Summer Fun Run

In early May the DeLorean Mid-Atlantic club was really picking up a ton of new members. Our past few events had turned out to a lot of fun, and memberships were pouring in! Several new owners from the local area had contacted the club officers with many questions and were looking for some guidance. Kevin Abato (myself) came up with the idea for the club to try and finally put together a "Summer Fun Run/BBQ" for all the new members to have a chance to become acquainted with the club and meet other owners. The event turned out to be a little harder to coordinate then I originally thought, but everything turned out just great that day.

The day's events kicked off at 12:00. We had selected Chubb Park in Chester NJ as our meeting point. The original idea for the club to have a BBQ style picnic in the park was quickly squashed by due to lack of time to properly plan the event.

During a three week search of MANY NJ state and township parks, it became very clear to me that all the good ones are booked in early January. We had no options available to us with decent parking, BBQ areas, and other facilities.

As part of a last ditch effort to make the event work, I decided to have the event in Chester NJ. Chubb Park was always a nice place, and Chester a nice quiet little town. All seemed well...

UNTIL... As it turned out, the 4-H club was setting up in the park that weekend for their annual fair the following week! With this kind of activity, we may not have an area to gather in. WORSE!... It also turned out that there was going to be a car show in Chester that day on the main street!

The DeLorean Mid-Atlantic Summer Fun Run was looking like it might be a bust. I was getting really bummed out about the whole thing. As a last ditch attempt to save the event, I went to the Chester Township parks and recreation committee to see if they would allow us to reserve one of the parking lots in Chubb Park. Luckily they agreed and were happy to help us out. WE WERE SET!

As for the car show on main street... lets just say that at 2:30 when a string of DeLoreans came through town, we turned ALL the heads! Dinner plans were also arranged... we were to eat the Black River Barn on Rt. 10 in Randolph NJ. The event was ready to roll... we just had to wish for good weather... and we got that also!

Members arrived at the park between the 12-2:00 time frame that we had set up. We had a total of 7 cars in attendance for the day, and the park turned out to be a great place to relax, look over the cars, and talk.

Oddly enough, one of our members informed us upon his arrival that he had seen a DeLorean owner at the car show in Chester! We sent someone down to ask him to our event, but he unfortunately he had other obligations at the show. Perhaps next time he can hang out with us.

As the afternoon went on, we started to get the itch to go out driving. It was almost 2:30, and I had picked out a nice street to do a photo shoot before we went to the restaurant for dinner. We packed up our things and got on our way.

We could not just leave the town of Chester without a grand exit, so we went down the main street where the car show was in progress. DID HEADS EVER TURN! What a sight to see seven DeLoreans roll right through the center of town strutting their stuff!

Imagine this... You live on a nice little side street in Chester, NJ. A quite little road that dead ends at a cul-de-sac. You're outside doing some gardening when... "WHOA! What was that!? Did I just see a caravan of DeLoreans drive down my street, turn around and line up in the middle of the road in front of my house!?"

Well... that's what happened to several home owners on this street. They were more than happy to come out and take a look at the cars as we did our photo shoot. A couple of members took the time to talk to the residents and tell them a little more about DeLoreans. Thanks for letting us use your street!

{Rumble Rumble Rumble}... "Hey, is that someone's exhaust?" NO! It was our stomachs! We were all pretty hungry now, and ready to head off to dinner. We packed in our photo shoot and started the second part of our drive. We were going to dine at "The Black River Barn" in Randolph, NJ.

The drive to the restaurant was a nice leisurely one with great scenery on the way. I managed to get a few good shots of the DeLoreans on the road from Marc's convertible

When we arrived at the restaurant, they had a section reserved in the parking lot JUST for us! We had seats on the patio overlooking the lake nearby.

After dinner we sat and talked for a long time about many different subjects. We started to throw around ideas for this years Fall Foliage Tour and get a perspective from other members on what they thought would work and what would not. We are now starting to shape up a REALLY nice plan for that event so keep an eye on the club web site for more details coming soon!

As you know, you can't keep a group of DeLorean owner's from their cars for too long, so we decided to add more activities to the event and go hit Cliff's Ice-cream on Rt. 46 in nearby Roxbury, NJ. Everyone was impressed with the huge selection of gourmet ice-cream flavors that were offered.

Everyone was finally stuffed from dinner and ice cream. We all had an awesome time and really enjoyed the days events. I was so worried about having a huge BBQ that it never dawned on me that just doing a simple event like this would appeal to everyone just as much!

I missed not having my car for the day, but I still managed to have an awesome time and really enjoy the day. That's it from us for now... NEXT UP: FALL FOLIAGE TOUR IV! SEE YA THERE!