St. Patrick's Day FMC Navigation Run Sunday 17th March 2013

[Thotos]

All of you who read Peter Jones' Avanti magazine must already know that I've been "volunteered" to organise a Treasure Hunt/Navigation Run through the Hertfordshire countryside. If you don?t currently receive Avanti from Peter and you'd like to get it, drop him an email at peter@fiatmotorclubgb.org and he?ll add you to his mailing list. It's available via email to anyone who requests it and you don't have to be a Fiat Motor Club GB member to receive it.

While this is an FMC organised event, as with most of the FMC events it's open to all and not just FMC members. And as I'm organising it I'd like to extend a special invitation to all my 131 buddies    .

So I've spent a few days plotting a route on my computer and today Linda and I had our first recce to check my route and within the first couple of miles we got lost!  But we soldiered on and plotted a new route "on the fly" and it looks like we are good to go  .

The run will take place on Sunday 17th of March which is St. Patrick's Day so it will be very imaginatively named the St. Patrick's Day FMC Navigation Run  

We'll start at Baldock Services (http://www.motorwayservices.info/baldock_services_a1_m). They are accessible from the A1(M) Junction 10 and also from the A507. Seems like a good starting place as it?s easily accessible for people from the North and from the South. Anyone wishing to travel a long way to join us can do so the day before and stay at the Days Inn hotel situated within Baldock Services (http://www.daysinn.co.uk/hotels/united-kingdom/radwell/days-inn-stevenage-north/hotel-overview).

We aim to set off at 11:00am. The route is slightly over 50 miles and we?ll end up at the Five Horseshoes pub in Little Berkhamsted for lunch and of course prize giving! (http://www.chefandbrewer.com/pub/five-horseshoes-little-berkhamsted-hertford/s3446/).

While the route and other details still need to be finalised, we?ll need to get an idea of numbers well in advance. So if you?ll be attending or if you think you might be attending, please either send me an email at theo@131mirafiori.com or simply post here your intention.

Let us 131ners show them how it should be done!  

[Thotos]

My women and I had a trial run of the driving route yesterday to test what I thought were completed navigation instructions. But unfortunately due to a wrong "left" instead of "right" we got lost half way through  . But we soon got back on course and corrected the mistake and a couple of others we found. We completed the route in just over two hours and we then had lunch at the Five Horseshoes and that took three and a half hours!  But it was an excellent three course meal  . I think we'll have to drive the route again before the 17th of March to make sure there are no more mistakes and I'm already looking forward to the lunch  .

For those who will be joining us for lunch on the 17th of March, you can have 20% off your food bill if you join the Chef & Brewer 'club' at http://www.chefandbrewer.com/newsletter/.

I'm going to finalise the reservation for lunch with the Five Horseshoes pub very soon so if you'll be joining us and haven't already said so, please let me know 

[simon131]

Hi Theo,

I've written it into my diary but won't be able to confirm until closer to the date. Anything can happen in the next month - and in my family, it usually does 

[Thotos]

That's fine, let me know when you can. I'll add a few to the count when I confirm the lunch numbers. It's always possible to decrease the number a few days before but not always possible to increase it 

[Thotos]

With just two weeks to go, we had another, hopefully the last, test drive of the route today and a third try-out of the lunch venue      And I confirmed 22 for lunch with the restaurant but told them we're likely to increase to 25 or even more as there are always some people late to confirm. So if you'll be coming for the navigation drive, or the lunch, or both and you haven't already told me, please let me know soon so I can inform the restaurant and to know how many navigation books I need to print 

And if you'll be joining us for the lunch, don't forget to register at http://www.chefandbrewer.com/newsletter  (The Five Horseshoes) so you can get 20% off your food bill 

[Thotos]

Weather was not kind to us at all but the attendance was still good and it all went well   Two participating teams managed to get all 20 navigation run questions correct so the tie-breaker came into play with David and Susan Slaney getting 2 out of 6 correct and declared the winners   Second place Rick and Rose Willis didn't even attempt the tie-breaker questions  . All who took part in the navigation run received a nice 1:43 model of a modern Panda and a tax disc holder donated by Fiat UK making all participants feel like winners    And all 19 people at the lunch afterwards at the Five Horseshoes had nothing but positive comments to make so the FMC's St Patrick's Day Navigation Run and the Club's first official event of 2013 was declared a success by all those who were there