Greatest road meet of all time?

[getemngo]

Note: I put together the Dubuque meet.  It was the only one I didn't have to stay in a hotel or drive far for.

Wait, who planned Wausau in 2011? Didn't think it was a Koerner meet.

[SSOWorld]

Note: I put together the Dubuque meet.  It was the only one I didn't have to stay in a hotel or drive far for.

Wait, who planned Wausau in 2011? Didn't think it was a Koerner meet.

Actually that was me as well.

[brianreynolds]

Too many good ones to count.  Too few disappointments to remember.  But .... a few stand out.

The National Meet in Pittsburgh hosted by Jeff Kitsko was outstanding.

A half-dozen or so hosted by H.B. deserve Honorable Mention - Ashland, Somerset, the first Pikesville, and probably a few that I missed.

I agree with Sam - Lansing, Ashland, Flint, all very different, all good memorable times. 

Atlanta, Baltimore, Nashville, St. Louis, how am I supposed to choose one?

I noticed a sub-theme in this thread: some have mentioned geekmeets and road trips as therapy for a major personal loss.  Yes, I can relate.  The first St.Louis meet (2008?) was very shortly after my brother died.  I used the many hours of solitude and silence to process that.

My very first road enthusiast meet was about 12 years ago or so, in Toledo.  In attendance (that I can remember), Adam Prince, Jeff Kitsko, Pete Jenior, Adrian, Dyche, Sean Lyons, several others.   Sean took us on a walking tour of the proposed (at that time) new Maumee River crossing.  He did his best to convey in words and gestures what this major public work would look like.  Several years later, I ran into Sean at the big event (walk, jog, bike, run) in advance of the opening.

You never forget your first.

[Duke87]

My top three:
1) Montreal, 2011
2) Ottawa, 2012
3) Rochester, 2012

These meets all had two key things in common: one, they were small (8, 5, and 6 people, respectively). I usually prefer this to the larger crowds that most meets draw, it's difficult to really interact with everyone in those cases. Two, since they weren't day trips I was spending the night in the area and was able to attend pre- and post-meet activities. So they were broader experiences than just showing up in time for lunch and bouncing after the tour wraps up (which is usually typical for me).

[Dr Frankenstein]

My top three:
1) Montreal, 2011

I'm honoured.

The Upper-Middle St. Lawrence mini-meet from last summer was a blast too!

That said, I'm not sure which meet would be my favourite. Newark NJ (2011), Lebanon NH (2013) and Sarnia-Port Huron (2012) do bring a lot of good memories. Rochester (2012) was fun too! I don't think I can name one particular meet that was undeniablely the "greatest", though.

[Laura]

Yep, Baltimore was my first, and ties with St. Louis in my mind (but that's because I really can't pick a meet without Mike as my top). You never forget your first


iPhone

[Dougtone]

Having been to many meets in a period over 10 years, I would have to say that many of the meets were great affairs.  I'm not going to single out a greatest meet of them all, but plenty of meets do stand out from the rest.  The 2006 Pittsburgh National Meet, Buffalo in 2004, Joliet in 2012, the recent meet in St. Louis and the road meet in Bennington come to mind.

SCH-I545

[hbelkins]

Too many good ones to count.  Too few disappointments to remember.  But .... a few stand out.

The National Meet in Pittsburgh hosted by Jeff Kitsko was outstanding.

I concur. This was the first multi-day meet that I ever attended. There was a good assortment of road-related stuff along with the ancillary attractions. The first-day trip out to the Flight 93 memorial and the Q Creek mine rescue site was enjoyable. There was time for some personal exploration built into that one, and the boat ride to see the bridges was fun. I didn't stick around for the Pirates game on Saturday night, but going to Primanti's more than made up for that.

A half-dozen or so hosted by H.B. deserve Honorable Mention - Ashland, Somerset, the first Pikesville, and probably a few that I missed.

Thank you, sir. I tried really hard to put on quality meets. Charleston, WV is the other one. I did.

You never forget your first.

My first meet was the one Sherman Cahal did in, I think, 2002, involving the construction of the Industrial Parkway (KY 67) in northeastern Kentucky. There were only three of us there (Pete Jenior was the other one). The first trip I took to attend a meet was Charlotte in 2003 or '04. I didn't stay for the tour, but I drove down for the lunch and back. For a long time, I didn't participate in the tours unless the meet was fairly close to me and I could make the drive home easily, and sometimes even then (the first Cincinnati meet that Pete Jenior did and the first Nashville meet I attended which was at that German restaurant pretty much underneath I-24) I didn't tour. Once I started spending the nights on meet trips, I started participating in the tours.



A few have alluded to bad meets. I wouldn't single out any meet or organizer by name, but some of them have been hampered by poor planning. During a few of them, the tours have gone on a little longer than I would have preferred (and I am still kicking myself for underestimating how long last fall's Pikeville meet tour would last). Anything much longer than three hours and I start to get a little restless.

Weather has been a factor in a few meets, but that can't be blamed on the meet organizer. Rain at Chattanooga last summer, as someone else mentioned, and even snow at some of them. I have to say, though, that there couldn't have been a more perfect meet day than Ashland last year. It was a perfect spring day.

[bandit957]

The weather was actually decent at the 3 meets I've been to.

[PHLBOS]

The weather was actually decent at the 3 meets I've been to.

In the 4 meets I attended, there were no real weather issues as well other than Portsmouth, NH being a tad hot (for early June); a short, minor flurry at Monticello, NY; and a brief shower at Brick/Wall, NJ (while checking out the NJ 18 stub at NJ 138).

[Brandon]

The weather was actually decent at the 3 meets I've been to.

Most of the ones I've been to have been as well, except the 2012 Port Huron-Sarnia meet.  We had a rather substantial amount of rain for that one.  Luckily, I carry umbrellas and towels in the car.  The Hitchhiker's Guide is absolutely right - don't forget to bring your towel.

[agentsteel53]

Brick/Wall

can someone explain the name of this meet?  I've seen it referred to before, but have not been able to figure it out from context.

[Brandon]

Brick/Wall

can someone explain the name of this meet?  I've seen it referred to before, but have not been able to figure it out from context.

Two different New Jersey townships: Brick and Wall.

[agentsteel53]

Two different New Jersey townships: Brick and Wall.

ha.  that's simple enough.

at least one isn't Brick and the other Bruck, like with Florida and its Breeeeeeeward and its Broooooooward counties.

[bugo]

The weather was HORRIBLE at the OKC meet.

[Scott5114]

In my defense, when is the weather not horrible in Oklahoma City? There's really no good time to do one...if you shoot for the milder springtime, you risk the possibility of severe weather (while the meet being interrupted due to a tornado would be a notable first, it's not exactly one that most people would be all too happy to participate in). Too late in the summer and you get the certainty of 100+ highs. Good luck predicting when "fall" will be–any given date in October could be a continuation of the 100+ highs or full-on winter. In the winter there's always a small, but present, chance of snow, and greater chances of winter weather further north keeping people from making it down to the meet.

I went with June hoping that it would dodge severe weather but be early enough in the summer that it wouldn't be too hot. Unfortunately, it got hot. At least it gave the attendees from out of state an idea of what Oklahoma summers are like.

[agentsteel53]

In my defense, when is the weather not horrible in Oklahoma City? There's really no good time to do one...if you shoot for the milder springtime, you risk the possibility of severe weather (while the meet being interrupted due to a tornado would be a notable first, it's not exactly one that most people would be all too happy to participate in). Too late in the summer and you get the certainty of 100+ highs. Good luck predicting when "fall" will be–any given date in October could be a continuation of the 100+ highs or full-on winter. In the winter there's always a small, but present, chance of snow, and greater chances of winter weather further north keeping people from making it down to the meet.

I went with June hoping that it would dodge severe weather but be early enough in the summer that it wouldn't be too hot. Unfortunately, it got hot. At least it gave the attendees from out of state an idea of what Oklahoma summers are like.

what day did we do our OK/TX county run?  it was like late October.  I remember that the morning was a bit foggy; the day was gray but ideal for driving and walking around... in the evening it started to rain.

overall I consider that a success.

[hbelkins]

(while the meet being interrupted due to a tornado would be a notable first, it's not exactly one that most people would be all too happy to participate in).

I'd be up for a storm chase meet!!! 

I hate hot weather, and I didn't really mind either OKC or Wichita last year. The extreme heat in New Hampshire last year, coupled with me not feeling well, was something I could have done without, however.

[Brandon]

(while the meet being interrupted due to a tornado would be a notable first, it's not exactly one that most people would be all too happy to participate in).

I'd be up for a storm chase meet!!! 

Well, we do have one coming up in the Illinois Valley (Starved Rock SP) on May 17th.  Severe weather, May, and northern Illinois go together.  There is a tornado memorial to tornado victims across the river in Utica (April 2004), and my brother's may graduation from high school in May 2003 was interrupted by tornado sirens.

Who knows what the weather will bring.

[froggie]

Though not directly impacted by it, I once held a meet right before a hurricane (New Orleans/Slidell 2008, just before Hurricane Gustav hit).

[A.J. Bertin]

After reading about all these meets, I decided to make a list of all the road meets I've attended to think about which ones were best among them. Here's my list in case anyone is curious:

Grand Rapids, MI (just a gathering at a restaurant with no tour afterwards) — April 2004
Ann Arbor/Saline, MI — October 2004
Northern Detroit suburbs, MI — December 2004
MDOT public meeting (Grand Rapids area, MI - a few roadgeeks got together one weeknight for the public meeting and a late dinner afterwards - no tour) - January 2005
Hastings, MI (a map-gawking gathering at Brian Reynolds' place of business with no tour afterwards) — March 2005
Downriver Detroit suburbs, MI — November 2005
Brighton area, MI — November 2006
Toledo, OH — September 2007
Chicago/Milwaukee — June 2008
Lansing, MI — December 2008
Indianapolis — July 2009
Grand Rapids, MI — September 2009
Fort-to-Port (Fort Wayne, IN to Toledo, OH) — November 2009
Baltimore — April 2010
Canton/Akron, OH — May 2010
Marquette, MI (mini-meet) — September 2010
Rochester, NY — September 2010
Saginaw/Midland, MI — November 2010
Grand Rapids, MI — April 2011
Columbus, OH — May 2011
Morgantown, WV — June 2011
Wausau, WI — October 2011
Wheeling, WV — October 2011
Kalamazoo, MI — October 2011
Joliet, IL — April 2012
Memphis, TN — April 2012
Dayton, OH — June 2012
Port Huron, MI/Sarnia, ON — August 2012
Ashland, KY — April 2013
Dubuque, IA — May 2013
Flint, MI — August 2013
Cincinnati, OH — October 2013
St. Louis - March 2014

That's 33 meets in ten years for me. Wow... where has the time gone?

I can't say that I've ever attended a bad meet. Some have been better than others. I can evaluate all these meets based on different factors: the two biggest factors would be 1) the organizational aspects (how much ground was covered, how efficient it was, how much interesting infrastructure we saw, etc.) and 2) the social aspects and bonding time among friends. I honestly don't care as much about #1 as I do about #2.

It's extremely hard for me to pick which of these have been my favorites. I really liked Chicago/Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Marquette, Rochester, Morgantown, Wausau, Wheeling, Memphis, Port Huron/Sarnia, Ashland, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. This does not mean I didn't like all the others; it's just that those are the ones that stand out to me as being the most memorable.

The road meets keep getting better and better over the years.

[jpi]

Though not directly impacted by it, I once held a meet right before a hurricane (New Orleans/Slidell 2008, just before Hurricane Gustav hit).

I remember that, Steph and I were there :-) Still a fun meet since that was our first time in New Orleans and the weather the day before the meet was nice, and of course humid but still sunny and we were able to spend alot of time downtown.

[Duke87]

The Upper-Middle St. Lawrence mini-meet from last summer was a blast too!

Heh. That weekend was nuts. The fact that it had about five minutes of pre-planning and then snowballed from "let's clinch the new A-30" to "let's clinch all of A-30" to "let's go to Trois-Rivieres" to "let's go to Shawinigan!" makes it the best kind of random fun. It wasn't organized, it just happened. Also, 2/5ths of the attendees were not roadgeeks, and neither of those were parents, significant others, or children of roadgeeks. That has to be some sort of record.

I really can't pick a meet without Mike as my top

Giggity!

[getemngo]

Heh. That weekend was nuts. The fact that it had about five minutes of pre-planning and then snowballed from "let's clinch the new A-30" to "let's clinch all of A-30" to "let's go to Trois-Rivieres" to "let's go to Shawinigan!" makes it the best kind of random fun. It wasn't organized, it just happened.

That's more or less what happened with Flint last year too. It's so much fun if you're with the right people (and a group that can fit into one or two cars).

[vdeane]

I really can't pick a meet without Mike as my top

Didn't know you were into that