Trying To Find The Road Not Taken

I typically host a fall foliage tour every year, I’ve been doing this since 2002. I love the fall season and I enjoy showing people around the New England area. This year got quite hectic and then couple it with bad fall allergies, I ended up resting and sneezing during October. Last years tour we had great color and several covered bridges of Vermont. I’m always amazed too by the generosity of establishments. We’re usually a group of 16 people minimally showing up looking for a meal and to hopefully sit together.

Here’s a few snap shots from that trip.

This is awesome! I so want to go do that. We’ve done some spins and I’ve gone out on my own and gotten the snow flying. I really should move to some much more northern country, I love to go play in the snow in the car and just myself.

June 21-22 was the 6th Annual HondaSUV Georgia Meet in Bar Harbor, ME. It happened to coincide with our vacation already planned in Maine. There were members driving up from Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, New York and more. I had tried to get NorthEast Member Club members to go to Acadia in the past with no luck.

The turn out was great. Racoon and 4HondaOwner put together shirts with the event name. We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone. Friday the weather was foggy and cool, but Saturday mid-morning turned into beautiful weather. Craig and I drove to our rental late in the afternoon and then I drove back down in the evening to hang out for a little longer and say good-byes.

The other day I put together a page on the Honda CR-V’s in my life. I don’t talk about it much on here, but I really should is how involved I’ve been with HondaSUV.com.

I joined the site in March 1998 when I got my first Honda CR-V, a black LX. From there I added on a whole bunch of things and was active in the forum, I never made it to a meet with that CR-V.

In June 2002, I had the opportunity to get a new car and I went for a CR-V again, this time a 2002 Silver EX. I became much more active in HondaSUV.com and helped establish the NEMC (North East Member Club), we’ve held several meets to date, and I’ve been the host of many.

Being a host of car meets taught me a lot about being a leader.

• I realized you can not make everyone happy, but you can certainly try to get everyone.
• I learned to plan for mishaps, plan for delays, plan for the unexpected.
• I also learned to make sure people feel included. It’s easy to fall into comfortable conversations with those who already know each other.
• I learned to not take anything too seriously.
• I learned to plan for everyone’s needs, not everyone is showing up with 100.00 to blow on food at a fancy restaurant.
• Include the whole family, don’t make people feel they can’t bring the kids along.

It’s been a great experience, and is a good part of why at 126,000 miles on my CR-V I don’t plan to get rid of it anytime soon. Of course if Honda comes out with a CR-V hybrid, I’ll be jumping to get that.

In the side bar I have a full detailed page of my trips and modifications.

Do you have any similar experiences?

Fall Foliage Tour 2007, originally uploaded by criana.

I hosted the 6th annual Fall Foliage Tour 2007 for the HondaSUV.com this past weekend. We took a covered bridge tour of south eastern Vermont and finished off the day in Keene, NH for the Keene Pumpkin Festival.