Back when you were in school, did you ever ENJOY taking a test? I surely didn’t. But on Saturday, May 9, we took a 7-page “fill-in-the blank” test and had a blast doing it. Our professors, Bill & Barbara Berg, made four trips over the route putting together a puzzle rally through 95-miles (not counting the wrong turns) of the scenic back roads of Montgomery, Bullock, Macon, and Lee counties en route to our eventual destination that turned out to be “Johnny Brusco’s New York Style Pizza” on E. University Drive in Auburn. We had the dual challenges of spotting signage along the route while struggling to not let “common sense” override the instructions. As Bill wrote in his announcement for the event: “Be sure to bring a pencil and your sense of humor!! Remember, this is NOT a speed or timed exercise, but it will test your ability to follow directions.”
We gathered at the Taylor Road Applebee’s parking lot at 9:00AM and soon the pilots and navigators (in two cases, one and the same) were given the rally instructions, and released one-by-one at about 5-minute intervals by our rally master. We had four targets in the first mile, setting a breakneck pace for the navigator/stenographers and scanning eyes for the pilots.
Bill’s sense of humor made for some of the more memorable answers. One of our answers was: “HOGS DEAD ON YOUR LAND”. So if you’re having this problem, we now know where you can get help. If you already knew what a haircut cost at the Fitzpatrick Barber Shop ($15), you had an advantage. We also learned that Bullock County must have the highest concentration of Missionary Baptist Churches in the world. We had a tour of the historic antebellum homes of Union Springs where we were instructed to “Make a U-TURN on _ _ _ _ _ Street”. Huh? This one required 3-trips up and down Prairie Street for us with as many U-TURNS.
We motored right through Tuskegee by the COVRT HOVSE on the square; in spite of the fact the FLOTUS would be giving the commencement address there later that afternoon.
It turns out that spelling counts. Where we were to record the answer to” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Police Department”, David’s answer of “TUTWILER” was marked as incorrect. Apparently this is not an acceptable spelling of “Tuskegee”. The test is obviously biased against the spelling and visually impaired. Hats off to David and Pam who both completed the trip without any help or air-conditioning in their MGs. As we drew closer to Auburn, we learned when the Syrup Soppin’ Day was — last year, in Loachapoka.
We were greeted at our destination by Barbara, who graded our “tests” as we dribbled in. We had the pleasure of meeting Barbara’s brother and sister-in-law, Paul & Shan who joined us for lunch. Also meeting us were the mostly British car folks in and around Auburn: Ken Hilton and his TR8, Blake Hatley with a Mercedes 450 diesel, Andrew Price in his race prepared Sunbeam Alpine and Paul Casarona former BMC member, in his beautiful Jaguar XK120.
Good roads, good weather, good folks, good food, with the fun of a puzzle rally as icing on the cake. Thank you Bill and Barbara!
Russell