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By Tom Lesko So I guess this makes it 6 for 6 in terms of the weather ... ah, but who's counting, and we certainly don't want to jinx next year’s event! At around 9:00 the morning of Saturday, April 28th, Joe La Rocca (a colleague who teaches architectural history) and I picked up some muffins, munchkins, and coffee, and were at the Hingham beach readying ourselves for the day. The sun was shining, albeit a bit cool, and the birds were chirping and doing what birds often do (but hopefully not on any of our beloved Alfas!). I'd invited Joe and a friend, Nancy Tucker, to join us on our 6th annual South Shore Beach & Waterfront Tour … and what a tour it was! Normally, we get around 12 - 14 Alfas for this event, so I was planning accordingly. We had plenty of coffee, muffins, and munchkins to help us with the preliminary socializing while we awaited the anticipated dozen or so cars to arrive. Well, arrive they did! At first there were a few, then a few more, and more and more, until at last count we had 22 cars! Mostly Alfas, with two "Italian cousin" Lancias — see the list of cars and participants below. WOW! So, on the suggestion of Rick Lesniewicz and others, I split up the very large crowd of 37 people into three groups, each led by an AONE member who knew the roads we were taking. This proved to be a very good idea! Garry and Tereza Prime led one group with their '69 Lancia Flaminia Spider, another group was led by Ken and Barbara Buntrock in their '69 Alfa Spider, and the third was led my myself, with copilot Joe La Rocca, in Grumpy, my '65 Giulia Spider Veloce. At the very first stop, Garry Prime realized that his Lancia was trying to mark its territory with an oil leak, but alas it wasn’t going to happen in AONE land! Garry had to sideline the Lancia, so Ben and Kristen Prime took over the lead in father Garry's '57 Giulietta Spider. Garry and Tereza later joined us for lunch. Due to the large number of cars, I abbreviated parts of the tour to maintain the group, and we proceeded to see the most wonderful and scenic parts of the South Shore. Our stops included Nantasket Beach, a brief stop at the tip of Hull (the "Hull Gut", as mariners would know it). Then on to Cohasset's "gold coast", as I refer to it, with a longer photo-op stop at Minot Beach overlooking the ocean and Minot lighthouse. This stop always seems to draw a crowd of onlookers, including several children who were taking pictures of the "wonderful cars", as they said. Leaving Minot beach, we proceeded through Cohasset to Scituate, with a cruise past the Scituate lighthouse, Scituate Harbor, and on to the Mill Wharf Restaurant off the main drag of Front Street. The staff had set up two long tables in a semi-private area overlooking the harbor where we enjoyed the very good food and drink. A good time was had by all! Special congratulations go out to Tom Letourneau who, for the first time, made the entire tour without incident! (Someone said that John and Lauren DeWaele must have towed him so he wouldn't get lost, but that cannot be verified. ;)
Thanks to all who attended — first-time attendees and veterans
alike. Our Alfas were shining and the revs were up for a great Alfa
touring day!
An addendum by long-time member Sam Surprise When I fired up my ’87 Alfa Spider Veloce last Saturday at 7:30am here in Portland, Maine, it was a brisk 29 degrees. It had been about 8 years since I last joined my fellow Alfisti at the Lars Anderson Museum, and I was excited to be a part of the Beach & Waterfront Tour at Hingham Beach. I had coerced my significant other, Karen, that it would be much warmer farther south. She was skeptical, to say the least (and correct, of course). Well, as we all know now, it didn’t warm up much but the sky was clear, the coffee hot, and the conversation plentiful. What a great road trip! Between the meandering roads thru some extremely nice neighborhoods, the frequent views of the oceans, and a lively luncheon to cap it off, Karen and I were thrilled to be hanging with 37 passionate Alfisti. Well worth the two hours to hook up. In fact, during lunch, our table-mates showed enough interest in a Maine road trip that Karen & I decided to organize a similar coastal trip this summer beginning here in Portland. The date would be Saturday, July 14th. I figure a 10am start time, a couple of hours snaking up the coast, lunch at a quaint eatery on the water, and then take it inland for some gear-pounding country roads, ending at 369 Capisic Street, my humble abode in Portland, where we can fire up the BBQ. I’d be a proud Alfista to have 22 Alfas parked in my yard in the dead of summer, or as they say in Maine, “Summa”. There are plenty of stores nearby so people can pick up whatever they want for the grill at the end of the day. I’ll provide a list of hotels and B & B’s for anyone who wants to stay over and I’ll work with Tom to post the details. If anyone has any questions, feel free to call 207-879-4560 or email sam@surpriseadvertising.com. (I even have a buddy in Michigan, my home state, who’s thinking about trailering his ‘85 Alfa Spider out just for the event.)
Here's the list of participants who took the South ShoreTour:
Alfas
Lancias
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(Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view, and then
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