In the Autozone parking lot, our confluence of Alfas surprised and delighted a gent in a Fiat Spider who was there to buy some parts. He was Italian, grew up in the Old Country, loves Italian cars. We almost convinced him to come along with us on our jaunt, but he had to get back to working on his boat.

Once again, the Marinos presented us with a challenging and scenic tour of the South Shore. As usual, all of the participants were stymied by various aspects of the rallye instructions at more than a few junctures. No team got all of the along-the-route questions right, although a few came close. Despite being sent out at three-minute intervals, the Alfas often encountered each other along the way, sometimes passing in the opposite direction. The Alfa leaving out first arrived at the destination fifth, and so on. However, the big news is that, for the first time in the South Shore Rallye’s three-year history, everyone who started the event finished it too—no one got lost! (Or at least hopelessly lost.)

This year’s itinerary took us all the way out to the tip of Hull, where we had a ten-minute opportunity to stretch our legs and enjoy the scenery. We could see all the way to Boston, Logan Airport, and the myriad islands of Boston Harbor. Lots of sailboats and other pleasure craft were out taking advantage of the beautiful summer Sunday in their way, as we were taking advantage of it in ours. The route to Hull unavoidably took us through Nantasket Beach, which was jammed with sunbathers (a different sort of scenery) and the traffic was slow. (Memo to Peter: If you send us through Nantasket again in the future, you ought to at least let us stop for a swim!)

Our route also took us along an assortment of twisty tree-lined streets and oceanfront roads. Eventually, everyone arrived at AONE President Tom Lesko’s house in Hingham, the rallye’s destination, where we enjoyed a summer cookout that included Italian sausages, hot dogs, hamburgers, and salads. Meanwhile, Peter tallied up the rallye results using a, uh, unique scoring system. Generally, it’s based on the time it took to complete the route, the distance traveled, and the number of questions answered correctly. Our rallye winner, going home with a large array of car-care products as a prize, was the team of Scott and Susan Boyer in their sharp, newly-acquired 164L. Other finishers won an AONE polo shirt and an AONE umbrella, and AONE coffee mugs were presented to all of the teams who participated—there are no losers among Alfisti!

Many thanks go out to Peter and Carole Marino for organizing another fun South Shore Rallye, and to Tom and Kathi Lesko for graciously hosting our post-rallye get-together. This is a great way to enjoy your Alfa—you get to drive along some pleasant roads, and you get to actually see other Alfas driving on them too! Plan to join us next year for the Fourth Annual AONE South Shore Mystery Rallye!