Chevy Avalanche Fan Club - Avalanche Cruises and Meets

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Setting Up A Local Club In Ten Easy Steps

STEP SIX - PLAN YOUR ACTIVITY:

Here comes what can be the best or the worst part of the whole exercise – planning your route. If you’re good with a map, traveling, and logistics you’re going to have a ball. If you don’t know your local area well and you’re not good at planning this can be a frustrating exercise.

A good cruise lasts six to eight hours. The average Avalanche owner reports an average speed of just 30 MPH! That means your route should have a maximum of 240 miles in the plan. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, if part of your cruise includes a long stretch at 70 or 75 MPH interstate than you can push the distance further but you should keep endurance of the drivers in mind. Because you will probably be traveling at least 100 miles in the day you should plan your route to be a loop or as close to a loop as possible. Try to end within 20 miles of where you started.

Even though you may have planned to start your cruise at 10:00 AM, your members are going to want to talk to each other. You should plan for 30 to 60 minutes of time for discussion, pictures, and a meet and greet session.

A good cruise has multiple stops at points of interest. It should include a lunch or early dinner stop and at least one stop in a natural setting like a park or a scenic byway. People that have set up other cruises have found that this is a very successful combination. You should try to keep your destinations affordable. Ending at an amusement park may seem like a great idea but a family of four on your cruise may not have the $160 in admission money!

A good cruise will also allow for a couple of stretch breaks along the way. These don’t have to be long, just 10 or 15 minutes. They are best done at gas stations with a convenience store attached.

Things that don’t work well are meetings at the end of a cruise. As much as you’d like to have dinner or attend some activity at the end of the line, most people just want to go home after six to eight hours. Another thing that doesn’t work well is a long drive for the sake of driving. There needs to be some destination to keep things interesting. Although just getting together at a dealer or a restaurant can be fun, for first time meetings people can be very uncomfortable in that kind of setting. An established club can have meetings like that.

Overnight meetings don’t work well as a first meeting but as your club grows and builds a core membership may become more possible.

When you plan your route you should try to make it as scenic as possible. Interstates cover a lot of ground but getting boring. A trip through the mountains, along the coast, in the desert, or along a scenic river will help the miles go by. If you plan an off-road setting you should definitely spend time scouting out a route. Any plan you make should not require 4-wheel drive or should have a bypass. Never plan a route where damage from a rough road or scratches (also called mountain pin striping) is possible.

There are some good tools out there that can help you set up your route. You can use any combination of the following (or any others that you know):

http://www.mapquest.com
http://www.randmcnally.com
DeLorme Gazetteer State Atlas (roughly $20 at most major bookstores or online)
DeLorme Software AAA Map N Go
Rand McNally Trip Maker
Chevrolet Avalanche Fan Club Adventure Finder

If you’re not familiar with your route you should drive it before you publish the information about your cruise. People aren’t going to enjoy being lost and surprises like road constructions or a washed out dirt road will lead to disappointment. You should also have contacts to local sources for the conditions of off-road locations. The road you checked out three or four weeks ago may have gotten washed out or closed. Always have a plan “B” in mind.

On to step seven...