joeycuccaro

As most of you know, on November 9th, Royal Flush Rallies put together a charity poker run to benefit a family close to our hearts. Curt Mitchener, husband and father of three, tragically passed away almost a year ago to a sudden heart attack. Our aim was to gather car enthusiasts alike to benefit the family while having a fun filled day of driving.

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The day started at our usual starting position at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall in NJ. Of course our caravan was running late as usual and we showed up to our own rally late once again. One day ill get there on time... one day guys. On the highway i caught a glimpse of the cars in the parking lot. It instantly brought a huge smile to my face seeing over 40+ cars and our friends awaiting our arrival.

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Registration went quickly and smoothly. Everyone was quite happy with the new numbered decals that we made for this run. We also had no problems with the infamous rent-a-cop that routinely try's to hassle us. The Rockaway police know our motives by now and let us do our thing.

Stop 1: Eagle Rock Reservation
A nice drive down 80 and 280 east landed us at our first location. Well it was almost a nice ride for all of us. Unfortunately i encountered a flat tire about half way there. Thanks to about a 1/4 of the drivers who stopped to help we got it patched up within 10 minutes and continued on our way. I can still picture Anthony sprinting up yelling "breaker bar" and ripping up out of my hands and going to work on removing the tire.

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Huge hole, air escaped quickly and within an 1/8 of a mile half of the side wall was destroyed.

Picture of some of the help...

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Eagle Rock was great, nice view of all of the boros of NYC.

Destination 2: GSP Montvale Rest Area

A nice little trip up the GSP. A good chance for a bunch of the photographers and videographers to get some footage of the rally.

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Destination 3: FDR State Park

I think this was the best segment of the rally. After speaking with a bunch of other participants i feel they really enjoyed this part also. The Saw Mill and Taconic were awesome roads to cruise on. It was a nice opportunity to get a couple good sprints in. I remember getting to the end thinking we arrived first just to see Neil and a couple other guys from NERD already there... I dont even wanna know guys... lol

Maybe this face sums it up...

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Destination 3: Anthony Wayne Rec Area

A little change in pace. We switched up the highway runs with a little bit of twisties through bear mountain and over the bear mountain bridge. Unfortunately some traffic had built up by the time we had gotten there so some members found it necessary to completely halt on the road to build some space up.

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Last stop took us down the Palisades Parkway to Chili's on 53 in Nanuet. Here we all enjoyed a nice lunch before heading out and ending the last rally of the year.

Together we were able to raise $1500+ cash for the Mitchener family. The proceeds are going toward the continued education of the three children. The family was present at the restaurant to show there gratitude to everyone that participated. In all it was a fun filled day of driving and meeting new people.

I would like to take the time to thank everyone...

First off to our sponsors.

<img src="http://www.royalflushrallies.com/Elite.jpg">

Sami at Elite Motors donatedt-shirts, money, and a significant amount of time toward the cause. Without his help it would of been impossible for the rally to take place. If any of you need ANY mechanic work done, please give Sami a call. The amount of knowledge and the quality of his work is beyond words.

www.elitemotorsnj.com
201-618-0909

and

<img src="http://www.royalflushrallies.com/DD.jpg">

Phil at DD was kind enough to donate a very generous detailing kit as one of the prizes. Without his help we would of not been able to provide prizes to the poker run winners. Please visit Phil for ANY of your detailing needs, he is by far the best out there.

www.detailersdomain.com

I would also like to thank everyone at Royal Flush for your support in putting this together. As a non-charity organization it gets difficult at times to find time and dedication to make this work. Thank you to all the crew!

Photographers and Video guys- Thank you for all the great shots you took and all of the footage you got. I will be getting a video together once this semester of school comes to and end.

Finally i would like to thank all of the participants, friends, and family that came out to make this event happen. Without all of you this wouldn't of been possible. Its because of you that we helped out this family. Feel great about yourselves, you made this event a success!

Thats all for this year. We will be hosting another Poker Run in the beginning of June next year. We hope that you all come out to have fun with us while supporting a good cause.

Please visit www.royalflushrallies.com for more information about upcoming events.

Again, THANK YOU to everyone. See you all in the spring.

quattrothatcould

Nice write up Joey! Congrats on everything except the flat ;-)