Road Trips

Sorry that this update is a little late—you can blame it on Bill Gates's typically frail software, plus a lack of time between when the brewpubs close at night and when the Alfa shop opens in the morning...

Anyway, since it was Sunday and there was nothing we could do in terms of getting our Alfa fixed, we had ourselves a day off from driving. So what did we do? We went on a road trip!

The Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon club had planned a Wine Tour for the day, and they were kind enough to invite us along. So we left at 8AM to meet with the other AROO members. Doug Zaitz let us borrow his Alfa Milano for the tour, while he and AROO President Char Sommers drove her Spider. On the way over, Doug told us that the AROO gang tended to, uh, tour kinda hard.

So off we went, 20 various Alfas screaming down the straight-aways at high rates of speed and tearing around the twisties of Oregon's wine country. What fun! We stopped at a couple of wineries for tasting (I didn't swallow) and bought a few bottles of wine. Then we stopped for an elegant multi-course Mother's Day lunch in an outdoor setting at a B&B. Then some more high-speed shenanigans and one more winery before finally splitting up and heading home. Thank you, AROO, for a marvelous day!

Then we loaded up Doug's trailer with the ailing GTV and took it into Portland to leave at Veloce Motors so that it would be waiting for Dan Sommers in the morning. From there we went to where Doug was storing some of his cars and got a chance to ogle his Alfa Montreal, Junior Zagato, and Alfa Sud. Finally, it was off to a couple of Portland's world-famous brewpubs to sample some of their very fine wares. And back to Doug's at midnite to see what tomorrow brings.

Chateau Benoit
Here are some of AROO's Alfas parked in front of the first winery on our trek before we went in for a little tasting. Oregon produces some excellent white wines.

Work, work, work.
"Honey, I'll be home as soon as we possibly can. Crossing the country in an Alfa is arduous, monotonous, unpleasant work."

Doug and Char
Here's a shot of Our Saviors Doug Zaitz, the madman who drove nearly 600 miles round trip to help perfect strangers solve a problem with their Alfa, and Char Sommers, the madwoman President of AROO who fielded our plea and set our rescue in motion.

Here are a bunch of AROO members and family enjoying an extravagant lunch on a beautiful day at a B&B in Oregon's wine country outside of Portland. Note the gap in "Romeo" where there had been an extra "R". We get that all the time.

Day 1	0	(Except for a bunch while still in San Francisco)
Day 2	0	(No Alfas, but one Fiat X-1/9 parked, but standing on its own wheels)
Day 3	0	(No Alfas, no Fiats, but one Corvair that looked like it might have run)
Day 4	1	The Milano parked in Doug Zaitz's driveway when we pulled in.
Day 5	23	That's 20 or so on the Wine Tour, plus the three in Doug's loft.
__________	_____
Total	24

Day 5 - May 13