AARoads Forum

At the NYC meet this last weekend, a few folks expressed that they would like an excuse to come west, and that a roadmeet would be as good a reason as any.

I would be game to host a meet in Denver/Northern Colorado (in some area between Denver and Cheyenne, obviously not that whole area though) at some point next year. I lived in Laramie for several years and know the area well enough to put something hopefully worthwhile together and would have opportunity to get down there to scout well in advance of the meet.

We'd probably want it to happen after the snow melts, so maybe somewhere between April and June 2015.

I guess my question, then, is- is there actually interest in this? It's a bit outside of normal roadmeet territory, but not so far west that it's undriveable- figure a day from western Missouri, two days from Ohio. I had looked at Salt Lake and Santa Fe/Albuquerque as other possible destinations, but Salt Lake is probably a bit much of a drive for folks (though potentially a more interesting meet), and while I would love to attend a meet in New Mexico, I'm not sure I'm the best equipped to host one.

I've put a poll up- if it seems like there is general interest in this, I'll then start to throw out some itinerary possibilities and dates and we can get this thing firmed up.

Obviously we're a really long way out from this coming to fruition, so at this point I'm just planting the seed- I don't possibly expect anybody to commit to anything. Because of that, I didn't include a maybe option- if you're interested and it's anything more than a total pipe dream, vote yes. If you're not interested or you'd love to go but there's just no possible way it's going to happen, vote no or abstain.

This sounds like a very interesting and good idea.  I vote yes, and it's about 14-15 hours from here (NE Illinois).

I would be interested as well


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There's been two (http://www.mesalek.com/colo/meet0903.html) Denver meets (http://www.mesalek.com/colo/meet.html) in the distant past. (I don't think I've met a single one of those people, and Dale Sanderson and Steve Riner are the only names that even sound familiar to me.) It'd be awesome for roadgeeks to re-conquer the west.  :sombrero:

So yeah, I'm interested!

I'd be interested if it fits into my travel schedule.  June is kinda tricky for me, with tentative plans to visit Alberta in early summer -- the right weekend in June, I could combine the trips, but too late in June, I'd have a schedule conflict.

I'd keep Salt Lake City in play as an alternative.  it has lots of new/recently-rebuilt freeways (many re-done for the 2002 Winter Olympics), a good pace of new road construction, and the Emigration Canyon Road and "This Is The Place" monument at the end of one of a historic 19th-century "road trip" by the first Mormon settlers.  Also, there are many prime roadgeek sights on I-70 between Denver and Salt Lake for easterners to experience (Eisenhower Tunnels, Loveland Pass, Vail Pass, the ultra-high-altitude Mt. Evans road after Memorial Day, Glenwood Canyon, and the awesomely scenic San Rafael Swell area between Green River and Salina -- the first three or four could be worked into a Denver-based meet if you were to make it a two-day meet). 

I'm not voting. I honestly would love to go because of the potential for route clinches and new county visits, but like everything else lately, it would be totally dependent on finances. That's what kept me from attending the NYC meet and will preclude me from going to the upcoming Wisconsin meet.

If my situation changes, I'd be all over this.

I cannot vote either because of my change in future funding of road meets after NYC.  A road meet of long distance is now a financial burden for me as I need to focus on more important matters.  I'd attend otherwise.

probably. 

though I'd recommend moving it to later in the season if anyone is thinking of doing high-elevation stuff.  May or so?

I'll be able to come out anytime after May 10th, because before that is my finals week. I'd really love the chance to come out there and see a part of the country I've never been to!

Depends where my parents move to, but it is an option. Has to be after May as well cause finals/graduation.

I am super interested, but Denver is so far, so it's really a pipedream at this point. However, 2014 has so far been a pipe shattering year for me, so who knows?

Quote from: Laura on July 03, 2014, 11:50:53 PM
I am super interested, but Denver is so far, so it's really a pipedream at this point. However, 2014 has so far been a pipe shattering year for me, so who knows?

I am interested but it's unlikely that I'd be able to attend. I won't rule it out completely though.

Someone suggested hosting a NW Arkansas meet in Spring 2015 which I would kinda like to go to. If the Arkansas meet happens next spring, it's unlikely that I'd be able to do attend both that and Denver, but we'll see what happens. On the other hand, if Arkansas does not happen, I would be more likely to attend Denver. I wonder what other meets are in the works for 2015. :)

Yes.

If you want Mount Evans on the itinerary it would need to be after Memorial Day.

I'd love to, but I'm not sure how feasible it is.  It would be a three day drive each way.

Quote from: Milepost61 on July 04, 2014, 02:14:48 PM
Yes.

If you want Mount Evans on the itinerary it would need to be after Memorial Day.

That would be rad. That and Glenwood Canyon are on my list for next year, meet or otherwise.

As I'm about to become a full-time college student as well, I echo others in suggesting mid-May or later.

Also, if I were to come out for this, my preference would be Denver proper, as there is a lot more non-road stuff to see there (plus I have friends and an old classmate in Denver).

This sounds like a great idea, I remember you bringing it up while on our tour, Steph and I have been to the Denver area twice in the past 5 years, next year is an "up in the air" year for us and I would like to try to get out west next year but it would be in mid July and going to Albuquerque, NM so I guess you can say I am "maybe" for now.

That's not the only thing that would be "up in the air" if you get my drift.

Quote from: oscar on July 03, 2014, 06:08:37 AMAlso, there are many prime roadgeek sights on I-70 between Denver and Salt Lake for easterners to experience (Eisenhower Tunnels, Loveland Pass, Vail Pass, the ultra-high-altitude Mt. Evans road after Memorial Day, Glenwood Canyon, and the awesomely scenic San Rafael Swell area between Green River and Salina -- the first three or four could be worked into a Denver-based meet if you were to make it a two-day meet).

I-70 between Salina and Denver was the most topographically interesting stretch I ever drove on an interstate.  For any Easterners without much experience out west, this stretch alone will teach you a tremendous amount about how vast and varied a country you live in.

Quote from: vdeane on July 04, 2014, 06:03:42 PM
I'd love to, but I'm not sure how feasible it is.  It would be a three day drive each way.

Yeah. If we went we would most likely fly out and make a vacation out of it. Or maybe the three day drive there and back is part of the vacation!


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Okay, I'm seeing that there's interest here and I'll probably go ahead and move forward on it.

Some thoughts:

1) Would this be better served as a two day national meet? My thought was that anybody coming from the east will have to burn vacation days to get out here, and may have exploring they want to do on their own, so adding a second day to the meet might be unrealistic. That said, if folks want to see stuff in a more organized light, it could certainly arranged.

2) We'll definitely do it after May 15th or so- even if the meet doesn't go into super-high elevation areas like the top of Mt Evans, roads should be open for folks who would like to do that on their own time.

3) I'm thinking mountains and associated infrastructure are what make the area interesting moreso than random trusses around Greeley and remnant button copy in FoCo, so I may come up with a more mountain focused tour as opposed to hanging out in cow country. I don't see the meet being able to be in Denver proper because hotels are $$$, but it's really quite easy to drive from Golden or Longmont or even Fort Collins (though I doubt we'll be that far north) into Denver.

4) Mt Evans is a possibility for a meet, almost a definite if it's two days. I'd love to get Glenwood Canyon in there too, but we'd probably need to center the meet out of like Rifle or Leadville or Glenwood Springs to pull it off. I'll try to figure there's enough other stuff around there to justify a meet, and perhaps if there is the meet could be over there instead (or perhaps a two day meet, with day 2 over there). Unless there's really significant interest in that though, I'd say it's more something I encourage folks to hit up on their own time.

This is a meet that I'll be going to (if I go) for the scenery more than for the roads, so I'd prefer staying out of Denver proper and heading for the mountains.

I've never been to Denver (or any Colorado other than Baca County), and it's near to Oklahoma, so I'd certainly make an attempt at coming. My girlfriend has family in Colorado Springs, so I might be able to pitch this as a trip to visit family if this ends up happening.

I'd prefer Denver proper since it seems like there would be more road stuff there. If this was a multi-day meet, you could plan maybe one day in Denver and one day exploring the scenery. According to Glenwood Canyon is only two and a half hours west of Denver, which seems doable for a possible Day 2 focused on mountain scenery. Perhaps a route could be planned that meanders a bit on the to Glenwood Canyon, then comes back on I-70, hitting Glenwood Canyon, Eisenhower Tunnel, and the "TRUCKERS YOU ARE NOT DOWN YET" stretch?

I am looking at spending 2 weeks in the UK in May of 2015, so at this time I do not plan on taking any other week-long trips that are within a couple months before or after that.

If this happens later in the summer, or if my plans to go to the UK change, then it would be possible for me to attend and I would certainly seek to make it happen. But otherwise I will not be able to go due to schedule conflict.


Also, since we're only discussing vague plans, I'm going to throw out there that if I am to attend a meet out west I would rather it be in a city I have not yet been to. Denver does not meet that criterion. Salt Lake City does, though. As would anywhere in the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho, though I don't know whether there's enough stuff close enough together to do a meet in any of those states.

If this were a national meet, I would probably place a bigger emphasis on making this work (possibly depending on who attends).  It would only be an extra day of vacation.  Perhaps a day in Denver and a day for Glenwood Canyon?

What's the difference between a "national meet" and a "non-national meet"?  The Saint Louis meet meets my definition of a "national meet" more than the NYC meet did.

Quote from: bugo on July 06, 2014, 08:41:30 PM
What's the difference between a "national meet" and a "non-national meet"?  The Saint Louis meet meets my definition of a "national meet" more than the NYC meet did.

One similarity:  both drew attendees from three time zones (Mountain, Central, Eastern).  A Denver meet might outdo that, if the draw includes the Pacific time zone as well.

Some would consider only a two+ day meet to be "national", but we can argue about that requirement.  As St. Louis showed, even a one-day meet can have a very wide geographic draw.

Now if only ghYHZ were to attend one of our meets, from the Atlantic time zone.  (AFAIK, we don't have anyone from the Newfoundland, Alaska, or Hawaii/Aleutian time zones.)

Quote from: oscar on July 06, 2014, 09:06:08 PM

Quote from: bugo on July 06, 2014, 08:41:30 PM
What's the difference between a "national meet" and a "non-national meet"?  The Saint Louis meet meets my definition of a "national meet" more than the NYC meet did.

One similarity:  both drew attendees from three time zones (Mountain, Central, Eastern).  A Denver meet might outdo that, if the draw includes the Pacific time zone as well.

Some would consider only a two+ day meet to be "national", but we can argue about that requirement.  As St. Louis showed, even a one-day meet can have a very wide geographic draw.

I think it all depends on how it's advertised. There have been a number of multi-day meets, but to my knowledge only two have actually been billed as national meets: Jeff Kitsko's Pennsylvania meet in 2007 and Steve Alpert's NY/NJ meet a couple of weeks ago.

Quote from: hbelkins on July 06, 2014, 09:21:39 PM
I think it all depends on how it's advertised. There have been a number of multi-day meets, but to my knowledge only two have actually been billed as national meets: Jeff Kitsko's Pennsylvania meet in 2007 and Steve Alpert's NY/NJ meet a couple of weeks ago.

At least also Chicago in 2008, which was a two-day meet, though I think its draw was from only the Central and Eastern time zones.

Quote from: hbelkins on July 06, 2014, 09:21:39 PM

Quote from: oscar on July 06, 2014, 09:06:08 PM

Quote from: bugo on July 06, 2014, 08:41:30 PM
What's the difference between a "national meet" and a "non-national meet"?  The Saint Louis meet meets my definition of a "national meet" more than the NYC meet did.

One similarity:  both drew attendees from three time zones (Mountain, Central, Eastern).  A Denver meet might outdo that, if the draw includes the Pacific time zone as well.

Some would consider only a two+ day meet to be "national", but we can argue about that requirement.  As St. Louis showed, even a one-day meet can have a very wide geographic draw.

I think it all depends on how it's advertised. There have been a number of multi-day meets, but to my knowledge only two have actually been billed as national meets: Jeff Kitsko's Pennsylvania meet in 2007 and Steve Alpert's NY/NJ meet a couple of weeks ago.

But who gets to make that decision?  I consider St Louis to be a national meet if there ever was one.

Two defining features of a National Meet:
1) It's a 2-day meet, not a 1-day, with the idea to draw more people in from farther away to make a long weekend out of it.
2) There are non-roads activities planned, more than just your standard meet lunch and possible meet dinner.

There is nothing to stop someone from designating a National Meet, though I would encourage the above two qualities to be met, and to only have one a year. After Pittsburgh and Chicago, Indianapolis was supposed to be the third National Meet in 2009, but the simultaneous Oklahoma City meet ended up pirating from it. The concept then lay dormant for several years - I don't know that there has been any 2-day meet between Indy and NYC.
Next year, a candidate for National Meet could be the Upper Peninsula of MI, since it will be likely held over Labor Day weekend to feature the Mackinac Bridge Walk, and will quite possibly last both Saturday and Sunday.

Indy was only a day-and-a-half, and I didn't remember OKC going on the same day. I went to a multi-day OKC meet but the turnout was comparable to Indy.

Pittsburgh was pretty much a two-and-a-half day event. The all-day trip on Thursday east of town, then Friday's tour of the PennDOT building. Friday afternoon was an on-your-own deal (I drove out US 30 and got a chunk of WV 2 that I needed) and then we ate that night and had an impromptu trip up to the top of the mountain overlooking town. Saturday was the river cruise, and I know some people stayed for a Pirates game that night (I headed home since I don't do Major League Baseball anymore).

I gave a whole lot of thought to doing a two-and-a-half-day Kentucky meet a few years ago, to be centered in Lexington, but there really didn't seem to be a lot of interest in it. I didn't really have any evening events planned, other than thinking about leading a county-clinching trip for anyone who needed some not-readily-accessible counties in the area east/southeast of Lexington.

One thing that separates St Louis is that it wasn't designed as a national meet- I don't think that was Kim's intent, it just kind of turned out to be one due to circumstances that had little to do with the meet itself- it was more that the meet happened to be in the right place at the right time. To me, a national meet is designed in advance to lure people in from all around everywhere.

As far as this one goes, I have two goals here:

1) Give folks from "back east" a reason to come to a roadmeet out west and check out some cool sights and road stuff in a new part of the country
2) Draw in some folks from the west to this thing, to establish the idea that we really can sustain roadmeets out west- basically establishing another beachhead of meet-goers west of the Plains states. If this meet is a success and we get some amount of regional draw, I'd like to follow it up with a meet in Salt Lake in 2016. If the demand is there, there's a number of other places that I'd be comfortable hosting a meet, and hopefully other folks from this region would have other cities in mind. I do think a key to the success of this first one though is to get some number of folks who already frequently go to roadmeets at this thing, so I will do whatever looks like will maximize draw.

With that in mind, Salt Lake is probably the Cadillac of roadmeet cities in the inland west, so if that city would draw as well or better for folks living east of US 83, it could be the place in 2015. Denver's main benefit over Salt Lake is that it's closer, but maybe folks don't mind that extra few hours of driving, especially since that last few hours is the best few hours. If the reaction is "screw Denver, I'll wait for Salt Lake," that's something to consider. That's something we can evaluate down the road though.

It's possible I'll label this a National Meet- we'll see. Really depends on interest as we get closer- if there's 10 people or something that are more or less definite on coming out from back east and they want two days of meet, then that's what will happen. If it's just a couple folks and then some regional people, then we'll probably stick with one day. I like the idea of doing a city day and a mountains day, and there's enough going on in Denver to have in-between entertainment. My plan is to head down to Denver probably Labor Day and I'll really have a better feel for things then.

As a Fort Collins resident, I'm interested in a meet nearby.

Generally speaking, there isn't really that much in the way of neat roadgeeky stuff in the Fort Collins area, especially that of any national interest. Denver and the I-70 mountain corridor has more interesting places to orient a roadgeek meet around. Additionally, a transit construction element may present itself in Denver as active construction is underway on no less than four new rail lines as part of the FasTracks program.

Corco, have you considered Colorado Springs? For a national meet the Royal Gorge tourist attraction/bridge and Pikes Peak/the Cog Railway up the mountain may be of interest.

Quote from: Zmapper on July 06, 2014, 11:50:57 PM

Corco, have you considered Colorado Springs? For a national meet the Royal Gorge tourist attraction/bridge and Pikes Peak/the Cog Railway up the mountain may be of interest.

I do think the Springs is in play. I don't want to go much further south than that, but I think it should definitely be an option.

What I'll probably do at some point by October or so is throw out 3-4 different rough itineraries and from there take input on possible improvements and see where the interest lies, and that will determine where/how long the meet is.

Probable no for me now.  My next car is a lease.

I'm interested in penciling in a trip to Colorado next year, national road meet or no national road meet.  I want to explore more of the state, maybe catch a Rockies or Avalanche game (more than likely a Rockies game based on the time of year I'd go).

Of course, I would try to schedule a Colorado trip around a road meet if this happens.  Odds are, I'd fly out there from New York.

The more I think of it (and after reading more posts), the more I am interested in attending this. I may be more interested in attending a Denver meet than I am a NW Arkansas meet, but we will see. A nice thing for me about attending a Denver meet is that I'd finally get to visit Kansas for the first time and clinch a whole lot of I-70 west of St. Louis. I have no preference as to whether it's a National Meet or not. If I decide to attend and it's a two-day meet, I'd have to look at the itinerary to see whether I'd want to attend just one day, the other day, or both.

As far as Denver vs. Salt Lake is concerned, I would be much more inclined to drive to a Denver meet than I would a Salt Lake meet. Salt Lake is awesome, but I just had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time in Salt Lake in 2012. I haven't been to Denver since 1998 and I wasn't driving so I had no way to explore roads on my own.

David - I am excited to hear that you're trying to pave the way for more road meets in the western U.S.  This is exciting!

I agree with AJ on the last sentence :-) Hopefully this could launch a new chapter in road meets west of the great plains. As time progresses and if I do not go to Albuquerque next July, maybe Steph and I both could consider this instead since we both love the metro Denver area.  Ialready Have I-70 clinched from my first trip west in 09 so I may opt for the US highways instead to drive there.

Quote from: corco on July 06, 2014, 11:36:32 PM
Salt Lake is probably the Cadillac of roadmeet cities in the inland west, so if that city would draw as well or better for folks living east of US 83, it could be the place in 2015. Denver's main benefit over Salt Lake is that it's closer, but maybe folks don't mind that extra few hours of driving, especially since that last few hours is the best few hours. If the reaction is "screw Denver, I'll wait for Salt Lake," that's something to consider.

A lot of potential east coast attendees will likely fly out, so proximity to a major airport should be more of a consideration than how far west it is if you are looking to have a national draw. I don't want to do that since I see it as the roadgeek equivalent of using a cheat code to skip straight to the last level, but that's me. :P

As for closeness, well, I'd be driving up to the Pacific Northwest regardless, so east/west location isn't really a concern for me although north/south location certainly is (north good, south bad). Indeed, Salt Lake is directly along my vague theoretical itinerary, Denver would be a detour from it.

Assuming it is decided Denver '15, Salt Lake '16, I miiiiight say "screw Denver, I'll wait for Salt Lake" - although for aforementioned reasons swapping the two will not change the odds of me attending in the proposed timeframe. Ideal for me personally as of this writing is a meet out west in August or September of 2015, perfect if it's labor day weekend or the weekend after.

That said, I'm one person, don't plan around me. Especially since my schedule conflict is far from certain at this point. I likely won't know for sure until February or March whether I am actually flying to Europe in May or not.

In the last Denver meet, Kevin Flynn got our group on-site during construction of the I-25 T-REX project. Kevin works for RTD now and frequently reports about progress on the new light rail line to DIA. Though we're a roads group, I'd find that of interest.

Right now, I'm not aware of any interesting projects going on around Denver itself, and many of the comments are folks wanting to drive the Mt. Evans road or the Glenwood Springs section of I-70. These are great, but time-consuming. If I-70 is free-flowing, Glenwood Springs is 2-1/2 hours from Denver. That drive is well worth it if you have the time, though.

If Colorado Springs were a focus, instead of looking at modern infrastructure, you could drive the roads back into the mountains that run along old narrow gauge rail routes and are one lane wide in places. A drive up Gold Camp Road to Victor, then down Phantom Canyon would be a great trip with historic things to see. Royal Gorge Park is pretty expensive to enter ($20+), assuming the park is fully back in operation by then; most of the structures were destroyed in a fire last year, fortunately not the bridge itself.

Now Salt Lake in 2016 I would seriously consider that since Steph and I have never been to Salt Lake and we have been to the metro Denver\ front range region twice in the past 5 years. Especailly if it is in middle of July so I can tie it into my every couple year trip to Albuquerque. :-)

Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on July 08, 2014, 11:53:00 AM
If Colorado Springs were a focus, instead of looking at modern infrastructure, you could drive the roads back into the mountains that run along old narrow gauge rail routes and are one lane wide in places. A drive up Gold Camp Road to Victor, then down Phantom Canyon would be a great trip with historic things to see. Royal Gorge Park is pretty expensive to enter ($20+), assuming the park is fully back in operation by then; most of the structures were destroyed in a fire last year, fortunately not the bridge itself.

I was thinking about that.  A trip to the top of Pikes Peak would be fun too.

I was one of the ones that expressed interest in attending a Denver meet, so I would be all over this one. If we did it so that the NW Arkansas meet is within a week of the Denver meet, then there's a chance I could make an entire week out of it and go to both meets. However, I could see many people objecting to that for various reasons.

I really want to go out west more, anyway. I also have several friends that live in Denver that I'd love to visit, so Denver is very much a high target on my list of meets to go to next year.

I'd be more likely to attend Denver than Salt Lake, simply because of the aforementioned people I could probably stay with in Colorado Springs, and Denver's proximity to me.

If we did take a trip up a Colorado mountain this would probably be the highest road meet in history (and given CO's state laws probably in more ways than one).

Steph and I made it to the top of Pike's Peak in July 09, VERY intense drive but well worth it!  :nod:

Quote from: jpi on July 09, 2014, 03:59:16 PM
Steph and I made it to the top of Pike's Peak in July 09, VERY intense drive but well worth it!  :nod:

The Pike's Peak road is now completely paved.  I don't know whether that has cut down on the macho strutting of the souvenirs sold in its gift shops (//www.alaskaroads.com/roadgeek-souvenirs-page3.htm) (one at the summit). 

Mount Evans also has a gift shop, with similar merchandise (such as "Got Oxygan?" shirts), but it's at the base of the mountain rather than the summit. 

With both roads, being able to shift down into first gear helps with the downhill stretch.  The first time I drove Pike's Peak in 1986, I drove a car with an automatic transmission that allowed you to downshift only to second gear.  I got pulled over at the safety check halfway down the mountain for overheated brakes, and had to wait for my brakes to cool down.  AFAIK, there's no official safety check on the Mt. Evans road, but you might have to wait a few minutes for a herd of mountain goats to clear the road, giving you a chance to cool your brakes. 

I haven't taken my Prius (CVT automatic transmission, only one "low gear" to force engine braking for downgrades) up either mountain, and would want to ride with someone else if we include one of the mountains on the tour.  The Prius has managed Colorado mountain passes OK, though with power loss after draining the hybrid battery part way up, so I had only the little gas motor taking me the rest of the way up. 

Similar to what Oscar mentioned about vehicles and the downgrades, I understand Mt. Washington in New Hampshire has some severe restrictions on which vehicles can drive the road there. My Saturn Vue qualifies because it can shift down to "1" but a lot of vehicles aren't allowed.

No restrictions on Pikes Peak Highway but the aforementioned brake check station will advise vehicles to let their brakes cool. Coincidentally there is a souvenir store at the place you are advised to wait.

One more note if Mt Evans and/or Pikes Peak is on the meet itinerary: Allow lots of time for them. Both are a minimum of 2 hours round trip from the base up and back down.

Also, IMHO Mt Evans is more worth the trip. The top is an actual mountaintop, not a flattened off tourist trap like Pikes. Mt Evans has better scenery, since you're surrounded by other mountains; Pikes is isolated by itself.

QuoteSimilar to what Oscar mentioned about vehicles and the downgrades, I understand Mt. Washington in New Hampshire has some severe restrictions on which vehicles can drive the road there. My Saturn Vue qualifies because it can shift down to "1" but a lot of vehicles aren't allowed.

I just did Mt. Washington a month ago...the only restriction I recall is no trailers or RVs.  Just regular passenger vehicles (or pickups).  And yes, they want you to drive it in your lowest gear so as to not overheat the engine...

It looks like the weekend of April 18th is off the table for me. I have a wedding to go to that weekend in Texas.

Would anybody be interested in taking a tour of the Denver mint?  There is no admission fee and it lasts about 45 minutes.  Reservations are required, and the mint is open from 8am to 5:30pm.

I'd be interested.

Quote from: bugo on July 15, 2014, 04:01:56 AM
Would anybody be interested in taking a tour of the Denver mint?  There is no admission fee and it lasts about 45 minutes.  Reservations are required, and the mint is open from 8am to 5:30pm.

I've done Philly and Dahlonega (well, the mint is gone but I saw the museum). I'm hella on this.

Quote from: bugo on July 15, 2014, 04:01:56 AM
Would anybody be interested in taking a tour of the Denver mint?  There is no admission fee and it lasts about 45 minutes.  Reservations are required, and the mint is open from 8am to 5:30pm.

Could be an entertaining morning diversion.  :cool:

This all does sound like alot of fun but now Steph and I are in VERY early talks of going out west this time next year so I may not be able to make this since it would be a nearly 2 day drive there and back but will keep it on the back burner.

Taking a tour of a mint DOES sound interesting, although considering there are mints I can visit much closer to home, I doubt I'd want to do it in Denver. I'd rather spend any time out west doing things I can only do out west.

A mint tour would be awesome. That said, the mint is only open for tours Monday-Thursday. A meet will be Saturday, possibly Saturday/Sunday, so if I do go to the multi-day format, it'd be possible to do a tour at the crack of dawn Monday morning when they open at 8 for folks who want to, but otherwise it'll be pretty tough to pull off.

I can't justify scheduling the meet around when the mint is open for tours if Monday-Thursday are the days, much as I'd like to be able to do so. If the meet is two days long, and folks want to stick around Sunday night, then sure, the mint would be there on Monday morning and I'd probably be down to participate.

Leave it to the government to keep the mint closed on weekends.  It's not exactly a tourist attraction IMO however  :happy:

Two Denver-area road-related points of interest that may be of interest:
1. I-70 East viaduct between I-25 and Colorado Blvd. As was typical of post-war viaducts, the highway has no shoulders and inadequate ramp design. CDOT plans to replace the viaduct with a trench, while some neighborhood activists want the highway rerouted on I-76 and I-270; either way, the viaduct's time is limited.

2. I-25 southbound express lane from Orchards to Lincoln Ave, in Centennial, CO. For the extremely low cost of striping two continuous white lines, CDOT created a dedicated express lane for thru traffic to bypass exiting traffic to C-470 and E-470.

Any updates, Corco?

Good question, looks like everythign is falling into place for my 4th trip west in July so if this meet ends up on memorial day weekend then I have a greater chance of going with taking a couple days off, otherwise I may be out.

At this juncture in time, most likely no, but it could change later.

I've been occupied with other things lately but I'm still fully committed to this idea. Hold me to this: meet announcement coming this Saturday.