Coming out of Hibernation

[tomm]

Hit 60 degrees here in NH today, and the snow drifts along the driveway have finally melted enough that I can finally look over them. Means riding season will be here soon.

Anyway wanted to throw out a couple of thoughts and get some input from folks here in the Northeast and Eastern Canada Regions. Would be a bit of work organizing, so want to make sure there is some interest first.

1) When we did our regional rally last year, a number of folks indicated that they couldn't attend because they were not either willing or able to get a whole week off from work to attend. And this year with the National in Arkansas, it may be too far for many folks up here to make it. So thinking that on year's when we do the regional, we continue to do it as usual as a week long event. But on years when we do the national, we would also do a series of weekend meet-n-greets throughout the region. Maybe one in each smaller state, and one or two in each larger state or province. Thought would be to ride in to a pre-planned destination on a Saturday (200 - 300 miles max), spend Saturday night going out to dinner and socializing, stay overnight, and ride home on Sunday. Would ask a local person from each area to kind of be the leader for that particular meet-and-greet, but there wouldn't really be much for that person to do other than help pick a nice destination. Even if only a couple / three bikes showed up, it could still be a nice event. No other special planning except for picking dates and locations.

2) Would ask folks to suggest a few of their favorite destinations in their state and send them to me. I would compile a list of those destinations by state with a short write-up on each one. Then folks could look over the list and maybe decide some nice destination rides that they might want to take during the summer. If they posted that they were going to do a particular ride on a particular day, then others who might be interested in the same destination could join up for the ride. Would all be ad hoc, but would give folks both in and out of the region some ideas on what others think might be some nice things to see / do. Examples of destinations could be a restaurant, a scenic vista, a museum, a park or monument, a scenic highway, sunrise from a particular vantage point, etc. But not just a ride. There are plenty of those already available. (This is really just a slight expansion on what I saw a number of folks from around the Mass South Shore area do last year. Seemed like a good idea.)

In both cases, we could set up a Photobucket account and folks could post pictures of their rides.

So, would either of those be of interest to you. Please let me know what you're thinking.

Thanks,
Tom