Southeast caravan to Carlisle '09

Lane,

So the haggerstown rendezvous is noon-ish? Need to be clear about the time. The Gettyburg thing is sorta up to MUSBJIM. We could do that as well on Sunday on the way back. He is the "tourist" here, and how he wants to split the time is up to him. I'm the chaufer. Also, the damn weather could be a big factor. Hopefully not, w/ clear skies Wed through Sun.

-- Moved from another thread --

Woops!! Just realized that I hadn't made reservations for the overnights in Christiansburg, VA for the to/from caravans. I got the LAST room on Wednesday (5/13) night. Anyone traveling with the southeast caravan who has not made reservations at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Christiansburg will need to find other lodgings for Wednesday (the still have vacancies for Sunday 5/17). There are a couple of other hotels within sight of ours, so it shouldn't be a problem.

As of right now I know the caravan will be:
- Me
- John Hallstrand and possibly the wonderful Miss Sarah
- Leon Chupp and possibly his lovely wife Margaret
- Aaron White (Is your wife coming?)
- Jack Crosby (EDIT: And his lovely wife Alice, and possibly his some in a 914)
- Maybe Gordon and Kathy (Please confirm one way or t'other)

Anyone else for day 1 of the caravan?

We will all gather in Christiansburg Wednesday afternoon for rest, relaxation, and beer-induced frivolity. On Thursday we will hit the road for the relatively short drive to Carlisle, picking up Alan Merklin somewhere along the way. If MUSBJIM and Kelly don't go to Gettysburg, we should meet up with them in Hagerstown, MD where we have lunch at Shoney's. Teresa may also meet us there. Anyone else? We'll make quite a caravan pulling into the Hotel Carlisle.

Right now I would say 12:30-ish. If I recall, it's about a 3 hour drive from Christiansburg, but it might be shorter. I'll check more closely when I get home. We still have some time to plan. Are Vince, et al., coming in with MUSBJIM?

Check that Lane. It's four hours from Christiansburg to Hagerstown. Our arrival time will depend on how quickly everybody can get ready to leave. The drive to Carlisle is only about an hour from the lunch stop, a little bit of the rest of Maryland and about 52 miles of Pennsylvania to the exit. I think I'm beginning to get a little bit excited.

Hoss--waddya mean a LITTLE excited? ---Jack

Oops! Kelly, in reality I think we should shoot for lunch at 1300. I can call you when we are about to leave C'burg, so we can get a final ETA.

Re. Hoss' and Jack's posts - After last weekend I am REALLY excited about Carlisle. That was an appetizer. Now I want the main course. Dessert, of course, is the Fall Smokies Run.

The only Left Coasters that I am very sure about are MUSB (he's got his tix) and angela. Vince, et al. have not chimed in yet w/ a for-sure definite, although the pressure being applied by the Right Coasters must be getting unbearable by now. I do hope they all can make it. Gonna be really very cool . . . Did you see how many for-sures Gordon has counted so far? And the cars numbering past 30.

Excitement mounts.

Kelly, et all;

I'm all for hooking up with the caravan crew for lunch at Shoney's in Hagerstown! Looking forward to cruising with my rocket-scientist brutha, Kelly, and hanging with all you other SOC knuckleheads!

Peace - Out!

KEWL!!!!!

I'll be there with my wife Jan, nephew Graham and his wife Pat(visiting from England)- I'll have my SAS Cabrio with my nephew following in our Dodge Journey. I have confirmed reservations for the Fairfield Inn in Christiansburg and Hotel Carlisle in Pa. I'll bring some Florida weather with us!

Anyone driving across from the midwest? I will be driving either all day on 5-13 or maybe splitting it up over two days 5-13 and 5-14. Looks like I'll be taking this route.

4. Take the ramp onto I-355 S
Partial toll road 1.4 mi
5. Take the exit onto I-88 E toward Chicago
Toll road 6.9 mi
6. Take the exit onto I-294 S
Partial toll road 31.3 mi
7. Continue on I-80 E/I-94 E
Entering Indiana 17.4 mi
8. Take exit 16 to merge onto I-80 E/I-90 E
Continue to follow I-80 E
Partial toll road
Entering Ohio 354 mi
9. Continue on I-76 E (signs for I-76/Pittsburgh)
Partial toll road
Entering Pennsylvania 250 mi
10. Take exit 226 to merge onto Carlisle Pike/Harrisburg Pike/US-11 toward Carlisle
Continue to follow US-11.

Marty G.

Marty, When exiting the Turnpike, you want Rt. 11 North to get to the hotel.(about 1/2 mile)

~WB

I have never driven east past central Ohio. I there any thing else I should consider?

Nolan - What's your estimated travel schedule? Maybe we can hook up with you on the way to Christiansburg. You'll always feel safer in a caravan.

Lane,

Sorry I busted in on your post, I wish I could meet up with you guys.

No problem. We'll see you in Carlisle.

I'll be hooking up with Kelly and MUSBJIM (right, Kelly?) to caravan to hook up with everyone else.

GONNA BE A GREAT TRIP!

Nolan!

Will you need a place to overnight your first night? I think we're about a days ride from Ft. Lauderdale, so maybe you could overnight here, and then ride up with us from here - we're about 20 minutes from I95N. We could leave between 7-8am the following day (I think Peter McEwan will be traveling with us in his Speedster), pick up Lane around 9am West of Charleston on I26 and then head up I77 to I81 and Christiansburg. Let me know if this sounds appealing and we'll call each other for details.

I couldn't get into the Fairfield in Christiansburg, so will shoot for the Quality Inn down the street. NBD, as long as I have room to park the Enterprise. I'll also have some FRS handi-talkies so we can communicate without cell phones. These are pretty handy in caravans - you can hear them over the exhaust noise, too.

Last I heard from Vince, he has some family emergencies going on that may prevent him from making Carlisle. I recommended he take care of business at home and that Carlisle will always be there next year.

That's it for now...

gn

No Vince?! Aw crap! Between that and Gerd's tragedy I'm having a downer evening.

Guess I'll have to drink that Oban myself.

Nolan - You should take Gordon up on his offer. We're going to have quite a caravan north this year.

Nolan......Alternate option.....I live about 60mi. North of Atlanta, between I-985 and I-85.....The current plan is to join the caravan north of Charlotte NC....Gordon's route would offer much better scenery and diversion from boredom.....Either way, we'll all have fun...

Lane, Gordon and Leon, what generous offers. We haven't made definite travel plans other than I'll be driving the Cabrio and my nephew will be following in a Dodge Journey with the wives. So it looks like I may have an empty right seat. We thought our first stop would be in Savannah, not sure yet. I have the reservations for Christiansburg and Carlisle so those are set in concrete, anything else is still in the air. My nephew and his wife will be arriving from England on the 7th of May for 3 weeks. We'll let them get over the jet lag for a day or two, then planning on one day of ocean fishing before heading out on the Carlisle run. We definitely want to meet up with everyone we can to caravan with. So at the moment there will be four members and two vehicles in my group. Since we've never been to Carlisle the caravaning is really appreciated. GORDON: I will look at the map program to see if we can make it to Beauford in a day, if not email me your phone number and we can discuss meeting up. LEON: Email me your phone number and we can see where we can meet up. LANE: We'll meet you in Christiansburg.

I'm meeting up with Leon and Aaron White in Statesville, NC. You could certainly meet up with us there.

Miracle of Miracles, I've sweet-talked my way into a room at the Fairfield in Christiansburg (or how-ever you spell it) for Both the 13'th and 17'th.

Nolan:

We're about 45 minutes North of Savannah. Four people is a lot for our house to hold, but there are a bunch of motels in Beaufort (Hampton Inn, Hilton, Howard Johnson, etc - remember, we have Marine platoon graduations from boot camp every week and all those parents have to stay somewhere!)

I'll call you tonight to get the ball rolling......

gn

Gordon: Thanks for the heads up about boot camp grads (Parris Island?), I'll check our mapping program against our expected travel times, if we stay overnight in Beaufort we'll reserve a motel and let you know, otherwise we can meet up with you and Leon in Statesville.

Lane--if you are going through Statesville, NC and up I-77 to I-81, you can hook up with me and Hoss as we head up I 81 from Knoxville.---Jack

It's all a matter of timing. You'll probably be ahead of us, and we'll only be on I-81 for about 30 miles, so my guess is that we'll see you in Christiansburg.

Let's see... We're up to:
- Me
- Hoss (Sarah?)
- Leon and Margaret Chupp
- Aaron White
- Jack and Alice Crosby
- Jack's son and ?
- Gordon and Kathy Nichols
- Nolan Scott and family

At Hagerstown we pick up:
- Kelly Frazer and MUSBJIM
- Teresa (BERT) Drake
- And ?

Gonna be quite a caravan pulling into the hotel this year.

Y'all realize that's just one month from today, don't you? WOOHOO!!!

Woo Hoo indeed. I'll take a wild guess at timing for my first leg. I'm estimating that with a departure time around 10:00 am from Lenoir City, 4 1/2 hours drive time and maybe an hour of gas/comfort and lunch stops we would be pulling into Christiansburg at about 3:30 pm. That would put us at the crossroads (I-81 / I-77) at about 3:00 pm. There are lots of variables, but it might be a time to shoot at for a hookup on the way. If it doesn't work, no big shakes because, as Lane posted, it's only about a half hour drive from the junction to the hotel.

What the hey, it's gonna be great. Woo Hoo again!
Hoss
BTW Gordon, you silver-tongued guy, great job getting into the Fairfield! Also Lane, yes, Hoss & Sarah....

And tommorow is one day closer........

I've already implemented a punch list of the small items that I need to do before the trip. WOO-double-HOO!!

Lane,
I'll drive in the wrong direction and meet the gang in Hagerstown for "tea". ~Alan

YES!!! Resistance IS futile!!!

Aggghhh! I keep revising my route North, so many to meet up with and so little time. So far I'm looking for a route that includes Beaufort, Statesville, Hagerstown, Christiansburg and then Carlisle. Haven't determined driving speed and daily distances yet. Countdown begins...!

It's easy, Nolan. Just get to Beaufort on your own. Then come the rest of the way with Gordon and me, and you'll hit all of 'em. No problem.

The way this works is that Gordon (and you) can meet up with me heading north out of Charleston at I-95 and I-26. Then we'll head up through Charlotte and hit Statesville soon after to meet Leon and Aaron. We'll eat lunch either in Rock Hill (Charlotte) or Statesville. From there we go north to Christiansburg to spend the night. There we meet Hoss, Jack Crosby, and anyone else who joins us. On Thursday we head north to Hagerstown to meet Kelly, MUSBJIM, Teresa, and Alan (and anyone else). We eat lunch there in the Shoney's, and then head up the road to Carlisle.

My route is:
- I-26 Charleston to Columbia, SC
- I-77 Columbia through all of NC to southern VA
- I-81 from just south of Charistiansburg all the way to Carlisle

Easy peasy. Well, there is a little driving involved ;-)

EDIT: One advantage for you in this plan, Nolan, is that you will be in a caravan almost the entire way. Since this is probably the first extended trip in your car, that should help give you some peace of mind. Gordon will have a full suite of tools, should anything unexpected arise.

Gordon: The following list shows the rest stops on I-26. We will be heading westbound (really more northbound), obviously.

Welcome Center, Mile Marker 3, Eastbound
Rest Area, Mile Marker 63.5, Eastbound and Westbound
Rest Area, Mile Marker 123, Eastbound and Westbound
Rest Area, Mile Marker 150, Eastbound
Rest Area, Mile Marker 152, Westbound
Rest Area, Mile Marker 202, Westbound
Rest Area, Mile Marker 204, Eastbound

The I-95/I-26 junction is right around mile marker 172, making the easiest one for us to meet at mile marker 152 (Orangeburg). If y'all come up I-95, that's probably the easiest thing to do. I'm certainly open to other ideas.

But will Gordon have an OBDII code reader. Aha! I thought not!

Hey Hoss, I think Charles has one, will he be joining the caravan?

I believe he will. I have one too.
Hoss

Hope we don't need to use it, lol. It's no longer a caravan to Carlisle IT's A CONVOY! Watch out for County Mounties and Bear Traps! 10-4 and Out Good Buddies!

PS: LANE, I've mapped the routes to Beaufort, now only need to call either you or Gordon when I get there. Email me a contact number.