Belle Fourche, South Dakota

Lebanon, Kansas is the geographical center of the continental US. There or somewhere around there looks like a good spot to me. Otherwise maybe where Route 66 crosses somewhere near the center. A report needs to be taken on how FG Birds are distributed throughout the US.



Let’s crank ‘em up and go.

Somebody said something about meeting in Kansas... it would be cool to meet at Heartland Park Raceway in Topeka Kansas... its an all in one race park.

Loveland, steamboat...they are both good for me.

Another Idea is Deadwood SD, it's about 300 miles from Colorado in the
Black Hills of South Dakota, and Deadwood is about 3o min from where the
Sturgis bike rally and races (one of the largest bike rallies in the
world). It is close to Mount Rushmore Monument, close to Crazy Horse
Monument, the SD Badlands and Devils Tower in Wyoming (all worthy of
seeing) and to boot its about 40 miles from the center of the nation.
Deadwood puts on a weekend show every year called Deadwood Kool Nights,
it's a weekend dedicated to old muscle cars with lots of events set up
during the daytime and concerts at night to go along with the
gambling/salons on Main Street. Lots of hotels and camping...it might be
a good venue for us to crash!
Here is a link
http://www.deadwood.org/DeadwoodEvents/KoolDeadwoodNites/

David Meyer
67 400 400 coupe

I've been on that Rocky Mountain National Park drive. It's great scenery but I don't know how well the bird would run at 12,000 feet! And better make sure your brakes are up to snuff for the coast down the other side! Lots of traffic on the one road through the park.

Check this out, this was in July!

Ok, here are a few thoughts regarding a get together (in no particular
order):

1. To make it really fun and worthwhile, we need a large turnout. We need
to plan and organize this thing in such a way that a good percentage of this
group (as well as other First Gener's that we can reach out to) would want
to participate and would be able to participate.

2. To get a good turn out, we need to plan far enough ahead so we all have
time to put it on our calendars, schedule the time off work, save up the
dough, buy/rent/borrow a trailer (for those that don't want to drive in),
get the Bird's put together and running, etc. Fall of 2010 would be great,
but might be too soon for some. Maybe 2011 would be better?? Hard to know
until we get more feedback from the group (more on feedback later).

3. As to the time of year that we meet, I personally like the idea of a
Fall meeting. Even though none of us should have any problems with
overheating (yah, right), many of us don't have A/C and therefore prefer to
drive when it's cool out. Summer is too dang hot for any long road trip in
my Bird anyway! Not to mention that there are lots of nice scenic drives in
the fall. Mid to late September or early October sounds good but anything
later than that is probably getting too close to winter. We also need to
make sure we don't conflict with any other major car shows.

3. Location is important for lots of reasons. We need access to reasonable
food and lodging (with a good auto parts store nearby) and we need to do our
best to find a central location so no one has to drive 2,500 miles to get
there. Do we still have access to the online map that shows where all of us
live? Might be a good resource to figure out where the center of our
universe really is. The Colorado locations sound great but are a little
left of center. If moving a little further east will get us a bigger
turnout, we ought to consider it (Kansas is the center of the country).
David's suggestion of Deadwood, SD is interesting and might be worth serious
consideration. What's the average temperature in Deadwood in September??

4. Regarding organization, communication and feedback, we probably don't
want too bog down this message board with tons of emails concerning the
planning and organizing process. We need to set up a separate email list so
those who want to be involved (and even those who want to lurk) can
communicate without filling up everyone else's inbox. At some point we can
build a simple web page or blog where we can publish details as they become
available. In the meantime, though, we do need to figure out a way to
survey our group to get everyone's input on a date and a location, and to
try and get a feel for how many of us think we can make it. Anyone have
access to a free online survey tool that we could use?

5. Done right, and with the right planning and execution, I think we could
put together a great time that could turn out to be the beginning of an
annual Firebird event. I'm sure we can get some good press, some
sponsorship money, etc.

Sorry for the long post, but the more I think about this the more jazzed I
get. Maybe it's because I just turned 50 this summer and I've decided that
I need to start having some more fun. Maybe it's because I need an
incentive to get some things done on the Bird that I've been neglecting.
Either way, I'm ready for a road trip and I'd really like to meet some of
you guys.

Here's my email address and cell phone if any of you want to communicate
directly. Regards, Scott