First of all, I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who supported this idea of a "city meet" that I came up with and brought to fruition. I was so thrilled in the early stages of planning this gathering to get a lot of support for the idea. And secondly, thank you to everyone who attended. I was humbled and amazed by such a large turnout (20 for lunch and 15 for dinner). WOW.
I echo what others have said about the social aspect of road meets. Most of the close friendships I've established in my adult years (beyond college) have been created as the result of me being part of this community. One reason that I came up with the idea of the "city meet" was to give folks (myself included) a reason to visit and explore a certain city... especially its infrastructure and downtown. There have been many times since 2004 (when I started attending road meets) where I've thought, "I'd love to see a road meet take place in such-and-such city." These "such-and-such" cities are places that I know next to nothing about and have been wanting to find a reason to explore them. Last year I was talking to a few of my fellow Michigan roadgeeks to get their initial feedback about the idea, and I was encouraged to move forward with it which I did. If I want to see a meet happen in a certain place, I now feel like I have the confidence and ability to make it happen... even if I know nothing about the city in advance and have no ability to do any traveling to scout a possible tour beforehand. I think Steve Alpert encourages this philosophy... if you want to see something happen, just announce it and invite folks to join you. That's exactly what I did here and that's what I'll try to do on an annual basis if I continue to get as much support for the idea as I'm getting.
I totally understand and appreciate that some folks might not like the idea because there's no organized tour. I've never really had the interest in hosting a traditional road meet and organizing a road-meet tour, but I very much enjoy attending road meets and appreciate all the work that goes into developing these detailed tour itineraries. If I were to hypothetically organize a traditional road-meet tour, it would have to be a place that I'm familiar with and have the ability to scout beforehand. That goes against my philosophy of exploring new places that are far from home and encouraging others to join me in that exploration. I tend to prefer exploring more urban areas than rural areas which is why I'm calling these "city meets".
H.B. - I'll share my perspective on your question regarding how the tours and exploration came together. During lunch, after everyone took their meal orders with the server, I got up and said a few words in front of the whole group. One of the things I did was ask the attendees to go around the tables and share what they were planning on seeing/doing in the afternoon, so that everyone could listen and get ideas from what ideas others have already come up with. In general, I think that worked okay. To be honest, I didn't think that anyone would want to ride in my vehicle with me. But it just so happened that the ideas that I shared (exploring downtown, driving to Newport, and getting a couple of counties) were enough of a draw that I had five people join me (four with me in my vehicle plus CPZ in his own vehicle caravaning behind me). I communicated a lot with CPZ via phone call as we were deciding on the spot where to go next. Matt P. was one of the riders in my vehicle, and I was fortunate to have his navigational assistance as he shared some ideas on the road of places we should stop... including a freeway stub that I previously had no idea existed, and a park where we got some good views of the Pell Bridge. Also, someone (either CPZ or Matt) came up with the idea of stopping at the visitor center in Newport where we all went inside and got some new maps. Then there were a few other random places where Matt suggested we stop, and I was totally open to all those suggestions... as was everyone else in the vehicle. It ended up going very, very well.
I do know that some attendees did some exploring on their own, but I also know that there were a few people who paired up with someone else who was doing something they were also interested in. For instance, Sam Scholtens and Eric Stuve went to Martha's Vineyard together to clinch Dukes County, Massachusetts.
I also wanted to chime in on something Adam mentioned above. He described this "city meet" concept as a "roadgeek lunch". For the folks who can't reconvene for dinner, that's pretty much exactly what it is. But what makes this event different is that the do-it-yourself tours are ideally bookended by two meals. One purpose of reconvening for dinner, in addition to the social aspect of course, is to encourage folks to share what they did during the 6-ish-hour time span between lunch and dinner. My initial guess was that, perhaps, 50 percent of the lunch attendees would return for dinner. But in Providence, it was actually 75 percent which I was so pleased by.
Everyone has different reasons why they want to explore different places. This "city meet" concept gave everyone a reason to see what they wanted to see without being constrained to an organized tour. Like I said, I still very much enjoy the organized road-meet tours and they will always have an important role in our community. But for me to host something, I wanted to try something different. If some folks don't like the idea, I respect that and wouldn't try to persuade you to attend if it's not your cup of tea.
Thanks to everyone who has shared feedback so far. I'm chomping at the bit to create my poll. LOL