[Cintos]

Greetings:

Once again we are setting out in out '91 Black Spider to partake in an AROC Convention Pre-Tour. This year the venue is Michigan, and the tour is heading North to the Lake Superior region. The official start is Gaylord, Michigan, where the tour participants will be gathering at a hotel Friday Evening (7/18). The tour ends in Detroit at the convention hotel on the 22nd.

Day job events have forced us to return directly from the tour back to Connecticut, so we won't actually be going to the Convention - just the pre-tour.

I have been conflicted for several weeks about which of our Alfas we would be taking, and with 24 hours to go it seems the Black S4 is getting the nod. Originally I had plans of taking the '67 Duetto - as we did two years ago for the Alfa Canadese pre-tour and convention. With just the tour - and a 12+ hour grind out and back, it just felt right not to subject the Duetto to that much Interstate @ 80mph.

This is the fifth convention for the S4 - Detroit '07, Portland '09, Maryland '10 and Sonoma '13. Lots of fun miles. With 169K on the clock, she's still running fine.

We added Rt 66, Sonoma Convention, and Yosemite (Made it to the top!) stickers last year on our transcontinental sprint. Just a bit of room for another one or two this year. Then, I guess I'll have to sell it.

 

[Cintos]

Michigan Tour Progressing

Wow... Here we are at the end of the third day of our tour already. Attached are some shots from the tour's first day.

First is a shot from the Tunnel of Trees run on Saturday morning. Spectacular weather to run with the top down!

After crossing the Mackinaw Bridge, some of us made a lunch stop in St Ignace harbor area.

Continuing North on the UP, we visited the Whitefish Point Lighthouse. This location os the home fo the Lake Superior Shipwreck Museum. Gitche Gumee is a treacherous extent of water when the weather gets nasty.

The parks welcomed our party with expansive parking lots, and not much competition for the spaces!

Last shot is Tahquamenon Falls, on of many on the Upper Peninsula, and noted as bing the third largest waterfall by volume on the East of the Mississippi. Michigan is said to have nearly 200 named waterfalls, all but one of which are located in the Upper Peninsula!

- Michael