Anybody familiar with the area around the PA Grizzly showroom?

[B A R R Y]

Folks,

I'm thinking of flying my little airplane to visit the Muncy, PA Grizzly showroom (7+ hrs vs. 2 hrs., each way). I can fly into Williamsport, which is ~ 7 miles from the showroom. If I really don't have to, I would rather not rent a car to get from the airport to the showroom & back. My alternatives are my bicycle and public transportation. A few questions for those familiar with the area:

Are there decent (bicycle friendly) non-interstate roads connecting the Williamsport area with the Grizz location? Mapquest and Delorme Street Atlas aren't clear. I don't have a problem riding with cars, but six lane, 55 MPH, divided roads can be a tad "challenging". How's the terrain? Flat, rolling hills, mountainous?

Is there decent public transportation, like a regularily scheduled regional bus or light rail line?

Is there dependable taxicab service in Williamsport or Muncy?

Thanks! Barry

[A.J. Hamler]

Barry...

The area is mostly large, rolling hills, with some of them fairly steep. I always rented a car when I went, and seem to remember that the distance from airport to the Grizzly building (near the shopping mall) isn't particularly close and I used the interstate to get from one place to the other. But again, even though I like bicycling, the times I've been there I wasn't paying attention to pedaling distance, or to whether there were secondary roads more conducive to biking. There is no light rail I'm aware of, but there may be buses. The taxi service, however, is quite dependable. They have a very nice little airport, by the way.

Enjoy the trip. You'll find the showroom quite impressive.

A.J.

B A R R Y wrote:

[David Merrill]

Try here:

in 'muncy, pa'; select 'hybrid' button in the upper-right corner; use the +- buttons in the upper-left; pan the image by holding down the left mouse button and dragging.

David Merrill

[Lee Michaels]

Just a thought Barry.

Maybe somebody at Grizzly already knows these types of facts.

It wouldn't hurt to ask.

[brianlanning]

I always heard that small airports often have a car that you can borrow, sort of one of the perks that the private plane people often get.

brian

[B A R R Y]

Thanks for the excellent response. I'll pursue the taxi.

IPT looks pretty good on Airnav, and I didn't really want to depend on availability of a courtesy car.

Thanks again!

[B A R R Y]

You'd think... But!

Barry

[Upscale]

I get a similar response when I call a restaurant and ask if they are accessible and have a wheelchair accessible washroom on the premises. When they're not sure about getting into the restaurant, I ask if there's any steps to get inside. When they're not sure about the washroom, I ask if they've noticed a stall that has a wider than normal door. When they say they don't know, I then have to ask them to go to the washroom and look. I often get passed to the manager at that point.

Unfortunately, Canada doesn't yet have an organization that comes close to the clout of your ADA.

[Lee Michaels]

"B A R R Y" > wrote

I know of what you speak.

Often, when talking on the phone with a store, I will ask for directions. And the person is clueless. I then ask if their mommy drives them to work.

[Ba r r y]

Yeah, those are "courtesy cars". Disappearing with it for 5 or 6 hours might be considered rude, and you often can't reserve them in advance.

The cars I'm familiar with are more for zipping into town for lunch or package delivery / retrieval. Many wouldn't make it much farther than town, but the price is right (gas)!

One of my local airports has a 1980-something Grand Caravan (the old squared style), complete with vinyl wood. The only place not rusted is where the vinyl is. Some small operations will even toss you the FBO owner's or an employee's personal keys for a quick errand.

Excellent suggestion, though!

Barry

[John (aka wheelzuk)]

Barry,

Would you be kind enough to do a small flight detour to collect me in = Edinburgh UK? We don't have anything like Grizzly stores, and = especially not of the size you have in the US. Like another replier, I'm = also a wheelchair user, hope you can accomodate that too? ;-))

Leg pull over! Hope you get your info, transport and visit organized? = Good luck

[Ba r r y]

If I leave today, we could arrive at Grizzly sometime in April. I'd also use enough avgas to fly you first class to JFK!

Other than that, no problem! You wouldn't be the first wheelchair user onboard, that's not an issue at all.

What time on Thursday would you like me to pick you up?

[W Canaday]

Considering how many websites I encounter that absolutely require Flash before divulging ANY information, I'm not certain that the US ADA has

-enough- clout.

[Upscale]

You've lost me. What does the Americans with Disability Act have to do with Flash?

[DamnYankee]

Barry,

It'd be a pretty easy bike ride from the airport. It's mostly a 2 lane road that has some 3 & 4 lane areas for passing. The airport is just off this road. Mostly local traffic as Rt 180 runs parallel to this road. I can't remember the exact number of hills, maybe 3 or 4 with none of them very steep or long. For what it's worth, Grizzly is right next to a Gander Mountain and a decent mall (Lycoming Mall).

Bryan

[Tyke]

I was at the Grizzly Muncy showroom a couple of weeks ago. I have been a few times.

This place is typical of rural Pennsylvania. Expect to need a car to get most places. I am not familiar with the Willamsport airport. The old showroom was in Williamsport.

I do not think you would enjoy a bicycle ride between the airport and the showroom.

Maybe you need to put out another message asking if any of the "wreckers" are visiting and when. If I were going to drive the 100 miles, it would not be a problem to drive another 7 miles to pick someone up.

Dave Paine.

[Ba r r y]

FWIW, I routinely ride 75 miles on my road bike and 3-4 hours on my mountain bike here in New England. 7 miles isn't a big deal, except maybe in the Rockies, Alps, or Sierras. I have topo and road maps so I can see the roads, I just didn't want to try to bike down San Jose's El Camino Real, or Florida's Military Trail, both of which look like mellow roads on maps. The local knowledge I was seeking was more along the lines of the bike friendliness. For instance, places like San Jose and Florida are flat, but the road design and driving etiquette make for some heads-up riding. I can toss "shopping clothes" in a small backpack, so I don't have to walk around a machinery salesroom in Spandex. (bad visual, but the clothing is very functional!)

We own two Dahon folding bikes that we keep with the plane for trips to and from airports.

Excellent idea!

I actually had thought of offering lunch to someone willing to do just that, along with a possible ride for a CT, western MA, or eastern NY 'wrecker who isn't afraid to fly and won't puke on my glare shield. I just haven't developed the plan that far yet. The plane is going that way anyway, and having someone to talk to doesn't burn more fuel, and makes the ride more pleasant. The guy who volunteered in Edinburgh is a tad out of the way, unfortunately.

Are you volunteering to be the car? 8^) I'll buy the lunch! Just be warned that general aviation doesn't run on the same sort of schedule as the airlines, so arriving @ 10:30'ish, could be 10, 11, or 1:30, or of course, 10:30.

Barry

[W Canaday]

Browsers for the blind are text only and rely on text to speech conversion. There are online (free) services that will check your code for conformity to established standards, including ADA.

Try these for starters:

unable to display Flash come up totally empty when trying to display a Flash - only page. One especially bonehead stunt I've seen is to use regular html / css for the bulk of a page but put the link to order goods (in this case, tickets to an event) behind a Flash-generated button.

I'll leave you to consider the wisdom of putting a barrier of any sort between a customers credit card and a checkout screen. The blind are not the only ones not using Flash, BTW. Those who are a little more security conscious than most also don't see the wisdom of allowing foreign code to run locally whether with or without explicit permission. That includes a lot of folks using Linux. I have three browsers installed. None of them are allowed to interpret and run Flash.

Bill

[A Lurker]

Ba r r y wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Barry

I did MS Streets and trips and it shows as 5.4 miles from airport on local roads. Hell, you can walk that! :) If you are interested in a quick touch down at Solberg (NJ), I'd be interested in coming along and chipping in for gas & buying lunch. Muncy, PA. is 2 1/2 hour drive from here; did it too many times when son was in school in Lewisburg (right down the road). If we buy, I can run back with pickup truck and ferry the stuff here.

Let me know,

Jerry publicatsimoogledotcom

[Tyke]

Barry,

Looking at the Google map the Williamsport regional airport is 1/2 a mile south of Broad Street which becomes Lycoming Mall Road - a straight shot according to the map. The Grizzly showroom is off this road. The terrain is not difficult for a mountain biker like yourself, but the road is not designed to cycling. You will be sharing with cars and most of this will not have a hard shoulder.

I could be pursuaded to make another trip. Drop me an email and we can discuss. You could even fly into a local grass style landing strip called Flying M Aerodrome, but then you would have to put up with the 100 mile ride to Muncy and back.

As for the spandex, I doubt the Grizzly folk would worry. I have seen all sorts of people in the showroom, from suits to farmers.

Dave Pa>