2013 Michigan Roads Meet - Saturday, August 17th

[DanTheMan414]

And this year's tour destination is...Flint.  But, a trip to Frankenmuth is in order to kick things off:

WHAT: 2013 Michigan Roads Meet
WHEN: Saturday, August 17th @ 11:30AM
WHERE: Bavarian Inn Restaurant, 713 S. Main St., Frankenmuth, MI

We'll meet and greet at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant (versus Zehnder's for the Tri-Cities Meet a few years ago), giving you an opportunity to enjoy more of Michigan's Bavaria's excellent chicken.  The tour will highlight the I-75 widening that has taken place over the course of the last several years, along with recent work on I-475 & I-69, and much more.  More details to come.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP by Friday, August 16th, either by reply in this thread or by sending me a PM.

[Brandon]

I will be there.  Probably stop in East Lansing for some Bell's Greek Pizza on the way back. 

[hbelkins]

Going to a wedding in Maryland that weekend, so I'll be going east instead of north. Sorry.

[Alps]

A) also at said wedding
B) Flint??
C) tourist trap

[Janko Dialnice]

I would like to attend this meet, and get to know some of the Michigan-based road ethusiasts in person. But I probably will not be able to get the time off from work. My boss returns from his vacation one week earlier (the day after Dylan's Binghamton meet), and we have a software deployment scheduled for the Thursday before the meet. That will give me only one day to get to Frankenmuth from Merrimack ... an impossible task.

[codyg1985]

I am a maybe. It depends on my budget most likely.

[PCLV10]

I'll definitely go!

[getemngo]

Haven't missed one since I started in 2008, so you know I'll be there!

[A.J. Bertin]

I'll definitely be there!

[SSOWorld]

I would be there - but I have a much longer drive than anticipated - so in a sense.  I'm out. Sorry.

[jpi]

And like HB and Steve said, I will be at said wedding that weekend too. Have fun guys! Frankenmuth is a nice area!

[hbelkins]

So, how did today's meet go?

[getemngo]

Well, despite the sudden cancellation of our host, the five of us (me, A.J., rawmustard, Brian Reynolds, Brandon) had great beer, great fried chicken, and a great time. It didn't help our tour that the Back to the Bricks cruise was blocking off downtown, but the day was beautiful and Flint... well, it was Flint.

We took a look at the Black Bridge, clinched M-54 and I-475, and tried to trace old US 10 through downtown. On the non-road side, we explored the nearly vacant Dort Mall and drove through some of the most desolate neighborhoods, urban prairie, and by the former Buick City complex.

My camera didn't see much use, so hopefully A.J. will come through with a photo of the group.

[hbelkins]

Well, despite the sudden cancellation of our host

Word travels fast. We'd already heard about this all the way east in Maryland, even before Mike & Laura's wedding, which is why I asked. 

[A.J. Bertin]

The five of us indeed had a great time today. It actually worked out well that our host cancelled, because we ended up seeing some interesting things that we wouldn't have seen if our host had been there. The vacant/dying malls (Dort Mall and Courtland Center) were interesting, as was driving through some pretty rough-looking neighborhoods. LOL

I'll be posting my pictures to Facebook soon. 

[hbelkins]

So what happened that Dan had to cancel?

[getemngo]

Since not everyone is friends with A.J. on Facebook, here is the photo:

So what happened that Dan had to cancel?

I'm not clear on this... he and I didn't talk for very long, and I didn't catch everything he said. It sounded work related.