n October 2001, AONE ran the Great Yankee Candle Run from Fitchburg to South Deerfield (see November 2001 Velocissima). The following year, FLU (Fiat-Lancia Unlimited) organized the Deerfield Road Tour, in which a number of AONE members participated (see "Alfas on the FLU Deerfield Road Tour" in November 2002 Velocissima). And last fall, AONE members had the opportunity to participate in two road tours in western Massachusetts: The Reservoir Ramble on October 25 (see November 2003 Velocissima), and the Last-Minute Indian Summer Sortie on November 1 (see December 2003/January 2004 Velocissima). It seems that fall tours to the less-congested roads of the 413 area code have become a regular club event, and 2004 was no exception.

Last year’s Last-Minute Indian Summer Sortie was organized almost on the spur of the moment, when the weather report for the upcoming weekend sounded too good to be true. That tour took participants through lightly-traveled two-lane roads in Franklin County and included a bring-your-own-food barbecue lunch at my family’s house in very rural Ashfield, Mass.

For this year, we decided to take the risk that there would not be early winter weather on the last weekend of October (more than once, Ashfield has had serious snowfalls on November 1), and with over two-weeks’ advance notice, announced this year’s fall Sortie. Remembering that New England weather is supposed to change regularly, we announced the tour for Saturday, October 30, and named Sunday, October 31, as the rain date. It turns out that that was a good idea, since it quickly became clear, as the weekend approached, that the weather would be lousy on Saturday but decent on Sunday. Thanks to the wonders of mass emailings and the AONE Webmaster’s good offices [yeah, you should see my office—Ed.], word went out that the tour was postponed to the rain day, and hopefully no members’ plans were disrupted.

On Sunday, therefore, and just as with last year’s Sortie, we met in the late morning at the Fillin’ Station Diner in South Deerfield, just off Interstate 91. A dozen Italian cars showed up, some early enough for drivers and passengers to enjoy breakfast at the diner, some with barely enough time for filling gas tanks and emptying bladders. Rod Burdick came from Rhode Island in his beautiful Sprint Speciale; we had two GTV6s, including Scott Navaroli’s miracle rebuild (with wife Tracey and son Bryan along for the ride), Cal Crouch’s bright yellow Fiat X1/9, and a bevy of kamm-tailed Spiders, including those of AONE regulars Tom and Marilyn Freiberger, Kevin Murphy, Peter Walker and Meg Anderson, John Paradiso, Gene and Judy Durso, Anthony Cocuzzo, George & Paula Dolak, and Rich Rumelt. All the New England states (except Connecticut and Maine) and New York were represented.

Again like last year’s Sortie, we convoyed out of the Fillin’ Station parking lot and west up Mass. Route 116. In Conway, we turned off onto unnumbered back roads and followed a route that took us through the center of Shelburne Falls and into Colrain, Heath, Charlemont, Hawley, Savoy, Worthington, Windsor, Chesterfield, [those names sound more like they ought to be on a British motor tour—Ed.] and ending up, as last year, at the Walker house, in all a drive of about 100 miles and two hours.

Upon arrival at the Walkers’, we fired up the grill, folks lined up for the facilities, and we enjoyed a late outdoor lunch overlooking the northern Berkshire and southern Vermont hills. Thanks to AONE’s legal advisor, an excellent bottle of Chianti made the rounds, and those inclined were able to drink to the many, fine Italian pleasures.

Except for being balked on Route 116 by a rolling chicane, we had the roads all to ourselves and were able to enjoy our Alfas in the kind of driving that they are intended for: on winding, well-surfaced, uncongested two-lane rural roads.