Rally Round Up – Hurdle 2024 GTA/All The Myriad of Ways II National GTA

Rally Round Up

Event: Hurdle 2024 GTA/All The Myriad of Ways II National GTA

Date: October 19, 2024

Location: Southington, CT

Rallymasters: The Lamkins Family

For the second year in a row, the NER Rally program experimented with holding a Regional TA (Hurdle 2024) and a National GTA (All The Myriad of Ways II) concurrently on the same day. The event also moved to Mid-October from its recent Mid-September date to take advantage of the Connecticut foliage and to run along the Connecticut coastline when it is ‘off season.’

GTA is short for Game-Tour-Adventure. This is ‘catch all’ road rally category for events that are not Time-Speed-Distance Tour or Course Rallies. (If you are into Road Rally, you know the difference. If not visit the NER.org road rally page for the explanation). Hurdle and All The Myriad of Ways are shortest distance gimmick events where the objective is to visit locations to answer questions in the least number of miles. These events are often referred to as Scavenger Hunt Rallies, which paints a clearer picture of their objective.

Hurdle and All the Myriad of Ways contestants would all visit the same question locations (16), however, All The Myriad of Ways featured additional questions at 3 of the locations, giving it the necessary differentiation to allow for a Regional and National event on the same day.

Saturday, October 19th was a wonderful fall Connecticut day as 9 teams participated in Hurdle and 2 teams participated in All The Myriad of Ways.

Highlight questions include:

• In Durham, CT, along Route 17 teams learned of the birth location of Moses Austion whose plan led to the settlement of Texas by his son Stephen.
• That the first Ferry to serve Old Saybrook did not have a wharf, so riders would get their feet wet when debarking.
• Constance Tredwell was a singer and leader at the Ivoryton Playhouse who was a ‘hard act to follow.’
• On bench at West Beach in Westbrook, Cathy Elaine proclaimed that “Everything is Figureoutable”
• At Ferry Landing State Park, teams learned about the British Raid on Essex that resulted in the single largest loss of American Shipping during the War of 1812 (27 vessels burned and destroyed).
• The Secret Guerrilla Unit site at Veterans Memorial Park in Middletown.

At the end of the day, teams gathered at Athenian II Diner in Middletown to trade stories and adventures of the day.

Bob Morseburg and Bruce Gezon scored the victory in All the Myriad of Ways II with a low score (and lowest mileage of the event) with a 121.21. Steve and Julie Gaddy flew in from Colorado to compete and took second place with a score of 123.72 (admittedly they were hampered by their rental car not having a tenth reading odometer).

For Hurdle, Chris Regan and Dmitry Belieav won with a score of 128.15 over last year victors Dave and Carol Mulligan, who scored 131.51. Special congratulations to Robin Dobrowolski and Carrie September on their 3rd place finish after three straight years of being Dead Last but Finished.

This wraps up the 2024 NER Road Rally season until John Buffum’s Winter Challenge in February 2025 and the Cape Cod Courageous Old Timers Rally on April 5, 2025.