.
AONE member John Paradiso had volunteered to put together this year’s AONE Fall
Foliage Tour out in Midwestern Massachusetts, and he did an admirable job! The
event’s location also meant that we got to see some AONE members from New York
and Vermont who sometimes find it difficult to attend club affairs held further
east.
The gathering spot for our road tour was the parking lot of the Orange
Airport. This place is widely known as a spot where people go up in airplanes,
jump out, and attempt to float back to the ground while avoiding injury. In
fact, while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, we were treated to the
spectacle of watching several of the skydivers making successful landings all
around us.
Since no one was feeling in a particularly competitive mood, we decided to
forgo the gimmick rally bits and head off on the tour caravan-style. This turned
out to be an excellent move, since there’s something quite exhilarating about
driving con brio in a line of Alfas, with Alfa tails in front of you and
Alfa grilles in the rear-view mirror. Only a couple of times did we get
separated, and the people who got cut off got to have a little extra fun
catching back up with the juggernaut.
Tourmaster John himself led the pack and, since he was the one who laid out
the route and therefore knew the way, it meant that everyone else could just
enjoy the driving and scenery. John set a pace that was, shall we say,
moderately brisk—fast enough to get the blood flowing but not too fast to scare
anybody.
A line of various Alfas traveling rapidly thru falling leaves on a perfect,
crisp autumn day—life doesn’t get much better! We received quite a bit of
approval from bystanders as we passed them by. (Well, OK, there was that one
geezer who tried signaling us to slow down, but we’re sure it was the song of
our engines that prompted him rather than our speed—it happens all the time.)
Our route took us down the eastern side of the huge Quabbin Reservoir (the
main source of water for metropolitan Boston). The roads were marvelous, and
only on a couple of occasions did we temporarily get behind something traveling
slower than we wanted to go. At the southern end of the Quabbin, we pulled into
a state park and motored up a hill to a scenic lookout area. Here, we had
terrific views of the Quabbin on three sides, and there was a four-story tower
we could climb for an even better vista. In an hour, we were back on the road.
From there, we went part way up the western side of the Quabbin. A local
constable in his cruiser decided to join the tail end of our parade, slowing the
forward progress of the last couple of Alfas for a while, but our route soon
turned west and he deserted us, providing a chance to catch up.
More nice roads—in terms of foliage, scenery, and twistiness—brought us into
the southern end of South Deerfield, where we ended the tour after 75 miles of
significant four-wheeled fun. Everyone congratulated John on his choice of the
route and thanked him for putting the event together, especially on rather short
notice. We then adjourned for lunch at…The Fillin’ Station! We’re talkin’ a good
ol’ American diner, replete with lots of stainless steel, neon lights, an old
gas pump by the front door, and a big DINER sign on the roof. (And yes, you can
take a shower in the men’s room.) The cuisine was…fillin’. There’s nothing like
diner coffee, though…
After our palates were sated, we returned to the parking lot and decided to
line up our beautiful macchina for a photo op (results to the right). We
weren’t the only ones taking pictures, though, as a few passersby had stopped
and were ogling our Alfas as well. Someone suggested getting all of the
participants together in front of the cars for an AONE Reservoir Ramble family
portrait, but the consensus was that doing so would only serve to wreck an
otherwise great picture.
Finally, we thanked John one more time and went our various ways, most
planning to take some more back roads on the way home. As you can probably tell,
everyone there had a great time! Come Spring, when we start up these driving
events again, be sure to join in!
