An idea for a different kind of roads gathering

[A.J. Bertin]

As many of us know, road meets have evolved over the years. In the early days of road meets, the gatherings were more simple than they are now. Oftentimes what would happen is a group of people would meet up for lunch, bring maps, discuss roads for a couple hours, and then go their separate ways. There was no tour or anything. But then again, those were also the days when many of us didn't know each other very well and didn't feel much of a need to prolong the gathering beyond, say, 2 or 3 hours.

The other night I was hanging out here in Michigan with Sam Scholtens and Brian Reynolds, and I was telling them about how there are certain cities that I would love to see a road meet in or otherwise have an excuse to visit. However, I've never hosted a road meet and don't have the desire to put together an actual tour... especially if it's a city that I know nothing about or is too far for me to go twice (once for a scouting trip and once for the actual meet). Brian and Sam encouraged me to post something here just to get everyone's take on this idea. As Brian said, different people have different things about road meets that they like. Some like seeing various cities' downtowns, some like driving different freeway networks, some are really interested in bridges and/or rail, some are interested in retail, and so on.

Here's my idea... I'm thinking about announcing a gathering in a random city (to be announced later) and inviting anyone on here who would like to attend. The formal gathering would only be lunch at a local restaurant in that city. After lunch, folks can divide up into groups to see various things that they'd have an interest in, or they can go their separate ways (possibly meeting up again later for dinner if they'd like). It would give folks an excuse to visit this particular city, and people can do after lunch whatever they wish. Plus, the fact that multiple people are visiting the same city means that some of them can potentially split lodging costs if they are staying in the same city/cities on the same night(s). It also gives introverts like me the out to have alone time after lunch if they wish.

If I were to announce something like this (depending on the location and date of course), would anyone have an interest in participating? Some might like this idea; others may not. I'm just curious because it's kind of a different take on the concept of a road meet.

[Brandon]

Sounds like an interesting idea.

[Alps]

Go for it.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I like this idea. The DIY approach potentially opens up more places to meets, and for many it's more about seeing friends than the tour itself anyway.

[cl94]

I like this idea. The DIY approach potentially opens up more places to meets, and for many it's more about seeing friends than the tour itself anyway.

This. Unless it's my one long-distance meet of the year, I'm not covering new territory. We all have different interests and, for many of the most interesting sites, it's impractical (if not impossible) to get a large group there. Much easier to go with the flow this way and, with a bunch of smaller groups, each group could probably see more.

I'm in if it's a time I can make it.

[hbelkins]

Sounds interesting, and I know Lexington is one of the cities you've expressed an interest in seeing more of.

[A.J. Bertin]

Unless it's my one long-distance meet of the year, I'm not covering new territory.

Yeah that's another reason I thought some people might like this idea. It gives them a reason to clinch new territory on the drive to/from this kind of gathering.

I'm in if it's a time I can make it.

Sweet! I'm not sure when I'm going to make the announcement of the location. I'd like to try and host this gathering sometime in 2018, but I don't know how realistic that will be given everything I've got going on this year. It's quite possible I might not host this until 2019. Maybe I'll host one per year?

[A.J. Bertin]

Sounds interesting, and I know Lexington is one of the cities you've expressed an interest in seeing more of.

It absolutely is. In the message that I just posted in response to Josh's message, I indicated that I could potentially see myself hosting one of these types of gatherings per year. I've already got a mental list of cities that I'd like to host such gatherings in, and Lexington is on that list.

[vdeane]

Sounds similar to the annual gathering in Saratoga Springs, though more optimized for travel/self-guided tours/etc.  Could also work well for areas that don't have enough sites conductive to meet tours (not much place to stop, etc.).

[jpi]

As long as my work\ toy show\ personal schedule is not conflicting I would be up for something like this, same with Steph.

[Duke87]

I have no objection to the general concept. One definite pro to it is that meet tours can become tedious, I have found, and may in some cases not conform to the idiosyncrasies of individual attendees. Cutting the formal tour out avoids that.

How likely I am to show up depends on when and where it is - as of this writing I am unlikely to attend any more meets this year that are outside of day trip range, but next year the slate clears on that.


That said, if I may... one challenge, I have found, is that when a group becomes sufficiently large it starts to become unwieldy handling everyone at a sit-down restaurant. People tend to want to move around and mingle, and this can interfere with the waitstaff's ability to do their job properly, not to mention that having people standing around can generally get in the way. And then when we ask the staff to give us 20 separate checks... yeah, it becomes a mess.

I think some serious consideration should be given to having the meet-up location for this or any other road meet be a mall food court or somewhere along those lines. This way everyone can freely get their own food at their own pace, can pay separately without it being any added hassle, and can mingle without getting in anyone's way.

[cl94]

I think some serious consideration should be given to having the meet-up location for this or any other road meet be a mall food court or somewhere along those lines. This way everyone can freely get their own food at their own pace, can pay separately without it being any added hassle, and can mingle without getting in anyone's way.

For large things, certainly. Of course, there has to be a remotely decent food court we could use, or we need to get the lunch catered a la Delaware.

A meal place with a party room, in many cases, is a more realistic option, as most of the food courts I'm familiar with are practically empty.

[A.J. Bertin]

One definite pro to it is that meet tours can become tedious, I have found, and may in some cases not conform to the idiosyncrasies of individual attendees. Cutting the formal tour out avoids that.

That's exactly one of the things about most road meets these days that can be a bit cumbersome. Most of the time when I attend a road meet, I get kinda antsy around 4:00 or 5:00 for the tour to be over. I'm always grateful for the opportunity to attend any road meet I can, but different attendees have slightly different things that they want or don't want to see (and they have varying levels of patience) - so a DIY approach could make it more appealing for folks to attend who might otherwise wonder if a more traditional meet tour might be more than they really want to do.

How likely I am to show up depends on when and where it is - as of this writing I am unlikely to attend any more meets this year that are outside of day trip range, but next year the slate clears on that.

Completely understandable. I'm still not sure whether I'll host anything like this in 2018 or if my first meet along these lines won't be until 2019.

That said, if I may... one challenge, I have found, is that when a group becomes sufficiently large it starts to become unwieldy handling everyone at a sit-down restaurant. People tend to want to move around and mingle, and this can interfere with the waitstaff's ability to do their job properly, not to mention that having people standing around can generally get in the way. And then when we ask the staff to give us 20 separate checks... yeah, it becomes a mess.

You make a good point. For most road meets I've attended, the lunch has taken place at a sit-down restaurant. It generally hasn't been a huge problem, but yes... if the group is large, it can be difficult for people at one end of the table to try and talk to people at the other end of the table without getting out of their chairs and potentially blocking aisles. When Brandon Gorte hosted his Illinois meet in May, his restaurant of choice for lunch was a fast-casual place - and it worked quite well. One thing that I find I also don't have a lot of patience with is trying to leave the restaurant to start the tour and we can't leave because we have to wait to pay our bills. With fast-casual restaurants, the bill is already paid before we eat.

I think some serious consideration should be given to having the meet-up location for this or any other road meet be a mall food court or somewhere along those lines. This way everyone can freely get their own food at their own pace, can pay separately without it being any added hassle, and can mingle without getting in anyone's way.

Very interesting idea. Plus it satisfies those of us who are retail geeks by giving us the opportunity to walk around a mall that's new to them. The only problem is that a mall food court kinda takes away from the notion of dining at a local (preferably downtown-ish) restaurant. With mall food courts, you're more likely to eat at a national chain that attendees can find anywhere. What I may do is post a poll asking potential attendees whether they'd prefer something like a mall food court or a downtown (presumably sit-down) restaurant and go with whatever the majority prefer.

You've given me some good things to think about here!

[A.J. Bertin]

A meal place with a party room, in many cases, is a more realistic option, as most of the food courts I'm familiar with are practically empty.

I've attended a few road meets over the years where the lunch took place in a private party room which was separate from the main dining room at the restaurant. I liked that quite a bit because it gave the attendees the freedom to move around and mingle without having to worry about getting in the way of other people (non-attendees).

[Alps]

The famous St. Louis meet was perfect for that because it was a serve-yourself buffet style room.

[A.J. Bertin]

What I may do is create a few separate polls:

• One in which I ask everyone their preference of a city among three or four choices
• One in which I ask everyone their preference of a date
• One in which I ask everyone what type of restaurant they'd prefer... fast-casual, mall food court, or local sit-down (maybe downtown-ish?) restaurant

I'm not sure that I'll actually create all these polls, but there's a good chance I might. Majority would rule. Once the city has been selected, I'll create a separate thread and give some ideas of things that potential attendees might want to do after lunch. I'm not sure whether or not I would create any kind of handout to bring copies of to the meet - but I might do that if folks would like something like that. It would probably be a simple list... nothing elaborate. Maybe I would also identify a dinner restaurant. That way, the folks who are still in the area after they've done their individual and/or group touring could reconvene and discuss their findings, discoveries, share photos, etc. with the larger group.

This idea is obviously still evolving. What other thoughts does everyone have?

[SSOWorld]

The famous St. Louis meet was perfect for that because it was a serve-yourself buffet style room.

Which only happened because the host tried to stuff to much into it.

[froggie]

That said, if I may... one challenge, I have found, is that when a group becomes sufficiently large it starts to become unwieldy handling everyone at a sit-down restaurant. People tend to want to move around and mingle, and this can interfere with the waitstaff's ability to do their job properly, not to mention that having people standing around can generally get in the way. And then when we ask the staff to give us 20 separate checks... yeah, it becomes a mess.

I think some serious consideration should be given to having the meet-up location for this or any other road meet be a mall food court or somewhere along those lines. This way everyone can freely get their own food at their own pace, can pay separately without it being any added hassle, and can mingle without getting in anyone's way.

Or just skip a formal meal.  Cuts out the time hassle and those individual meet attendees who want to meet together for lunch before the tour have the flexibility to do so.  I've found this can work well....as it did in the Twin Cities last summer.

Regarding the OP, another idea would be to have a shorter "formal tour" with a singular focus, which would take up noticeably less time and enable people to scout around a given area on their own.  An example of this would be my "covered bridges of Lyndonville" meet from a few years ago.

[Rothman]

I have found chatting over the meal to be generally more enjoyable than the tours, actually.  Tours are tricky to get right -- ensuring the group moves together is the biggest issue.

[jpi]

A meal place with a party room, in many cases, is a more realistic option, as most of the food courts I'm familiar with are practically empty.

I've attended a few road meets over the years where the lunch took place in a private party room which was separate from the main dining room at the restaurant. I liked that quite a bit because it gave the attendees the freedom to move around and mingle without having to worry about getting in the way of other people (non-attendees).

That's is how I planned it with my most recent central PA meet, I knew Hoss's had good food and private party rooms so it worked out well and I had nearly 30 people show up so it was nice and organized 

[hbelkins]

Or just skip a formal meal.  Cuts out the time hassle and those individual meet attendees who want to meet together for lunch before the tour have the flexibility to do so.  I've found this can work well....as it did in the Twin Cities last summer.

Or do what I tried to do with my aborted New River Gorge meet last year -- part of the tour, lunch on your own, then gather at a designated point for the second part of the tour. People can always decide if they want to go together as a group post-meet for dinner, which seems to be more and more of a thing at meets.

As for locations mentioned upthread -- I prefer suburban to downtown, mostly because of parking issues. Of course, I held my 2013 Tri-State meet in downtown Ashland, but there was a free municipal lot less than a block from the restaurant where everyone could park and leave their cars for the tour. If parking is a premium at a downtown restaurant, you end up having to move the cars to another spot before the tour assembles, taking even more time.

[A.J. Bertin]

Or just skip a formal meal.  Cuts out the time hassle and those individual meet attendees who want to meet together for lunch before the tour have the flexibility to do so.  I've found this can work well....as it did in the Twin Cities last summer.

The formal meal is actually the most important part of this kind of gathering because it's when we're all fully together as a group. There is no formal tour according to my idea because different attendees will want to see different things.

Regarding the OP, another idea would be to have a shorter "formal tour" with a singular focus, which would take up noticeably less time and enable people to scout around a given area on their own.  An example of this would be my "covered bridges of Lyndonville" meet from a few years ago.

It's a nice thought, but it wouldn't work. I can't host any kind of formal tour (regardless of length) because I don't know enough beforehand about the highway infrastructure of that particular city (or metro area). It's a different kind of gathering than what we're all used to.

What I should really do is bill this as a "city meet" rather than a "road meet" because the attractions are the cities as a whole. What I would do is give attendees suggestions of things beforehand of things they might want to see after lunch... some retail, some highways, some counties, maybe some bridges or other infrastructure, etc., that I can research from home.

[brianreynolds]

I think A. J. is onto something worth doing.  The city and the lunch locale would be chosen early in the planning.

Then individual participants can suggest a post-lunch activity in this forum, and see if others choose to join in.

There might be a half-dozen or more after-lunch options to choose from.  Each sub-group could then proceed with a plan.

Smaller special-interest teams would make for easier group management dynamics, less frustration.

Optionally, we could reconvene for an evening meal, and enjoy more social time. 

The conversation at the evening gathering would be lively, as each group's day would differ from that of every other group.

To me this sounds like a win - win - win for everyone.  I'm enthused.

[A.J. Bertin]

I just created a poll giving folks three options of cities where I should host my first "city meet" if I were to host such a gathering as I've described in this thread. So far it sounds like quite a few people are interested in this idea, which I'm very pleased about!

[cl94]

I chose Providence for a few reasons. Close to home (and I could theoretically do it as a day trip if I can't spare more than a day), I've spent stupidly little time in Rhode Island even with living most of my life nearby, I've wanted an excuse to explore that area, and this would give me an excuse to do quite a bit of clinching (of roads and county high points).

I'd actually be open to any of these, but the other two are much longer drives (or, more realistically, a flight to MDW or Norfolk to save several hours and a drive over mostly new territory). Elizabeth City would be great as a winter or early spring location, as it's just far enough south to be out of snow range.