Fall Foliage Tour

Ahhh.. .where to start!!? The Fall Foliage Tour is always a great event for the Mid-Atlantic club, and this year's event was tailored to not only show what a great event it is, but make it the best tour to date. The officers decided to offer a turn of events for this years tour and set up several meeting points on the tour route during the course of day one.

Attendees has their choice of four different meeting locations and times for meeting up with the main group. It seems that giving people options worked out well and was a good formula that we will use again soon.

Tour meeting option #1 - The annual homecoming parade at Montclair State College in New Jersey.

We know what you're thinking. "Wait... this is a Fall Tour in New York!" And yes... you're right. As part of an interesting turn of events, the Student Government Association of the college tracked down the DMA officers and asked if any cars would like to participate in their homecoming parade which had a 1980's theme to it.

The parade happened to be on the same morning as the first day of the fall tour. Since several members were heading in that general direction on the way to New York, we saw it as another meeting point for drivers to get together and a chance to show our cars.

The parade was all set to kick off around noon. Little by little more DeLoreans showed up, and the college kids went CRAZY! They loved every minute of us being there and could not get enough of the cars.

The SGA was even nice enough to make a generous donation to the club for coming to the parade! (Thanks to everyone at the Montclair state SGA, we really appreciate it!)

Soon the official parade was to start, we lined up our cars and took off. Through the campus, onto town streets, and finally through the streets with a HUGE crowd! It was a real blast for all the members who attended.

MEANWHILE... IN THE NOT TO DISTANT STATE OF NEW YORK...
On the other side of two little puddles that we like to call "The Hudson River" and "Long Island Sound" there was a whole different set of events was starting to develop. DMA members were starting to assemble at the first meeting spot in New York.

The Sands Point Preserve and Museum was the first meeting point on the itinerary for the early bird NY bound members. This location provided some great pictures of the cars in a setting unlike anything else the club has seen. Huge castle like walls proved to be a stunning backdrop for a photo shoot.

Moving on to the next stop on the Fall Tour V agenda, the DMA group found themselves at the Nassau County Art Exhibit where everyone took some time to look around and take in some of the artwork on the grounds.

NAHHH... who are we kidding! Everyone was checking out the cars again! (what?! there were sculptures there?)

There is no doubt about the fact that the club was able to raise a lot of awareness about DeLoreans with this event. We even had a write-up in New York's famous "Daily News" newspaper!

The parade attendees completed their trip to New York and the afternoon was near an end. The fun however had just started to kick into high gear. As all of the owners arrived at the Harrison Conference Center, they checked into their rooms and greeted the other members with warm and friendly hellos.

It is always interesting to see who will show up at an event. Sometimes a member who you have not seen for a while, and sometimes it is a new owner and new addition to the club. Either way we enjoy saying hello to everyone and welcome them into our happy family.

The Harrison Center is one of the "Gold Coast Mansions" in New York. It was a beautiful place to spend the evening and offered tons of activities. An indoor pool, bowling alley, pub, pool tables, racquet ball court, and much more. Everyone started to explore this wonderful place in their own way. Some people found the pub and lounge to be very relaxing, while others choose to knock down a few pins in the bowling alley. It wasn't long before we were off again for the next stop on the itinerary... a nice Italian dinner in the downtown part of Glen Cove!

Marra's Italian restaurant was the choice for our Saturday night dinner, and the township of Glen Cove was ready to welcome the DMA in grand fashion. Parking on the main street was restricted to just DeLorean owners! What a site to see! Up and down the main stretch of downtown lined with our cars!!

Dinner was delicious and managed to pack us all full. The pasta dishes served were overflowing with tasty treats for everyone to enjoy. Hats off to the staff at the restaurant for great service and awesome food. Hey...anyone have room for Ice Cream?

After dinner, a few members actually had some room left in them for a little after dinner ice cream action. They simply walked across the road to the "Stone Cold Creamery" for some old fashion fun. Everyone else was mesmerized by Marc Levy's newest addition to his car... Glowing DeLorean letters on his rear bumper. Everyone thought it was a great addition to his car.

Now... Back to the Harrison center for some rest, relaxation, digestion, and fun!

Raffle prizes for this year's event included PJ Grady shirts, sweat shirts, DeLorean Car Show 2004/2006 apparel, DCS magazine subscriptions, and much more. We would specially like to the PJ Grady and DeLorean Car Show for donating these great prizes.

After the raffle, Kevin Abato announced the winner of the "Design Our Logo" contest. Monica Browning won a $100 gift certificate for her father to PJ Grady's.

After all was said and done, we went on playing pool, having a few drinks, and chatting the night away.

* Special note: Fall Tour VI must have a pool table so that we can finally beat Lauren Reilly who reigned champ for a whopping 8-0 victory for the night!

"{YAWN}... Hey... it's getting late. Why don't we... sneak outside and take some night photos!"

Kevin Abato, Aaron Crocco, and Lauren Reilly decided to go on a late night excursion and take photos in front of the Harrison Center's main driveway.

Although there was a photo shoot scheduled for the same place early the next morning, they wanted to get a different perspective on things.

The hotel's valet parking was not happy about the idea at first, but quickly became friendly and helpful when we showed them our cars. After the shoot was done, it was off to bed!

Sunday morning started out with a large breakfast buffet provided courtesy of the Harrison Center. There was enough food selection to make everyone 100% satisfied.

After breakfast we lined our cars up outside the Center's main entrance for a photo shoot. We were given permission from the hotel to line up the cars in the Hotel's main entrance circle driveway in front of the fountain for a photo shoot on Sunday morning. We usually try to get a picture of everyone who attended, but some members had left the night before, and others arrived later that morning.

We had over 100 pictures from that photo shoot, but can only post a handful of them on the site. One thing to note is how similar the architecture is to that of the old DeLorean Estate in Bedminster, NJ

Following the photo shoot, several members wanted to eat breakfast, check out of the hotel and get their things together before the road rally and driving tour began.

Some people who were early risers decided to hang out in the parking lot and wait for everyone. It didn't take long before we started to have a few laughs and get silly with one another.

Once everyone was ready the caravan started. We all followed Mike Deluca to the staring point for the road rally and he began handing out the rules and toolkits that participants would need.

For many of us, this was the first time doing a road rally. Mike Deluca coordinated the event well by providing an alternate scenic drive that intertwined with the path of members participating in the rally (as to laugh at them going crazy)

Rules were handed out along with a tool package of items required for the rally. We all learned a lesson that day. READ ALL THE RULES AND PAY CLOSE ATTENTION!

As the rally began, participants found themselves in various parts of Glen Cove. From Scenic Gardens and parks to the local Holocaust Museum.

Taking part in a road rally is a team effort. The driver and the navigator have to work well together in order to ensure that nothing is missed along the way.

This rally was more than just on the road. Participants were forced to exit their cars in search of some crazy clues, and measure or replicate some interesting items along the way. Most items were worth a 1-2 points for the overall total while stranger and more difficult tasks were worth much more.

How many 2 foot wide (or wider) boulders can YOU count on the side of a 1 mile long road? Trust us... there were a lot!

Both the rally and road tour really gave us a chance to see what a beautiful town Glen Cove, NY really is. It is filled with several museums, parks, beautiful houses, and great scenery.

Hey... after all, this is a FALL FOLIAGE tour! Participants of the driving tour were even fortunate enough to stop by Long Island Sound and gaze across the water to the Connecticut side and enjoy some of the beautiful scenery. While we were there enjoying the view several other DeLoreans came by, parked, and ran to the end of the long pier nearby with their road rally toolkits in hand... looking for clues!

The road tour and road rally both concluded at the same location. Walls Warf restaurant in Bayville, NY. This great location also right on the water of Long Island Sound was to be our final destination of the weekend. Strangely enough, we managed to pick up a Lotus during the driving tour who followed us to Bayville. The owner saw DeLoreans driving by, "Banged a U turn" and tracked us down just to chat it up a little and get some info on the club.

Once inside the restaurant, Mike Deluca went over the answers to the road rally. The winners of the rally were Kevin and Cheryl Abato.

Kevin and Cheryl dropped out of the official rally early on sighting "Marital Differences of Opinion" as a challenge. That being said, they were the only ones who answered the counting boulders question correctly - "78". They were rewarded with two P.J. Grady shirts and a lot of grief from everyone who stuck it out.

We all sat down to yet another great meal and everyone agreed they had an excellent weekend. We all said our goodbyes and got on the road home late Sunday evening with fond memories with friends. Hope to see you all next year at the Fall Tour VI!!!!