Planning a Miata Club Tour or Event

A Miata Club Tour can be anything from a two hour fun drive to an overnight trip someplace special. We have done white water rafting, an overnight trip to Orcus Island and trips to Eastern Oregon in the past as well as many local day trips. If the driving is fun, there doesn't even have to be anything at the destination. For overnight trips just someplace to stay the night at a reasonable cost and relax and socialize after a fun day of driving is all that's needed. Almost anything is a potential Miata Tour. Use your imagination.

Planning a full year of tours by one person is a daunting task. Planning one is really easy to do. Do you have a favorite place? A favorite stretch of road? Perhaps an event that you love to go to each year? Any one of these is an excellent start for planning a Miata Club Tour.

With some idea of a end location or a stretch of road you can begin to plan your tour. Get out a map, preferably a newer county map and/or the current Thomas Guide and start looking for curvy, twisty roads in the area of your ending place or favorite roads. Start linking them together in what looks like a fun drive. Keep this up until you have worked your way back to a good starting location with plenty of parking and one that's easy to find. Sometimes it's helpful to simply pick a start location that makes sense to you due to your location or it's central location. Remember that we have to caravan out of where ever we start from, so a minimum of traffic lights is a BIG plus.

Once you have a start location, a general route formed of fun looking roads connected together and a final destination, GO DRIVE IT! Make sure to take the maps along with you. This is part of the fun. Maps don't always show true conditions. Some don't differentiate pavement from gravel. Some roads that look great on the map are dull when you drive them in a Miata. Other roads that don't look like much turn out to be beautifully scenic or twistier than they appear on the map. Driving the route is part of the process. Do not expect the first route you select to be the final one.

After you first drive you will no doubt have some changes to make. Some you may have already made on the first trip out. Re-plan your route and type up a new route sheet with the directions. Just a simple thing like:
TURN RIGHT onto Foster road.
TURN LEFT onto 122 Av.

Make sure to leave a space in front of the directions to write down the actual mileage as you drive it. This is easier with a helper. Now go drive it again. This time, keep track of your mileage and your time from start to finish. It's important to have an idea of how long your drive will take. Also keep in mind that it's always faster with one Miata than it is with 10 or 20+. On this trip you should have a pretty good idea of how your route is shaping up. Start thinking about a potty stop every hour of the tour or so. People with full bladders don't enjoy scenic drives as much as relaxed ones. Trust me on this! ;)

You're almost finished. Once you have a starting point, a route you like and a final destination, have planned your potty stops and re-grouping points, if needed, then you need to drive the route again and check your mileage. Even better, let someone else drive it, following your directions while you ride as passenger. This will point out any confusing issues, but also make you more familiar with the route so that when you lead it, you won't need to refer to the directions nearly as much, if at all. Ideally, you should have driven the final route at least three times by the time you lead the event.

It is best to drive the route at the same time of day that the event will occur on the weekend prior to the actual event. This will allow you to verify that the roads are ok, and to spot any potential problems before the date of the tour. If at all possible, re-drive the complete route again if you make any changes and update the mileage. This helps tremendously for any stragglers or folks that come late and are trying to catch up or just enjoy the route on their own at a later date.

In a nutshell, that's how to plan a Miata Tour. I invite you all to give it a try. And I challenge you to have fun doing it! It's easy and the rewards of leading the club's members around for a day are wonderful. Besides, you always wanted to be in front of a long line of Miatae, didn't you? :)