2016 - The Sunday Late Edition Meet

You make some very valid points.
An 11:15 start time would definitely work well with my typical Sunday routine.
Maybe an alternating schedule?

 

I see your point, but as a C&C organizer, here are a few logistical problems:

Most of the venues we choose for C&Cs involve restaurants/coffee shops/some place that provides food, an otherwise public facility (park, school, etc.) or a dealer.

If it's the former (restaurant), those locations want us gone by 11:00 or Noon, because they more-than-likely open for business to the general public by that time or shortly thereafter. They don't need half, 3/4 or even their entire lot filled with people standing around talking for two hours.

In the case of parks, schools, etc., they are often booked for other events or fill up by noon or so, so we need to be gone by then.

In the case of dealers (at least in NJ), they are not allowed to be open on Sundays for "business," but they can open to host events. Still, they are not going to force their employees to work Sundays all day, so they want to be done by noon as well.

Here in Bergen County, we have the luxury of "Blue Laws," which for those that aren't aware, restrict non-essential businesses (i.e. everything but food providers) from opening on Sundays, so that permits me to start 'Cars and Caffe' later than most groups throughout the region.

You might imagine that it would be easy to start our C&C later then, since we can just use any shopping center we want, but that's far from the case. We need permits to use those facilities, and that often entails securing liability insurance, which I've been quoted as much as $35 per car or $2000 per hour, whichever comes first. Failure to obtain such coverage is considered "trespassing."

Anyway, I didn't mean to turn this into a rant, but as much as I see your point, it is extremely difficult to pull off anything other than early in the morning or late at night - we are fortunate to be able to start Cars and Caffe as late as 9:30 AM.

Cheers,
Tony

 

The later you leave the more traffic you will encounter. So much for an earthly morning run.

 

Dave:
You raise some interesting points, but YES there is a LOT of traffic on LI at that time. If I want to make a spirited run on LI, I generally leave my house between 7 and 7:30am on Saturday morning.

 

On any Sunday, the traffic on the LIE at noon is much heavier than the traffic at 9am. In any event, I agree that the Sunday event is a meeting in a parking lot, not a road rally or spirited run. But I really like a bagel on Sunday morning....

 

It maybe a meet but I like to have and enjoy a nice high speed drive to the meet. I would be miserable sitting in mall traffic both ways

Maybe we have 2 different ideas of traffic but I take the SSP pretty regularly and it's not clear before 2pm. When I drive to the Sunday meet from the queens border usually it has lite traffic where I can open up the car at high speeds without the danger of too many cars in the way but theres still some traffic.

Just this past Sunday I drove to the go karting event leaving at 9am and I could only open up in spurts because there was already traffic. When I left around 1pm or so the SSP was full of traffic.

Maybe we can schedule some midday meets for lunch occasionally?

 

Makes me glad that I don't live on Long Island.

 

I come from the east and take the NSP. There is substantially more traffic coming home at 12:30 than there is at 9:00 on the way there. All that said, it still is not too bad on the way home.
On the way there, I take the opportunity to open the car up a little since there is not too many cars and very little risk. I hit speeds in excess of ....well never mind....
Lets just say it's faster than most. I have not received a ticket in over 30 years, those that know me understand.
I do like the lack of traffic in the morning, but if everyone wanted to change it, I wouldn't be the one complaining about it. I'm pretty flexible. I also wouldn't mind adding/changing the meet every now and then to include a lunch run at the airport. I think that it would be nice to head there for lunch as long as the cars are safe in the parking lot.

 

One of the reasons the Sunday meets are held at 9:00 am is so that people can be home by noon. Some have children, wives, baseball leagues etc. that require them to be available. The early start enables people to come and hang out for a couple of hours and not tie up the whole day.

This is especially relevant for those of us that come out most every week. If we tied up our Sundays we would have other conflicts at home. In this way by the time the families / girlfriends etc. wake up we are back.

I think doing a lunch rather than breakfast periodically is a good idea as well and we can certainly plan for that. We will have to locate a restaurant that can accommodate us and have secure parking facilities. Very doable and possible.

 

+1
Also, I don't think 9am is that early to begin with.

 

+1 Billy. The Saturday idea would bring fewer cars as many of our group own their own businesses and work Saturdays.

 

+1 I agree with Andy.

 

Saturday's are impossible for me, so I'm out if it's Saturday's!
Why do we need all these changes if we always have anywhere from 12 to 25 people there? If you ask me that's a pretty good turnout that is convenient for most. I don't see that there is anything to change here.
However, I do like the idea of adding a lunch run every now and then.

 

The original post mentioned 9AM Saturday's.

 

Dave....why change a good thing? We are having upwards of 20 cars attending our meets on Sundays and it seems to be working out well. Besides, shoppers start hitting these parking lots just as we are starting to leave. Us getting there later would be more of an issue having our own area and non-group cars parking next to us and dinging our doors.
For those coming from points west, traffic is 100% an issue as we go later in the day. Traffic sucks on LI as we all know. Maybe getting there at 11:15 am wont be an issue but leaving at 1-2pm, traffic will build at that time. This will affect the guys coming from Westchester/Queens without a doubt.
I really enjoy the Sunday mornings. And getting there at 9-9:30am is certainly not too early. It's one day a week. It depends on the weather. It only goes on basically for the driving season. 2015 we were blessed with great weather with only one or two rain outs. We kept in going into the first week of January which certainly in an anomaly.
For me, and I'm sure many other will agree with me, anything later simply won't work. I leave and return and my wife and kids have just got up and barely knew I was gone. It's a win-win all around.

 

I just realized the Saturday. What???? I'm out on Saturdays. No way I can make it anytime. I think we should leave it the way it is. We get around 20 cars the way it is. If someone thinks that on a different day and time can get more people. Go ahead. You are loosing one for sure.

 

+1. Very well said.