Vermont Run Details

[CharlesGordon]

Date: Saturday, Oct 5, 2002

Meeting areas:
1) McDonalds in Ayer, MA (take Exit 38 to Rt 110 north from Rt 2, it is right off the rotary at the intersection of 110 and 2A), 9:30 AM
2) Parking lot of Greenfield Community College, intersection of 91 and Rt 2 in Greenfield, MA at 10:45 AM (near northwestern tip of the state), see map/directions at: http://www.greenriverfestival.com/map.html
3) The Equinox in Manchester, VT at 1:00 PM

Please note: With the popularity of this drive, we may not be able to count heads at the meeting locations as we normally do. So please CALL ME if you are going to be late. Otherwise we will have to leave without you according to our schedule.

Lunch:
Equinox Resort in Manchester, VT. Reservation is set for 1:00 pm, but our arrival could be as late as 1:30 due to traffic; bring a snack for the road to curb your appetite just in case.

Route:
Please refer to the these map sets (PDF format)

Overview style (288 kb size):
http://home.attbi.com/~charlesgordon/OverviewStyle.pdf

Turn-by-turn style: (398 kb size):
http://home.attbi.com/~charlesgordon/TurnByTurnStyle.pdf

After lunch, we will drive the scenic toll road to the top of Mt Equinox ($6-8/car) http://www.equinoxmountain.com

Confirmed participants:
(Please check out your name and help me keep this list accurate)
----------------------------------------------------------------
# Name(s) Meeting at
2 John/Kim Legelis Ayer
2 Bob/Darice Wareham (tentative) Ayer
2 Don/Monica Veino Ayer
? Kevin SY(MA) Ayer
2 Brian/Dori Feeney Ayer
2 Charlie & Sara Gordon Ayer
2 Jonathan Young Ayer
2 John/Janet Leach Ayer
2 Rey/Juliette Fortney Ayer
? Kevin (NYC) Greenfield
? CK (NYC) Greenfield
? Dan (Delaware) Greenfield
? Ed (Long Island) Greenfield
2 Drew (Braintree) (VT)?
? Michael Russell (Montpelier) (Equinox)

Current estimate: 26 people in 15 cars

Things to Bring:
- FRS Radio
- Cell Phone
- Radar Detector
- Snack (lunch will be late, 1:00 or 1:30)

Contact Info:
Charlie.Gordon@fmr.com (day)
CharlesGordon@attbi.com (evenings)
617-974-5704 (cell)
Channel 8, code 6 (as in Nine-86) on FRS

[Rey]

to the people in MetroWest (Brian etc.) that a few of us meet up more locally and caravan out to Ayer.

Let me know who might be up for it.

-Rey

[mjbliemel]

Hey, you all have a great drive up to Vermont. Used to live in New York State, so I know how beautiful it is in Vermont and the East Coast when the leaves turn. Kinda miss that out here in California, but then we have other things you don't have. Have a fun and safe trip everyone.

We do have some trees out here that turn in the Fall, like the aspens in the Sierra Nevada and locally a lot of liquid amber trees have been planted, so that does kind of make up for it, but it is just nowhere near what you feast your eyes on back there.

[donv]

Charlie,

I see you're looking for the second rally point...

There is a community college located just off Rt 2 in Greenfield that has a suitable meeting spot. We went to a festival there earlier this summer - the festival site at http://www.greenriverfestival.com/map.html has the details for how to get there.

Easy to find, nice large open parking lot.

-Don

[CharlesGordon]

Thanks for the tip, Don. Looks like the perfect location, right at intersection 91 and 2. Hopefully they have facilities which are easy to get to as well.

[Charlie_L]

Charlie et al.

Unfortunately my significant other had a death in her family. The service is October 5 in Ohio, so I'm afraid we're out this time.

Hope you all have a good trip.

[CharlesGordon]

Sorry to hear it, Charlie. Take care and we'll see you another time.

[donv]

Hi Charlie,

Re: The Greenfield Community College (GCC) and 'facilities', does that translate to 'bathrooms'?
:dance:

If so, there's at least one fast food restaurant at the exit/rotary area. Finding GCC is easy from there.

I've included some tips/milestones below to augment the http://www.greenriverfestival.com/map.html directions, if that helps.

BTW, sign us up for 1 car/2 people - Monica and I.

-Don Veino

From 91S (a.k.a. Rt2W), take exit into Rotary. Exit ASAP from Rotary (as if taking a 90 degree right turn off 91S).

A signalled intersection will come up immediately - stay in the rightmost lane to position for the turn. If I remember correctly, when sitting at the lights there will be a Friendly's restaurant on your left and a fill_in_generic_chain_motel_name_here on your right. Turn right at the light.

Continue straight on this road past motel and a car dealership on your right, and a BJ's/Costco on your left. Road will become more 'country' quickly (woods/fields). Continue straight (despite map showing that little 3-way intersection jog, I don't remember that really happening) for ~1 mile to the GCC entrance on left. Turn left into GCC.

The GCC driveway is long and leads to a small rotary feeding multiple parking lots. This could make for an easy loop-around-and-merge trick with the second group, ready to position for getting back to Rt2. The area is visually open, so it should be easy to find one another.

[CharlesGordon]

Thanks Don. I wonder, maybe if we can find out which fast-food place is at that exit--if it wouldn't be easier to meet up there instead of the college lot. This is just a quick pick-up, and I think it should be fine so long as parking is sufficient.

[donv]

The only one I can remember is that Friendly's. Like most of those, the lot for this one looked small... and given the "wrong side of the road" position relative to then continuing on Rt2W, likely to be difficult for a ~15 car chain to get in/out of.

Sadly, I'm working with memory of a single weekend ~three months ago - maybe someone else is more familiar with the general area and could help with other options, which probably do exist - I just don't know for certain. The area at the exit is one of those rural "shopping & service clusters" that often develop just off the highway - dense and stimulation-overload-inducing.

I'm reasonably confident in the GCC directions, and believe it is easier and faster to get in & out of there than it may be sounding - so long as that right turn is made at the lights properly.

I support whatever decision you make relative to locating the rendezvous - please let me know if there's anything more I can do to help in the matter.

-Don

[EDfromLI]

Charlie-

I'll be there - CK and I are seeing if we can get a group drive of Long Islanders/NYC Boxsters to join us.

Will keep you posted.

Ed