Hey, my name is Ken...I'm an author working on a book for Scribner's about people with different kinds of geographical obsessions. (I'm also the guy who was a contestant on the TV quiz show Jeopardy for about half of 2004, if that rings a bell.)
Right now I'm working on a chapter about various kind of roadgeekery. I've been a fan of road atlases and highway minutiae ever since I was kid, but I don't feel really knowledgeable about this is as an organized hobby. I'm Seattle-based right now. Are there any Puget Sound-area road fans out there? Drop me a line if so.
I'm not Seattle-based, but I was also a geography nerd as a kid before becoming a full-fledged road enthusiast. (And I've always been a Jeopardy nerd. One of my friends won a recent Teen Jeopardy tournament.)
Oh, wow! Welcome to the forum, Ken!
Chris Kalina, a.k.a. the seattleroadgeek, recently moved from the Seattle area but was based out of there for many years and knows a lot about Puget Sound area roads. Drop me a pm if you want his contact info.
Quote from: Ken JenningsRight now I'm working on a chapter about various kind of roadgeekery. I've been a fan of road atlases and highway minutiae ever since I was kid, but I don't feel really knowledgeable about this is as an organized hobby. I'm Seattle-based right now. Are there any Puget Sound-area road fans out there? Drop me a line if so.
If you don't find anyone in the Seattle area, I'm a neighbor down I-5 in the Portland area. You'll find that there really isn't a whole lot of organization in the hobby except for this type of forum. Read through a few months worth of posts here and you'll probably be able to figure out the subcategories of the hobby. Except for small localized groups in the bigger metro areas, most of us didn't know about others in the hobby until the internet came along and finally gave us a method to connect nationwide and worldwide.
--Andy
Like Andy, I'm also based in Portland.
Thanks for all the replies! Sounds like Seattle is not exactly a hotbed of roadgeekery at the moment. I may follow up with one of you Portlanders at some point if I can't come up with anything closer.
Actually, I'm going to be visiting family in Utah later this spring...maybe I'll try that regional board to see if I can track down anyone in that area.
Quote from: Ken Jennings on February 03, 2010, 02:17:20 PM
Thanks for all the replies! Sounds like Seattle is not exactly a hotbed of roadgeekery at the moment. I may follow up with one of you Portlanders at some point if I can't come up with anything closer.
Actually, I'm going to be visiting family in Utah later this spring...maybe I'll try that regional board to see if I can track down anyone in that area.
I live in Upstate New York, and did try out for Jeopardy about 3 years ago. I took the online tryout quiz but was not selected for an audition. I do make it to Washington State about once a year, but I tend to visit only the Vancouver area as I have family around Portland and Salem.
There are a few roadgeeks in the Seattle area that I know of that post to other road-related discussion groups, but I am not sure if they read the AARoads Forum. John Spafford from Tacoma rings a bell, as does Floyd Rogers and maybe Robert Cruickshank. There was a road meet in Portland last year and there was talk about possibly having a meet in the Seattle area down the line.
As for Utah, there are a few roadgeeks there as well, but once again, I don't know if they follow the AARoads Forum as opposed to other methods of discussion.
Hmm, it would be ideal if a little Seattle-area meet-up could be thrown together sometime this spring (i.e. before my book deadline). :)
Would misc.transport.road be the right place to try to drum up some interest among likely Washington/Oregon attendees?
Quote from: Ken Jennings on February 04, 2010, 05:47:49 PM
Hmm, it would be ideal if a little Seattle-area meet-up could be thrown together sometime this spring (i.e. before my book deadline). :)
Would misc.transport.road be the right place to try to drum up some interest among likely Washington/Oregon attendees?
If you can ignore or otherwise stand the riff-raff there, I'd say go for it! :sombrero:
Quote from: Ken Jennings on February 04, 2010, 05:47:49 PM
Hmm, it would be ideal if a little Seattle-area meet-up could be thrown together sometime this spring (i.e. before my book deadline). :)
Would misc.transport.road be the right place to try to drum up some interest among likely Washington/Oregon attendees?
You may want to try the Roadgeek group on Yahoo as well
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roadgeek/ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roadgeek/)