Saturday, August 6th

OKAY, FELLOW ALFISTI, THE DATE IS SET for Saturday, August 6th, and the course is now plotted. 

The first and foremost fun point is where the road trip will end, namely at a BBQ in Kents Hill, ME (northeast of Augusta by about 15 minutes). Our hosts will be Steve, Kathryn, and Keith Woodsum, owners of Great Northern Motor Works. Steve is a mechanic extraordinaire on all things Italian. He has tuned and tricked out my Alfa Spider for over 20 years, as well as hundreds of other Italian and European rigs. 

Ten years ago, when I was in the early stages of organizing my first Maine Alfa club road tour, Steve was tuning up my Veloce, listening to my plans, and said, “Why don’t you end your road trip here with a BBQ at my house, overlooking Mount Washington, with a pool in the back yard?”. I said, “Outstanding idea, Steve!” The Woodsum family has agreed to host our club again, and is even going to invite some of their customers with Alfas, Ferraris, Fiats, and more. Pack your bathing suit! 

Sound like fun? It will be. And that’s just the bonus at the end of the day’s drive. Before that, we’ll have a sweet coastal run beginning at the Yarmouth Maine State Visitor Information Center. From there, we will head north, hugging the coast to get to lunch on Bailey’s Island at Cook's Lobster House. Then we’ll take a country drive, meandering through the Belgrade Lakes area of Maine on our way up to Kents Hill. All told, the actual road time will be about 1.5 hours for the first leg and probably about 2 hours for the second. 

Here’s the road trip agenda:

Directions: Use the Map & Directions button above for a GPS version. From the south, take I-95N to the Maine Turnpike to exit 44, I-295 North (Portland). Follow I-295N to Yarmouth (about 10 miles) and take the second Yarmouth exit for the Maine State Visitor Information Center. Garmin Company is on your right as you exit and directly across from the Information Center on your left.  

9:30-10am: Gather at the Maine State Visitor Information Center in Yarmouth. Restrooms available.   

10:30: Leave for our morning cruise up the coast. We’ll hug the ocean and some delightful back roads to arrive for lunch around noon at Cook's Lobster House on Bailey’s Island.

Noon to 1:30: Lunch with an ocean view.

1:30ish: We’ll leave Bailey’s Island and head east and inland thru Brunswick. From there, we'll follow a number of rivers, passing through scenic farmland and past lakes along some absolutely fabulous roads winding north, ending in Kents Hill. The local scenery is perfectly Maine with little traffic other than the locals.

3:30 to 4:00 Arrive in Kents Hill, where the AONE tour officially ends. 

Menu: For any special food requests beyond dogs & burgers, we can stop at a store on our way up to Kents Hill.

I have sourced a number of bed and breakfasts in the area surrounding Kents Hill for Alfisti to reserve rooms for any overnight travelers. They are all within 5 to 10 miles of where we’ll be enjoying our BBQ:

Annabessacook Farm, Winthrop

Maple Hill Farm B&B Inn, Hallowell

Wings Hill Inn, Rome, 866-495-2400

The Village Inn and Tavern, Belgrade Lakes

Second Street B&B, Hallowell

Or, if you’re heading back south, you’ll be about 1 hour from Portland via the Maine Turnpike, just to gauge your return travel time.

A little background on my friend and our hosts Steve, Kathryn, and Keith Woodsum. Steve and Kathryn are both retired teachers. Steve has serviced European cars on the side for years, and after retirement bought a nearby abandoned gas station and turned it in to his perfect dream shop. Son Keith partners with Dad servicing vehicles and Kathryn manages the office.  

Steve has unlimited knowledge of all things Italian as well as all other classics from across the pond, and has endless stories of conquering the peculiarities of exotic car ownership. He got his start sweeping floors at Bob Sharp Racing in CT in 1963 at the age of 12. By the time he entered the service, he was running his own racing team. Rumor has it that he even went to Italy and picked an Alfa GTV6 off the assembly line before they put the interior in so he could build it as a race car, but that’s just a rumor and you can ask him in person if you attend. For those of us interested, I'm sure he’d be more than happy to give us a tour of his new shop, which is almost next door to their lovely home.  

I would appreciate it if all interested Alfisti will let me know if they're coming so I can get a head count for lunch and the BBQ even if you’re on the fence, so that Steve, Kathryn, and I can plan appropriately. Either email me at sam@surpriseadvertising.com or call me on my cell anytime at 207-233-4444. Note that, for insurance purposes, this event is only for current AONE members and their guests riding with them.

Ten years ago, I think we had around 18 Alfas on our tour. Let’s see if we can beat that number this year! Hope you can all make it a special day. 

Cheers, friends.

— Sam Surprise