i know you can get from Albany,NY to Fredericksburg, VA in about 9-9.5 hours. but i think you are pushing over 70mph which may wreck your 1 tank trip. incidentally Albany,NY to Datona Beach, Fl 20.5 hrs
Vegas, baby! Plentiful hotels (and cheap in the summer), cheap eats, pools, desert, mountains and stuff to do. Plus...you get FANTASTIC gas mileage there...it's flat, hot and the tempermental bladder (the car's, not mine) loves it!
I saw somewhere that some restaurant in Vegas offers a hot dog the size of an arm for like 3 bucks. For this reason, if it's in Vegas I will definitely consider the drive!
Why not do four meetings on one particular day. One on East Coast (Baltimore??) One on West Cost (LA) One in Upper Midwest (Chicago?) One in Lower South (New Orleans) That way just about the whole country is within 1 day's drive of a location. Maybe Toyota would be willing to help with TV feeds and other stuff (or not - who knows....) The publicity could be amazing.
I've waded through multiple voice mail systems at Toyota, and am expecting a call-back from Mary Nickerson, national marketing manager for Toyota hybrids. The discussion I will have with her is Toyota's interest in participating. In speaking to Stacey, her 2nd-in-charge, she said that Toyota would most likely prefer regional events. They have an entire Event Marketing Group who sets these sort of things up. She said Mary was the person to talk to about this. It only took 2 hours to figure that out. I'll report back as soon as I hear. Thoughts: We probably will need to form a committee to work on this. Does anyone have access to a 800 number conferencing bridge that we could use?
It's all sounding pretty promising. :mrgreen: I don't think LA is all that great for a west coast place, since it's quite far down south along the west coast. San Francisco would be a bit more central.
I'm voting for an across the US set of meetings. That way the crazy people who want to drive and go to all of them can. LOL Personally if it's just one... how about something central US?
For the same date(s) of a national meet up, could we have a Prius Day? Anyone who can't drive to a national heading for a state location? 50 States of Prius!
or we could start off with "acros the country" being 50 states/50 meetings. *shrug* I do like the idea of 1 meet though. 4 seems more logical. 50 would be a lot easier and could attract attention of possible local media from each state.
I guess I like the regional meet. I wonder if we can link up over the internet. I vote for a place we can fly fish out west? I like the idea of a shorter drive less time off work. Any central place would we Iowa or such and while that is not bad, I would rather have a destination further west and those on the east coast further east. Perhaps a tri regional meet is better. I would love to go to New Orleans but then I might not remember the visit. They don't call it the big easy for nothing. Stergis is inviting, well just because it is. I'm sure all of this does not help.
Bonneville Speed Week 2005. 57th Annual Speed Week August 13 thru 19, 2005 We could all go cheer the WORLDS's QUICKEST Prius... probably have to stay in Salt Lake City, Ut or Wells Nv as Wendover is fuller than full... and we'd have to rent something to drive out on the salt.. I love Bonneville.. but MY Prius will NOT leave the pavement.
All right folks, I know I'm a rookie, so get your fruit ready to throw. Here is the simple fact, Kansas City is the closest you will get to centrally located North-South AND East-West while still maintaining an area of decent size and activities. I realize it's more miles (maybe 100 - 200) from the West, but you have less population density and higher speed limits than the East. With preseason football and the stretch run of baseball, August in Kansas City could be quite nice. Everyone from Southern Canada to Eastern Massachuesetts to Northern Califronia would have roughly the same travel time (At posted speed limit! 8) ). What can be more fair to all the Pirus lovers? Larry
I don't like the idea of 50 meetings...you'd need 50 dedicated leaders at the very least, and it's simply not easy to get that many. Four is manageable because you need far fewer things going on simultaneously, but at the same time, resources can be pooled to an extent. 50 is simply cumbersome.
Hi All, I agree that yes, we need some point people on this. I also agree that 50 meets would be an unmanageable number to mount. Really, since we have clubs in just about every state already it would just be like all of them deciding to meet on the same day. Not really as much bang for the buck if you ask me as fewer meets would potentially attract. For the record, I just got back from a drive to Tucson via Interstate 10, Hwy 85 & Hwy 8 in and 10 all the way home again to Claremont, California. 8 hours of driving each way and we left at 8:30 am from CA. I saw 0, zip, nada, not one Prius on the ENTIRE drive into AZ. I only saw 3 Prius' in Tucson (a white classic on Speedway Saturday around 10 am, a Seaside parked at University of Phoenix (either on Speedway or Grant) and a White near Swan & Broadway. For this reason, I think that a case could be made for doing a quick demographic of the PriusChat members and basing the meeting locales on where the most members would be likely to be able to attend for their region. We could also just break things into timezones. Speaking as a California Native, who has done some road trips (mostly to Texas) I think it might be fair to point out that for some parts of the country covering 2 or even 3 or more states in an average trip is very normal. Here, and in Texas especially, it is very possible to drive for a full day and never leave your states borders. Therefore, I am again inclined to think that at this point what needs to be done is some judiciously arbitrary locations should be set. It will be very difficult, if not impossible to get vendor's, sponsor's, hotel's and Toyota to really buy into this idea if they don't have as much lead time as we can give them. Most businesses have limited budgets for PR and may have already allocated their funds through the end of the calender or fiscal year by now. Keeping the meets in more "major" i.e. publicity friendly locations (like Vegas, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco as examples only) will help to ensure that the message that we are trying to send gets received. Forgive me, but in general, unless something occurs that is of cataclysmic or horrific proportions, most of the country is never in the news (for good or ill) outside of the confines of their borders. There is a reason that conventions choose the cities that they do consistently. Partly, the reasoning is that the host cities are destinations that it is easier to get people to go to and partly because the cities in question are equipped to handle large influxes of visitors with relative ease. I think that we would be foolhardy to take the years of research that other's have done on how to get people to attend events and toss it out the window. Also, remember that although all of the locations that have been suggested have their merits, and I am sure that all are great places to see, not all would be capable of handling this event. Some of these places might not even have enough hotel rooms (assuming all were available). Oh, and don't forget that businesses are not dumb. If they don't usually get a lot of traffic but all of a sudden have a whole bunch of interest they will probably raise their rates just to make bank. I understand that everybody likes the idea of a one-tank meet and is very on board (provided of course that the meet ends up in their back yard. I am no different (after all, Claremont is lovely that time of year . I do however understand that some places are just better equipped to handle things like this (hotels are cheaper and plentiful and so is parking). From what I have heard about New York, they don't have enough space for the cars that live there so I don't think that they would be chuffed about a glut of visitors taking what space they do have. The same is true of San Francisco. Lots of hotels, but by my recollection they are pretty pricey. Los Angeles suffers from the same situation. Lots of hotels, but most that are "affordable" (in the $35 - 50/night dbl occ. range) are not exactly in areas where you would want to stay. Oh, and don't forget that California is a summer destination for most of the world so that would be one of the worst times to try to get a "deal". I am not saying that it would be impossible, but we would certainly fair better in a city that was in it's off-season rather than one that is on. Please don't misunderstand and think that I am trying to pee on a parade here. Overall, I am very enthusiastic about this idea and really want to see it happen. I will again happily volunteer my services in any capacity that they can be used to help this come to fruition. I have now donned my flame-proof suit and shall await replies Take care all, Tisza
A meeting in each time zone..... pretty good idea. If you get cities that are somewhat close to central North to South, a meet in each time zone could work well and give everyone in that time zone a fair shake. Pacific - Reno, Sacramento, S.F. Bay Area Mountain - Denver, Oklahoma City Central - St. Louis, Nashville, Memphis Eastern - Charlotte, Philly, Virginia Beach I live in the very west edge of Eastern, but they all look good to me! Larry
i vote for 1 meet per time zone. If it's in the bay area, we have a few places that work well here. Not San Francisco.. but other areas. Not sure of anything when it comes to Reno or Sacramento.. but Sacramento is our capital... could be easy publicity. we could cruise around the capital during the meet. lol.
I like the 1 meeting per a time zone... that seems pretty fair. I'd also like to help plan for whatever meet is close to me.
