By Peter Walker

Photos by Peter, John Rowntree, Lauren DeWaele, Frank Anigbo, Deb Donovan, Jim Scutti, Tamara Castagnaro, and John Nicosia

Videos by Frank Anigbo

THE ORIGINAL AONE INDIAN SUMMER SORTIE took place during the first weekend in November of 2003, and during the years immediately following, the Sortie occurred either the last weekend of October or the first one of November. As the years passed, though, the Sortie migrated to earlier in the calendar, sometimes as early as mid-September. As a result, the “Indian Summer” had to be dropped from the name, and the event became known as, simply, the Sortie.

For 2022, though, the Sortie took place on the last Saturday of October, and the weather gods smiled upon AONE and northwestern Massachusetts with clear blue skies and a warm sun. (Though the temperature was below freezing at 7AM that morning.)

The absence of heavy traffic and the abundance of country roads in the area means that the Sortie can provide something a little bit different each year. Many of the tour’s roads as well as both the starting and finishing points were new to the tour for 2022. Our group of 17 AONE members congregated this time next to the famous pot holes in Shelburne Falls, Mass., at Baked, a popular breakfast and lunch restaurant. A few AONEers arrived early enough for a sit-down breakfast. Others, arriving later, picked up a beverage and a pastry (baked on site) and took advantage of the morning sun at the café’s sidewalk tables.

During a brief drivers’ meeting, where we discussed tour protocol, tour organizer Peter Walker mentioned that our lunch stop restaurant has a bring-your-own policy and charges a $3.00 corking fee. Peter reminded everyone of the famous Pratt theory of convertible top use: that the drivers’ ages usually correspond to the ambient temperature above which convertible tops go down. As a high of 57 degrees was forecast for the day, Peter promised to pay the corking fees of all the Spider drivers older than 57 who dropped their tops. This promise brought a resounding cry of “You’re on!” Later, at the restaurant, however, no one took advantage of the opportunity to imbibe in anything stronger than ice tea, even though the back of the restaurant is a package store where our tourers could have found their drink of choice. All the Spiders (with the exception of the 4C) did, nonetheless, lower their tops during at least part of the tour.

We 17 AONE members then hopped into our 13 cars. And what a diverse array of Alfas! The four late-model Alfas consisted of a 4C Spider, a Stelvio, and two Giulias. Of the four type 105/115 Spiders, one was a rare 1971 1750 Spider, one was a late-1970s two-litre, and the other two were late 1980s Spiders. Among the five remaining cars were three GTVs: a 1974 two-litre and two 1969 1750s, one a US-model and the other a Euro-model. The two remaining cars were no slouches either: a GTV6 and a Montreal.

Our group left Shelburne Falls, crossed the Deerfield River, and headed into the hilly back roads of Buckland, Ashfield, and Conway. From there we drove west on famed route 116 to South Ashfield, where we turned left onto the Williamsburg Road, which quite naturally goes to … Williamsburg. From that town we headed west for a short distance on route 9, then turned left, toward Chesterfield, on route 143, then right onto more back roads that brought us back to route 9, but in Goshen. We proceeded a few miles further west on route 9 and turned north onto a country road that brought us to route 116 in Plainfield. After crossing the center of Plainfield, we turned north again, onto route 8A, which brought us to Charlemont, where we entered the parking lot of the Berkshire East ski area for a pit stop.

After a bit of tire kicking in Berkshire East’s parking lot, some photos, and a visit to the facilities, our group got back into our cars and headed east on the South River Road, along the south shore of the Deerfield River, toward the center of Buckland. From Buckland we headed north, into Vermont, on route 112, then turned south on the other end of route 8A, which brought us back to Charlemont, to the River Café, on the north side of the Deerfield River, facing the ski slopes of Berkshire East.

The café had intentionally stayed open for us past its announced closing time of 2PM and had reserved all the tables on its south-facing terrace for our group. Even though we arrived after the normal closing time, the staff welcomed us with smiles and efficient and friendly service. Our group partook of a delicious meal and traded notes about the tour. Giorgio Kradjian showed off his GTV6 tee-shirt (see the final photo below) and Tom Freiberger told about the apparent death wish of a mountain bicyclist who suddenly appeared out of the woods and swerved right in front of Tom’s Montreal. Frank Anigbo, in his 1969 GTV, was following Tom and recorded the scary moment on his go-pro (see the final video below).

Frank’s go-pro also recorded some of the stretches of our route’s rural, traffic-free, two-lane blacktop (DO NOT miss the next-to-final video!). The goal of the Sortie has always been to allow AONE members to exercise their cars in their ideal environment of smooth country roads amidst scenic surroundings. Peter’s local scouts keep us appraised of all the newest re-pavings in the area, and this allows us to tour on the best road surfaces available. For this year, that meant being able to take advantage of some roads that had either never been used for the Sortie or had not been used in many years, such as the route 8A stretch between Plainfield and Charlemont, the back roads out of Shelburne Falls, and much of the South River Road leading away from Berkshire East. The northern stretches of routes 112 and 8A, which the Sortie has used on a number of previous occasions, had also recently been re-paved.

The one potential fly in the ointment at any Sortie is the appearance of a moving chicane (definition: a slow-moving vehicle that serves to slow everyone else down). We did encounter a few of these on some of the back-country roads, though fortunately not too many to spoil the outing. One Lexus SUV (a large LX-400) driving north on the curvy, just re-paved Vermont section of route 112 had the courtesy to speed up sufficiently after it saw our group catching up, proving once again that all kinds of modern vehicles can, when needed, be driven very capably!

The 2022 Sortie came about as close as possible to being the perfect edition. We had ideal weather. The fact that our group consisted of 13 cars (two days before Halloween) in no way hexed the event—even the crazed bicyclist wasn’t able to ruin things. The group was the perfect size: large but not too large, which meant that no one got lost (bravo to everyone for diligently following the slinky method!). Baked and the River Café turned out to be excellent venues. In sum, this Sortie was a great success. It may prove necessary, in the future, to return to the practice of running it in late October.

Participants

Frank and Axel Anigbo - 1969 1750 GTV
Joshua Cayea and Tamara Castagnaro - 2018 Giulia Ti
John and Lauren DeWaele - 1974 GTV
Deb and Dan Donovan - 1988 Spider
Douglas and Janet Fields - 2020 Stelvio
Tom Freiberger - 1971 Montreal
Giorgio Kradjian - 1985 GTV6
John and Elizabeth Nicosia - 2020 4C Spider
Steve Perry - 1969 1750 GTV
Robert Rizzo - 2021 Giulia
John and Roberta Rowntree - 1987 Spider
Jim Scutti - 1971 1750 Spider
Peter Walker - 1977 Spider

At the Start

We’re on the road!

At our midway rest stop

Off on the second leg

The final destination