The 48hrs of Tri-State is a Subaru Owners charity drive that takes place over the course of three days consisting of a variety of pre-planned roads. Our goal is not only to join together the Subaru Community but to raise money for the American Cancer Society at the same time. Through its growth over seven years I feel that it has shown the friendliness and willingness to help that the Subaru Enthusiast has. I think this year has proven to be a pivoting point for this drive. Once again had a new record of participants, topping off at 35 cars, which brought to our attention the need for multiple groups during the 2009 drive. We also had 2-3 participants step up to help distribute the organizational load which will also be needed (and used) for the 2009 drive.
The most important thing that happened this year is: Subaru of America said they would match our donations! Best yet, we were able to reach our $7000 goal before Subaru of America matched the donations. Making our grand total just under $14,000! All the participants this year are really excited to see what we can raise next year with Subaru's contribution.
During our 2007 drive we had the opportunity to stop at Subaru of America (SOA) corporate headquarters. Those at SOA were quite impressed by the group that showed up and invited us back for the 2008 drive. This is where the drive starts for just about all of the participants. This year SOA went above and beyond for us! Not only did they have a full breakfast for us but the CEO made it a point to come down and talk with us. After eating and talking with many of the SOA employees we went outside where we got to see the new 2008 Impreza STI, preview the 2009 Forester, and give our opinions on a red ‘test color’ for the Legacy Spec-B. While doing all of this SOA was giving out VERY nice items such as: tee shirts, polo shirts, fleece jackets, and coolers. They also had one of their engineers from the performance department answering any questions we had about the cars. When we were just about to leave they asked Mike and Ted to pull their cars up and SOA gave us another 8 boxes of stuff to give away during the trip!
All of us were very excited with the visit at SOA and were even more excited for the next leg of the trip which was some minor off-roading through the Pine Barrens! This is always fun because very few of the Subaru owners actually get to experience the advantages that the All Wheel Drive (AWD) system gives them. Sadly we had to cut the Pine Barrens portion of the drive short because of heavy rain there were deep puddles; which can be unpredictable in depth. Billy volunteered to take a group of 6 cars through the Pine Barrens (at their own risk) and re-join the rest of the group at the dinner stop. Those of us that did not want to follow Billy (or were not equipped) continued on with Mike leading us to visit one of the sponsors, Precision Tuning. Precision Tuning opened their doors for us to use their bathrooms, get some coffee, hang out in their lounge, and check out some of the projects they had in the shop. The top left picture below was taken by Brent Murray
After our well needed break at Precision Tuning we continued on to the ‘Friday night dinner’ in Central Valley, NY. We arrived to this dinner a few hours late because of a traffic jam outside New York City which took 1-1/2 hours for us to get through! Todd (with Bruce’s help?) did a wonderful job talking with the restaurant and making sure everything was ready when we arrived. There were another 4-5 cars waiting to join the convoy for the rest of the weekend at the dinner. Three of my friends were staying at a separate hotel which was not happy about us running late; we decided to ‘eat-&-run’ so that we could get to the hotel as early as possible. Although we did not want to separate from the main group it proved to work out for the best because the ‘Monster Legacy’ had some issues and it was much easier to work through this with 4 cars instead of 25+ cars. Although our group took a different route to Cooperstown, NY all of us had to deal with the same conditions consisting of icy snow covered roads which were very twisty and hilly. Again we were all glad to have the AWD system which when matched with good snowtires proved to make the road conditions much easier to deal with.
Our first day ended for everyone at 2AM when we pulled into Cooperstown. Everyone was so tired that we checked into our hotels, found our rooms, and went straight to bed knowing it would only be 4-5 hours worth of sleep.
Saturday morning proved to be quite nice for everyone. Those of us at the Tunnicliff Inn got to sleep in until 7:30AM and had a nice small breakfast. Those that stayed at the Cooperstown Bed&Breakfast enjoyed a wonderful breakfast made by Bruce’s parents who not only opened their entire Bed and Breakfast but were also very accommodating to the late arrival and early start. My small group at the Tunnicliff Inn had to make the decision to not join the main group so that we could try to resolve the issues plaguing the Monster Legacy figuring we would then intercept the main group at one of the planned stops along the route for the day.
After going to a local auto-parts store and trouble shooting the Monster Legacy we concluded that without an extra part (which no one had) we would not be able to fix it. With this decided we had to continue on with the Monster Legacy as-is and rejoin with the main group. This proved to be quite a chase because the main group was running rather efficiently through out the day causing our little group to keep re-planning our interception point. It was quite a surprise to both groups when we crested a hill to see 30+ Subaru’s going in the opposite direction all waving, honking, or flashing their lights at us. After quickly turning around, the Monster Legacy broke its other rear axle making it Front Wheel Drive only. We caught up with the main group at last; making the total number of cars was between 35 and 37 cars all lined up. This proved to be quite a site for some of the small towns we drove through. It was not uncommon to see people standing in their front doors just watching/counting the cars as we went by.
Saturdays drive ended in Lake George, NY and we all went right to our reception dinner at Mario’s restaurant. Here Dr. G did a great job arranging everything so once again we were able to walk into the place and get rolling with drinks and food. After a wonderful meal it was time for the raffle/awards. With all of the sponsor item’s PLUS the boxes of stuff Subaru gave us we had more then enough for everyone to get at least 2 things to bring home.
Once again the group found the hotel calling us, asking when we were showing up and noting that the front desk was closing soon. We all pilled into the cars and drove down the street where things were yet again well organized so that we could quickly check-in. Because it was the last night and we had planned for a late start Sunday morning everyone did something different Saturday night. Some of us hung out and chatted till late, some went out to the bars, and others went straight to bed to catch up on some well needed sleep.
Sunday proved to be quite an easy-going day starting with the initial morning meeting. After we were all gathered at the Rite-Aid Rob directed us with the parking for the group pictures. With the group pictures taken we were on our way to Newburgh, NY where the drive would officially end. The day was relatively warm with very little clouds to block the sun. The drive was a slower pace then normal taking us through the Taconic Mountains. Rob took full advantage of the pace and weather to get some photographs of the cars on the move. We reached our final destination on time at 3:00 PM which allowed us to have our final dinner together and still allow ample time for some of us to make the long trek back home.
This was my first year driving my own car on this event. In the past I had always been a co-driver often just along for the ride and occasionally driving when someone was too tired. I must say it is a whole different perspective driving the entire event. It proved to more fun then I had thought and I learned not only the capabilities of the car but also my driving capabilities in various road situations.
