I think it's around 100 miles from Manhattan, but it takes around 2 1/2 hours of travel, I recall. It's about an hour past Danbury.

I'm not sure if I'll get to it tonight, but in the next couple of days I'll make some more route suggestions to check out. There are LOTS of really great roads in that area! Especially if we head over toward Cornwall, Sharon, and Salisbury, we've got lots of good options.

 

>>Sweet now that makes three for the run on Tuesday night. Ill bring my two ways.

Ants, what model is your motorola, i'm going to need to pick up one with sub-channels

 

Nomostersinme - to answer your other question, the date is still pretty much up in the air here. A few people are getting together next week to scope out routes.

Where's X2Board? I seem to remember that he lives in Torrington. Come on down! :smile:

 

>>Nomostersinme - to answer your other question, the date is still pretty much up in the air here. A few people are getting together next week to scope out routes.
>>
>>Where's X2Board? I seem to remember that he lives in Torrington. Come on down! :smile:

I'm right here keeping an eye on this thread, I have a few roads around here that I won't mind sharing I almost had a huge Tom Turkey as a hood ornament yesterday, I think it was Magnaflow induced panic that caused him to fly towards the car.

X2

 

I just got my own Bell South Two-Way today at WalMart. Hope the roads aren't too wet on Tuesday night.

When are we going to have the real meet? It is kinda far away, but do you just want to set it for July 20th? Either that or June 29th. Take your pick. That will give everyone enough time to plan ahead.

I will see Ants and GMINIO on Tues...

 

Either of those dates works for me.

X2B, I like the area of Torrington toward Goshen, around the UCONN branch. Nice roads, steep hills...

 

I'm opting for as early as possible, with the likelihood that another meet can be set up for late July. If I can ever get my act together, I'll scout out a route in SE CT/W RI. Should be able to avoid the casino traffic on a nice summer Sunday morning.

 

Went out for a rough route outline this afternoon. Took me around an hour and a half. I went from Bantam to Litchfield by way of Bethlehem, Morris, Washington, Roxbury, and maybe Woodbury.

This is going to be a nice day of driving!

Should we finalize plans and make the permanent July 13th or 20th?

 

CS, way to be on the ball. You amaze me. My advice - stay North. My afternoon hit Roxbury and Washington. I'd love to hit them again, but why overlap? There are, of course, a TON of roads there we did NOT hit.

As for dates the mid to late July might be perfect. I think you have nothing to lose by giving it time to grow. I'm not going to help you pick which one, but a brief glimpse of the event calendars here and everywhere will help you decide.

See you tuesday - we'll be on channel 7.0 (7 for you and me).

 

Well maybe you and Ants can help me decide on the route. Today I just drove on instinct. Took what looked interesting. Unless you guys have a bedtime ,we can stay out all night and have a ball.

Does anyone object to dirt roads? You can't go as fast, but they can be kinda fun. I don't think they will be as dusty as that road to the airport in New Milford.

See you 2 on Tues...

 

Maybe a slip into NY for a higher speed limit and lower ticket prices per speed.

I'll get familiar with the roads over the weekend while I've no internet access.

Yeah. Dirt roads are fun. And they ARE EVERYWHERE. I find them only so much fun in a MINI. Not really the best use of motoring time. I do have a blast on some of the ones around here from time to time. Real slow though.

I have work at 12 the next day. So fire away. We'll see what you've got!

 

I will take you guys on a run like the one I took today. We can look over the map at a 24hour diner then get back to it if you want...

Backroads that are dirt ROCK. They are a lot more fun when the trees aren't so close so you can drift a little.

 

Just finished plotting the first half of the day. Looks like it is going to be around 45 different roads through 5 different towns. Hopefully I will go for a trial run tomorrow, then get the approval from Ants and Gmini. I still have to plan for after lunch...

 

Oh thou of countless hours…

Why not run the street names past Chrisnl? He seems to have a map tatooed to his backside.

 

LOL, good idea!

If there are no immediate objection, lets make it for July 20th. I know it is kinda far away, but what can we do?

GMINIO, want to make word of this on MINI2? I never go on that site.

Time to plan stage 2 !

 

OK, since the plotting seems to already be going on and I want to get my input in, here's a specific route to the north with lots of really great roads. Sorry for the length and the lack of paragraphs, but I'm just doing a stream-of-consciousness brain dump here.

From Milton, take Blue Swamp Road (gorgeous!). At the end of it, take a right and a quick left onto College Street. This leads straight onto Great Hill Road, heading down a huge hill. At the bottom, turn right at the stop sign onto Valley Road, and take the first left onto Essex Hill Road. This whole area used to be known as Cathedral Pines, which was old growth white pines before they were destroyed in a tornado in '89. The roads themselves are still windy and spectacular, and there are more views... Take a right at the stop sign at the bottom, which leads you into the center of Cornwall. Go left on Route 4, and take a right onto Pierce Lane. At the intersection go left onto Dibble Hill Road. These two roads are steep and curvy. At the stop sign go right on Route 128, then left onto Cream Hill Road. Take that all the way to Music Mountain Road, which leads to route 63. Cream Hill and Music Mountain roads are nice long stretches with very little traffic. From Music Mountain road, you get a view of Canaan Mountain, a huge thousand-foot plateau that this route leads over. Go right on 63, and take the first left onto Cobble Road. At the stop sign go left onto Under Mountain Road (which couldn't be more appropriately named; it runs along the base of Canaan Mountain). The first right (no sign) is Canaan Mountain Road, which leads immediately up, up, up, and more up to the top of the plateau. There's a nice lake on top that's almost totally uninhabited. The road turns dirt for about a mile as it goes by the lake, but it's a good surface, and it's beautiful! This is a good long quiet stretch of road. A huge portion of the mountain is state forest, so there aren't very many houses. Anyway the road descends gradually into Norfolk. Go south on Route 272, and you come to a state park (Litchfield Hills State Park) on the left (the road bends to the right; there's a gateway straight ahead that leads up the hill into the park) which has a little paved road that winds up to the top of a hill with great views and a stone building with view tower on top - should be GREAT for pictures! Going south again on 272, take a right (up the hill) onto East Street North, which is a long, beautiful section of back road, easy to follow. I think it's around 7-8 miles to the next state road in Goshen. When you get to it (Route 4 again), go left and then right onto East Street South, also long and beautiful, lots of farms. From there we could go all the way into Litchfield, or else take a right on Deming Road and Brooks Road to head over toward CooperSpeed's house.

So obviously I'm biased toward the northern route; maybe we could do it after lunch? I'd be happy to draw up a good map/directions for everyone - I'm a huge map dork. This whole route is probably only (ballpark) 40 miles or so, and it could DEFINITELY be lengthened to include more (I'm thinking Sharon, across the river from Cornwall).

CooperSpeed - if you'd like to test this out Road Race weekend - June 8th - (or even just do it with the two of us, if we decide against it for the meet), let me know. I'd love to see these roads again; it's been a while.

Chris

_________________


Borla, Moss intake, Magnecor

 

>>LOL, good idea!
>>
>>If there are no immediate objection, lets make it for July 20th. I know it is kinda far away, but what can we do?
>>
>>GMINIO, want to make word of this on MINI2? I never go on that site.
>>
>>Time to plan stage 2 !

CooperSpeed!

Wot> MINI2 p!s u off? Sorry to here it, mate.

It's unofficially already been announced there. I was waiting on the date. The 20th of July is good. And it's really not that far away. Gives people time to make arrangements and you can fine-tune the logistics. You already have a very decent crew ready to help.

GMINIo

 

I agree, I just read through the emails about the Litchfield meet and am kind of confused.
It sounds like CooperSpeed has stepped up to the plate and graciously allowed us to meet at his place.
So lets let CooperSpeed email the final itinerary:

Address (Mapquest will do the rest for us)
Date
Time
Phone Number

Is that okay with you CooperSpeed

Thanks!

 

The route I planned so far takes you more towards Bethlehem, Morris, and Washington. I planned it to be done before the lunch break, but since Litchfield is so damn small, it really doesn't matter. I as planning on doing the North route, Milton, Cornwall, etc, after lunch. It sounds like you have a good route planned out so far. I will run it maybe this weekend and add to it.

Road race weekend sounds good to me. Other than being AT the road race when it is going on, I have nothing planned.

 

I never go on MINI2 either (except for when I was planning on doing the Mount Washington meet). Not for any specific unpleasant reason; I just find it a bit much to follow both sites, and I think MCO has more of a community feel to it.

Anyway, I just threw all those details in there to make it easy for CooperSpeed or whoever to check out; I don't mean to sound inflexible about it...

CooperSpeed, I'll get in touch before I come down RR weekend and make plans.

As far as adding to it - two specific roads in Sharon that are beautiful are East Street/Sharon Mountain Road, which we could get to from the center of Cornwall via Route 4, and West Cornwall Road, which would form a loop with it and lead back to West Cornwall and Route 128. This would cut out Pierce Lane and Dibble Hill from my route above, and probably add ten very nice miles.

_________________


Borla, Moss intake, Magnecor

 

Sounsd good to me Hank.

JULY 20TH IS FINAL DATE!

Still have to figure out times and the rest. Should we start a new thread to make it official?

 

>>JULY 20TH IS FINAL DATE!
>>
>>Still have to figure out times and the rest. Should we start a new thread to make it official?<<

Since I have the post up at the top of this thread, I can edit it to put the final date and any other info in there, rather than starting another thread. I think I can also edit the thread title to include the date.

So, July 20th is final? Any objections?

 

>JULY 20TH IS FINAL DATE!
>>
>> Should we start a new thread to make it official?

This meet has been announced on MINI2. It's on the calendar there, as well.

yeah. Start a new thread. Think of a catchy name if you want.

And Chrisnl. Good choice. Pierce/Dibble just happened to be past of the twelve curves route - so I won't miss them. We came up 4 from 7 and turned there.

 

I know what I want to do for a logo for this meet.

I don't have any catchy names like the New milford one...

 

Would love to see the logo. The two major new england meets before yours used the MINI wings. No necessity for that this time round. But there's always that consistency thing. ** looks at own feet considers how they taste**

A location alone can be catchy enough as a name. The new milford one was just too long.

You must be so psyched already!