2003 Father’s Day Club Run
by Syndy ‘Nutz’ Miller
True
to tradition, this year’s Father’s Day Run lived up to it’s billing of FUN FUN FUN!
With lots of sunshine and water wars galore, we had a great
turnout for our annual romp over Father’s Day weekend. With well over the estimated 100
participants, the club opened up a wide variety of trials for members to choose
from.
I
can’t speak for the other trails but Black Oak Run was a riot. We got plenty of rain just days prior to the
event which made for some slick spots. We
started the day armed to the hilt with squirt guns and 200+ water balloons
primed and ready for action. I got to
drive all morning so it was a little tough to retaliate on the many sneak
attacks our vehicle received. We did
manage to soak more than our share of unsuspecting victims.
As for the trail ride, we started out on the North Hill
and everyone was doing fine until Dr. Dork (Ed Leech) got stuck on Ballbreaker. That
took a little maneuvering to get him moving again and shortly thereafter, one
of the guests blew out a tire in the same spot.
Trail repairs were made and we were soon rolling on our way to Plumbers
Crack. No problems there so on we went
to run the little crick, up the big hill, through the woods and over to the Washouts! As is almost always the case, we managed to
get a few people stuck in the muck there and after some winching and tugging,
we headed back to the bunkhouse for a lunch break.
After lunch
our tour guide and long time chief trailmaster,
Rooster, led us on our way to Winch Hill via the loop ‘d loops and dippy doo.
Winch hill claimed more than one victim including us. (No, I wasn’t driving anymore… can’t be
blamed for this one!) Somehow ‘we’
managed to bend our tie rod seriously enough to make it impossible to turn
right. We limped back to the garage for
repairs. While we were gone, Gadget
(Frank Fleeger) broke a yoke on his rear diff.
From
winch hill, the trail headed west to Thunder Run for some technical challenges
before ending in 6 Mile Crick to play in the mud bogs. The main attractions 
were Rooster’s roosters, Sponge Bob’s watercraft and
Screamin’ Bill. After the many
obligatory ‘stucks’ which often require snatch-blocks attached to multiple
winches anchored by straps, the gang headed for home to prepare for the
evenings festivities.
Sparky made the food run into town returning with KFC
to feed 125, plus 11 pizza’s from Giovanni’s. We enjoyed Amish baked goods for
dessert along with a boat load of entertainment from our M.C., Billy Z. This years event was dedicated to raising
funds for Heartworks Photography, Inc, a non-profit
charity co-founded by two of our very own club members. The event was an astounding success as
we raised $1,683.50 on Saturday night to which the club will add a matching
donation netting nearly $3,400. (For
more information about Heartworks, please visit their
web site at www.heartworksphoto.org
)
Evening highlights included the auctioning off of
some incriminating photographs along with an impromptu offer from Tom to get
Bill to shut up. He offered Bill $1 for
every pretzel nugget he could put in his mouth without chewing, swallowing or
drinking.. We
all knew Bill had a big mouth but no one suspected he could stuff 18 pretzels
in there! Several others jumped in on
the offer and thanks to Tom’s idea and Bill’s big mouth, $220 was
collected!
A
case of Miller Lite was auctioned for $120 to none other than my hubby and I
think Sparky is still in hot water over the purchase of a Jeep tent he won in
an auction war for $200. Seems after he
bought the tent, he needed the
In
the end, we gave away over 50 door prizes including items donated from local
merchants like free night stays at the local motels and free food from the
local restaurants, but
the grandfather of all prizes was given to Tom Miller and his family… a free
scenic plane ride from Pittsfield Airport courtesy of Gregg Carnes at Carnes
Trailer World.
We
topped off the evening around the campfire with some special ‘fruit punch’
courtesy of Angela and Rowdy. Tom and
Debbie introduced the latest and greatest in margarita making machines with
their gasoline powered 2-stroke mixer.
The campfire broke up around
Durrell
and I want to say a special thanks to the many people who contributed to making
this event such a huge success. Thank
you to all the Club Members who participated and so generously donated to our
fundraiser for Heartworks. Also, thanks to all the friends who helped us
set up and clean up the party. This
great group of friends includes Rooster & family, Sparky, Screamin’, Dr.
Dork, Sponge Bob, Gadget & JJ. Last but not least, we’d like to
express our many thanks to the businesses in
Thanks
everyone! We’ll see you next year… same
time, same place!
From
TNT Farm, Durrell
& Syndy.
The
following merchants contributed door prizes to our event. Please say ‘thanks’ next time you frequent
their locations!
Carnes
Trailer World (
Faze
II (Addison)
WTC
(
Jeep
of DuPage (
TNT
Farm (Martinsburg)
Green
Acres Motel (
Motel
Pike (
Sweats
by Beck (
Walmart
(
Giovanni’s
Pizza (
High
Spirits Liquor (
Einsteins
Bagels (
Hardees
(
Subway
(
Wine
Nook @ the Red Dome (