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Post by Paisan on Aug 3, 2008 11:52:27 GMT -5
Was shooting around the idea of the route for 2009 today and figured I'd make a post of it.
Here is one thought I had:
Friday: 8am- SOA 11am- Depart SOA 1:30pm- SDC 3:30pm- Depart SDC 9-9:30pm- Arrive in Burlington, VT
Saturday: 9am- VT Sports Car 11am- Depart VT Sports Car 7pm- Arrive @ Mario's in Lake George, NY
Sunday: 9am- Depart Lake George 4pm- Arrive in Wilkes Barre/Scranton, PA
What do you guys think?
-mike
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Post by white knight on Aug 3, 2008 14:24:38 GMT -5
Only thing I say is to skip Lake Gorge b/c you did it last year. then from VT to Montreal then over to Watertown NY then down to Wilkes Barre. This way we are not back traking and going to places that we have not been to.
-Mark
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Post by Paisan on Aug 4, 2008 14:54:35 GMT -5
True, but the roads would be all different and the folks at Marios really threw a nice all-you-can eat buffet for us and we had our own party room etc. This year we may have to take over the whole resturant for like 6hrs to do the raffle The other thing is that by stretching it up through canada there are people who won't/can't go through canada as well as the weather issue. If we run into weather on this route we can stay on highways and make up time. If we go the long route through canada there is less leeway for error. But I'm always open to suggestions. -mike
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Post by bat1161 on Aug 7, 2008 14:40:09 GMT -5
Personally I like the idea of heading into Canada again; it's been a couple of years since we did. If anyone still doesn't have a passport there is pleanty of time to get it if they apply now.
One good point about stopping in Lake George again is we might get more press coverage for a 2nd year.
Otherwise I'm up for whatever it is you folks decide on.
Mark
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Post by bravo12 on Aug 22, 2008 16:07:49 GMT -5
I don't mind staying at the same places, so long as the route is different. Any off-road alternative routes worked out yet? Or are we doing the Pine Barrens vs SDC? I'd prefer to keep the group together, unless it gets too large to manage safely.
Get a route mapped before the weather turns cold, and I can take a weekend to scout it out on the motorcycle.
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Post by scrapin' on Aug 23, 2008 21:33:43 GMT -5
You just hit on the point of contention....a group that is too large. Have we given any thought to breaking things up alittle this year in order to prevent large pile ups at gas stations and rest stops? Maybe 2 routes with the same destinations are in order....just a thought since we're discussing routes...
As long as we mix up the roads I'm down for mostly anything.
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Post by Paisan on Aug 24, 2008 20:59:30 GMT -5
Depending on how many people come we will have different groups. Probably just offset by 20 min or so.
The other idea is that we'll be scouting out the route and gas stations that can accomodate a large group.
Pine Barrens will be out due to SOA and SDC visits, in order to get from SOA to SDC during business hours, we can't do the PB. The conditions also haven't been too favorable the last few years down there for all kinds of cars.
I'm definitely leaning for the: SOA->SDC->Burlington, VT -Friday Burlington, VT->Backroads through Adirondacks->Lake George -Saturday Lake George->Scranton, PA -Sunday
90% of the roads will be different than last year for sure.
-mike
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Post by bravo12 on Aug 24, 2008 21:36:53 GMT -5
If we do two groups, maybe we should plan different fueling locations for each group, so we can get a leap-frog effect going (and not jam up the same gas station for a whole hour with two large groups that may end up overlapping).
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Post by nhsilversti on Aug 24, 2008 23:45:18 GMT -5
reminder to folks that for most people monday after is martin luther king day, a holiday/day off.
we will not know until close to the drive if we will be splitting groups, if the group is over 20 cars it will be split up.
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Post by Paisan on Aug 25, 2008 20:29:50 GMT -5
I'm still not convinced we should split it up. It is kinda cool to have such a big group of subies. Makes more of a statement. Was thinking of it on the way home.
-mike
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Post by growlingboxer on Aug 30, 2008 10:27:43 GMT -5
we don't need to split up the group on the drive...to your point, it is sweet to see that many subies together (look at what they are doing in europe for the colin mcrae drive).
but we definitely need to split up the pit stops. this requires a lot of pre-planning to find multiple stations where we need them. we may want to divide people up into different stop groups, which should be based upon things like 93 preferred (tuned turbos), only need gas every other stop (gas sippers like my legacy), so that appropriate stops can be chosen for each group. then for example, we can say over the radio: group 1 stops here at the mobil, and group 2 will continue up the road to the stewart's. and if each group has a leader, the leaders can coordinate with each other to have everyone meet up on the way out.
more thoughts on splitting up the stop groups...i originally thought the every other stop for gas group should be separate, so that they can stop at non-gas stations for a quick break. but now i am thinking they should be spread out with the other groups, so that there is less demand to use the pumps in each group. i think we still want the high octane preferred group together because there may only be one station with higher octane.
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Post by bravo12 on Aug 30, 2008 22:55:27 GMT -5
Just another reason to scout the route ahead of time. Let's get the actual route nailed-down, and then we can scout out the pit stops. Maybe we don't need to split up the group - one large group attracts more attention to the cause anyway - but I agree the pit stops need to be split, even with the number of cars last year. Maybe have a rally spot at the edge of town to muster-up again, like we did at that one scenic pull-off last year.
It shouldn't take 45 minutes for a fuel stop. My only real gripe last year was the long wait for the bathroom at each stop. Obviously, we'll have to plan stops at larger towns with more than one gas station.
I would say, though, that if we were planning an off-road excursion like the Pine Barrens, we'd want to split it up then. That section was a lot of fun with just the 7 or 8 cars we had going through last time. 35 cars tends to slow things down to the point of not being fun at all.
My advice: Work on nailing down the route first, keeping in mind that we'll need a large town with multiple gas stations every 240 miles or so. Then we can worry about the grouping and other logistics.
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Post by Paisan on Aug 31, 2008 23:13:06 GMT -5
I'm thinking if we simply pre-run the event we can scout out a gas station every 200 or so miles that's a Mega-station with multiple gas pumps and multiple rest rooms.
We should nail down a mid-late nov weekend to do a pre-run with a smallish tight group who knows what we are looking for and why we are pre-running it.
-mike
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Post by saab90089 on Sept 1, 2008 9:47:27 GMT -5
I'm liking the suggestions being made here. I have a proposed route and will try to get it posted up tonight. I don't think my proposed route is the best but I'm thinking we can always take various suggested routes to come up with a final route.
I think we are going to have to split the group up, at least for certain sections. Maybe all we do need to split up is for gas stations? There are defently times where a group of 35 cars is no problem at all (say the highway) and even small towns with no lights or 1 light the large group is fine as long as we are just rolling through the town. Seems to be when we get into an area with multiple lights and/or many turns and/or a gas station stop that the 1 large group gets to be out of hand. Also, we might want to come up with a method for splitting the group (if needed) and in addition we might want to come up with an alturnative idea that we can use if said method does not seem to work.
I think just by the fact that we are dicussing these issue's this early we should be able to come up with a good plan for everything.
Ian
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Post by Paisan on Sept 1, 2008 20:48:56 GMT -5
That's another thing, we need to enforce the rule of keep the guy behind you in your sights. That way we don't lose people.
-mike
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