What? Never heard of the January Thaw Tour? That means that you’re not on the AONE email list – read to the end to find out how to rectify this.

The brainchild of Kevin Murphy, the First Annual(?) AONE January Thaw Tour had been in the works for a few weeks, and the ideal weekend had finally arrived! Midweek rains got rid of most of the road salt, and then it dried out and was sunny and mild for the weekend. Perfect! The January Thaw Tour was an excuse to get our Alfas out and give ‘em a little exercise, a chance to drive some scenic roads we’d perhaps never been on before, a little fun in the form of a gimmick rally, and an opportunity to have lunch at the end with a bunch of our Alfa pals. Angeljean Chiaramida had long been promoting the idea of an AONE tour up the New Hampshire coastline, and this seemed like the peerless opportunity. For one thing, touring close to the ocean seemed like it ought to be warmer than touring inland, and it certainly was pretty!

When Kevin was given the green flag, his car wouldn’t start! (What – an Alfa?) We smelled gasoline, and then saw a puddle forming on the ground. Out came everyone’s tools (and a fire extinguisher). Upon opening the hood, we found that a fuel line had come detached. Kevin put it back together, tightened it down, and off they went. Seems rather backwards that an Alfa would break down on a sunny, pleasant day right in the Glynn Motorsports parking lot – doesn’t it usually happen when you’re in the most remote location possible on a dark, stormy night?

Anyway, roughly an hour and a half later, we convened at the restaurant, compared notes, handed out a prize or two, and ate chili and chowdah. Twelve Alfisti showed up at the start, although two of them just came to see us off (Bill Henderson and Jim Sullivan had another engagement, but it was nice of them to stop by). So ten started off on the rally, and eight ended up at the restaurant (Garrett Knight and his son Matt in their ‘82 Spider made it to the restaurant but opted not to stay). My two co-organizers, Kevin and Angeljean, both arrived without navigators, so John Pratt and Elizabeth Van (who had arrived with Vi Pratt and I) took my 164, Vi rode with Kevin in his freshly-painted 3-liter GTV6, and I rode with Angeljean in her ’87 Spider. (Since Vi and I knew the route, we merely read off the directions and otherwise kept our mouths shut, letting our drivers make the mistakes.) The remaining entrants were Peter Walker and Meg Anderson (in their Lesser Car – the rest were Alfas).

Our tour took place on a magnificent day, more like April than January, and it definitely took advantage of the natural beauty of the New England coastline north of Boston. We planned a 40-plus mile route with plenty of zigs and zags and lots of gorgeous ocean views. The restaurant, Saunders at Rye Harbor, was excellent, right on the water’s edge, and we got a perfect round table for eight and dawdled there much longer than one might have thought that we would.

This event wasn’t for die-hard Patriots fans, since the Pats’ conference championship game against the Steelers started at 12:30 that same day, a definite conflict. The game certainly kept our turnout down, but we didn’t care – it kept lots of people inside in front of their TV sets, and we had the roads to ourselves!

Oh – who won the rally? The Official AONE Umbrella went to Peter Walker and Meg Anderson, who answered every one of the 30-odd (or 30 odd) questions correctly and didn’t even drive too much further than the rally directions actually called for.