Hearing from Gerard, the rally of the Long Bonnets Night, was to be a very special one, and a very well organized one also, by no other than Jean-Jacques and his wife Isabelle, and before we get into the article, the members of the VEA who participated in this Rally, want to thank both of them for the effort it must of taken to organize this event.

My wife Helen could not attend the rally as a very important baseball game was being played that same evening, being one of the top hitters on the team, her team mates would of killed me, if I took her away from their game.
Luckily for me, my son Robert who has been living in Hong Kong is now back as of 3 weeks previous, so with a much better education than me, brighter, taller and much younger to take all the stress of a rally, was able to be my navigator.

At 5pm, we left following Richard and his wife Louise in their Cabriolet for those that have not followed Richard in his Cabriolet; I can tell you from experience that it is a thrill of a lifetime.
We arrived a good hour and a half later at the starting site, and still people arriving as the bridges were jammed tight with traffic. Once there, we got to see our competition, and talk of who could win, started to wind around the area. Marc was a favorite, as we did not know his navigator; there was a rumor that he was flown in from the Porsche Rally team in Saudi Arabia for this very important VEA event.

Second, was us, as when they saw my son Robert with his calculator, watch, pencil, eraser, note pad, dark glasses, 4 bottles of water, towels, they were all sure he knew his stuff, but did not know that he reads only Chinese, since living in Hong Kong for the last 7 years.

Then there was our Editor in chief as being involved with the Big 1st Rally du Quebec Classic, there was also a rumor about Gerard being flown to Paris for instructions on how a rally should be run. There was also talk that he had special rally instruments that were loaned to him, to bring to club meetings to promote the 1st Rally du Quebec Classic, which we all felt he snucked in to his MG Midget.

Last but not least another favorite was Richard and Louise, with their special 4 speed Cabriolet, and who have done a great deal of hunting in the jungles of Africa, as they still wear their special hunting Safari hats from those expedition. We were told that they have a GPS on board.

7:30 PM the start, the first car is off and after that 2 minutes intervals. Finally all the cars are on their way. Robert sitting next to me, going at it with the calculator, telling me to turn right here and left there. Within twenty minutes we were totally lost. We came across Jocelyn who finally after parking 5 minutes next to us on a corner looking around as if he knew where he was, admitted that he was lost. So here we were trying to figure out what to do next. Finally, we went one way and Jocelyn the other.

I do not want to go into it much more, but we got lost even more, finally after an hour and a half, we phoned the 1-800-HELP-I-AM-LOST and got a message that if we called, we were lost and leave the phone number. With laughing music in the background. Finally we got the call back and told Jean-Jacques that we give up, and want to know where we eat. Well, we made it back to the restaurant (La Tavola) about 9:45pm and were very impressed with the parking, the layout and the seating on the patio overlooking the Richelieu River.

About 10:15pm the cars started to arrive, and we heard that we were not the only ones that got lost, after hearing 5 or 6 that said they got lost, we now felt as one of them and admitted we got lost. The Onion soup was served (which by the way was included in our Rally Entry Fee) and it was delicious. We ordered a nice pasta meal with salad and all the trimmings. The service, the meal and local entertainment, all excellent.

Now who won? Not hard to believe, as he was the favorite, it was Marc with his Wringer Navigator. Now it seems Marc will be writing a book on how to win a rally. It will be published soon, and he did mention to me, that we could buy the book directly from him, with his autograph and personal message to each member. So now Marc has a lot of pressure on him to win the Le Rally du Quebec in September, with his new navigator Richard. Prizes were given out, and thanks to those who sponsored them, namely Mr. Alain Camus of the famous Rotisserie COTE ST-LUC BAR-B-Q.
I was a little disappointed that I did not win THE FIRST TO PHONE IN LOST as a matter of fact, I phoned in 3 times. Were we embarrassed? Of course not. Why? Because we had a lot of fun and good laughs, what more can you ask for.

At our next Wednesday night meeting, we will have an explanation of the Rally and every now and then Rally information will come up at the different meetings. I think that is a great idea, as I hope we will have more Rallies' in the future.

Make a commitment to come out to at least one of our events. It's the best way to get rid of all that stress that will come up in the winter. As sure as taxes, winter will come, so come on out.