By Frank Anigbo

Photos by Frank, Larry LoPresti, and Ted Keon

I REMEMBER ONE EDITION OF THE CAPE CRUSADE WHEN IT RAINED. I should say it had rained earlier that morning and left puddles of rain water that looked like pretty rainbows where our cars had marked their spots.

Apart from that one time, we have always had beautiful sunshine, even when the temperature is a bit on the coldish side.

For this year, we couldn’t let a forecast of heavy rain dampen our parade, so we pushed the Crusade out one week later than its originally scheduled date. And what a good idea that was, because we were rewarded with great driving weather! Plenty of sunshine with enough warmth to keep open tops open.

We lost a few pledged participants because of the date change, but we gained a few others because their date conflict was no more. In all, ten cars turned out for the 2024 running of the AONE Cape Crusade, and all were vintage Alfa Romeos (except for a guest in a ’68 Karmann Ghia). The oldest car was John and Ki Basel’s tasty-looking 1967 Giulia Super, kitted for spirited driving, and the youngest, a 1984 GTV6 driven by John Billera. [Just think — the YOUNGEST car on the Crusade was 40 years old! —Ed.] GTVs, Spiders, another Super belonging to Rick Lesniewicz, and the Berlina of Mark Patterson rounded out the Crusaders.

We assembled at the nearly-empty and picturesque parking lot of Oyster Pond Beach in Chatham for coffee, pastries, conversation, and a chance to give curious locals a look at Alfa Romeo cars of the past. We departed in a convoy around 10:30am for a slow drive around the ever-pretty town of Chatham, keeping by the coast to get a feel for this one-time fishing village now dotted with majestic seaside cottages and grand homes.

We left the best of Chatham behind with increased revs as we made our way along coastal roads to Orleans, then turned away from the water toward a great marsh with roads very much less-traveled.

I wondered how many of the participants knew when we drove alongside the back wooden fence of Wellfleet Drive-In just before the jumping onto busy Route 6 in Wellfleet. Yes, Cape Cod still has an open-air drive-in movie theater that is a traditional summer must-do for many families with kids. My kids get to eat silly amounts of sweets with friends while lying on tons of pillows in their PJs, on the beds of wide-open SUV trunks, watching a feel-good movie on a huge screen under the stars with old-timey speakers suspended from half-rolled-down windows.

We made the awkward jump onto Route 6 in Wellfleet for the short hop to the ocean side of town (as opposed to the marsh side) for a stop at White Crest Beach with its expansive stretch of sand and sea.

The run from White Crest to our lunch destination in Wellfleet was where things sort of didn’t go quite to plan. At a fork in the road, four cars went right and the other four went left (we had already lost two cars that had other lunch plans). After waiting for the missing cars for a few minutes, the four lead cars proceeded to what was to be the most spirited driving bit of the tour, through wildly twisty back roads in the depths of a pine forest. The lead four cars made it into Wellfleet town center and to our chosen restaurant with no sign of the other cars. It turns out that there were two branches of Mac’s Seafood in Wellfleet and the others had gone to the other one! Oh, well. We got back in our cars after a photoshoot with a great backdrop and joined the rest of the group a very short drive to the end of the road.

It was a marvelous way to spend a Saturday on Cape Cod!

Crusaders

Frank Anigbo, 1969 1750 GTV
John Billera, 1984 GTV6
Rick Lesniewicz and Jim Petit, 1972 Giulia Super 1.3
Avi Grunin, 1968 1750 GTV
Larry and Michelle LoPresti, 1978 Spider
Ted and Taylor Keon, 1974 GTV
Douglas and Janet Fields, 1971 1750 Spider
Mark Patterson, 1971 Berlina
John and Ki Basel, 1967 Giulia Super
Guest, Greg Kaynakian and Mary McNemec, 1968 VW Karmann Ghia