This year's 8th Annual DKF Fall Foliage Cruise was the biggest ever, in more ways than one.  The number of participant's increased (50+ people in 28 vehicles), the distance the cruise covered (about 400 miles over the 3 days) and the duration of the event (well, sort of) were all increased over years past.  And the enjoyment of it all exceeded the expectations of those who took part.
 

The Thursday night, pre-weekend dinner typically hosted by the Hannum's at their house, was now "out-sourced" to Ralph's Route 28 Diner.  Tickets were sold in advance for either lobster or prime rib dinner and it was awesome!  About 12 early beetles showed up (and two early type 2s) and a photographer was hired to do a shoot of the cars in front of the diner.  In spite of the fact that it was fully dark, the photographer used a full 1 second exposure for the shoot.  The picture in the banner above is not his work, but rather an amateur attempt using a digital camera braced on the hood of a car while the hired photographer worked out of view.
 

As it was clear early on that the cruise had outgrown Bill's driveway as a starting point, a "Park and Ride" commuter lot just down the road was chosen to queue up the cars.  At precisely 10 am, a booming voice thundered "Driver's Meeting!!"; the traditional "muster" of a Bill Collin's event.  Bill makes a special effort to plan the route to avoid interstates and instead travel picturesque back roads rolling over hills and passing through quaint New England towns.  This year's route was no disappointment (other than a hill or two really challenged the manliness of a 25hp engine?!)
 

The fun of the scavenger hunt organized by Bill Collins and rolled into the weekend is perhaps overshadowed sometimes by the driving aspect of the vintage VW weekend.  But let me take a little time to explain just what this is.  It has finally been given its due this year and been named the "Wild Moose Chase", for reasons you will see later.  The scavenger hunt is broken up into two days, with two kinds of "point types" One type of score comes from answering questions correctly about a variety of things, most of which are answered along the route specified without the need to exit the VW.   Town welcome signs, monument plaques, etc.  An alert navigator (usually the wife) is key here.  The other point items are the things that you collect.  And the name of the event comes from the fact that for at least the last 3 years running, moose droppings have topped the "collectibles" list in terms of point value.  With each cruise packet handed out at the start of the event comes a gallon sized ziploc bag for prize collection and transport.  Other high point value items that have appeared pretty consistently on the list are a stick that beaver had chewed one (yes, teeth marks are very carefully inspected for authenticity) and a porcupine quill.  Then there are somewhat ambiguous items that require some investigative work.  One of those this year was a "royal coachman".  No it isn't a bus, in fact it is something very small.  Surf the web, you'll find it (especially if you know about one of Bill's other hobbies).
 

The cruise vehicles don't all go out in one big lineup.  Bill encourages groups of 3-5 cars to go out and stick together via the FRS radios that most of us have.  This actually works pretty well, but at some stops, other passing  groups will "bunch up" out of curiosity over a scavenger hunt find, a good restaurant or worst of all, a decklid open on the side of the road.  It also tends to foster some group swapping for the hard to find items.  That is, if one group finds a pile of one of the items (like beaver dam for example), they will stash several extras in their car for possible trades with other groups back at the lodge parking lot where some of the big deals go down.  This year someone in Bill Silvestri's group actually found a dead porcupine.  Realizing the possible trade value of the dead animal, Bill placed the prize on the roof rack of his 1950 deluxe sedan, secured it with some duct tape and transported it back to the lodge for the evening trade session.
 

And needless to say, many of the returning cruise participants have become quite adept at moose hunting, at least moose-waste hunting anyway.  Having an eye for the perfect marshy spot with "succulent underwater vegetation" along the route and being able to identify moose tracks and droppings are key to winning the event.  The event closes after dinner on Saturday night when each team's findings are reviewed and tallied for total score.  There are always some wildcards that Bill throws in like adding to your score the summation of the numbers in your zip code (most all New England zips start with zero, CA ones with nine, thus our visitors usually get a boost).   And one year you had to subtract from your score the horsepower of the engine in the car you
drove, thus giving the people with the real early cars a bit of an edge.  Prizes for the hunt are donated by various members and usually include some pretty desirable VW memorabilia.  Hats, brochures, shirts, tin toys are just some of the few items that have been donated in the past.  All in all, the scavenger hunt makes for some good (and no necessarily "clean") fun.  Bill
and his wife Connie do an incredible job preparing the event right down to nametags (with models and years of car) and maps with each day's route highlighted a different color!
 
 

For those not familiar with DKF (Der Kafer Fahrer, German for "the Beetle drivers"), it is a club for 1957 and older Beetles, in stock condition (period performance mods, hydraulic brakes and seat belts are allowed), that are driven a minimum of 1500 miles a year.  At least for the previous years, "full" membership was not a requirement for taking part in the cruise.  Visit the official DKF website for more information on the club.   By now the pictures below should have all loaded.  Enjoy them....!
 
 

Respectfully,

John Henry
DKF "full" Member

The sample was ruled to be ordinary mud and discarded.

Lacking replacement shoes, the "team" decided to disable the hub for the trip back down south.  The shoes and all hardware were removed, the steel line cut, hammered and crimped shut.  The Ghia returned to southern NH with only 3 functioning brake hubs.

Here, Terry Gaudet torques down the axle nut with a flex bar and cheater pipe.