what’s the weather like in texas?
right
Being that close to a Black Hole weather will be the least of our problems. :eek:
I don’t think I’ll know till I’m/we’re there.
Do we want to try and find some kind of group meet up area, so we don’t have to wander around pretending like we know where we’re going?
…perhaps the rental car place? I suppose that makes sense.
Supposed to be in the 70s and sunny.
ETA: Whoops…now they are saying rain and 60s on Friday.
That’s Texas for you.
However, it will probably be sunny and in the 70s.
Here’s the forecast, as of Sunday night:
Wednesday: 78/52, sunny
Thursday: 72/50, sunny
Friday: 71/53, cloudy
Saturday: 75/57, cloudy
Sunday: 74/55, rainy
I’m in San Antonio right now and I have the window to my 3rd floor hotel room OPEN! It’s nice!
Hi all!
I thought it would be helpful to post some info here about weather this coming week and some other minutiae that will hopefully make your visit go as smoothly as possible.
First, here’s the forecast, as of Monday, March 16th:
Wednesday: 78/50, sunny
Thursday: 71/48, mostly sunny
Friday: 71/54, mostly cloudy
Saturday: 75/56, mostly cloudy
Sunday: 75/54, scattered t-storms/rain
Second, allergies. You may not have had them before, but Texas is flat and sometimes windy, and every tree just exploded in lovely colorful blooms last week. It’s beautiful! But it may also wreak havoc on your eyes, ears, nose, and throat, so consider bringing allergy meds. My favorite is over-the-counter Zyrtec-D.
For those renting cars: It’s a bit of a pain, but the major highways connecting Frisco to itself and to DFW airport are toll roads. It would be a good idea when you get into town to make sure you have change and dollar bills for the toll booths. You’ll also see toll lanes marked with a giant “T” in an orange circle. Those are only for people (usually locals) who have a scannable Toll Tag in their windshield that automatically charges the toll as you go through. If you don’t have one of these, make sure to go through the lanes on the right that say “Change made” or “Exact change only.” The price is always marked in plain sight. If you don’t have change, just go through anyway- it’s safer than backing up traffic. And never get out of the car for safety (traffic, not thugs) reasons as well.
Frisco general information: Frisco has roughly 100,000 people and is a major suburb of Dallas situated a good 45 minutes to an hour from downtown. Frisco has all the stuff you might need in any small city (you don’t have to drive to Dallas for it): grocery stores, shopping malls, college, laundry, drugstores, coffee shops, barbecue joints, etc. If you’re not sure where to go, pretty much everything is on or around Preston Road.
Gas prices here right now are about $1.78/gallon for regular, $2.05 for premium.
If you’re vegetarian from say, California, Frisco won’t have as many vegetarian options for you as Cali, though there are enough to get by without too much trouble. Vegetarian-only restaurants are almost non-existent except for an Indian place or two.
Smoking is banned in indoor public places in Frisco, including bars and restaurants.
Frisco is undergoing a lot of construction. It rarely disrups of traffic (these guys are pros - the town’s been under constant construction for years) but keep in mind your speed when driving. Traffic fines double in active construction zones, and “active” has nothing to do with whether workers are visible or even present. (Ask me how I know…anyway) So be careful not to speed.
That’s all I can think of for now. If you guys have other questions about the town or anything else pertaining to the meetup, post here and I’ll do my best to answer them!
PM Chuck to see if you want to be there Friday night.
No problem, I didn’t mean to confuse anyone. I still think of Glimfeaather as Stroogie from the blog. 
Hey everyone! I’m landing at DFW about 11:30 AM on Thursday. If you’re coming in near that time let me know. I’m picking up a rental car at the airport and will have room for passengers.
IGNORE THIS MESSAGE AND READ THE ONE BELOW FROM CHUCK !!
For anyone who hasn’t flown to DFW and rented a car before (like me), you get your luggage at baggage claim and then follow the signs for car rental. Then you’ll board a shuttle bus to the Rental Car building (this is for all car rentals). For everyone catching rides with someone else this might be the best place to find one another instead of the airport because the terminals are 4 seperate buildings.
YOU DO NOT WANT TO MEET AT RENTAL. (Just sayin’.)
DFW is not laid out like most airports in that you’d spend a good half hour to an hour getting to rental from a terminal just to wait for everyone to do the same. Most rental is off-airport, and the stuff that’s on-airport is a loooong way from the terminal. I’m also not sure you’ll have any luck getting a non-rental vehicle into the rental area.
Your best bet is to not try and meet in one place but rather stay where you are and have the person with the car come get you. It’s very easy to find anyone at DFW as all terminals (from the outside) are functionally identical. Here’s the deal:
[ul]
[li]All terminals enter/exit to the main road that cuts down the middle of the airport.[/li][li]There’s an exit for each lettered terminal (A, B, C, D, etc.). A is on the north end of the airport and the letters get larger going south.[/li][li]After taking a terminal exit you’ll see smaller right exits for groups of gate numbers: 1-18, 19-26, whatever. The number groups are different in each terminal, but you just need to take the exit for the group in which your gate number falls.[/li][li]Almost immediately after you take a gate group exit you’ll see the road split into arrivals (upstairs) and departures (downstairs).[/li][li]You’re there.[/li][/ul]
Note that there are two exits to the airport: north and south. Unless you’re going somewhere other than to the meetup you’ll have little interest in the south exit.
Another note for DFW airport newcomers: the TrAAin (or whatever they call it now) runs only one way. This means that if for whatever reason you get on it to go to a terminal or gate prior to the one you’re current in, you’ll ride around the entire airport (including a long ride through the middle of nowhere) to get there. Read the signs carefully, or better yet schedule your pickup right in front of your gate exit (which is much easier).
D:
ChuckI’msorrypleaseforgiveme : (
Everyone:
I distributed our PDF’d information packet this morning via email, so if you haven’t recevied one yet that’s probably because either you didn’t provide me an email address or I screwed up. If you didn’t get one, drop me a line with your email address and I’ll send one your way.
The packet contains the full weekend schedule as well as information about each event and location.
Got mine. Can’t wait! 
Hey Everyone,
Remember to use #GWCmeetup in your tweets over the course of the meetup events, so we can easily search for the happenings, and maybe find new twitter friends to follow.
-Ryan
And me too. Guess I really am a sorryBarb. 
I had such an easy time getting luggage and jumping on a shuttle to the car rental I thought I’d share for those coming in around the same time that are sharing a ride. My bad.
Good idea, Ryan! I’ll make sure to hash my tweets accordingly.
Okay, I don’t mean to completely contradict what Chuck said but:
-
I’m almost 100% sure that the Sky Link trains run in both directions because I clearly remember riding the trains in both directions. The problem with them is that if you’ve checked bags, you can’t really use them because you need to leave the secure area in order to get your bag and then can’t go back inside to pick up the train.
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In my humble opinion, the rental car facility actually is a good place to meet up because there are free shuttle buses that take you from all terminals to the facility. The trick is to have everyone meet there in the lobby area before anyone actually picks up a car.
Just #GWC should suffice. You’ve only got 140 characters, after all.