Jenny and Chris Branston organized and invited us to this wonderful Porsche Photo Rally and 26 Porsche from Type 356 to GT 911 came together on this early Sunday morning 8:30 on the corner of Vanderbilt Beach Road and Airport Pulling.
The weather was beautiful, a little bit chilly, but a clear blue sky and it promised a magnificent day to be. After all the people had registered and paid the 25 bucks to Jenny, some took a coffee or pastry and discussed the welcome sheet and the paper of the rally route with copilots and other friends, then it was time to start.
The start
At the stop sign onto Vanderbilt Beach Rd. every body had to set his odometer to zero. We crossed Livingston Rd., under I-75, continued straight out and turned left on the Collier Blvd. By odometer 5.4 miles was the first question. Oh my god what means that “Three quarters less two here? “. 900 yards farther the second question. We had to find out the right direction, open our eyes for several questions and the pictures and we had to take care to the relatively strong traffic. The first stop had to be at odometer stand 30. Off the piazza Ave Maria. We stopped for a while and our troop of 4 – 5 cars drove off again.
The second time we had to set the odometer to zero was on Oilwell Rd. Again questions, again pictures. We drove almost south, straight over I-75, through the junction with US 41 straight over to Everglades City. Turned right on Begonia St., passed Speedy Johnson’s air boats and followed the road along the bank of the Barron river. What a nice place; real, cozy and small houses with boats in the backyard. Mostly, we led the group of the cars and directly behind us, Ron’s GT 911 with roaring sound. On the end of the street we arrived: Smallwood’s Store built 1906. A large house built on posts. We had no time to see all the nice things and the wonderful scenes. But we collected this on our to do list.
Should have worn ear plugs
We headed back to US 41 and always we had to look for pictures and to find the right answer to the questions.
At the junction with US 41 we turned west and we pushed for the third time the odometer to zero. Straight on the US 41 we arrived 18.8 miles at the Clubhouse of Royal Palm Golf Estates- the end of our rally for lunch. We lined up all our cars, took some pictures and discussed this beautiful event.
The finish
I made with my wife Elly sometimes for our Porsche Club in Germany Tours through Europe, sometimes also Photo Rally’s and we know how much work this is, time and ideas are needed to make such perfect trips.
We have to say, thank you Jenny and thank you Chris. You did a great job and it wasn’t so easy to find out all the questions and pictures, and it needs a lot of experience to create a rally like this.
We like the camaraderie in our club and hope it will be not the last event.
Hendrik & Elly Bloksma
