Re: [Philmont] - philmont Digest - V01 #1080

This is long overdue but I would like to echo Dave's comments about Christine Emrick and "Leading the Way Tours". We went to Philmont this Summer (Trek 716-I) out of Miami and used Christine's services. Christine and her company provided us great transportation to and from the airport, Philmont and all of the stops in between. Our accommodations and meals while in Colorado Springs were first class and all of the crew never complained about being hungry, even from the athletes who made up our crew. Our visit to the Flying W Ranch, the "Bean Farm" was particularly amusing to watch as our Scouts had four helpings of a great western dinner.We visited the Air Force Academy, the Olympic Training Center, Garden of the Gods and had a fantastic half day whitewater trip on the Arkansas River. Each of the crew, advisors included, had a great time while in Colorado Springs.

Her crew and drivers were all very friendly and informative and some were veterans of their own Philmont trek. Christine was around much of the time to make sure that everything was in order and that we were receiving the services that she promised. And she did deliver. I don't know when she slept because we saw her at 5:30am in the morning and again at night, every day!

What really sold me about Christine and her company was what happened to us on our way home. After saying goodbye and thank you to Christine at the Colorado Springs Airport, we proceeded to wait six hours in the airport until the airport was closed and all flights through Dallas were cancelled due to the 12" of rain that they had that day. We tried but were unable to find a way home because the airlines told us that we were on our own since they were not responsible for the weather and delays caused by weather. Colorado Springs, being such a small airport, had little options to offer. So we turned to the Denver Airport and after some time were able to arrange for a flight home through Atlanta out of the Denver Airport. Our problem was getting from Colorado Springs to Denver. The airlines offered us free taxi service, but I didn't want to split up my crew into 4 taxis.So we turned to Christine for help. And she came through. Without hesitation, Christine was able to arranged for a driver and a 56 passenger bus to take us and our gear to the Denver Airport. And she did this without hesitation and without a charge to our crew. And after stopping for a midnight breakfast and sleeping on the floor of the airport in Denver for a few hours, we finally made our way home, almost a day later.

We owe a lot to Christine and her crew and wouldn't hesitate to use her services again when we hope to go back to Philmont in '06.

Please consider her services if you are going to Philmont and you have to fly to get there. Going through Colorado Springs is a good way to acclimate before going to Philmont while having a good time in the process. Call Christine at the number Dave shows below or visit Christine at www.leadingthewaytours.com. You can't go wrong.

Dennis Lyzniak, SM
Troop 566
Miami Lakes
Philmont '83, '04 and '06(hopefully)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Parmly" <PARMLYD@pilottravelcenters.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list philmont" <philmont@troop47.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 7:49 AM
Subject: RE: [Philmont] - philmont Digest - V01 #1080

Some wandering observations on various topics on this thread.

RE Travel services to Philmont: I was contingent advisor for our group
of 4 crews from Knoxville Tennessee (Contingent 717-N 1-4). We used
"Leading the Way Tours" to coordinate our travel to and from Philmont
and they do an excellent job. They coordinated our flights (which is
tricky with groups that large), had a bus and representative on the
ground at Colorado Springs, took us to lunch, toured the Air Force
Academy and some local sites, arranged for our group to go to the Flying
W dude ranch for dinner, then transport to Philmont the next morning.
Excellent people, a few Phil-vets working for them, they have done this
for a lot of groups and do a great job getting you there, and even
helping prepare your guys for the trek (e.g., at lunch the day we
arrived, everyone gets a "Leading the Way" tours Nalgene bottle and they
start pushing water into the system to help stave off altitude sickness
issues.) If you plan to travel by air, I'd recommend getting a tour
service to help negotiate a good deal, and we feel LTW did an excellent
job. Call Christine Emrick at 866-696-5073 or leadingthewaytours.com.

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Received on Sun Sep 5 12:51:26 2004