Garden State Crew-zer News

News and Updates

March, 2007

We just attended the Woodbridge Parade last weekend so the 2008 Crew-zing season is officially under way.

Many of our members are active on most of the PT Forums and have been email us asking about the demise of the PT Cruiser Owners Club (also known as the PTOC) from California and how that might affect our club. The Garden State Crew-zers is not now and has never been affiliated with that national organization. Our affiliate was the "PT Cruiser Club" Washington State. We only affiliate with the national organization to get our event insurance for free. The directors have decided last season to sever relations with any national organizations and procure our own club insurance. All that means is that we will be paying for that ourselves, there are no changes being made to the club's structure. We have enough money to pay for the insurance for 2008 and will hold small fund raisers at our events to cover it in the future. At this time, we anticipate keeping the club a dues free organization.

We have lost a few events this year and have added new ones. Please chek the events page on the web site and forum for updates. Just this week we added another May and june event so the calendar is actually getting fuller. We are all looking forward to a great season with all our PT friends. As always, feel free to email us or call with any suggestions or questions.

SEPTEMBER 15, 2007

Just days before Shore Thing 7 and the forum is down. We use a free forum service called chatarea and evidently they are having problems with their database. I tried a few other communities and they seem down too so I imagine it is a global issue.If this is not rectified in a timely manner, we will investigate hosting our forum on another service.

JANUARY 8, 2007

Happy New Year Everybody! We have been busy working on our 2007 Events calendar and since we were in here working on the pages, we thought we would start the new year off with a fresh color scheme. It is still a work in progress but if you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to drop us an email and let us know. As always, if you spot an error or omission, let us know.

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

Just finished the Second Annual Popcorn Rally and went to post the winners and the Chatarea Service that runs our forums is down. I hope it is a temporary glitch and they get all our stuff back up and running quickly. Those in attendance had a great time and we had a real nice dinner afterwards at the Applyby's in Tinton Fall. Congrats go out to 1st Place Winners, Jim and Ceil Ferguson, 2nd Place Winners Mike and Debbis Levonick and 3rd Place Winners, Charlie and Valerie Abella.

Don't forget we have our Holiday Winery Tour and Dinner coming up on December 2nd. Please check the web site for details and directions!

October 2006

It seems that this Crew-Zing season is winding down and I would be remiss if I didn't thank all the great staff and crew that come out to our events that make this club a success. Even with a few rain delays, our events this season proved to be entertaining and successful. Our 6th Annual Shore Thing was heralled by most to be the best yet! The Mayor, Council and Fire Departments all complimented our group and invited us back for next year. Nipper already has a few new activities planned for 2007! We have hundreds of pictures hosted by many members of our events this season. If you could not make any, you might like to peruse the galleries to see what a great time we all had. We met many new Crew-zers who just joined this season as well as many, many old friends! This club has always been about having events that bring people together to have a great time and we did that again this year! We have two great events the first weekend in December and then our season is officially over! See you there and see you again in the spring at the Picnic.

MAY 2006

Well, it has been a while since we had much "news" to share so I thought I would fill you all in. Gas Prices across the counttry are at an all time high and there are rumors that attendance at all events may be down. It is shame that the cost of attending these things is constantly rising and we hope that our events are entertaining enough to draw people out. Please, do not skip an event just to "catch it next year" as we will be cancelling events if there are not enough participants to make it worth while. I say we should enjoy them while they are here, you never know what tomorrow, or next season, may bring!

I would also like to welcome Terry Napravnik and Gary Reeves as the new Assistant Directors of the Garden State Crew-zers. Judy Castronova has recently married to a great guy, Patrick, and is devoting what little spare time she has to setting up their home and enjoying their boat. We all wish them the best! Look for some exciting changes in the club over the next few months.

JANUARY 2005

We have just signed on with a new Internet Service provider (and yes, yet another URL to manage). We had been fortunate to be able to hang our own servers on a friends T1 line but our bandwidth proved too much for his old firewall. Our new commercial service should provide 99.9% uptime plus some other added goodies. One bonus we get is our own photo album software for posting event photos. If you find a broken link, please let us know.

DECEMBER 2004

Judy and I want to Thank all the Crew who supported us this year and came out to all of our events. It was a trying year but with everyones help and support, we believe we were able to pull off some really nice events. We are already working on next year's schedule and are planning on having at least one event per month for the 2005 season. If you have an event or activity you would like to see us get involved in, please drop an email to either Judy or myself.

We all wish all of our friends, sponsors and supporters the very best for the Holiday Season and a very healthy and happy new year.

Please keep checking our forums during the winter for news, tips and updates on all our crew and their happenings.

OCTOBER

Well, nobody thought we could do it but Shore Thing went off without a hitch! It was great to set up in our new Venue and the firemen and borough council could not have been more accomodating! We are already looking forward to a bigger and better Shore Thing 5! Special THANKS! Go out to the Shore Thing Staff!! In no particular order, Terry & Barbara Napranik, Joe and Laura Caparelli, Mike and Maria Antonelli, Gary Reeves, Dave and Mary Bauer, John, Dorothy and Faith Springsteen, Rick Starets, Kazoo and Judy "Bubbles" Alfrets. The world's best CREW!

August 24

Registration for Shore Thing 4 is now open. This three day event will help raise money for the Sea Bright Fire Department. We have moved this event from Long Branch to Sea Bright. Of course, it is still right next to the beach! Information and registration form is on the Event Page. Hope to see everyone there!

June 5

New Crew members have been added to the Crew page, please check to make sure you are on the list and there are no Typos. Also, we have updated out sponsor page to include our latest Sponsors. GG Bailey has signed on and will offer any club member a 10% discount when ordered off their website. Check them out at http://www.ggbailey.com/ Please patronize our supporters.

May 8

New Forum has been started on Chatarea.com. You can find a link to it on the new home page or by clicking HERE. We felt this was necessary so that we could add topics and events as they are develped. Please bookmark the new forum and web site in your browser. As always, please email any suggestions to John Abella. We want this club to work for the members so we always welcome your input! As you have seen over the last few weeks, Judy Castronova and myself have foprmed a partnership to keep the club going. I have taken over all the web and forum duties and Judy is in charge of organizational duties. She also heads up our complaint department! You can email Judy at this link: Take a Number Department

May 6

Wheels & Wings Pictures and Trophy Winners are posted. Our Web Site has been moved to new servers and our new address is http://www.gardenstatecruisers.com/ , it can also be reached at http://www.gardenstatecruisers.com/. Please visit the new site and bookmark it in your browsers. If you find a link or page that is broken, please email John Abella at myredpt@optonline.net Registrations for the Red, White & Blueberry event are picking up. Please check out the page for all the activities this event provides.

We have renewed our agreement with our national club, the PT Cruiser Club, so our events continue to be covered by the club insurance. If you are not a PTCC member, you should check out their site and forums and give joining consideration.

April 5

Blueberry Festival and Car Show - Registration is now OPEN! THIS EVENT IS STILL ON AND REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW!

This special family day out is celebrated with tons of entertainment, stage shows, arts & crafts, a huge car show, great food, contests and, of course, the "honored guest," the BLUEBERRY, in pies, ices, cakes, turnovers, bagels, tarts, ice cream and many other blueberry-themed products.

For detailed info and to register see here: Blueberry Festival and Car Show Registration page.

March 31

Wheels and Wings event - Registration is now OPEN!

March 28

Wheels and Wings event (April 30 / May 1) - Book your rooms now!

Headlining this year are the U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds! They are incredible to see! You do not want to miss this one! Many are still talking about last year's event.

Still waiting for something from the Air Show folks and then we will officially open registration this week. In the meantime BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOMS NOW!! They WILL go quick as always!

Our host hotel enjoyed having us so much last year that they gave us an even better room rate this time!!!

For detailed info and to register see here: Wheels and Wings Registration page.

March 25

Event schedules coming soon!

We are currently working on finalizing some of the great events we have planned for this year. Check the appropriate sections for dates we have reserved so far. Registration for some of these events will be made available by end of month.

Events: Event Section.

Cruises/Meets: Cruises/Meets Section.

February 7

Yankee Stadium Boat Cruise - Register now!

It's time to register for our annual boat cruise. Hurry, since tickets will go on sale on February 18! We will only purchase tickets for those who we received payment from. Payment due no later than Monday February 16.

Registration will close on February 14. So please register soon!

For more details and to register see here: Yankee Stadium Boat Cruise.

December 31

Have a Happy New Year - We'll see you in 2004!

We have lots of cruises, meets and events planned for the new year. We'll be repeating many of your favorite ones (Balloon Festival, Wheels and Wings, American Wheels etc.) from last year and we'll be adding even more.

Check website often for updates.

To reminisce about our past events be sure to visit our Picture Page.

November 1

Holiday Winery and Xmas Lights Cruise - Our one year anniversary!

Our fun Holiday Cruise is here again! Last year's cruise was also the official kick-off of the Garden State Crew-zers! We hope you all enjoyed the full year of cruises, meets and events we brought to you!

Come join us in celebrating our one year anniversary!

For more details and to register see here: Holiday Cruise.

October 26

Krispy Kreme and American Wheels picture pages are up.

See the pictures here: Picture Page.

October 12

American Wheels Car Show - RE-SCHEDULED!

Due to inclement weather, the October 12th show has been re-scheduled for Sunday, October 19.

NOTE: If you had previously registered for the original date and still plan on attending on the 19th, please re-register so we know you are still coming.

For more details and to register see here: American Wheels Car Show.

October 4

American Wheels Car Show - Important Announcement!

Although we are slotted in the "open class to present" category, we were just informed by the Corvettes Unlimited folks that they are so happy to have us as part of their awesome show they have also created 3 trophies just for PT Cruisers! So the best three PTs will come home with a trophy! This is one event not to miss!

For more details and to register see here: American Wheels Car Show.

September 28

Krispy Kreme Car Show and Barbecue Picnic - Rescheduled for October 4!

Although we still had the gathering at Krispy Kreme as planned on Sunday, September 28, we re-scheduled the event hoping for a drier day this coming weekend on Saturday, October 4. The Krispy Kreme folks were very impressed to see over 30 Cruisers in their parking lot even with the morning rain. They we so excited they invited us down the following week to stage our actual car show where we'll be awarding a couple of cool trophies. Then weather permitting we can have our picnic in the park afterwards which we had to pass up this past weekend.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Anyone interested in attending needs to register for the new date even if you had previously registered for the original date.

See the webpage for easy directions, details and to register here: Krispy Kreme Car Show and Barbecue Picnic.

September 27

American Wheels Car Show!

Registration is now open for this huge car show on October 12. The American Wheels Show is one of the few events in the area open to all American Marque vehicles from the 1900s to present day. The show features more than 350 Muscle Cars, Pro-Street, Custom Cars and Trucks, and Stock Class Cars and Trucks. Lots to see and do here. On the grounds are the Museum of American Glass, Wheaton Village Glass Factory, many shops to peruse including a unique Christmas store and Tinsmith Shop, a lake, a playground, the Down Jersey Folklife Center, a stained-glass studio, an 1876 one-room schoolhouse, the 1897 Palermo train station, a general store, an old fashioned steam train ride, restaurants, picnic facilities and much more.

For more details and to register see here: American Wheels Car Show.

September 22

Krispy Kreme Car Show and Barbecue Picnic!

Come join us on Sunday, September 28 for Free Donuts, prizes, giveaways, trophies and more. Yes folks the greatest donut ever made is now available in New Jersey! Here's an opportunity to try them for FREE on the house! Plus get prizes and more! After we visit Krispy Kreme we'll head over to a great scenic park for a barbecue and picnic. Krispy Kreme is only 5 minutes off the Garden State Parkway whether you are coming from north or south. So if you are passing by please stop by.

See the webpage for easy directions, details and to register here: Krispy Kreme Car Show and Barbecue Picnic.

August 30

New York Renaissance Faire Meet Re-Scheduled!

Due to inclement weather we have re-scheduled the meet to Sunday, September 7.

We personally called everyone via telephone this morning to say the event has been re-scheduled. This is why we ask that you include your phone number on our registration form when registering for gatherings. This is for your own benefit. Emails were also sent out but not everyone checks their emails regularly.

If you're ready to have some real fun please register here: New York Renaissance Faire Meet.

August 26

Snap On Car Show and Meet picture page is up.

What a great day for an outing! Weather, car show, food and shopping were great!

See the pictures here: Picture Page.

August 3

Car Show has been rescheduled!

The Smithville Snap On Tools Car Show has been rescheduled to the following Sunday, August 24. Sorry we had nothing to do with this change.

We have made the necessary updates here: Smithville Meet & Snap On Tools Car Show.

August 1

Not your ordinary car show!

The Snap On Tools car show folks have invited us down to participate in their annual car show for FREE and tour the area. But this car show is not just a car show. It's a family day out to explore a great historic town with over 60 shoppes, restaurants, winery, covered bridges, horse and buggy rides and so much more.

For more info and to register please go here: Smithville Meet & Snap On Tools Car Show.

July 31

New York Renaissance Festival Meet!

By overwhelming demand from the PT Cruiser community we have arranged a meet at the New York Renaissance Festival in Tuxedo, New York on Saturday, August 30. This location is easily accessible from many surrounding states.

If you're ready to have some real fun please register here: New York Renaissance Festival Meet.

July 29

Balloon Festival picture page is up.

The festival was better than we had originally imagined if that's at all possible.

What an incredible event this turned out to be!

See the pictures here: Picture Page.

July 21

Balloon Festival is totally booked!

We had to close down registration to the balloon festival at 135 PTs. This was because we have more than filled up our allotted area at the show.

We currently have 32 PTs on our waiting list. It's very unlikely that many pre-registered PTs will cancel. So we are not accepting any more waiting list requests at this time. Sorry.

Please note that if you are not pre-registered with us you will not gain access to the event.

For those attending please check our webpage for the latest updates: Balloon Festival & PT Cruiser Car Show.

July 4

Balloon Festival - Last Chance to Register!

Only a couple of weeks left. Registration will close down very soon so we can tally up our dash plaques, give a count to the balloon festival folks etc. Pre-registering will guarantee you a spot in our VIP section.

This is a huge event with over 130 PTs already signed up, driving from 12 states and Canada.

See the event page for overhead/aerial shots of last year's event just to see how HUGE this festival really is!

We have our own private VIP entrance and we're located right next to the concert stage and close to all the festivities.

There is something to do for the whole family. Some happenings are as follows; Kachunga and the Alligator Show, Purina Dog Chow Incredible Dog Team, Airborne Jugglers, Barnstorming Air Show, Red Bull Air Force parachute team, Adventures in Ollieland, Garfield presents "Happy Birthday to Me", No Strings Marionette Company, a huge arts and crafts festival, amusement park rides, bands playing all day with nighttime headliners such as Dickey Betts and Foreigner, a nighttime balloon glow show, awesome fireworks and so much more! And of course the mass inflation and ascension of 125 hot air balloons of all shapes and sizes. Lots of them in cool shapes like champagne bottles, animals, cartoon characters and more.

An event like this only comes once a year!!! And all for ONLY $5.00 !!!

Can you think of anything cooler to do that weekend?!

To register and to obtain more info please go here: Balloon Festival & PT Cruiser Car Show.

June 30

Yankees/Mets Boat Cruise picture page is up.

See the pictures from our recent Yankee Stadium Boat Cruise. It was a blast!

See them here: Picture Page.

May 28

Balloon Festival Updates.

This enormous balloon festival is coming in July! This may very well be our biggest event of the year! Over 60 PT Cruisers driving from 9 states and Canada have already registered. This is one definitely not to miss! Visit the webpage for constant updates and an action-packed schedule of activities.

See info here: Balloon Festival & PT Cruiser Car Show.

May 27

Event pictures are up.

More pictures from our past events, meets and cruises have been posted.

See them here: Picture Page.

May 12

Wheels and Wings Event is this coming weekend!

Currently there are over 150 PT Cruisers driving from 12 states and Canada. If you are attending this event please register soon. The webpage has been recently updated with a revised activity schedule, trophy updates and detailed air show schedule.

See info here: Wheels & Wings Airshow & Car Show.

April 21

Balloon Festival Lodging Info

We were given a special rate of only $79 for the Basking Ridge Marriott Courtyard which is only minutes away from the event. Book your rooms soon as they are guaranteed to go very quick.

See webpage for newly posted hotel info here: Balloon Festival & PT Cruiser Car Show.

April 14

Balloon Festival Extravaganza!

You do not want to miss this event! We are scheduled as one of the main attractions in this Readington, New Jersey event. It starts on Friday night July 25th when most of us will be arriving. It will begin with a Dickey Betts and Great Southern concert and a spectacular firework display. On Saturday July 26th there is just too much to list here. Some quick highlights are as follows: An enormous arts and crafts show, amusement park rides, airborne jugglers, lumberjack show, alligator wrestler, visit from Garfield the cat, marionette show, old time barnstorming air show, 125 hot air balloons and so much more throughout the day. At night Lou Gramm and Foreigner will be performing right before their famous balloon glow show.

For more info on this please visit the event page here: Balloon Festival & PT Cruiser Car Show.

April 6

T-Shirts are here!

Garden State Crew-zer t-shirts are ready to be ordered. Just in time for the warm weather that's just around the corner. These high-quality 50/50 shirts are a must for any cruise. Get yours now!

You can place your orders here: GSC GEAR.

April 5

A blast from the past in modern times. Kinda like the PT Cruiser!

Our first get-together for the new year will be on Sunday, April 27th. Join us for the Medieval Times Meet & Greet - Dinner & Show. Please register even if you are not attending the dinner and show but plan on stopping by to hang out with us in the parking lot beforehand.

For more info on this please visit the event page here: Medieval Times Meet & Greet - Dinner & Show.

February 18

GSC Postcard.

You can now send a postcard invitation to your friends. The music feature is not compatible with all applications yet but is being worked on. If you can't hear music playing when opening the mail message you should be able to in the near future.

Try it out here: PT Cruiser Postcard.

January 23

Hurry and sign up!

Registration is now open for this year's Yankee Stadium Boat Cruise. This year we selected the Yankees versus the Mets game! We'll be picking up tickets on February 10. Need to register and pay us by February 8. We will only order tickets that we have received payment for. So if interested please act soon!

For more info and to register please go here: Yankee Stadium Boat Cruise.

January 14

Last call for sweatshirts!

The deadline is here for sweatshirt orders this season! So far we have almost 20 orders which was our goal in order to keep the cost close to $30 per sweatshirt. Those of you who requested sweatshirts will be getting a mail at the end of this week as to how much you owe and where to send the check or money order. Payment will then need to be received by us no later than January 25th as we will be placing the order on Monday, January 27th. If interested please get your order in A.S.A.P!

You can order them here: GSC Gear.

January 5

Wheels & Wings Airshow & Car Show Updates.

The meeting place has changed from the Millville Diner to the Holly City Diner Restaurant. We also secured a bunch of rooms at the Best Western Hotel. Book them soon as they will go quick. Also added a Neon Show for Friday night.

See more detailed info here: Wheels & Wings Airshow & Car Show.

December 24

Events are starting to take shape.

As promised we are gearing up to bring you some very cool events this year. The first event that we have details on is the 2003 Wheels & Wings Airshow & Car Show. Even currently in it's early planning stages it sounds like a ton of fun.

For more info on this please visit the event page here: Wheels & Wings Airshow & Car Show.

December 23

Snap Snap your picture has just been taken.

Gary Reeves is aboard now so watch out! He has a way of taking snapshots of people when they least expect it. Between he and John they capture every angle and feeling of an event. Good stuff!

I'd send him an email and get on his good side right away. Remember he's holding that camera at all times. Hehe!

You can reach him at: mailto:garyger@aol.com?subject=GSC Info

December 21

New addition to the GSC Staff.

We'd like to congratulate and give a warm welcome to John Abella. He has "officially" joined the GSC staff. John is well known and cherished amongst the PT community and will be a huge asset to our club. He will be helping coordinate all the great cruises/events we have planned for the coming year. John is also an incredible photographer and will be onsite at our cruises taking outstanding digital snapshots. We are extremely happy to have him aboard. Please take a few minutes to send him an email congratulating him.

You can reach him at: mailto:john@gscrewzers.com?subject=GSC Info

December 14

The "Crew" page is in the works.

Finally settled on a format I was happy with.

If you wish to be part of "our crew" and haven't sent us your information yet, please go here and fill out the form: Our Crew.

December 11

Official Logo.

The Garden State Crew-zers now have an official logo! You can see it here: GSC Logo.

In the process of getting black t-shirts made up with the logo on them. If interested, flip us an email and let us know.

We do have high-quality customized embroidered sweatshirts available now that will be ordered in a few weeks. We decided that we may only do 1 run of these this season so if you're interested please act now.
You can order them here: GSC Gear.

Remember, you don't have to live in New Jersey to be a Garden State Crew-zer!

December 8

Cruise review and more.

Our first official cruise took place yesterday. Everyone had a great time! We were happy to see some of our old buddies and get to meet some new friends too. That's the best part of the get-togethers for us!
Thanks again everyone for coming out!
See pictures of the cruise here: Holiday Cruise.

Seems that most people who see our GSC shirts want one, so we are now offering them to you.
Check here for info on these high-quality sweatshirts: GSC Gear.

Want to know what's in store in the coming months.
Check here to preview some of the cruises we are planning: Cruises/Meets.

December 4

New Discussion Forums.

So we can better communicate with each other new forums have been built. This way we can talk amongst the crew about anything and everything that comes to mind. Find out where people are hooking up for our local cruises, post event pictures, etc.

See our new Forums.

December 2

Holiday Cruise Reminder.

Just a quick reminder about the Holiday Cruise this Saturday, December 7th. If you are interested in joining us please let us know so we can make tentative reservations accordingly. Over 20 cruisers have signed up so far. This may be the last cruise of the 2002 year so don't miss out on the fun!

Check the Cruises/Meets section for details.

November 30

A website is born.

Today we launched the new Garden State Crew-zer website. There are many sections and information we will be adding to the site in the coming months. This will take some time so please be patient and visit often. We hope you are happy with the progress as it rolls out. In the meantime if there is anything we can do for you just email us and we'll be glad to help.

Don't forget to bookmark us for future reference!

November 25

Our first official cruise/meet has been put together.

Join us for a great Holiday cruise we have planned for the weekend of December 7th.

This cruise starts at a free open house at a great local winery. Afterwards we'll grab a bite to eat and head over to an awesome Christmas light display. Add dinner, raffles, gifts, friends and you spell FUN!

This Holiday Cruise will be the first of many meets we have planned for the months to come. Details about this cruise can be found here: Holiday Cruise.

Garden State Crew-zers is a chapter of the PT Cruiser Club