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By John DeWaele Mother Nature bestowed a glorious day upon us for our tour to Clyde's Cider Mill. A wonderful variety of twelve Alfas set off on a 1-1/2 hour drive, starting from Scituate, Rhode Island, crisscrossing the magnificent Scituate Reservoir and winding through the quaint towns of Foster and Coventry, RI, before continuing through Oneco, Sterling, and Voluntown, CT, ending at our destination in Old Mystic, CT. We have so many wonderful scenic roads throughout RI, eastern CT and southern MA — it was a pleasure to treat our members to these "hidden gems". In fact, Frank La Sala happened on a terrific route as he and Mary headed to the Mill from the Hartford area. Maybe a modified version of this tour could be a future event! As enjoyable as our classic Alfas are, it's quite a sight to see two new Giulias pull up! For me, the dream of Alfa back in the USA is finally sinking in, and it's great to see so many in our club! In addition to our starting group, four more Alfas from the CT Chapter met us at the Mill, with Frank all but laying his body across several very scarce parking spots! As always, parking at the mill is a challenge, which you will see in the photos! After an hour or so of checking out the steam-powered apple press, and sampling the various hard and soft ciders and wine, a few hardy souls dared to enter the long bakery line. I guess those apple cider donuts are hard to resist! Before long, we had to send in a search party so we could start the second leg of the tour. A 45-minute jaunt along billiard-table-smooth roads took us through pristine eastern CT farm country into Stonington, CT, and then back into RI along the Westerly shore to the village of Watch Hill. Normally, this would be a very quiet weekend in Watch Hill, but the warm and sunny weather brought out tourists and residents alike, enjoying the shops and the beach! After passing through Watch Hill (and waving to Taylor Swift's RI home), Route 1A took us along RI's "beach route", passing Misquamicut and Weekapaug beaches. Our final destination was the Haversham Tavern for lunch. The sixteen Alfa Romeos lined up in front of the tavern drew a lot of attention! Great food and a wide selection of beer made up for jumping out of that bakery line! Due to a split in a front tire on their Giulia, Dave and Vi chose to take the scenic (low speed) route home, followed by wingmen (oh, sorry — wing people) John & Roberta and Meg & Peter in their Spiders. Fortunately, everyone arrived home safely. Thanks to everyone who took part in the tour. Hopefully, we can do another drive in the spring. Stay tuned to the Velo! Alfas, Pilots and Navigators: Jim and Patti DeWaele - 1973 GTV
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(Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view, and then
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See the original event announcement
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