By Tom Letourneau
Photos by Gene Durso, Peter Walker, and Tom

John DeWaele and I agreed to meet at the gazebo in Scituate Village, RI, and from there we left on our trek to Saratoga Springs, NY, for the annual Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car Show — this year with Alfa Romeo as the featured marque! The gazebo is the centerpiece of the famous Scituate Art Show held every Columbus Day weekend, and is where we also meet with another car club [ahem!] for cruises, cookouts, pizza parties, etc.

I very much enjoyed my ride up with John, as it gave us lots of time to be together and discuss everything and anything on the way. But I sort of had to ride with him, as I’d just installed a roll bar in my Spider and found that the seat now doesn’t go back as far as it used to, and I can barely fit in the driver’s cockpit! (This is going to take some creativity if that roll bar is to remain! I am not going to drive with my knees under my chin!)

Anyway, John and I headed out on an early (5:45AM) July morning that was a wee bit more like autumn, with mildewed green leaves on the trees vs. the warm fall colors of AONE’s western MA and Monadnock tours. One of the good things to come out of the cool morning air was that we kept the top and windows up, which made for better conversation, a better aerodynamic profile, and better gas mileage (maybe). (John’s ‘74 Spider has Webers and, while the sound of them and the Alfa’s tuned exhaust are music even to my tone-deaf ears, according to John they do drink a lot of gas!)

Not being sure just how long it would take us to get to the show field in Saratoga Springs, we decided to just beeline it via the fastest route possible, and if time permitted take a more scenic route on our return. So we took mostly the Mass Pike and NY Thruway, and then into the show. Amazingly, we made it there by about 9:15AM, with the gas gage on Empty. (Webers do drink gas!)

Arriving at the field, we were somewhat surprised to see that many participants were already on site, including a number of AONE members using spit and polish on their beloved Alfas! Having missed the pre-registration deadline, John handled that with one of the workers from the highly efficient and friendly sponsor organization, Hemmings Motor News, and we then proceeded to the VIP "Alfa Romeos Only" display area.

Needless to say, once parked after our three-and-a-half-hour ride, first things first! And then coffee and a great breakfast provided by the local Lions Club. Refreshed, we headed back to John’s car, where I grabbed my camera and began taking some shots of our fellow AONE members, a few down on their hands and knees with Q-Tips in one hand and detailing liquids in the other, sprucing up their Alfas in order to achieve as high a score as possible once the judging started.

We then walked the field, enjoying the many other cars on display, when I stumbled upon one of my personal loves — an Aston Martin DB-7 Zagato. And next to that was one of the new Allards, this one a breathtaking dark blue with red interior. If that PowerBall ticket in my pocket becomes a winner, yours truly and Mr. Allard are going to become a lot more up-close-and-personal!

John and I then spent the rest of the morning back with the AONE crowd, and we all agreed to meet at noon for a group picture — see below. While the show was due to continue on until 3:00PM, we made the decision to leave a little early and take a longer, more scenic route back to RI, heading east through NY, over the Hudson, down Route 7 through VT to Bennington, where we passed Hemmings’ famous Sunoco gas station, museum, and boutique shop. Hitting Bennington, we then headed for the famous Molly Stark Byway (a.k.a. Route 9 East), where the road climbs over, around, and through the mountains of southern VT, offering absolutely great driving and views. Speaking of which, we stopped at the famous Skyline restaurant, where one has a view of over 100 miles in every direction!

From there, we headed into Brattleboro, and then southeastward home. After a bit of Interstate, we took an exit in CT that allowed us to take back roads all the way to RI. While this stretch of road was beautiful and exhilarating to drive, we become a little nervous about making our destination. Those damned Webers sucked up a lot more fuel than anticipated, causing the red light on the fuel gage to start flashing. Not good, as this particular stretch of road, as best I could remember, did not have any gas stations on it for miles! Fortunately, with that red light now glowing bright red, we coasted into an Xtra station on fumes, and John learned that his tank held a lot more gas than he ever thought!

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived back at the gazebo, where I unpacked my gear from John’s Alfa and we each headed on to our respective homes, John still with my Mass Pike Fast Lane transponder stuck to his windshield!

(Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view,
and then use the arrow buttons to navigate)