What a difference a day makes!! We were extremely fortunate to have had our Halloween Rally on the day AFTER a very rainy, cold and soggy Halloween day! Reinout and Phil must have special connections with the “Driving Gods” to have ordered yet another PERFECT, sunny, mild 60 degree day for a SPOOKY Halloween Rally in Fox River Grove / Carey Illinois.

21 cars consisting of the Chicagoland MG Club & the Vintage MG club of Chicago met at the Panera Bread parking lot at 10:00am. We were handed written instructions, along with a colorful “Tulip system Driving instruction manual and of course our score sheets which would entail surprise Halloween themed challenges for compiling as many points as possible to win this rally! Time was the important factor to this Rally. Showing up to each of the legs too early or too late would cost you points, so drivers had to be cautious of their speed.

We drove through beautiful neighborhoods, with some uphill and winding roads while admiring the fall colors of the trees. As we approached our 1st of 4 legs for this Rally, we faced our first challenge at the Picnic Grove Park. Charlotte’s Web was the spooky game presented. The driver had to have at least one (1) tire of the car drive over each of the (3) pumpkin heads lying flat on the ground without missing it. Not too terribly hard for the 1st “Trick”!

Our next leg met us at the Hickory Grove Highlands. At this Forest Preserve, Reinout handed the driver a black “Lone Ranger” mask to wear. This was by far the most outrageous trick of all. The Blind Man’s Bluff!! The driver had to put all his trust and listening skills in his/her navigator. Object of this Trick; Drive blind between 2 sets of orange cones and then backing up between another set of cones without hitting, knocking down or running over the cones. SCAREY FUN!!!!!

Then, if that was not bad enough, we were given a crossword puzzle to test us on our knowledge of MG trivia fun facts. There are many gurus in this club who are savvy with these answers, like Rich and Sundy. Tim and I, however, would not be one of them, thank you very much.

Off to the third Leg which concluded with a 2-mile drive of beautiful trees, picnic areas and trails for hiking and biking in the Moraine Hills State Park. Here the Navigator was tested for their knowledge of various parts of the mechanics of the car. The name of the game, “Baby you can drive my car” was quite challenging for me, being that a 1979 Midget does NOT HAVE AN OIL GAGE…what a PERFECT “trick” question!! Needless to say, I got that answer WRONG.

The last and Final Leg of this Halloween journey once again challenged the driver’s ability of stability. “Rope a Dope” would have the driver maneuver 360 degrees around a jack o’lantern with a string tethered to the car. Object of this trick was to not let the string hit the ground or pull the jack o lantern over. We were then asked to turn in our crossword puzzles.

The day ended up at Galati’s Hide out, where we congregated for food and drinks. The points were tallied up and the winners were announced. It was GREAT fun!!

Thank you Reinout, Phil and all their helpers for another GREAT day out! It was a SPOOKY FUN Rally you put together! Look forward to the next Rally in 2016!!