2 p.m. Saturday: Larry and Rich talk by phone:

“I don’t know about tomorrow. I’m driving right now and there’s nothing but dark clouds overhead.”
“The weather forecast is for heavy showers through tonight, and cloudy with showers all day Sunday.”
“One report I heard said that the showers may hold off. Let’s talk again later.”
“OK. I’ll call you after dinner.”

8 p.m. Saturday: Larry and Rich talk by phone:

“Forecast isn’t looking good. What should we do?”
“No one is going to want to drive in the rain. Should we cancel?”
“Let’s see what it’s like at 6 a.m. Worse case, we get together and just have breakfast locally.”

At 9 p.m. on Saturday night, the National Weather Service was calling for Sunday’s weather in the entirety of New Jersey to be completely cloudy, with the likelihood of showers increasing throughout the day. But at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, the sky was mostly blue, with scattered high clouds. Be prepared to ignore the weatherman when you’re planning a Sunday morning breakfast run!

In all, eleven brave souls brought out their cars for what turned out to be a spectacular morning. Several in the crowd were with us for the first time. And in what must have been a first for our group, the European sporting machines outnumbered the American iron, 7 to 4! The Germans were well-represented by Peter’s 911 (with son Jonathan navigating), Danek’s Audi R8, and the “almost twin” BMWs of Jeff (Z3) and Rob (Z3M). The UK flag was flown by Rich S in his MGB and Rich L in his Jaguar F-Type. Rounding out the cars from the Old Country, your humble scribe proved once again that the words “reliable” and “1967 Alfa Romeo” can be spoken in the same sentence.

It’s usually “Chevys Rule” at these events, but the only Chevys today were Larry’s Camaro, and Bill’s new (to him) ’61 Corvette, making its Sunday morning inaugural run with us. The ‘vette also had the distinction of the oldest car participating. Ralphie’s tried-and-true Buick convertible was back, and Julio debuted (to us) his hot ’66 Dodge Coronet.

Once our stragglers arrived, we were able to push off by 8:45, with the Readington Diner as our destination. Our route took us down Route 287 and into Morristown, where we met our first challenge: the roads around the Morristown Green were closed for a bicycle race, forcing us into a detour. Further on in Chester, a street fair gave us some minor issues. However, the weatherman could not have been more wrong, and the sunshine only added to the joy of driving the winding country roads through the towns of Mendham, Long Valley, and Oldwick. After an unscheduled pitstop to use the toilets and refill the cars (in that order), we arrived at the diner on Route 22 by 10:45.

True to form, Rich S again assumed the duties of the traveling photographer, thinking nothing of pulling his MGB alongside another car on 287 and jutting his camera skyward, taking pictures while managing to stay in his lane. With his permission, these 3 photos below taken by Rich S are posted here:

When 12 hungry guys order breakfast, the orders are as varied as our cars. And you would think that with food on our minds, each of us would remember our selection. But it doesn’t always work that way. The waitress showed up with the first plate: “Awright, who had the #3 with eggs sunny-side?” No one said a word. Her patience ran out after 15 seconds and she put the plate down. Rich S said “we’re not very good at this part, are we?”, to which we laughingly agreed. Eventually, everyone had a plate in front of them, with food approximating their order. No one left hungry. Coffee service continued well after the last morsels were consumed. The wait staff was generously compensated for their attentiveness.

 
The diner has a large parking area in the back, and the joint wasn’t overly crowded, so we had all parked together. As we exited, we asked several gentlemen nearby if they would take some group photos for us, and they happily obliged. Lots of smiles, handshakes, hugs, and of course, cries for a repeat event before year’s end brought our September breakfast run to a cheerful conclusion.

 

 

All photographs (except as noted above) copyright © 2015 Richard A. Reina. Photos may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.