It's been a few years since S2K Metro NY set up a bear mountain cruise but thankfully we were back in full force. The plan was to meet up at the Croton Gorge Park and start our drive there. A few different groups met up at various spots before heading to main meet up spot. I drove up with some of the Northern NJ crew that met up at the last rest stop on the GSP at the crack of dawn.
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| Part of North NJ Crew - Croton Gorge Park - 7-31-2022 |
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| James Gandolfini Service Area |
We drove up to Croton Gorge Park only to find that it was closed. It was 7am and the park didn't open until 8am. Some NYS parks are open ahead of time even though the attendant isn't there but they barricaded the entrance so we couldn't get in until opening time. We got in touch with the organizers and set off to our alternate meet up spot instead. We had a terrific turnout of about 55 cars.
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| Secondary Meet Up Spot |
Once all the various crews arrived, we had a quick drivers meeting to discuss safety and logistics then drove to the usual Wendy's to regroup and reorganize before the start of the main drive.
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| Regrouping + coffee + bathroom break |
A friendly officer came by who happened to also be a fellow S2000 owner. He offered to help get everyone get onto our main route once we were on our way which he did. Unfortunately, a bunch of us got stuck behind some traffic and by the time we hit the intersection where we were supposed to turn he had already left causing a number of cars to go straight and miss the rest of the crew. Thankfully I had driven this route many times before and quickly realized the error and made a u-turn to get back on track but most of the people behind me got lost by going straight following the rest of the cars that had missed the turn.
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| Group photo at Brother BBQ |
Most of us made it though to the final spot at Brother BBQ. It was a great drive, albeit quite a bit hot by the time it hit noon. It was great seeing some friends I hadn't seen in a several years due to the pandemic and also making new S2K friends. I think the vast majority of people that made it through the entire drive really enjoyed the event and are looking forward to doing this again. This is now
11 years since we first started doing this and while some cars have come and gone and there are both new and old faces, I'm glad the tradition continues and we're all able to share in the same passion we have for these cars.
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| S2Ks taking over Brothers BBQ |
