[Smiles]

You are making me really want to come to this one!

[CRS]

Don't change the dates on my account! I know you still have to look for a hotel and meeting room...

Since I would be flying out of Baltimore at that point in time, I can fly Southwest, too, and found really cheap airfare. Maybe I can talk my mom into coming to visit that weekend and take care of the kids while I'm gone and Tim's at work....LOL!

[Cheri T]

I looked at air fare from Des Moines last night just to see, and at that point in time the tickets, even from Southwest, were more expensive than our flight to San Diego! yikes
If I'm serious about the possibility of flying, I'll have to be diligent about checking flight prices multiple times per day to get a good rate.

[anemone1983]

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

I looked at air fare from Des Moines last night just to see, and at that point in time the tickets, even from Southwest, were more expensive than our flight to San Diego! yikes
If I'm serious about the possibility of flying, I'll have to be diligent about checking flight prices multiple times per day to get a good rate.

Sometimes the closer the destination, the more expensive the flight. When my DH (then boyfriend) was living in Akron, finding inexpensive flights from Akron to Detroit was impossible. I ended up using miles to get free tickets a couple of times.

[Cheri T]

anemone1983, on 03 May 2012 - 10:25 AM, said:

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

I looked at air fare from Des Moines last night just to see, and at that point in time the tickets, even from Southwest, were more expensive than our flight to San Diego! yikes
If I'm serious about the possibility of flying, I'll have to be diligent about checking flight prices multiple times per day to get a good rate.

Sometimes the closer the destination, the more expensive the flight. When my DH (then boyfriend) was living in Akron, finding inexpensive flights from Akron to Detroit was impossible. I ended up using miles to get free tickets a couple of times.

LOL - ok, here's a crafty strategy. See if I can find a flight to somewhere far away with a layover in St. Louis, and just, um, conveniently forget to complete the journey;) Well, that might not work on the way back, hehehehe.

[Bride]

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

anemone1983, on 03 May 2012 - 10:25 AM, said:

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

I looked at air fare from Des Moines last night just to see, and at that point in time the tickets, even from Southwest, were more expensive than our flight to San Diego! yikes
If I'm serious about the possibility of flying, I'll have to be diligent about checking flight prices multiple times per day to get a good rate.

Sometimes the closer the destination, the more expensive the flight. When my DH (then boyfriend) was living in Akron, finding inexpensive flights from Akron to Detroit was impossible. I ended up using miles to get free tickets a couple of times.

LOL - ok, here's a crafty strategy. See if I can find a flight to somewhere far away with a layover in St. Louis, and just, um, conveniently forget to complete the journey;) Well, that might not work on the way back, hehehehe.

You can always fly to Detroit and spend sometime as my guest in our home (the little aussie girls would LOVE to entertain you!!) and then we could fly to STL

[PegScrap]

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

anemone1983, on 03 May 2012 - 10:25 AM, said:

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

I looked at air fare from Des Moines last night just to see, and at that point in time the tickets, even from Southwest, were more expensive than our flight to San Diego! yikes
If I'm serious about the possibility of flying, I'll have to be diligent about checking flight prices multiple times per day to get a good rate.

Sometimes the closer the destination, the more expensive the flight. When my DH (then boyfriend) was living in Akron, finding inexpensive flights from Akron to Detroit was impossible. I ended up using miles to get free tickets a couple of times.

LOL - ok, here's a crafty strategy. See if I can find a flight to somewhere far away with a layover in St. Louis, and just, um, conveniently forget to complete the journey;) Well, that might not work on the way back, hehehehe.

[PegScrap]

Woops ... that was supposed to say~~ Cheri, that is a brilliant strategy and as long as the trip back is split the same way, why would they care?

[anemone1983]

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

LOL - ok, here's a crafty strategy. See if I can find a flight to somewhere far away with a layover in St. Louis, and just, um, conveniently forget to complete the journey;) Well, that might not work on the way back, hehehehe.

It would work if you had a layover in STL on the way back. Print both boarding passes at the hotel and use the one for STL get you through security! Not sure if STL is a hub for any airline - they seem to like to have their layovers in their hubs, kind of the FedEx model, only for moving people "efficiently."

Leave it to Google...STL is a hub for American Airlines

This post has been edited by anemone1983: 03 May 2012 - 01:52 PM

[tiza126]

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

anemone1983, on 03 May 2012 - 10:25 AM, said:

Cheri T, on 03 May 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

I looked at air fare from Des Moines last night just to see, and at that point in time the tickets, even from Southwest, were more expensive than our flight to San Diego! yikes
If I'm serious about the possibility of flying, I'll have to be diligent about checking flight prices multiple times per day to get a good rate.

Sometimes the closer the destination, the more expensive the flight. When my DH (then boyfriend) was living in Akron, finding inexpensive flights from Akron to Detroit was impossible. I ended up using miles to get free tickets a couple of times.

LOL - ok, here's a crafty strategy. See if I can find a flight to somewhere far away with a layover in St. Louis, and just, um, conveniently forget to complete the journey;) Well, that might not work on the way back, hehehehe.

If you don't complete the full flight (such as "forgetting" to make your connection in St. Louis), the airlines will cancel the remainder of your trip. A colleague tried this once.

[SandiC.]

anemone1983, on 02 May 2012 - 01:56 PM, said:

Bride, on 02 May 2012 - 12:51 PM, said:

goodqueenbee, on 02 May 2012 - 12:03 PM, said:

Just came from High Noon Chat and remembered that first weekend of Nov is Nat Digi Scrap day. Will there be extra chats? Would that be a great time to meet up? Or possibly during Anniversary week?

I think the dates have been set for Oct 4-7, Barb ... I'm already looking into plane tickets and found a great deal with Southwest ... so if there is a chance that the date is going to change, someone needs to tell me now, please!!

Fares are looking good on Delta too...but if the dates aren't settled, I'm gonna wait....are they in question?!

October is going to be tricky for me. Since they have to get a temp replacement for me I need to get all my time off all scrunched up together. I have a conference in Orlando 17-20 and had planned on being there to visit my DS and DIL who live there 12-16 and 21-14. I could either fly to STL the weekend before or the weekend after, but those are the only two weekends I'd be able to make it. We'll have to decide soon because my work needs at least 90 days to find a replacement.

[anemone1983]

I'm getting confused on what dates are good for some but not for others. Here's what I believe is on the table:

Current dates: 04Oct - 07Oct (including early bird arrivals on Thursday)
Carla may not be available this weekend due to DH's availability
Sandi is unavailable 12Oct - 24Oct. Current dates and 25Oct - 28Oct are good for her.
Michele is unavailable 08Oct - 14Oct. Current dates and 25Oct - 28Oct are good for her.

Am I missing anything?

I started a Google Calendar for Midwest meet-ups (that includes this information), which I can share. PM me with your email if you'd like access - you shouldn't need a Google ID/email to access it, any email should work once I invite you.

Attached File(s)

•  google_calendar_screenshot_web.jpg (108.9K)
  Number of downloads: 9

[tiza126]

Very organized! Much prettier and easier to read than a spreadsheet

Any weekend should work for me.

[CRS]

Oct. 25-28 should work for me, but again, I'd have to check dh's schedule.

[Cheri T]

Bride, on 03 May 2012 - 01:18 PM, said:

You can always fly to Detroit and spend sometime as my guest in our home (the little aussie girls would LOVE to entertain you!!) and then we could fly to STL

That sounds like fun! (And in keeping with the idea of having all vacations near where a Scrap Girl lives;) teehee

[Cheri T]

tiza126, on 03 May 2012 - 02:07 PM, said:

If you don't complete the full flight (such as "forgetting" to make your connection in St. Louis), the airlines will cancel the remainder of your trip. A colleague tried this once.

I kinda figured there would be a "catch" there somewhere. Oh well...

[PegScrap]

I'm still pretty tentative so at this point I think
I'll just have to see if it works out, whenever you have it.
Guess that makes me a "tentative maybe." LOL!

[SodScrap]

As far as I know I'm very flexible that month!

[ScrapGram]

misseswojo, on 29 April 2012 - 09:40 PM, said:

I would love to make it to one of the meet ups but they are always so far. If there ever happens to be one in the PA area, I would sure make every effort possible to make that one. I will just keep my eyes open.

I just found info about a meet up in NE Ohio (Toledo) in August. It is in the same forum as this if you want to check it out. Not sure what part of PA you are in, but I am in eastern Ohio very close to the western PA border.

[ScrapGram]

I was just getting ready to check out flights to St. Louis when I noticed info about a meet up for scrappers from Michigan, Ohio and PA. Only about 3 hours from me! The only problem with that one is that it is over my anniversary week-end. One time my husband planned a golf trip on that week-end and I made him change it. Don't know if I have enough nerve to tell him I am going to a scrapbook meetup on our anniversary!!! May have to make plans to come to this one!

[tiza126]

The Michigan/Ohio ladies are very sweet I went to a meetup there last year!

[Bride]

tiza126, on 06 May 2012 - 07:04 PM, said:

The Michigan/Ohio ladies are very sweet I went to a meetup there last year!

Yep ... I picked her up @ metro and we drove to ohio together! my first meeting of T !!

[Sara Arell]

We tentatively have a visit planned to O'Fallen, Illinois in Ocober so I may be able to pop in for a bit if only to meet you all and I so want to meet everyone in real life - O'Fallon is right across the river from St. Louis so if I can get away from family for a few hours I might be able to swing it - I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope!

[PBarnes]

I haven't weighed in on what date(s) work for me yet. I'm thinking that the whole month should be pretty good. I'm not sure about talking DH into letting me go since we take our together vacation in November. I'll wait to ask when a definite date is set. I'm thinking I'd drive.

[mimes1]

Cheri T, on 04 May 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

Bride, on 03 May 2012 - 01:18 PM, said:

You can always fly to Detroit and spend sometime as my guest in our home (the little aussie girls would LOVE to entertain you!!) and then we could fly to STL

That sounds like fun! (And in keeping with the idea of having all vacations near where a Scrap Girl lives;) teehee

You can also book one legged jumps. For instance you could fly to DTW, stay a few days, then fly to STL, stay a few days, then fly home. Using Kayak.com, you just click on "multi-city" and put in your dates. You might be surprised that it's not as $$$ as you might expect. I did this when I flew to Pittsburgh and few years ago, drove to Wheeling WVA, then my sister came and picked me up and we then drove to Toledo and then Detroit. Then I flew back to San Diego from Metro. At that point, the differential in cost between the multi city trip and the round trip from Pittsburgh was about 25 dollars. It's probably more than that now, but it's still worth a look.

My mom may be having surgery in the fall sometime. I don't yet know when, but if it were to coincide anywhere near, I would definitely look into it as a possibility to find you all at the next meet up.

[mimes1]

Smiles, on 02 May 2012 - 04:13 PM, said:

You are making me really want to come to this one!

Me too, Gayle!

[Cheri T]

mimes1, on 10 May 2012 - 09:26 PM, said:

Cheri T, on 04 May 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

Bride, on 03 May 2012 - 01:18 PM, said:

You can always fly to Detroit and spend sometime as my guest in our home (the little aussie girls would LOVE to entertain you!!) and then we could fly to STL

That sounds like fun! (And in keeping with the idea of having all vacations near where a Scrap Girl lives;) teehee

You can also book one legged jumps. For instance you could fly to DTW, stay a few days, then fly to STL, stay a few days, then fly home. Using Kayak.com, you just click on "multi-city" and put in your dates. You might be surprised that it's not as $$$ as you might expect. I did this when I flew to Pittsburgh and few years ago, drove to Wheeling WVA, then my sister came and picked me up and we then drove to Toledo and then Detroit. Then I flew back to San Diego from Metro. At that point, the differential in cost between the multi city trip and the round trip from Pittsburgh was about 25 dollars. It's probably more than that now, but it's still worth a look.

My mom may be having surgery in the fall sometime. I don't yet know when, but if it were to coincide anywhere near, I would definitely look into it as a possibility to find you all at the next meet up.

Thanks for the info on one-legged jumps - and I like that name, lol. I can't weasel any more days into any trips these days but I'll definitely keep that in mind for future reference and family trip reference!
I hope your mom doesn't need surgery, but if she does, have her tell her doctor EXACTLY when to schedule it;)

[ScrapGram]

Still thinking about joining you. Talked to DH about going to the Ohio one which is over our anniversary weekend and he is ok with me doing that (he is such a nice guy!) but I can't stand thinking about him being home by himself on our anniversary.

[SandiC.]

I hate to push, but my boss is pushing me. He wants more than 120 days to schedule a replacement for me so I'll need to know definite dates by the first of June. I think the later weekend would be best, but the first weekend would work too. I have to be in Orlando for a conference Oct 16-22 so that weekend is out. Maybe we should make a poll.

[SodScrap]

SandiC., on 23 May 2012 - 12:07 AM, said:

I hate to push, but my boss is pushing me. He wants more than 120 days to schedule a replacement for me so I'll need to know definite dates by the first of June. I think the later weekend would be best, but the first weekend would work too. I have to be in Orlando for a conference Oct 16-22 so that weekend is out. Maybe we should make a poll.

More than 120 days??? A poll sounds like a great idea! Who has been tracking the dates??