Well, here we are - it's down to the last few days. Looking forward to seeing everyone and perhaps meeting some new faces as well over the course of the weekend. I have a list of items for attendees to consider below:
A few words about parking/carpooling/etc: to make things easy, folks who plan on driving during each day of the weekend should leave their cars at each restaurant location; those who are planning on carpooling should leave cars at adjacent parking lots nearby. There is ample parking on both days for folks looking to leave cars. For those this applies to, on Saturday please look for parking in the area of Ikea/Lowes near Miller's; on Sunday, please look for parking in the Whitman Plaza (Shop Rite/Burlington) on Oregon Avenue. Sorting out the car situation off the bat will save us a decent amount of time each day and I appreciate everyone's forthcoming cooperation with this.
I will be bringing about 20 copies of the Meet Itinerary on each day of the weekend. I will also have a few copies of notes for each Pre-Meet location for those who are interested. That said, there will likely not be enough copies for everyone, especially on Saturday. If you would like to ensure that you'll have your own copy without waiting until the weekend itself, please feel free to bring your own. (I will prioritize those who are driving/navigating with the copies I'm bringing so if you don't fit in either of these categories, please keep that in mind.) I know that a lot of you may not be attending all of the events across the weekend: if you're going to be in the area for a lengthy period of time, I would recommend you check out the other locations to be featured in the weekend on your own time. Either of the two pre-meet locations, and a lot of the locations featured in the Sunday drive are really neat in their own right and I definitely recommend you check them out, even if you can't join us for them directly.
I've already spoken with a few of you about this but I'll address the group as a whole in case I miss anybody. If you're attending the Phillies game on Saturday, please make sure you have a way of getting in the ballpark - this can be accomplished by utilizing the MLB Ballpark app on your phone or by tagging along with me at the gate when we arrive. I'm going to start distributing tickets this week to those who have reserved a spot, so be on the lookout for that. (We actually still have two tickets that are unclaimed at this time, so I can accomodate a couple last-minute additions to the ballgame roster if you're out there...)
I did a "dry run" of both days of the weekend the other day. The results were very good, except for one thing that could possibly be an issue as far as streets/roads that might/might not be open along the Saturday route. With this in mind, I'm going to put together a sort of alternate itinerary for that segment of the drive in question, should we need it. (It would replace/supercede the Leg 1 segment of Saturday.) Look for this to be posted here in the next couple days. There's no guarantee that we'll actually need it, but in a city like Philadelphia with a large crowd of people going on this Saturday drive, it's important to account for all the possibilities we may encounter.
Early forecast for the weekend looks really good. Seasonal temperatures (upper 80s), with minimal chance of precipitation across the weekend. All things considered, I think we're in good shape across the board. Keep those RSVPs coming if you haven't already done so.
