Virginia OLB Members

[Virginia Overlander]

If any one is interested in an effort to unify those of us in the local state community I am looking for thoughts and a location for a monthly meet up. Perhaps a park with plenty of parking space for a pot luck picnic. I have one in mind for that near to Richmond. I feel the Richmond area would be best suited for a meeting location as it is a central location. Virginia members are pretty spread out across the state with the larger clusters in Richmond/Tidewater and the largest cluster in Appomattox. With the holidays on us now and people busy with family as well as weather not favorable for outdoor events i was thinking of starting this endeavor in March of 2019 if this thread gains any traction.

 

[Bjorn44]

I’m down

 

[Nomad_JK]

Sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[Boucher]

Sounds good

 

[Kevin108]

I'm in the Virginia Beach area. If I made it as far as Richmond, I'd roll on another couple hours and go to the woods. Hope lots of others come out and enjoy it though.

 

[JRElaxED]

Sounds cool, I’m in NoVa and would travel

 

[Nomadik Nova]

I’m up for traveling as well, from NOVA/DC.

Maybe we can move it around VA month-to-month?

 

[Virginia Overlander]

I’m up for traveling as well, from NOVA/DC.

Maybe we can move it around VA month-to-month?

Thats a thought however if others would commit to hosting one in there area monthly it would be better than one person having to scout locations around the state.

 

[JRElaxED]

Virginia has a lot to offer, would love to move it around. State parks an option?

 

[TerryD]

Thats a thought however if others would commit to hosting one in there area monthly it would be better than one person having to scout locations around the state.

The Nova/MD meetup was the only one that gained any real traction and is still quite active. I'm afraid that I didn't have the time to continue spending setting up meet-ups that folks wouldn't come to locally. The Western Va thread is still out there but has been dead for a while now.

I personally felt that meeting folks to just visit would be more effective in creating the "causal group of friends" feeling and that would eventually lead to organized trips that didn't rely quite as much on one person for all the planning and logistics. I do think that we need some community building activities in the state though. The main goal being to get it to the point where it's a group of friends spending time together rather than "driving 3 hours to meet a bunch of strangers".

There seemed to be more interest in doing trips vs a basic meetup at that time though. That feeling may have changed though, it's been a while since I've tried to put out a feeler on it. The issue with doing that on a state-wide scale is that it puts a huge amount of traffic on public trails which leads to excessive damage and a group of 10 or more vehicles on the trail is quite cumbersome in my experience and not to mention a communications nightmare.

I had intended to do a statewide meet at James River State Park in Gladstone, Va. this past spring. Something more along the lines of a family friendly camping weekend at the park. It's the same park that has hosted the RTT Rally the last two years but I'm afraid that fell by the wayside.

Coming to Richmond probably won't happen for me. That's a 6hr round trip which totally eats up the day and I can't say that I have any other business in the Richmond area. An extra hour's driving in either direction gets me to Uwharrie or Windrock. However I understand that moving it an hour in-land for an outlier like myself could prevent a few of those on the coast from attending and that has to be taken into account as well. I've often thought about something in the Staunton/Waynesboro area. Being right off of I81/I64, it would be easy for about anyone in the state to get to and could easily turn into a day trip with Flag Pole and Big Levels both close by.

 

[JRElaxED]

In the nova thread we’ve done a few meet ups and planned a few trips, RTT rally, BROG used gear sale and honestly I’ve met some great people. I’m not apposed to picking one State Park/ National forest a month or every 2 months and plan a trip. I enjoy the travel as much as the destination. Not into hardcore wheeling, just wanna change of scenery

 

[Nomadik Nova]

In the nova thread we’ve done a few meet ups and planned a few trips, RTT rally, BROG used gear sale and honestly I’ve met some great people. I’m not apposed to picking one State Park/ National forest a month or every 2 months and plan a trip. I enjoy the travel as much as the destination. Not into hardcore wheeling, just wanna change of scenery

Couldn’t agree more @JRElaxED!

 

[Nomadik Nova]

Thats a thought however if others would commit to hosting one in there area monthly it would be better than one person having to scout locations around the state.

@Virginia Overlander, what if we could get a few of us to share the responsibility?

@JRElaxED, @sabjku, and myself have gotten together a few times and JRElaxED even organized a meetup at a local Mission BBQ a few months back.

 

[Virginia Overlander]

Thanks Terry D for all that input. What is it they say. You can please most people some times some people most times but not all the people all the time. There are some intrested people and one thing i have learned is rigs attract rigs and recruiting new members becomes easier. I dont get the time i would like to use my rig but my job actually affords me countless hours for personal phone time to coordinate things to support the community. I need the support of other members to help carry this out. If i can just do that I/we will have done something. That is my goal though it my be lofty however "Jeep" groups make it look easy. Problem with them.... well it does matter what you drive and if its not a jeep there not so receptive. I have a Jeep.. why.. easy they dont make the FJ40 any more and my style is the 2dr short wheel base vehicle otherwise i would have went to the Toyota dealership.

 

[Virginia Overlander]

@Virginia Overlander, what if we could get a few of us to share the responsibility?

@JRElaxED, @sabjku, and myself have gotten together a few times and JRElaxED even organized a meetup at a local Mission BBQ a few months back.

That would be great! Im not trying to be the loan ranger or take over/monopolize by any means. Michael has created a great thing here and he with the help of others are making a real difference on the West Coast. I just want Overland Bound to become a well known and respected by the Community as well as forestry service in the east as well

 

[JRElaxED]

That would be great! Im not trying to be the loan ranger or take over/monopolize by any means. Michael has created a great thing here and he with the help of others are making a real difference on the West Coast. I just want Overland Bound to become a well known and respected by the Community as well as forestry service in the east as well

I don’t think it’s about monopolizing anything, I know, I’d appreciate someone just saying “let’s check out this place, I’ve had a good time there” I’d like to head to the coast, for a trip soon. We had a great time at expo east with people we just met. I think just getting out is the hardest part.

 

[21_RAM2500]

might be down.

 

[sabjku]

Was out of town for the last week and just saw this thread. Not to derail the thread, but just to give even more props to @Michael and Overland Bound....I was actually in Mexico for a friends wedding and met up with another OB member, @ChepoCDT, on a total whim after swapping just a couple of messages here! He showed me all around Mexico City! Now THAT'S community! Thanks again Chepo!

Back on subject, I'm always up for attending meet-ups, whether it's NOVA based or further away. I think the whole point of meeting up is to build a community, swap some stories, and end up scheduling some trips of some sort ultimately. The more routine the meet-ups become, the more trips you'll probably end up doing. Like @NovaBound said, he, @JRElaxED, others and myself have done numerous trips together already, and that was based on getting groups of us together and figuring out schedules, places, etc and just planning them.

 

[Virginia Overlander]

Was out of town for the last week and just saw this thread. Not to derail the thread, but just to give even more props to @Michael and Overland Bound....I was actually in Mexico for a friends wedding and met up with another OB member, @ChepoCDT, on a total whim after swapping just a couple of messages here! He showed me all around Mexico City! Now THAT'S community! Thanks again Chepo!

Back on subject, I'm always up for attending meet-ups, whether it's NOVA based or further away. I think the whole point of meeting up is to build a community, swap some stories, and end up scheduling some trips of some sort ultimately. The more routine the meet-ups become, the more trips you'll probably end up doing. Like @NovaBound said, he, @JRElaxED, others and myself have done numerous trips together already, and that was based on getting groups of us together and figuring out schedules, places, etc and just planning them.

Thanks sabjku it is support like this that makes me think it is worth a try. In the spring when people are more likely to get out im going to do this. I might be alone sometimes but i will sport the OB base camp flag and im sure attract attention so maybe i can get new people involved.

 

[OverlandOverlords]

I'll attend any that are on Sundays. I'm in the tidewater area but I'm a bartender so I work every Saturday until the end of time.