2021 West Irondequoit Road Meet - September 25, 2021

[kernals12]

Also in Connecticut, we have aurora borealis in our kitchens.

[Roadgeek Adam]

will there be steamed hams

More of an Albany expression.

And you call them steamed hams despite the fact they are obviously grilled.

[Alps]

Also in Connecticut, we have aurora borealis in our kitchens.

Can I see?

[kernals12]

Also in Connecticut, we have aurora borealis in our kitchens.

Can I see?

No

[kernals12]

will there be steamed hams

More of an Albany expression.

You liar, steamed hamburgers come from Connecticut. How dare you appropriate my home state's delicacy

ham ≠ hamburger

It's hilarious that you actually are from upstate New York.

[webny99]

will there be steamed hams

More of an Albany expression.

You liar, steamed hamburgers come from Connecticut. How dare you appropriate my home state's delicacy

ham ≠ hamburger

It's hilarious that you actually are from upstate New York.

I know, I'm laughing uncontrollably about it.

[Duke87]

Also in Connecticut, we have aurora borealis in our kitchens.

Aurora is currently sleeping on the back of the couch in the living room but she has been known to enter the kitchen.

[kernals12]

will there be steamed hams

More of an Albany expression.

You liar, steamed hamburgers come from Connecticut. How dare you appropriate my home state's delicacy

ham ≠ hamburger

It's hilarious that you actually are from upstate New York.

I know, I'm laughing uncontrollably about it.

Not in Rochester no, it's an Albany expression

[Alps]

I'd like to take advantage of this important day to announce the 2021 West Irondequoit Road Meet, which will take place in beautiful West Irondequoit, NY on September 25 of this year.

The official meet location will be the McDonald's at 657 East Ridge Road (corner of Hudson Avenue). Depending on crowd size, we may get takeout and move to the Walmart parking lot across the street. If that is the case, you're welcome to get food from any of the wonderful local restaurants, including Burger King, Popeyes, Wendy's, and Sonic.

The stops on this meet will include the best of what beautiful Irondequoit has to offer, including...
- The Veterans Memorial Bridge and Irondequoit Bay Bridge along NY 104
- The Irondequoit Bay Swing Bridge and lighthouse
- The Colonel Patrick O'Rorke Memorial Bridge. Maybe, just maybe, we can get them to open it for us!
- Every ramp of the NY 104 / NY 590 interchange!
- If people want, maybe we can have a stop at the Seneca Park Zoo

We'll have a lot of fun activities packed into the day, so it might run a bit long. But I think that'll be okay with everyone, as West Irondequoit is a meet destination to end all meet destinations!

Hoping to restart discussion on this, if anyone has comments on the proposed iteniary. I fully plan to do all of these stops, and even to meet at the McDonalds or Walmart parking lot (number of attendees dependent). I can put this together, but looking forward to anything anyone has to add.

[vdeane]

For reference, here's the itinerary for another Irondequoit meet: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=23712.0

Of note, the NY 404/NY 590 interchange is a former cloverleaf and the site where a car drove one of the long since gone loop ramps in the 2010 Rochester meet, which had it as a stop (parking on Warrenton Street).  Even if this didn't become a stop, if we're actually going to do every ramp of the NY 104/NY 590 interchange I imagine we'd need to turn around at least once, and this is the first interchange to the south with ramps pointing the right way.

Speaking of the NY 104/NY 590 interchange, we would pass by the stub ramps twice each direction.  They're marked "no trespassing" by NYSDOT, so alas, no stop, but attendees should keep their eyes peeled nonetheless.  Ditto for the abandoned parking area on the Webster side.

Interestingly enough, there is an overlook with the Veterans Bridge visible near the Zoo, so those dovetail fairly well (though both are technically Irondequoit-adjacent).

If we're willing to go even further Irondeqoit-adjacent, the Driving Park Ave bridge has never been featured in a roadmeet before.  The best parking for that would most likely be the Maplewood Rose Garden.

The area near the Irondequoit Bay Swing Bridge has some parking and also views of the Irondequoit Bay Bridge (NY 104), so those dovetail as well.  The pier into Lake Ontario is also a nice walk.  There's an Abbott's Frozen Custard attached to the Bill Gray's, so this may also be a possible snack/bathroom stop.

There is some form of street parking on the local streets on both sides of the O'Rorke Bridge.  South side looks like it has more street parking, north side has the overlook.

[webny99]

Even if this didn't become a stop, if we're actually going to do every ramp of the NY 104/NY 590 interchange I imagine we'd need to turn around at least once, and this is the first interchange to the south with ramps pointing the right way.

More than that if you're counting the through movements on NY 104. You'd have to approach twice from the south, twice from the east, and twice from the west.

The area near the Irondequoit Bay Swing Bridge has some parking and also views of the Irondequoit Bay Bridge (NY 104), so those dovetail as well.  The pier into Lake Ontario is also a nice walk.  There's an Abbott's Frozen Custard attached to the Bill Gray's, so this may also be a possible snack/bathroom stop.

The Sea Breeze Pier isn't bad, although I personally prefer Charlotte (Charlotte is also technically in the city, not Irondequoit). Too bad the swing bridge won't be open, as that would allow for a nice loop instead of doing the Bay Bridge twice. You can still walk on the swing bridge in the summer, though, as part of a pedestrian connection to the pier.

[vdeane]

Even if this didn't become a stop, if we're actually going to do every ramp of the NY 104/NY 590 interchange I imagine we'd need to turn around at least once, and this is the first interchange to the south with ramps pointing the right way.

More than that if you're counting the through movements on NY 104. You'd have to approach twice from the south, twice from the east, and twice from the west.

I'm not making assumptions about how the tour was structured... when the Binghamton meet went through (nearly?) every ramp of Kamikaze Curve, there was a lot less direct turning around than one would think, because the host spread it out over the meet.  The result was that we passed through it on the way to/from pretty much every point of interest on the tour.  The location of the NY 104 interchange relative to the rest of Irondequoit makes it harder to do that, but it's probably not impossible to do to some extent.  Although that U turn would be a harder one to eliminate without going down to NY 286 or using local roads just for the heck of it.

The area near the Irondequoit Bay Swing Bridge has some parking and also views of the Irondequoit Bay Bridge (NY 104), so those dovetail as well.  The pier into Lake Ontario is also a nice walk.  There's an Abbott's Frozen Custard attached to the Bill Gray's, so this may also be a possible snack/bathroom stop.

The Sea Breeze Pier isn't bad, although I personally prefer Charlotte (Charlotte is also technically in the city, not Irondequoit). Too bad the swing bridge won't be open, as that would allow for a nice loop instead of doing the Bay Bridge twice. You can still walk on the swing bridge in the summer, though, as part of a pedestrian connection to the pier.

You'd still need to do the Bay Bridge twice if being strict about every ramp (NY 104 west through and NY 104 west to NY 590 south).  Walking on the bridge while it was open for boats is exactly what the 2010 meet did.

[webny99]

I'm not making assumptions about how the tour was structured... when the Binghamton meet went through (nearly?) every ramp of Kamikaze Curve, there was a lot less direct turning around than one would think, because the host spread it out over the meet.  The result was that we passed through it on the way to/from pretty much every point of interest on the tour.  The location of the NY 104 interchange relative to the rest of Irondequoit makes it harder to do that, but it's probably not impossible to do to some extent.  Although that U turn would be a harder one to eliminate without going down to NY 286 or using local roads just for the heck of it.
...

You'd still need to do the Bay Bridge twice if being strict about every ramp (NY 104 west through and NY 104 west to NY 590 south). 

NY 404 to Bay Road back to NY 104 is another option. The section of NY 404 that runs right past the bay is interesting, and it does have this view of the Bay Bridge. There's also been a lot of new apartment construction here over the past ~5 years, and there's now a (much needed) continuous TWLTL on NY 404 between Plank Rd and Bay Rd.

Heading the other direction (west) at Exit 8 towards Culver Rd would also pass along the section of Empire Blvd that's recently taken a road diet from four lanes down to two + TWLTL. It was still under construction as of last week, but appeared to be nearly complete.

[Laura]

For reference, here's the itinerary for another Irondequoit meet: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=23712.0

Amusingly, this meet will happen almost exactly 3 years to the day from that post, lol

[vdeane]

I'm not making assumptions about how the tour was structured... when the Binghamton meet went through (nearly?) every ramp of Kamikaze Curve, there was a lot less direct turning around than one would think, because the host spread it out over the meet.  The result was that we passed through it on the way to/from pretty much every point of interest on the tour.  The location of the NY 104 interchange relative to the rest of Irondequoit makes it harder to do that, but it's probably not impossible to do to some extent.  Although that U turn would be a harder one to eliminate without going down to NY 286 or using local roads just for the heck of it.
...

You'd still need to do the Bay Bridge twice if being strict about every ramp (NY 104 west through and NY 104 west to NY 590 south). 

NY 404 to Bay Road back to NY 104 is another option. The section of NY 404 that runs right past the bay is interesting, and it does have this view of the Bay Bridge. There's also been a lot of new apartment construction here over the past ~5 years, and there's now a (much needed) continuous TWLTL on NY 404 between Plank Rd and Bay Rd.

Heading the other direction (west) at Exit 8 towards Culver Rd would also pass along the section of Empire Blvd that's recently taken a road diet from four lanes down to two + TWLTL. It was still under construction as of last week, but appeared to be nearly complete.

I guess you missed my point.  If you're going to do NY 104 west through and NY 104 west to NY 590 south, you have to take the Bay Bridge south, unless like an electron that's not being observed, you do both in a state of quantum superposition.  There is no intermediate exit that was built, and even the ramps that were planned would have pointed the wrong way.  If you're going to do every movement through that interchange, you need to do NY 590 north of the interchange once each way, NY 590 south of the interchange three times each way, and NY 104 twice each way each side of the interchange.  No way around it.  How you arrange that is where your flexibility is.

NY 404 east of the NY 590 interchange heading down to the bay is probably worth doing in and of itself (note - the slope used to be steeper, until a project ~20 years ago that smoothed it out; IIRC, that's when the retaining wall was built).  It's a nice drive, and there are areas where one could park along the bay (one of which was flooded out when street view drove through).  The roads along the bay are nice and scenic too.

[webny99]

I guess you missed my point.  If you're going to do NY 104 west through and NY 104 west to NY 590 south, you have to take the Bay Bridge south, unless like an electron that's not being observed, you do both in a state of quantum superposition.  There is no intermediate exit that was built, and even the ramps that were planned would have pointed the wrong way.  If you're going to do every movement through that interchange, you need to do NY 590 north of the interchange once each way, NY 590 south of the interchange three times each way, and NY 104 twice each way each side of the interchange.  No way around it.  How you arrange that is where your flexibility is.

Yeah, I understand that - you'd still have to go over the bridge twice each way, but to your point about flexibility, taking NY 404/Bay Road would avoid having to turn around twice at the Bay Road exit. There's also the Webster side of Sea Breeze, which is interesting as well, although maybe not conducive to a large volume of cars given that you'd have to turn around at the end.

NY 404 east of the NY 590 interchange heading down to the bay is probably worth doing in and of itself

Agreed - that was pretty much my point as well! 

[vdeane]

Yeah, I understand that - you'd still have to go over the bridge twice each way, but to your point about flexibility, taking NY 404/Bay Road would avoid having to turn around twice at the Bay Road exit. There's also the Webster side of Sea Breeze, which is interesting as well, although maybe not conducive to a large volume of cars given that you'd have to turn around at the end.

The thing is, you didn't say "avoid having to turn around twice at the Bay Road exit".  The sentence that sparked this piece of the discussion was about the Bay Bridge:

Even if this didn't become a stop, if we're actually going to do every ramp of the NY 104/NY 590 interchange I imagine we'd need to turn around at least once, and this is the first interchange to the south with ramps pointing the right way.

More than that if you're counting the through movements on NY 104. You'd have to approach twice from the south, twice from the east, and twice from the west.

The area near the Irondequoit Bay Swing Bridge has some parking and also views of the Irondequoit Bay Bridge (NY 104), so those dovetail as well.  The pier into Lake Ontario is also a nice walk.  There's an Abbott's Frozen Custard attached to the Bill Gray's, so this may also be a possible snack/bathroom stop.

The Sea Breeze Pier isn't bad, although I personally prefer Charlotte (Charlotte is also technically in the city, not Irondequoit). Too bad the swing bridge won't be open, as that would allow for a nice loop instead of doing the Bay Bridge twice. You can still walk on the swing bridge in the summer, though, as part of a pedestrian connection to the pier.

(emphasis mine)

[webny99]

The thing is, you didn't say "avoid having to turn around twice at the Bay Road exit".  The sentence that sparked this piece of the discussion was about the Bay Bridge:

My bad. I knew what was meant (having just mentioned approaching twice from the east), but it came out wrong.

Too bad the swing bridge won't be open, as that would allow for a nice loop instead of doing turning around after the Bay Bridge twice.

How's that?

[vdeane]

I thought I'd chime in to this thread to plug the frozen custard window at Don's Original near the Irondequoit Bay Outlet Bridge.  It's been around since the 40s (pre-dating Abbott's, which is also nearby out of the adjacent Bill Grays) and is quite good.  People could get ice creme, use the public restrooms, walk the pier into Lake Ontario, and view the bridge.  This could easily be a signature stop of the meet.  The most advisable parking would be from one of the two public lots near what is now a playground (construction visible in the satellite photo); note that the parking by the boat ramp is for trailers and requires paying the fee for the boat launch to use.

[Roadgeek Adam]

So it appears I might be taking over this meet if people are still interested in having it.

[vdeane]

Not sure if this is still on or not since there haven't been replies since the last post, but I am likely out in any case as it appears that a family cookout is being planned on the same day.

[74/171FAN]

I'm probably out on this as I am supposed to be recovering from a trip out to Arizona the week before for a wedding.

[baugh17]

I am now scheduled for an overnight recovery at work that Saturday into Sunday so I'm out.

[jpi]

I will be in central PA the weekend of this meet but got lots of stuff going on, including scouting for my own road meet in York County and setting up for the annual Sept. Hershey toy show, have fun guys

[Laura]

I'm going to be working a lot more extra hours this fall (especially in early fall) so I am out.