please vote and let the community know what works, and in a couple weeks we'll nail it down. we need a vaccine for COVID-19.  :-(

I realize you are new here and got played by Kevin in Florida, but I believe you'd be best served if wait till 2020 (which ever month YOU think would be best for traveling and viewing).

Regardless of which date you choose, I also recommend reading this thread. It was assembled with the best of intentions for everyone.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9498.0

Thank you both for the feedback. I've driven this route on a whim a few times and I'm applying the info from that hosting-a-meet 101 thread to that, but didn't have a good feel for how far in advance something like this ought to be planned. I'm game for hosting it sometime next year as well – just needs to be before or after the hottest months. :)

Hope to make this one, whenever it happens.

Early September can still be hot, although of course the weather may not cooperate whenever this happens.

Quote from: davmillar on July 04, 2019, 12:22:53 AM
Thank you both for the feedback. I've driven this route on a whim a few times and I'm applying the info from that hosting-a-meet 101 thread to that, but didn't have a good feel for how far in advance something like this ought to be planned.

A good rule of thumb, if you can reasonably predict this, is that the more people you expect to be interested in a meet, and the farther out geographically they are coming from, the farther out timewise the meet should be planned for (within reason).

If, for instance, you've gotten a sense that a lot of people from Texas might be interested, you wouldn't necessarily need to plan the meet out more than a few months in advance because it's easier for someone living closer to the meet to be able to plan on shorter notice. But the more time you spend on this forum, the more you'll get a sense of where we all live and who all might be willing to drive long distances to attend various road meets. A lot of us in the roadgeek community live in the eastern United States. I, for instance, live in Michigan. I would love to travel to Fort Worth for a road meet. However, with a lot of other travel I've been (and will be) doing this year, there's no way I can plan on attending a meet that's only, say, two or three months away. I could potentially make a plan to go to Fort Worth for a road meet in 2020 depending on what's going on in my personal life and the timing of when I host my "city meet" in either Omaha or the Outer Banks of North Carolina. (My meet will either be in April, May, or June... and I would probably need a gap of at least a month or two between my meet and something that happens, say, in Fort Worth.) Obviously you can't plan your meet around just one person like me who is interested, but at least this gives you an idea of some of the dynamics at play for those of us who enjoy traveling long-distance to attend road meets.

Quote from: A.J. Bertin on July 04, 2019, 09:20:14 AM

Quote from: davmillar on July 04, 2019, 12:22:53 AM
Thank you both for the feedback. I've driven this route on a whim a few times and I'm applying the info from that hosting-a-meet 101 thread to that, but didn't have a good feel for how far in advance something like this ought to be planned.

A good rule of thumb, if you can reasonably predict this, is that the more people you expect to be interested in a meet, and the farther out geographically they are coming from, the farther out timewise the meet should be planned for (within reason).

For an extreme example, serious planning for last year's Alaska meet (which drew people from four time zones away) started in 2016, and was preceded by another year of general discussion before plans started to come together.

I don't think you need to plan ahead more than a year for anything in the 48 contiguous states, and usually a few months will do.

Quote from: oscar on July 04, 2019, 10:01:12 AM
I don't think you need to plan ahead more than a year for anything in the 48 contiguous states, and usually a few months will do.

That depends, though, on who is interested in going. If I'm thinking about attending a long-distance meet like this, a few months is not enough time for me to plan... given everything else I have going on in my life. For other people, especially those who may not have as many work and/or personal obligations, a few months might be enough notice for a long-distance meet. It's of course about what the host prefers when considering whom the meet should appeal to. For my "city meets", it's important for me to plan several months, up to a year, in advance because I think I'll attract people who need plenty of notice to make all the arrangements necessary to go.

Quote from: A.J. Bertin on July 04, 2019, 10:45:11 AM

Quote from: oscar on July 04, 2019, 10:01:12 AM
I don't think you need to plan ahead more than a year for anything in the 48 contiguous states, and usually a few months will do.

That depends, though, on who is interested in going. If I'm thinking about attending a long-distance meet like this, a few months is not enough time for me to plan... given everything else I have going on in my life. For other people, especially those who may not have as many work and/or personal obligations, a few months might be enough notice for a long-distance meet. It's of course about what the host prefers when considering whom the meet should appeal to. For my "city meets", it's important for me to plan several months, up to a year, in advance because I think I'll attract people who need plenty of notice to make all the arrangements necessary to go.

I mean, we have one member who proposes meets five years from now.

On a serious note, I agree with AJ.  Not all of us are decently well off and retired.  Some have work and family commitments which must be worked around, and perhaps they need to put in a leave request from work well in advance and ensure there's no conflict with a family commitment.  Others may have to sack some money away in order to be able to afford to go.  I don't see a big problem with giving at least 6 months advance notice, but no more than a year.  That being said, a host can handle their meet any way that he or she sees fit.  However, I'll echo AJ that one is more likely to draw members from afar by giving plenty of advance notice.

Another thing to consider is other meets that may be transpiring on the same date(s) that is being proposed.  For example, I noticed one of your voting choices is October 26.  Dougtone is hosting a meet in Newburyport, MA on that date.  While Fort Worth, TX and northern MA are quite far apart, it could leave potential attendees having to decide which meet to attend.  IMO, this should be avoided if at all possible.

At this point, if you're expecting more than a couple active forum members to get to DFW, it's going to have to be 2020. Most of us who routinely travel great distances to meets are not only far away, but have already set travel schedules for the year. Not trying to rain on your parade here, but I have to agree with AJ and signalman. A lot of us from the north and east would LOVE to attend a Fort Worth meet, but this fall is too soon for most of us to travel that far.

I'm going to suggest February or March 2020 right now for a simple reason: early in the meet season and people up north will want to visit somewhere warm(er). Shreveport, LA in 2018 was entirely medium/long distance (excluding the host), with half of the attendees coming from places like Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota. A DFW meet with enough advance notice will probably get a similar long-distance showing. Indeed, I would almost certainly attend a DFW meet if it happens early next year.

Quote from: cl94 on July 04, 2019, 06:48:18 PM
I'm going to suggest February or March 2020 right now for a simple reason: early in the meet season and people up north will want to visit somewhere warm(er).

Between those two months, I'd suggest March... and as late in March as possible. Why? Because winter weather in the Midwest and northeastern United States can last well into April. I'd hate to see, say, a February event planned and then a winter storm arrives that prevents people like you and me from being able to get to Fort Worth safely. But again, it's up to the host and whom he's trying to appeal to in hosting this meet.

Quote from: A.J. Bertin on July 05, 2019, 07:22:50 AM

Quote from: cl94 on July 04, 2019, 06:48:18 PM
I'm going to suggest February or March 2020 right now for a simple reason: early in the meet season and people up north will want to visit somewhere warm(er).

Between those two months, I'd suggest March... and as late in March as possible. Why? Because winter weather in the Midwest and northeastern United States can last well into April. I'd hate to see, say, a February event planned and then a winter storm arrives that prevents people like you and me from being able to get to Fort Worth safely. But again, it's up to the host and whom he's trying to appeal to in hosting this meet.

There's been talk of something else in the south late winter/early spring of 2020.  Since it hasn't been officially announced, I'm not going to call the host out nor disclose the location.  I will say that I'd be partial to attending said event though, assuming it actually happens.  I'll let the host post more details when they're ready to do so.

I've updated the poll to reflect tentative spring date options. I know the winter weather can make things a bit difficult for northerners, but anything later than mid-April risks being too hot to want to be outside. Feel free to weigh in with replies as well if none of the new options sound good or with any other feedback.

Quote from: signalman on July 05, 2019, 07:57:20 AM

Quote from: A.J. Bertin on July 05, 2019, 07:22:50 AM

Quote from: cl94 on July 04, 2019, 06:48:18 PM
I'm going to suggest February or March 2020 right now for a simple reason: early in the meet season and people up north will want to visit somewhere warm(er).

Between those two months, I'd suggest March... and as late in March as possible. Why? Because winter weather in the Midwest and northeastern United States can last well into April. I'd hate to see, say, a February event planned and then a winter storm arrives that prevents people like you and me from being able to get to Fort Worth safely. But again, it's up to the host and whom he's trying to appeal to in hosting this meet.

There's been talk of something else in the south late winter/early spring of 2020.  Since it hasn't been officially announced, I'm not going to call the host out nor disclose the location.  I will say that I'd be partial to attending said event though, assuming it actually happens.  I'll let the host post more details when they're ready to do so.

Yeah, that's the planned New Orleans Road Meet that cjk374 was thinking of hosting. He was the host of the 2018 Shreveport Road Meet.

March 29th is Easter, so anything on the 28th is going to be poorly-attended.

Quote from: signalman on July 05, 2019, 07:57:20 AM
There's been talk of something else in the south late winter/early spring of 2020.  Since it hasn't been officially announced, I'm not going to call the host out nor disclose the location.  I will say that I'd be partial to attending said event though, assuming it actually happens.  I'll let the host post more details when they're ready to do so.

Agree with Bill here. I would be partial to said event as well, a large reason being it's far easier/cheaper for me to get to if it happens. But Fort Worth DEFINITELY interests me for many reasons, one being that I've barely even been to Texas.

Quote from: davmillar on July 05, 2019, 09:38:22 AM
I've updated the poll to reflect tentative spring date options. I know the winter weather can make things a bit difficult for northerners, but anything later than mid-April risks being too hot to want to be outside. Feel free to weigh in with replies as well if none of the new options sound good or with any other feedback.

I voted for April 4 and April 18. :)

Quote from: cl94 on July 05, 2019, 11:57:27 AM
March 29th is Easter, so anything on the 28th is going to be poorly-attended.

Quote from: signalman on July 05, 2019, 07:57:20 AM
There's been talk of something else in the south late winter/early spring of 2020.  Since it hasn't been officially announced, I'm not going to call the host out nor disclose the location.  I will say that I'd be partial to attending said event though, assuming it actually happens.  I'll let the host post more details when they're ready to do so.

Agree with Bill here. I would be partial to said event as well, a large reason being it's far easier/cheaper for me to get to if it happens. But Fort Worth DEFINITELY interests me for many reasons, one being that I've barely even been to Texas.

According to Google, April 12th is Easter, which is why I skipped the 11th as an option. Are there different dates for different faiths, or is Google wrong?

Honestly, I just targeted this date range because a few folks balked at having one this autumn. I don't see a 2020 meet thread or much of anything in the calendar, so this seemed like a good set of dates for gauging interest. If someone else is organizing something, it needs to be made much more obvious so that others can plan around it. It's not fair to waffle endlessly and dangle some carrot about a meet that might or might not even happen.

There was a thread about potential Texas meets and nobody wanted to host one. I'll host. Do you want to attend or not?

Quote from: davmillar on July 05, 2019, 04:09:15 PM

Quote from: cl94 on July 05, 2019, 11:57:27 AM
March 29th is Easter, so anything on the 28th is going to be poorly-attended.

Quote from: signalman on July 05, 2019, 07:57:20 AM
There's been talk of something else in the south late winter/early spring of 2020.  Since it hasn't been officially announced, I'm not going to call the host out nor disclose the location.  I will say that I'd be partial to attending said event though, assuming it actually happens.  I'll let the host post more details when they're ready to do so.

Agree with Bill here. I would be partial to said event as well, a large reason being it's far easier/cheaper for me to get to if it happens. But Fort Worth DEFINITELY interests me for many reasons, one being that I've barely even been to Texas.

According to Google, April 12th is Easter, which is why I skipped the 11th as an option. Are there different dates for different faiths, or is Google wrong?

Honestly, I just targeted this date range because a few folks balked at having one this autumn. I don't see a 2020 meet thread or much of anything in the calendar, so this seemed like a good set of dates for gauging interest. If someone else is organizing something, it needs to be made much more obvious so that others can plan around it. It's not fair to waffle endlessly and dangle some carrot about a meet that might or might not even happen.

There was a thread about potential Texas meets and nobody wanted to host one. I'll host. Do you want to attend or not?

I'm not currently planning on attending this meet for now. Have some other priorities in mind. Keep in mind that A.J. Bertin is looking at hosting his second city meet next spring as well (either in Omaha NE or in the OBX of NC), but he will probably try to avoid any scheduling conflict that may arise. I would've liked to have attended his first city meet in PVD earlier this year in early May, but had a personal scheduling conflict that led to my personal inclination at not attending said city meet.

Gene VanDusseldorp (not a member here, but most of us know him/know of him) has proposed a Texas meet as well.

As for timing, the last meet I did came together in about seven weeks. Had a good geographic representation of attendees, with participants from as far away as New Jersey and Alabama coming to eastern Kentucky. So it doesn't always have to be planned a year in advance.

Quote from: davmillar on July 05, 2019, 04:09:15 PM
According to Google, April 12th is Easter, which is why I skipped the 11th as an option. Are there different dates for different faiths, or is Google wrong?

Eastern Orthodox Churches, since they split off from the Catholic Church before the Gregorian Calendar we're now using was created, are still determining when Easter should fall based on the Julian Calendar. So the two usually do fall on different dates, but that's not what's happening here. The Easter of most churches falls on April 12th next year as Google indicates, and the Orthodox version is on April 19th. Not sure where March 29th was coming from.


At any rate, I'm in a bit of a different boat on this meet than probably anyone else here. While from "far away", I travel to DFW with some frequency for work. If this meet happens to fall on a Saturday adjacent to a Friday I'm there for work anyway it'd be not terribly difficult for me to simply defer my flight home to Sunday in order to attend.

But I do not know, and most likely will not until a couple weeks before the date in question, whether this will be the case. If it is not the case, I do not see myself making a separate trip to DFW for it.

I am very interested in this meet. I will be able to clinch the rest of US 80 from TX 31 west to the end.

I'm in Austin, don't know the longhorn softball schedule yet

I haven't been active on the forum for the last couple years due to work, but I'm expecting that to ease up soon and I'd be interested in making the trip to the other side of the Metroplex for a meet. The poll is closed so I can't vote, but March 21 or April 4 would be my preferences.

I'd also suggest that anyone making a trip to Fort Worth plan on a stop at either location of Heim Barbecue for some of the best barbecue in Texas. Their house specialty is bacon burnt ends. Get them. Enjoy the highest form to which pork can aspire. Their brisket, ribs, and sausage are also top-notch, but did I mention the bacon burnt ends?

Quote from: dfwmapper on August 02, 2019, 05:32:05 AM
I haven't been active on the forum for the last couple years due to work, but I'm expecting that to ease up soon and I'd be interested in making the trip to the other side of the Metroplex for a meet. The poll is closed so I can't vote, but March 21 or April 4 would be my preferences.

I'd also suggest that anyone making a trip to Fort Worth plan on a stop at either location of Heim Barbecue for some of the best barbecue in Texas. Their house specialty is bacon burnt ends. Get them. Enjoy the highest form to which pork can aspire. Their brisket, ribs, and sausage are also top-notch, but did I mention the bacon burnt ends?

Another site that must be seen....Buc'ees. Located at exit 498 off of I-20 at Terrall, this is a gas station on steroids! 100 gas pumps on their fuel "island". Their store is is huge, offering foods of different types, 2 different flavors of slushies...at the end of each aisle....souvenirs, ice chests, BBQ tools & spices......this place is unreal!

Buc'ees is a TX original, but now has a new location on I-10 in Alabama at the new Foley Beach expressway exit.

Quote from: cjk374 on August 03, 2019, 08:32:59 AM

Quote from: dfwmapper on August 02, 2019, 05:32:05 AM
I haven't been active on the forum for the last couple years due to work, but I'm expecting that to ease up soon and I'd be interested in making the trip to the other side of the Metroplex for a meet. The poll is closed so I can't vote, but March 21 or April 4 would be my preferences.

I'd also suggest that anyone making a trip to Fort Worth plan on a stop at either location of Heim Barbecue for some of the best barbecue in Texas. Their house specialty is bacon burnt ends. Get them. Enjoy the highest form to which pork can aspire. Their brisket, ribs, and sausage are also top-notch, but did I mention the bacon burnt ends?

Another site that must be seen....Buc'ees. Located at exit 498 off of I-20 at Terrall, this is a gas station on steroids! 100 gas pumps on their fuel "island". Their store is is huge, offering foods of different types, 2 different flavors of slushies...at the end of each aisle....souvenirs, ice chests, BBQ tools & spices......this place is unreal!

Buc'ees is a TX original, but now has a new location on I-10 in Alabama at the new Foley Beach expressway exit.

They are also working on a location on I-95 here in the Sunshine State at the International Golf Parkway exit (World Golf Village). This exit would also be south of three sets of toll lanes on I-95 that would stretch north towards the Atlantic Boulevard exit (Jacksonville Beaches).

Quote from: cjk374 on August 03, 2019, 08:32:59 AM

Quote from: dfwmapper on August 02, 2019, 05:32:05 AM
I haven't been active on the forum for the last couple years due to work, but I'm expecting that to ease up soon and I'd be interested in making the trip to the other side of the Metroplex for a meet. The poll is closed so I can't vote, but March 21 or April 4 would be my preferences.

I'd also suggest that anyone making a trip to Fort Worth plan on a stop at either location of Heim Barbecue for some of the best barbecue in Texas. Their house specialty is bacon burnt ends. Get them. Enjoy the highest form to which pork can aspire. Their brisket, ribs, and sausage are also top-notch, but did I mention the bacon burnt ends?

Another site that must be seen....Buc'ees. Located at exit 498 off of I-20 at Terrall, this is a gas station on steroids! 100 gas pumps on their fuel "island". Their store is is huge, offering foods of different types, 2 different flavors of slushies...at the end of each aisle....souvenirs, ice chests, BBQ tools & spices......this place is unreal!

Buc'ees is a TX original, but now has a new location on I-10 in Alabama at the new Foley Beach expressway exit.

There's another one off of 35W in North Fort Worth, so folks interested in clinching 35W and 35E could make a stop there as well.

Since the poll didn't get much traffic and folks have been kinda all over the place, I'm gonna change course a bit and throw together a minisite with a self-guided version of the itinerary. Once it's ready, I'll re-pitch the meet and see what kind of reception it gets.

Is this meet still on the table as a possibility for March or April of 2020? We haven't heard anything about it in a while and I'm getting the feeling that it might fall through. If it's looking like this meet won't happen, I'd like to remove it from the list I started of road meet possibilities for 2020.

Hello davmillar...

Any updates on this meet idea? My wife wants to go so we can eat at a place called Papadeaux's (sp?). So she wants to use the meet as a reason to go here (perhaps Sunday after the meet before we go home).

Quote from: cjk374 on October 19, 2019, 12:50:46 PM
Hello davmillar...

Any updates on this meet idea? My wife wants to go so we can eat at a place called Papadeaux's (sp?). So she wants to use the meet as a reason to go here (perhaps Sunday after the meet before we go home).

Davmiller hasn't been on AAroads since August.

Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on October 19, 2019, 10:16:23 PM

Quote from: cjk374 on October 19, 2019, 12:50:46 PM
Hello davmillar...

Any updates on this meet idea? My wife wants to go so we can eat at a place called Papadeaux's (sp?). So she wants to use the meet as a reason to go here (perhaps Sunday after the meet before we go home).

Davmiller hasn't been on AAroads since August.

Uh-oh. Not good.

If that is the case, I'm considering this null and void.  Maybe give it a month or two but my priority has now shifted.

Hello all. Apologies for not responding to those last few replies -- my day job got hectic then and it slipped my mind.

I'm still open to hosting this meet in the future, but with the COVID pandemic mucking up everyone's schedules, I wouldn't dream of trying to schedule anything until there's a vaccine and all the other pending meets settle.

Quote from: davmillar on May 20, 2020, 10:28:43 PM
Hello all. Apologies for not responding to those last few replies -- my day job got hectic then and it slipped my mind.

I'm still open to hosting this meet in the future, but with the COVID pandemic mucking up everyone's schedules, I wouldn't dream of trying to schedule anything until there's a vaccine and all the other pending meets settle.

Likely for the best. Ft Worth isn't going anywhere ;)