SoCal travel group

"Sacramento, Atlanta, Seattle, etc." Denver was the first group.

Great. How often do you all meet? Not that I'm coming to Denver, I'd just like to know what your meeting organization is like.

Not that I've ever seen discussed here. It'd be great though!

Atlanta generally meets the third Saturday of each month. I have to say that Sharon, our organizor, is really who keeps us going. She's been great! Last night we met for GREAT pizza and our next meeting is a Museum tour she's leading at a local museum where she is a docent! If you can get one organized it's a lot of fun!

Start observing people who post on ETBD and where they are from. If it's near you, send them a PM and ask if they would be interested in meeting. I would think you would get several groups from SoCal - LA, Valley, etc. I think most of these groups are meeting once a month, often the third Saturday, although that is not sacred. Frank and I started meeting at Panera, because it was half way between us and had Wifi.

We have been meeting in Sacramentto for a year. Until this month it has been on the 3rd Saturday of the month. We meet @ 10:00 because that seems to work for the majority of us. We tried to meet at 1:00, but it was harder to park and much noisier. We meet at Panera because they have wifi, and no waitstaff is hovering over us and trying to turn tables over. I really enjoy our meetings.

@ Lee. When did the Denver group first meet? I'm relatively new to this forum and I would like to know more about your group's history. What got me thinking about this topic was when one SoCal person posed a question this AM and two people from SoCal responded right away. I have been observing that there are a lot of people from this rather large area participating online and I didn't know if a face to face meeting group had ever been tried in the past since I'm relatively new.

Mona, just start a new thread called "SoCal Helpline Get-Together...Anyone Interested?", or something to that effect, and see if you get any nibbles. Then, just decide on a place to meet and voila! you've got a group! You can take a few months fine-tuning your meeting place, meeting time, etc. I've been reading the Helpline for a few years now; I don't recall any group anywhere except in Denver until last year when we started in Sacramento. Good luck!

Eileen came out of the lurkers closet around the same time we started meeting in Sacramento. She's come a long way baby! So proud...

Mona, I'm not sure how long the Denver group has been "in existence", I think at least 2 years, maybe more. It started when I noticed Frank, from Centennial, was making lots of posts. Centennial, CO, is near me, so I PM'd him and asked if he wanted to get together sometime. We picked a third Saturday because it was the next convenient time for both of us. Aspen Grove, a shopping center was kind of between where we both lived, and Panera has Wifi. At the first meeting, we decided to meet every month. After a few months one of us invited Arnold. I think Charlene was the next "member". I'll look through my PMs and see is I can find when I first contacted Frank. ETA: the earliest group related email I can find was Nov 11 '08, Arnold saying he would try to make the Nov. meeting and Charlene might come too. So, we had been meeting for a while by Nov 08. On the other hand, I had cancer surgery in Feb 08, and I don't think we were meeting then. Say spring of 2008. It's been a little over three years.

Hi Mona, The Atlanta group started last October and we usually meet on the 3rd Saturday as a way to stay in line with Denver and Sacramento. Most often, we meet at Panera but it's usually crowded and noisy during the 1:00 time frame so we've tried a couple of different locations. This month, as Carol mentioned earlier, we scheduled a pizza get-together on a Friday evening. We've had as few as 5 people and as many as 13 in attendance. We share maps, guidebooks, and travel tips - it's a great way to review an itinerary or to get ideas for future trips! We have made some wonderful new friends from our group!! I hope that you'll start a group for SoCal!

I would be interested!

Thanks everyone for the information about ongoing groups! Your enthusiasm is contagious. I'll get out a map and see what develops...

I also would be interested depending on where meetings are held. I live between Orange County and San Diego but wouldn't mind traveling sometimes up toward Santa Barbara.

Hi! I wondered if a So. Cal group has been formed? I'm in northern LA county but wouldn't mind driving.

I am interested too!

Since this original post was done a year and a half ago, I suggest you start a new post. I hope you can get a group together. We've been meeting in Sacramento for over 2 1/2 years and not only have I gained information and given information, I have also made good friends. If you would like some pointers about how to get this going, feel free to PM me.

Ok, its me again. We are thinking of going to the Rick Steves evening lecture (8 PM on Feb 22) in TO or breakfast at Cal Lutheran (8 AM Feb 23). If anyone else in the SoCal area is going perhaps we could meet before the evening lecture or after the breakfast for an introductory meeting. Anyone going (or not) to either event or interested in getting together in TO just to have an initial meeting on Feb 22 evening or 23 morning? BTW, we haven't purchased our tickets yet to either event but will this weekend.

Mona, I suggest you start a new post with your plan so more people will see it.