holy crap! Haydays Traffic

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440_chazz

Member
blu2u2 said:
Parking was a BIG issue! I left St. Paul at 6:00 yesterday (Sat) and got in the gates at about 8:45. The last 5 miles took over 2 hours but I didn't have to walk far once I parked. Also glad that I had my 4WD because the parking lot was muddy. Also not happy about having to pay $5 to park. This slowed things down since each vehicle had to stop and pay. They should have had a lot more entrance points vs. the 2-3 that I saw. It was one huge bottleneck!
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I didn't pay a dime for parking and I was in the field about a quarter mile down the road from the event. I would have told the lady to pound sand if I had to pay for parking after waiting two hours in traffic. Luckily i had a back roads map that got me around some of the mess.

I also saw the Team Kesslers crew passed out in the RV Sunday while walking the swap. HAHA.

I think I might pay a visit to the Wausau Grass drags. At least that event is off of HWY 29. Does that have a good swap meet?
 
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scottiking

scottiking

Super Moderator
Staff member
Our group of guys got there on friday morning at 11:30 am and drove right in to staging row11- no traffic hardly and stayed in that row till 3:30pm till they let us park in our "4" swap spots! pretty painless- we enjoy setting up our chairs in the staging lanes and having a few Coors! so no big deal!
I had to leave early sat at like 3pm so I arranged a ride to pick me up!
Hearing that it was a parking lot for 8 miles on the roads outside I started walking twards highway 35 and I flagged down a guy with a golf cart and threw him 10 bucks and he drove me out about 6 of the miles and by then my ride was able to just stop on the side of the road and pick me up! wipped a u-turn and we we gone no problem!
I LUCKED OUT! 1 of our Team Hennessey crew walked in overf 6 miles from a ditch spot! and a few others turned around and left!
Our swappers pulled out with our trailers just after 6pm sat and drove right out and home!
My advice would be to do like us and swap and go early and make a couple days of it!
Had a blast even with the rain friday night!
even if ya dont have much to swap,who cares- your rig will be in the swap so if ya buy anything you can put it in your car and also bring in your own food and beer!
Plus friday swapping is pretty good as well! we sold half our stuff friday when we were in line!
The drive-in movie we had was great and had a great time!

I think the haydays people need to rent a lot at a big mall or school and have bus shuttles- kind of like they do for the PGA tourneys or like the snowcross up in Duluth Thanksgiving weekend!
Deep breath..............
Scottiking OUT
Nice seeing ya boys!
 
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tyeeman

New member
My brother and I sat in stopped traffic for about 4 hours and then walked another 3 miles or so. Early on in the traffic we had an impromptu show from some scantily clad ladies that jumped out of a couple of trucks and decided to show off there stuff, , if you know what I'm sayin. Then they saddled up in the trucks, turned around and took off. Could have been a nice traffic jam!! :) All the crap aside it was an awsome day, met some cool people and essectially reaffirmed what a cool sport we have. Yep, I'll do it again!
If they get their parking issue taken care of, let some of the locals park and sell stuff on their properties (like the other Hay Days) I think it will bi fine. Nice lay out, huge swap area, probably need another beer tent or two, , , or at least faster pouring taps. :)
 
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ubee

New member
L@@ked like a giant money $$$ grab gone bad ! I bet they lost alot of people that never will go back !! They should buy some goats or a lawnmower!
 

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elf

Well-known member
We went in on Saturday. Came in from Taylors Falls at about 9:30, got stuck in traffic about 9:45, pulled out the blackberry, looked at maps, took a couple back roads and were parked by 10:30. Had a great time (no kids with). Didn't buy much, saw the Team Kesslers group having a good time. I think next year we may swap, just an opportunity to bring in the camper and stay on site!
 
indy_500

indy_500

Well-known member
Scottiking, where was your guys' spot?

I saw team kesslers also, all i can remember is the loud music lol video looked awesome
 
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thunderstruck88

New member
? where is your state State fair held at ? I would think there would be alot more room for all to attend and park and have plenty to see and do Just trying to help and glad you all had a great time and glad for Indy to get his drivers permit to :)
 
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ezra

Well-known member
elf said:
We went in on Saturday. Came in from Taylors Falls at about 9:30, got stuck in traffic about 9:45, pulled out the blackberry, looked at maps, took a couple back roads and were parked by 10:30. Had a great time (no kids with). Didn't buy much, saw the Team Kesslers group having a good time. I think next year we may swap, just an opportunity to bring in the camper and stay on site!
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get there early they over sold swap sites this yr also turned back allot of guys I talked with a guy from WY who drove down with his trailer full of stuff and prepaid swap sites papers turned back fri evening along with Manny others.but on the up side prob wont be as many people next yr traveling any more than 3 hrs if they even get a permit for next yr.1st time I have been followed in to a snowmobile event followed buy a muddy D9 though
 
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84vette96

New member
I dont know what every body is so mad about. I drove in from the south on oriel lane and was parked in about ten min. 9:00 am sat. That being said I saw the lines of cars on all the paved roads. Thank you megellan.
 
4

440_chazz

Member
84vette96 said:
I dont know what every body is so mad about. I drove in from the south on oriel lane and was parked in about ten min. 9:00 am sat. That being said I saw the lines of cars on all the paved roads. Thank you megellan.
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Thank you Wisconsin Back Roads Map. Yeah thats right the map showed just enough of Minnesota to where the Hay Days site was that I used the same route. But instead of an all blue truck, its half red half blue. I should probably wash it now.
 
D

doo_dr

New member
They definitely could have done better!!!

84vette96 said:
I dont know what every body is so mad about. I drove in from the south on oriel lane and was parked in about ten min. 9:00 am sat. That being said I saw the lines of cars on all the paved roads. Thank you megellan.
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I made the same way in and only had 1000' of traffic Saturday morning. While the parking was a CF they will either have it resolved next year or there will not be many people showing up. The best place to watch is the SNO Barons website. If they do not have improvements on thier parking descriptions, don't show!!!! My son and I walked the whole show and we really enjoyed it. The grounds were well put together and we enjoyed the show but I would not have waited 3hrs to get in. I spent $200 in the show (parking, admiss, food, drink, raffle) Multiply that $ figure by how many people were turned away. I really felt bad for all of the people that couldn't get in and I would warn any of the Sno Barons reading, that will only take a different group two years of better organization to take this show away from them!!!!
 
C

chad66

Member
Haydays=no thanks.

whitedust said:
Seems to me a good place would be Eagle River ,WI at the Fairgrounds. Plenty of parking & hotels on grounds & near by. Very easy to walk from hotels don't even have to park. I'm glad I didn't go.
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Not sure if you've ever been to Haydays Pete but Eagle River cant even begin to hold that event. I started calling it a wasted weekend YEARS ago. Like most people said, it's not a bad time ONCE you get in. I sat in line at the old location to get in with a trailer one year for 7hrs and I was there Friday night. I dont get many weekends off I you will NOT find me spending one of them there. But for a guy that doesn't mind wasting a weekend and wants everything for nothing its a GREAT place to go.

Chad@M&M
 
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mikeh906

New member
At the old site we would park our motorhome at Waldocks van conversion center, friday am. Right across from the entrance, so easy. Sold most of our stuff in the ditch along 97. Easy to haul the purchases, sounds like a real mess this year. It was 94 and sunny in south Florida this weekend, and I almost went up to mn just to go, glad I did not waste my time. They will be more prepared next year for sure. Maybe I will make it, been going since the first year, missed the last 3 years. I can do just as well on JD or Ebay, but its so much fun to stay the weekend.
 
mike1970

mike1970

Member
I was absolutely shocked by the crowd and the parking. My 8 yr old son and I went up in the early afternoon on Friday. I think I actually benefitted from arriving later. I parked on a road for free and was picked up by a farmer and rode in the back of his pick-up right to the front gate. Nice man wouldn't take any money even though I insisted.
On the way out of the gates at about 6:15 up drives a big yellow school bus. Free bus ride right to my car door. I guess I should have bought a lottery ticket since it seems like we got real lucky.
Definitely TONS of room for improvement though!!
 
F

fjr4me

Member
I feel sorry for those that suffered through the nightmare on Saturday. I'm sure they will work on changes, they have too.

My group is always in the swap and we were there on Friday morning about 10:00am and got in and set up. We had an awesome time and sold just about everything we brought in. Scored a lot of great deals on swap stuff and vendor items.

The Freestyle area was alot of fun. We enjoyed the RC track and took a demo on a few ATV/UTV's on the test track. Didn't watch much drag racing. The swap area was huge. Love it!

I liked the lay out but there is still a need for a lot of improvements.
1. More parking / shuttle service / more entrances into facility etc...
2. Need to have traffic control folks. Intersections were going one-by-one in most cases.
3. Need to stabilize the parking areas with more gravel etc...
4. More food vendors (Lines were terrible for folks on Saturday).
5. Review the swap area lay out and how they get folks in and to their spots. Everything was sold out in advance and there were a lot of swappers that were stationed out in the regular parking area on Saturday. That didn't help with the parking either. i hear some folks that pre-paid were turned away. Don't know if it is true but most if not all those that were swapping in the parking area were moved into the swap area on Saturday night.

Sunday was a breeze for folks coming in from all those I spoke too including my wife and daughter. There is always a smaller crowd on Sunday so this was not surprising. I wonder if a lot of folks that could not make it on Saturday and were still in the area, made it on Sunday.

The list will be long for sure and hopefully the Sno Baron's will keep their website up-to-date with changes for next year.

The planes flying banners over the weekend were interesting.
"Thank you for your Patience-Big Changes in 2011"
"Thank you Neighbors for your Understanding" or something to that affect.

I know our group will be there again next year for sure. We had a blast!!!
 
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