In a sense, Northern New Jersey Region’s road rallies are a “party on wheels.” They are an excuse to get together with friends and family for a social gathering, with a bit of competition thrown in for good measure. Each event starts with a light breakfast buffet which includes conversations with old and new acquaintances, some war stories about past rallies, Drivers Educations, Autocrosses, or what you did over your summer vacation, but then the competition begins.
John Vogt, the Region’s Rally Chair, conducts a brief overview of the fun and silliness that is about to take place on the open road with your Porsches. The type of rallies that NNJR-PCA puts on are known as Question and Answer “Gimmick” Rallies. The entire family can participate and enjoy “Gimmick” Rallying and only requires a good sense of humor and a couple of hours of your time on a Sunday afternoon. The rallies always end at a great place to eat and socialize.
The August 15th Run to the Stone Walls Road Rally was no exception! For the first time, we ended at The Inn at Glen Gardner, established in 1760 as Eveland’s Tavern by founder John Eveland. John and his family operated the Tavern for over one hundred years. While it has gone through several owners over recent decades, new owners Dan Natale and Ashley Meissner re-opened to great acclaim during the pandemic in December 2020. Ashley and Dan rolled out the red carpet for the club and opened The Inn early just for us. We all enjoyed a sumptuous buffet amongst the original stone walls – hence the rally name – and beams in the restaurant and stunning bar area.
Eric and Pat Sjogren wrote a rally that was precisely 52.05 miles long, and if you wanted to test your powers of observation along the way, you could have tried to find the correct answers to the 31 questions along the route over 2 hours. The rally route featured the rolling countryside and vistas of Morris, Somerset, and Hunterdon Counties, including the hilly terrain of the Musconetcong River Valley. The last 12 miles of the rally had no questions, went up and down the mountain on some curvy roads, and was designed to let you really “Enjoy the Road” in your toys.
Interspersed on the back roads between the Route Instructions were a series of Questions, Jokes, and Gags, with answers found along the Rally Route. Some were very easy, while others might have been harder to see or required a good sense of humor. Rallies need some tie-breakers to break up the field. Two of the sillier questions were, “YES, WE ALL KNOW SOMEONE CHATTY WHO BELONGS HERE.” The answer was “THE YAK SHACK.” Next was “WOW! THESE EGGS MUST BE REALLY FRESH BECAUSE THEY ARE _________.” The answer was ‘HOT OFF THE HEN.’
A real brain teaser and rally favorite was the question that asked, “HEY BARTENDER! I’D LIKE AN IGUANA ______________.” There was a two-step process to get this question correct. First, you had to find the Iguana along the route on Beacon Hill Rd in Washington Township and then apply the Rallymaster’s sense of humor to answer the question correctly. Check out the photo and see if you could have figured out the correct answer: ‘IGUANA ON THE ROCKS.’
John’s unique sense of humor was in full force with the question: “WHERE WOULD SPACE ALIENS PARK THEIR FIRE TRUCKS?” with the answer, of course, being “STATION 51.”
I hope these insights into the NNJR-PCA rally program will encourage you to attend future events with families and friends. The annual Oktoberfest Rally, ending at the Black Forest Inn in Stanhope, NJ, will be held on Sunday, September 26th. NNJR-PCA will be returning to The Inn at Glen Gardner on Sunday, November 14th, for the final rally of the 2021 Championship Series: The Dreyfus Cup. See you soon!
