nother South Shore Mystery Rally has graced our paths! Pete and Carole Marino did it again, coming up with a rally route that included winding roads and beautiful scenery. And Tom and Kathi Lesko did it again too, being gracious hosts for the post-rally cookout. The nitty-gritty:

The eager rallyists gathered on the morning of Sunday, July 17th in the Sullivan Tire parking lot in Marshfield, MA. An adjacent Dunkin Donuts was a welcome surprise, providing a certain type of relief for many of us in preparation for a couple of hours on the road (as well as refreshment for those who consider DD coffee as coffee). The day was hazy and warm—perfect top-down weather.

As usual, people arrived from all directions. The list of "competitors" comprised Mel Dunn of Rockland, MA (his first AONE event!) and his granddaughter Erica, in Mel’s red ‘84 Spider that he’s owned since new; George and Paula Dolak of Newton, NH in their ‘78 Spider; Ken Greene and Millie Archer of North Kingstown, RI in their ‘91 Spider, Tomm Connors and Carol Clarke of Sutton, MA in their black ‘90 Spider; Duane and Carol Mersereau of Marshfield, MA in a ’66 Fiat Cabriolet (neat car!); and Dave and Vi Pratt of Dedham, MA in their ’61 Giulietta 2000.

As the starting time approached, the adrenaline started flowing and the tension rose. Everyone was warily eyeing their opponents and their opponents’ cars for signs of weakness. Schemes were being hatched and strategies were being formulated. A more cutthroat band of rallyists you could never imagine. (OK, I made that all up.)

At 11am, the first car was off, and the others followed at three-minute intervals. We’d been given a set of rally instructions, some straightforward and others cryptic, with landmarks, street names, and accumulated mileages. We lost a couple of cars at the very first decision point (a street whose name wasn’t revealed until we’d been on it for a while). Along the way, we were to jot down the answers to many questions, some straightforward and others cryptic. The route took us off the beaten path, and traffic wasn’t really an issue, especially for a relatively populated area. We went past stretches of woods, past elegant homes, past the Atlantic Ocean, past Meineke Muffler shops. At one point, we had to stop and identify the species of fish swimming in a park pond (the answers were contentious). Driving along the Atlantic, we passed a large contingent of Corvettes lumbering in the opposite direction, a few of whom waived in recognition of our superior Italian machines.

Around 1pm, we all straggled into Tom and Kathi’s driveway, the rally’s destination. (All but one, that is: Ken and Millie arrived another hour later. Turns out that the navigator hadn’t realized that those numbers on the left were mileages; gotta give them a lot of credit for arriving at all!) Pete was waiting to greet us and log in our times and mileages. Those two factors, plus our answers to the questions en route, determined our standings.

Meanwhile, Tom and Kathi had the grill fired up and a great spread of food laid out. While Pete tallied up the scores, the rest of us gorged ourselves on chicken, sausages, burgers, dogs, salads, iced tea, and lots more. Just as Pete was finishing his calculations, Ken and Millie showed up, and we let the three of them take in some nourishment before the rally results were announced.

Utilizing an unbeatable combination of driving skill, odometer accuracy, observational keenness, sense of direction, rally experience, and computational prowess (OK, I made that all up), the first place finishers were Dave and Vi Pratt. They received the blue-ribbon prize, an AONE coffee mug. Second place went to Duane and Carol, who received a comprehensive car care kit consisting of a bucket filled with lots of various car care products. The other finishers received an assortment of other valuable items, including AONE merchandise and goodies bought as rally awards. Crowd favorites Ken and Millie won a fuel additive to make their Alfa go faster.

Although nothing beats spending a couple of hours bombing around some lovely back roads in an Alfa, occasionally spotting other Alfas zipping by in the same (or occasionally opposite) direction, a lot of the fun of these events is rehashing the route afterward. This we did with great joviality, recalling all of the missed turns, complaining about Alfa odometers, and disputing the answers to most of the landmark questions. (Bottom line: The rallymaster is always right.) Overall, ‘twas another successful and fun South Shore Mystery Rally!