10th Anniversary - Changes on the Horizon

[Jerry]

Backroad Drivers 10th Anniversary
Changes on the Horizon

Backroad Drivers Northwest is hitting a milestone; we will be ten years old on the 23rd of September! It's been a decade ago since Jerry and Randy started Backroad Drivers Northwest with five people on the newly organized email list. It wasn't long before there were 100 members and when we hit 200 we moved the list from Jerry's personal computer to eGroups, the forerunner of Yahoo.groups.

Membership has continued to grow every year and our tours have become more frequent and diverse. We now have nearly 1000 members, we are involved in over 20 events per year and we have been associated with nearly 200 road trips since the beginning. We take pride in saying we have participated in at least one driving tour every month since the list started in 1998.

We have seen more of the Pacific Northwest than most folks could imagine and we have made several very good friends along the way, folks we look forward to associating with for years to come. But, it is time for us to step down and make room for the enthusiasm of a younger generation, fresh ideas and new technology.

For the past three years we have had a close relationship with the Pacific Northwest Adventures Forum, an extremely comfortable hangout where many of us backroad explorers congregate. PNW Adventures.com is designed, owned and moderated by our own Steve Bisig. Steve, who lives in the Puyallup area, has been a Backroad Drivers moderator for over a year and unbeknown to most of us he has been the guy operating the switches in the background.

Based on Steve's experience, respectability and mutual passion for the hobby please help me welcome him on September 23rd, our 10th Anniversary, as the new Owner of the Backroad Drivers group.

WELCOME, STEVE!!!

And by the way, Evelyn and I have a 10th Anniversary driving tour planned on October 25th to commemorate our first road trip. Check the list for the original announcement and future reminders.

I would like to thank all of our sane, crazy and otherwise loyal members and other supporters for suggesting, leading, reporting, and commenting on backroad events and other backroad related subjects. And we especially appreciate many of you who have been with us since the start. Also a big thank you to our previous moderators Ed from Maple Ridge, BC and Ben from Richland, WA for all of their help and advice over the years and a special thanks to my co conspirator, fellow moderator, navigator, orange hi-lighter marking specialist, mechanic, munchies provider, co-driver, friend and son-in-law, Randy from Meacham. Thanks also to Manuel from Tacoma for hosting our web page for two years and to Bob from White Center for designing our logo and printing our window stickers. Us, we'll still be around, we aren't going anywhere. We’ll be members of the group just like everyone else.

Thanks all, and we hope to see you on the backroads,
Jerry

[Steve]

I think I will speaking for everybody here and on the the yahoo groups.

Thank you Jerry for conceiving the idea for the group and leading and growing it to what it is today. You are an inspiration for all of us.

My goal, with the help of people we have here, is continue on with the traditions you started and build upon that success for the future.

Of course, I will occasionally bug you for ideas. And if you see something I'm missing, feel free to give me a little poke as a reminder. Eventually, I'll get it.

Steve

[RidgeRunner]

Jerry,

Great job of operating the Backroad Drivers for 10 years. I'm sure you are ready for a well-deserved break from it. I don't think you could pass the torch to a more qualified and dedicated person.

Thanks for a job well done.



Steve,

Congratulations on your new assignment. Should be fun for you and hopefully rewarding as it has been for Jerry. Good Luck.

Mick