It's actually a one day event. The 3rd Saturday of September. Normally, I set up a group rate at a hotel for Friday and Saturday night. I set up a Lunch restaurant for Saturday and a Dinner restaurant for Saturday night. Out of towners generally arrive on Friday so they can rest up for Saturday, then stay overnight and drive back home beginning Sunday. Some locals arrive Saturday morning for the driver's meeting and then depart immediately at the end of the run.
No restaurant is set up for Friday night because people are arriving at all hours. We have commonly asked for product donations from the various Fiero vendors like Rodney, The Fiero Store, WCF, Held Motorsports, Mr. Mike's, and others. Club members and other individuals have also donated. We raffle these items to raise funds to support our causes. This is done Saturday evening after the run. Depending upon the dinner facility, it may be done at the restaurant, but could be before or after dinner.
We didn't request donations for RFTH 21 because it may have been difficult to transport some items due to personal luggage needing to be transported from one location to another. I commonly set up the run to be a loop, coming back to the same hotel, but #21 started in Georgia and ended in Gatlinburg. It was pretty much agreed upon that we would do a similar thing for #22 and I've already laid out a tentative route, again beginning in Georgia and ending in another state. Right now, it's about 200 miles long.
I try to find a decent place for lunch that falls between 11AM and 1PM. Sometimes it's difficult, especially when there are a large number of cars. People like to mill around when we stop for an overlook or any time we stop for fuel. I'm sure all of us have seen a Fiero engine bay, but we all seem to like to pop the deck lid when we stop. Me included. It's hard to get everyone going again at the same time. Because the restaurants want a time that the group will dine so they can have enough our space prepared and staff on hand, we sometimes have to be a little demanding and pushy.
