Over the years, I have been lucky enough to receive positive press in my choice of hobbies. My involvement in rallying over the past 50 years as an organizer and competitor has gotten my name and contact information out to a wide range of organizations.
About three months ago, an individual in North Carolina contacted me about a Charity Rally she was organizing for her daughter in support of Rachel’s Kindness Matters Movement. We spoke several times over the phone, and I sent her several Question/Answer Gimmick and Trek rally samples. I also agreed to help spread the word about her upcoming event.
We followed their website to a very slick video advertising the event, paid our entry fee, and blocked the date on our calendar.A couple of days before the event, we received a reminder note about the event, and it let us know that there would be over 40 teams competing on the drive.
On Saturday, May 6th, in support of the voice on the phone that had reached out to me three months before, we attended Rachel’s Road Rally For Kindness. Not knowing what to expect, we tried to keep our expectations in check and attend the event with an open mind to see how this organizer, new to the sport, organized the rally.
While the event itself was more of a cross between a scavenger hunt and family orientated shopping tour using a combination of written route instructions and GPS waypoints, it did open my eyes to possibilities for utilizing some of their ideas on some of my events in the future. After all, you never know where a good idea will come from.
When we arrived at the start, they had very professional signage directing us to the starting line, which had a sizeable overhead banner. There were no General Instructions or even a hint on the events scoring. Each team received an individual safety briefing, reminding us that this was a rally on open public roads and not a race and to enjoy ourselves and that we had a little over two hours to get to the finish for the party. At the start, we were given a small slip of paper with instructions to the Boat Ramp at a local Reservoir and look for the white bags and take a photo with John; that was it. No explanation. A friendly wave of good-bye and good luck.
It reminded me of an old The Avengers TV series episode entitled Dead Man’s Treasure, where John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and his partner Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) hunt for a murdered courier’s dispatch on a deadly car race [rally] with a “shocking” surprise at the finish line. It takes The Avengers to ‘flag down’ the murderers and apply the brakes to their plans. The episode aired in March of 1968, several years before I got involved with the sport, and was one of my introductions to rallying.
So off we went. At the Boat Ramp, we saw a series of white bags hanging on posts with team names. With no one around, we quickly found our bag and headed out with the route instructions in our team bag. We passed a couple of porta potties as we drove out of the lot. Hey, that’s a “John”! Let’s take a picture of that and text it to the Rallymaster—one answer down, about a dozen to go.
Our next question asked, “How many people can ‘rock’ in Stanton? If we had followed the instructions in the route book, we would never have gotten there since there was a typo with the wrong County Route number used, but taking that into account and knowing where Stanton, NJ, was helped a lot. About 10 minutes later, we were in wonderful downtown Stanton, which consists of only a General Store and Church. What did they want for the correct answer to question #2? We had no idea! Our mind was going a mile a minute, looking for garden rock gnomes or Rock and Roll icons. We should have kept it simple. There were three rocking chairs on the front porch of the General Store, which was the correct answer.
Several instructions later, after having to take our picture with farm animals, more photos at an Independence Senior Center (that did not know we were coming), and with Veterans at a VFW, we arrived at the The Old Egg Auction Building, a landmark in Flemington, NJ. It is hard for people in the 21st Century to consider that New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the nation, truly earned its nickname, The Garden State. Situated between two of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia, there was a ready market for the state’s produce less than a couple hours’ drive away. The Old Egg Auction Building, initially built in 1902 for the Empire Glass Co., was later taken over by the Flemington Agricultural Marketing Cooperative, becoming what was thought to be the largest egg auction house in the United States.
According to a previous NJ Advance Media article, it was started by local farmers Charles Cane, James Weisel, and others in 1930 and, at first, sold eggs in the basement of the Nevius Store on Main Street in Flemington. The operation moved to the vacant Empire building in 1932, where livestock was soon sold as well. By 1955 nearly 450,000 cases of eggs were sold, as well as 65,000 crates of live chickens. It had become a $2 million-a-year business and a prototype for other operations nationwide.
We were instructed to take a funny picture with the Indian who lives on the property. Once in the large parking lot, we found over a dozen other rally teams walking around the building looking for an Indian. Since it was Sunday, the building was closed, and since it now housed the County Prosecutor’s office, we spent about 10 minutes looking around and moved on to the next instruction. It ended up that there was a small statue that could be faintly seen through one window of the building.
Our next stop required us to stop at a local farm stand to take a creative picture with the Kentucky Derby hat before arriving at the ending location at the Sky Manor Airport.
Knowing the location, we expected to end at the Sky Café, a small restaurant on the runway, where you could watch small aircraft land, take off, and purchase tickets for bi-plane rides. But once again, we were surprised. The actual finish location was in an airplane hangar, set up with tables and chairs and a full buffet serving mixed salads and pulled pork sandwiches, with a two-piece band.
Over the next 45 minutes, the teams slowly started to arrive. Most people came for fun, and while the route instructions had some errors, which made route following a challenge, all seemed to enjoy the adventure. Scoring was a mix of questions and photos sent to the Officials. We congratulated the Rallymasters on a great turnout and a creative event and wished them well. We may find out how we did, yet we had to depart after an hour and a half and missed the final scoring announcement.
