Here again is the basic information in case anybody still has any questions!

The swap is the day after tomorrow, Sunday, May 23rd starting at 11:00!

~~ Please be sure to thoroughly water the plants you’re bringing sometime on Saturday so they’ll have time to drain enough to be easy to transport, yet be wet enough to not be wilting at the swap or while people are taking them home! It’s supposed to be around 80 degrees, so small pots or plugs could dry out quickly if they’re not wet to start with, and you’re not going to have time to—or want to—be running around trying to water them during the swap to keep them from wilting!

~~ HERE’S ALL THE BASIC SWAP INFORMATION ONE MORE TIME ~~~

~~ As you arrive there will be a table with a sign in sheet, so please be sure you sign in and have your guests sign in too so we can see how many people were actually there! There will also be name tags on the sign in table—please make a name tag for yourself (and your guests) which includes your RMG screen name—so we know who you are! [Put YOUR screen name on your guest’s tags too—so we know who they "belong to!"]

~~ There will be an area designated to put the plants you’ve brought, with a separate place to put the plants you have earmarked for someone—and for the food we’ll try to keep the sweets on one table, beverages on another, and everything else on a third!

~~ For those of you who have plants earmarked for other people, please be sure they’re clearly marked with the name of the person who’s getting them.

~~ As people are arriving, we generally walk around talking and looking at what people are bringing, and if you find some plants that have been earmarked for you, find somewhere to "stash" them! All the RMG people know well enough to leave the plants they find in little batches here and there alone—but since this is a public park we should probably keep them all close enough to keep an eye on them if there are other people around!

~~ When most people seem to have arrived, we eat!
Again, please bring a serving spoon if it will be needed for your dish, and also please make some provision for it to be covered—a lid if it’s that type of dish, or plastic wrap, or whatever—enough to keep the flies off and to keep it from shriveling up in the heat. And as I mentioned on the food thread, if your dish is something that can’t be easily "named," please mark it with some sort of a label to let everybody know what it is! With this many people, and this much food, that’ll just make it easier for people to get the things they like the best!

~~ After eating and talking for a while we’ll get down to the serious business of swapping! First we’ll have everybody who has plants earmarked for others make sure their plants get to the right people if they haven’t already.

~~ Then we’ll have everybody who brought plants briefly point out their plants and tell what they brought so everyone knows what’s available to help them decide what they’d like to have.

~~ Then everyone draws a number for the first two rounds of picking plants—that way everyone has a pretty good chance to get the one or two things they want the most.

~~ Then we get to the free-for-all part, and everybody can just walk around and pick out whatever they want from what’s left!

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~~ Please be sure all the plants you bring are labeled one way or another with at least the plant name—and more info if you know it!

~~ It’s a really good idea to bring a box or tray or something to carry your booty back home in! If the plants you’re bringing are in something, don’t let anybody else snag it, and you can use that to refill with the new goodies! Everybody—please don’t use somebody else’s box or tray without asking first if it’s an extra one!

~~ And Bexay and Laura have said they’d take pics along with me, but it would be nice if a few more people would bring their cameras—for different perspectives!

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It’s supposed to be around 80 degrees, so dress appropriately for a warm day—but, it’s Colorado, so be prepared just in case we get one of our afternoon storms—rain, wind, cold, hail! You guys have all lived it!

And I know I’ve met a lot of you before, so I apologize in advance for not being able to put your face together with your name! I am infamously terrible at putting names and faces together, so remind me (screen name!) who you are when we see each other! I really feel like I know you all here—(facelessly) online!
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I had looked up some basic directions to Angel’s house that I was gonna post to "get you close" without giving the actual address to help anybody who might not be sure which way to go—especially those coming from a distance, but I’m not sure how much I can help with the park. I have a good paper map of Boulder and Longmont, and the park’s not on it, so it must be a pretty new park. I checked google Earth too, and it’s not on there either!

Assuming I’m looking at the right place on my paper map—which is what I use so I can keep it in the car with me—let me try with some basic ideas here! (If you have GPS, I’m assuming directions won’t be a problem! I don’t like machines telling me things, so I don’t have a GPS!)

Since this is on the far west side of Longmont, for those of you coming from the south on I25 I’ve tried to find a way that you can cut over to the west without going all the way straight north to Longmont, but I can’t find anything that works without going all the way into Boulder—which is too far west—and then coming back east on 119 toward Longmont, so I guess straight north on I25 is the only thing that makes sense!

So......

I25 to CO 119 west (Exit 240)—which is also called, at various places, Ken Pratt Blvd. and Nelson Road! 119 turns south somewhere past Main Street (at the train tracks), so be sure you keep going straight ahead and you’ll be on county 20—or one of those two street names!

Stay on that all the way past Longmont to 75th Street — also called county 31 (or 33 – not sure where it changes!)

Turn left/south on 75th and then I’m not sure how you’ll find Mountain Drive because it doesn’t look like it goes thru to 75th on my map, so I guess you’ll need to just turn in one of the streets (Mountain Sanitas Avenue is the only one on my map that goes thru to 75th) and look for Mountain Drive! But since the park isn’t on my map, maybe Mountain Drive does go thru to 75th by now! On Earth it was just a big construction field with no houses or anything!

From the north on I25 that’s probably the best way too, unless you want to cross over something you’re familiar with north of Longmont and then go all the way to the far south end of Longmont. (I take CO 66 west from I25 when I visit a friend on the north end of Longmont, and it looks to me like 119 will be faster driving that 66, which isn’t very fast at all!)

From Boulder the obvious way is the Diagonal/119 up to Niwot Road, west to 73rd (county 33) which becomes 75th.

And, Bonnie, I’m not sure! Both your’s and Angel’s links were for the same directions. Do you have a GPS? That route would work, but would be a lot easier if you had a machine talking to you! If you go that way, once you exit I70 to CO 93 it will not be fast driving from there on! But the only real alternative would be to go all the way in to I25 and then follow the directions from the south that I gave above! Check it out and email me if you want to discuss the possibilities!

I hope that helps some of you—and I hope I’m not leading you on a wild goose chase to the wrong place! But that’s where I’ll—hopefully—wind up, so I guess as long as we all get to the "same place" it’ll be ok!

If anybody can help with better directions, please do!

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If you have any questions I can try to help with, post here sometime tomorrow/Saturday and I’ll try to check the computer every time I run by it and I'll give it the old college try! It is extremely unlikely that I’ll be checking RMG before I leave for the swap on Sunday! I don’t have a clue how I’m gonna get everything done that I need to before then, and it’s gonna be chaos before I leave here on Sunday!

Hope to see you all on Sunday at 11,
Skybird

P.S. I don't really have a clue what we'll need in the line of tables and chairs anymore, so if you posted you were bringing some, please do! I'm sure we'll need the chairs, and if we don't need all the tables, you can leave them in the car---but at least they'll be there if they're needed! And if anybody else can bring chairs, please do!

And the park only has 4 tables, so please do bring those folding tables if you have them, or we won't have enough tables to lay things out as Skybird has indicated, as well as enough tables to eat.

Skybird, are you bringing nametags and signup sheets and the numbers for people to draw? I don't want to duplicate all your hard work.

thanks,
Angel

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Silt&1s=CO&1y=US&1l=39.548599&1g=-107. 655602&1v=CITY&2c=Longmont&2s=CO&2a=1520+Mountain+Dr&2z=80503&2y=US&2l =40.140443&2g=-105.173569&2v=ADDRESS#b/maps/m:hyb:14:40.141443:-105.17 315::::::1:1:::::::::/l::Interstate+25+N:Longmont:CO:80504:US:40.15618 5:-104.978732:address:Weld:1:::/l::Mountain+Dr:Longmont:CO:80503:US:40 .140891:-105.174652:address:Boulder:1:::/io:1:::::f:en_US:M::/bl:/e< /div>

These are basically the same as Skybird's directions from I-25 (edited a little below based on how the streets are signed).

I25 to CO 119 west (Exit 240)—which is also called Ken Pratt Blvd. 119 veers south somewhere past Main Street (at the train tracks), so be sure you turn right on Nelson.

Stay on that all the way past Longmont to 75th Street (It is at a stoplight just past the Seagate building).

Turn left/south on 75th and then just over the top of the hill turn left on Mountain Sanitas Avenue to the end and then right on Mountain.

If you miss Mount Sanitas you can also turn left about 1/2 mile later on Clover Basin and then left on Mountain.

The directions I posted earlier for Bonnie will also get you there, as will her original route.

PS - If you're coming up I-25 and want to avoid coming through Longmont, you can take exit #235 to CO-52 West to CO-119 North and follow Skybirds Boulder directions from there.

I direct linked the map below. Zoom in about 3 times to get close enough to see anything!

And — now everybody knows how far Bonnie is driving to get here! She’s usually our most "distant" attendee! (Had somebody from Kansas the one time!)

For obvious reasons I’m not going to post it here! — but if anybody wants my cell number for help in case of last minute problems, PM me and I’ll send it to you! [include your SCREEN NAME so I know who you are!]

Skybird

EVERYBODY --- if you haven't already found out, the swap has been moved to a park near Angel's house. Please see driving directions above or check out Angel's "Important, location change" thread for more info.

Bedtime!

See you all in a few hours!

Skybird

Thanks for setting this all up - it looks like a lovely place to hold the swap!

Mstywoods/Marj