2013 Wichita Road Meet, July 20

[hbelkins]

Alva has a Comfort Inn, a Sonic and a Walmart Supercenter. What more could I ask for? 

[US71]

Alva has a Comfort Inn, a Sonic and a Walmart Supercenter. What more could I ask for? 

Real food?

[okroads]

Alva has a Comfort Inn, a Sonic and a Walmart Supercenter. What more could I ask for? 

That Walmart Supercenter is likely the smallest one I have ever been in. It is more like a regular Walmart that just happens to have groceries also.

[okroads]

Checking my county-collecting route, looks like I may be southwest of Wichita in Alva, Oklahoma, on Friday night. Is there anything there? I see it's a college town.

Hope to see an itinerary and timetable soon.

Appears to be a pony truss north of town on 281 (or was in 2009). Also a concrete "fence rail" as Bugo calls them.

The pony truss bridge was in the midst of being replaced in August 2011, so it is likely gone by now:


DSC05658 by okroads, on Flickr

[US71]

Alva has a Comfort Inn, a Sonic and a Walmart Supercenter. What more could I ask for? 

That Walmart Supercenter is likely the smallest one I have ever been in. It is more like a regular Walmart that just happens to have groceries also.

That's the trend. Booneville, AR has a Wal-Mart that was "remodeled" as a Supercenter.

[route56]

Unless there's any objection, I'm going with WichitaRoads's suggestion of Auntie Mae's as our meet/lunch location.

Tenative itenerary so far:

• I-235/13th Street construction. [closest to Auntie Mae's]
  
• John Mack Bridge [Meet Photo here?]
  
• I-135 Canal Route.

[WichitaRoads]

Woo-hoo! I contibuted! 

All silliness aside, what times?

ICTRds

[route56]

Here's what I've got penciled down:

11:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:15 - 1:45 - view I-235/13th Street
2:05 - 2:25 - John Mack Bridge/Group photo
2:45 - 3:05 - View Canal Route
3:05 - 3:40 - Driving Tour - Northeast Freeway (K-96) and Kellogg (US 54/400)
3:40 - Should be back at Auntie Mae's to disperse.

[Alps]

Here's what I've got penciled down:

11:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:15 - 1:45 - view I-235/13th Street
2:05 - 2:25 - John Mack Bridge/Group photo
2:45 - 3:05 - View Canal Route
3:05 - 3:40 - Driving Tour - Northeast Freeway (K-96) and Kellogg (US 54/400)
3:40 - Should be back at Auntie Mae's to disperse.

Dude, it's summer. Get an extra hour of Stuff in there.

[WichitaRoads]

I might just be able to do lunch... I see the tour items all the time ... LOL.  Keep in mind... Aunite Mae's doesn't do reservations.

ICTRds

[US71]

Here's what I've got penciled down:

11:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:15 - 1:45 - view I-235/13th Street
2:05 - 2:25 - John Mack Bridge/Group photo
2:45 - 3:05 - View Canal Route
3:05 - 3:40 - Driving Tour - Northeast Freeway (K-96) and Kellogg (US 54/400)
3:40 - Should be back at Auntie Mae's to disperse.

Dude, it's summer. Get an extra hour of Stuff in there.

It would take at least an extra hour to do the abandoned railroad bridges west of Newton

Any other RR or highway bridges of interest?

[vdeane]

Here's what I've got penciled down:

11:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:15 - 1:45 - view I-235/13th Street
2:05 - 2:25 - John Mack Bridge/Group photo
2:45 - 3:05 - View Canal Route
3:05 - 3:40 - Driving Tour - Northeast Freeway (K-96) and Kellogg (US 54/400)
3:40 - Should be back at Auntie Mae's to disperse.

Dude, it's summer. Get an extra hour of Stuff in there.

It would take at least an extra hour to do the abandoned railroad bridges west of Newton

Any other RR or highway bridges of interest?

Looks like you have time...

[corco]

The sun goes down at what, 8:45? If the meet's done at 4:00 I'm cool with it and I'll use the time to clinch the six northern Oklahoma counties I'm missing, but I'd also be down with another hour or two of stuff if there's stuff to see. Or I'll just stick to the original route and get to Laramie earlier, which isn't necessarily of any benefit as friends may not be available until later in the evening and I don't have to leave until pretty late the next day- I basically have two non road-clinching priorities on this trip (and by that point in the trip I'll probably be getting burnt out on road-clinching, since I'm taking 3.5 days to take a 1.5 day trip and going all the way out to Illinois on the way east)- 1) is the Wichita meet and 2) is seeing some old friends in Laramie, so I'm fine maximizing the time in Wichita if there's something else to see.

If others are in a time rush, maybe we could cluster into an "early" car/carpool and a "late" car/carpool, and the folks pooling to leave early can turn back sooner and the rest of us can continue on? (assuming there are other worthwhile things to see)

[Alps]

Most meets have an after-meet activity. This can be a sporting event, dinner, or it can be more driving. For example, after the Indy meet there was an excursion to Illinois and back, seeing old brick roads and covered bridges. Come up with some stuff to see afterwards, and you can come back at 3:40 or 4:40 and see who wants to continue on. An extreme example was the Akron/Canton meet, where everyone (16 or so people) just kept saying "Yeah, let's see the next thing!" and we went till 7 or 8.

[corco]

Ah, that's a good idea. I'm still reasonably new to the roadmeet thing- the only one I was at was the Tulsa meet which went until well after sundown

[hbelkins]

I don't know if it's because I'm getting more impatient and curmudgeonly or what, but in general I am not too crazy about meet tours that stretch over three hours. I generally have a personal itinerary for after the meet and the longer the meet goes, the less time I have for that. As it currently stands, the posted itinerary and ending time works well for me, leaving Wichita by 5 p.m. my time. (I hate Central Time). If the meet tour goes longer than 4:40 EDT (3:40 local time) then I will probably drive solo on the tour and then split off to head east.

I hope to get to town early enough on Saturday to clinch I-235, assuming I don't overnight there Friday night. And that all depends on how much I get done Friday.

[hbelkins]

Here's what I've got penciled down:

11:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:15 - 1:45 - view I-235/13th Street
2:05 - 2:25 - John Mack Bridge/Group photo
2:45 - 3:05 - View Canal Route
3:05 - 3:40 - Driving Tour - Northeast Freeway (K-96) and Kellogg (US 54/400)
3:40 - Should be back at Auntie Mae's to disperse.

I might suggest coming up with and posting a written turn-by-turn itinerary that people can download and print and bring to the meet, in case drivers get separated. The last few meets I've been to have utilized them, and they've come in handy.

[WichitaRoads]

Here's what I've got penciled down:

11:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:15 - 1:45 - view I-235/13th Street
2:05 - 2:25 - John Mack Bridge/Group photo
2:45 - 3:05 - View Canal Route
3:05 - 3:40 - Driving Tour - Northeast Freeway (K-96) and Kellogg (US 54/400)
3:40 - Should be back at Auntie Mae's to disperse.

Dude, it's summer. Get an extra hour of Stuff in there.

It would take at least an extra hour to do the abandoned railroad bridges west of Newton

Any other RR or highway bridges of interest?

Just southeast of the John Mack Bridge along the Ark River is a pretty interesting railroad tressel over the river...

ICTRds

[kphoger]

Here's what I've got penciled down:

11:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:15 - 1:45 - view I-235/13th Street
2:05 - 2:25 - John Mack Bridge/Group photo
2:45 - 3:05 - View Canal Route
3:05 - 3:40 - Driving Tour - Northeast Freeway (K-96) and Kellogg (US 54/400)
3:40 - Should be back at Auntie Mae's to disperse.

I might suggest coming up with and posting a written turn-by-turn itinerary that people can download and print and bring to the meet, in case drivers get separated. The last few meets I've been to have utilized them, and they've come in handy.

I can make one of those once we have a finalized list.  I'm pretty good (and detailed!) at giving directions that people can actually follow.

I work till 2:00 PM, but I can see if someone can come in a little early for me that day for me to make the 1:15 start time.

Most meets have an after-meet activity. This can be a sporting event, dinner, or it can be more driving. For example, after the Indy meet there was an excursion to Illinois and back, seeing old brick roads and covered bridges. Come up with some stuff to see afterwards, and you can come back at 3:40 or 4:40 and see who wants to continue on. An extreme example was the Akron/Canton meet, where everyone (16 or so people) just kept saying "Yeah, let's see the next thing!" and we went till 7 or 8.

I've mentioned it upthread, but I already have evening plans–game night at some friends' house on the west side.  It's open to anyone who's interested.

It would take at least an extra hour to do the abandoned railroad bridges west of Newton

Any other RR or highway bridges of interest?

Just southeast of the John Mack Bridge along the Ark River is a pretty interesting railroad tressel over the river...

I'm up for whatever you guys want to see.  Nothing around here takes too terribly long to get to.

[route56]

I might suggest coming up with and posting a written turn-by-turn itinerary that people can download and print and bring to the meet, in case drivers get separated. The last few meets I've been to have utilized them, and they've come in handy.

Seeing as how the chief meeting planner is coming in from some 150 miles away, that's probably not going to happen

[US71]

I might suggest coming up with and posting a written turn-by-turn itinerary that people can download and print and bring to the meet, in case drivers get separated. The last few meets I've been to have utilized them, and they've come in handy.

Seeing as how the chief meeting planner is coming in from some 150 miles away, that's probably not going to happen

You still have time to drive down there and work it out

[route56]

You still have time to drive down there and work it out

I prefer carpooling

(BTW, any chance you can install the seats in your van. I drive a two-door now)

[kphoger]

You still have time to drive down there and work it out

I prefer carpooling

(BTW, any chance you can install the seats in your van. I drive a two-door now)

Give me the stops, and I can make the directions.
And I own a minivan as well.

[hbelkins]

I was going to say, surely the tour is not going to be done on the fly, is it? Those usually don't turn out well.

[J N Winkler]

I don't mean to inject myself into an overcrowded kitchen, but I am actually local to Wichita and have already scoped out some of the places that are on the tentative plan.  If no-one else wants to do it, I can easily make up a series of Google Maps itineraries to cover the driving segment of the meet.

I am planning to be there both for lunch and for the driving tour.  I will also be taking my car on the drive, so I am offering the front passenger seat to anyone who wants to ride along.  (In theory I can seat three in the back seat, but since my current ride is a 1994 Saturn SL2, legroom is very limited.)