Alfa One Lap goes international!! longish...

["Bill Harkell" <billharkell@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Digesters and all, 
This is a second attempt to update as my last submission was lost in 
Hotmail heaven...

Due to lack of net access, I have been offline for about 6 days. I'm 
sitting in a coffee shop in Minneapolis, "Cafe Prague", near the U of M 
campus... very groovy, man! Clove cigarettes burning, very... 
interesting music playing... I am not blending well :o)(wearing my New 
Mexico Alfa club cap though...(it's warm).Rain and cold here. Nice all 
day otherwise.

So anyway, I left New Jersey on Friday and headed to upstate NY through 
rain and fog... grey gritty places... made horrible time and finally got 
to Syracuse around 7 pm. I checked out the site of my old restaurant in 
Armory Square, Ha! I had to pay to park! The place was packed. Good for 
them... The trip then went east to Clinton and a visit to my sisters and 
their kids. We all had a good time including a nearly complete family 
reunion...(for digesters):I saw an Alfa Spider in Clinton, yellow 70's.

Monday was time to "head west, boy", so I did. Sofia and the family cars 
got a bath, Sofia was filthy after the typical weather. As it always was 
in central New York, Mondays are always sunny. I headed out and stopped 
in Syracuse to say "hi" to an old friend, and then headed on I-90 
towards Buffalo.

Monday night found me in Niagara Falls, Ontario, so Sofia is an int'l 
traveler! I checked out the falls, always impressive, and then plugged 
on til London, Ontario, where I stayed for the night. The exchange was 
45%! What is going on, huh?

Tues was a road day, London, west through to Detroit. Ontario was really 
nice. Perfect weather and cool temps. Roads were open to easy traffic 
and quick paces. Detroit was a pit. What a poor example to have on the 
border! Dirty, trash all over the place... Yuck.
I pushed on to Chicago, which was really nicer than I expected. I tried 
to send an inner fender  to a friend who is expecting it a week ago, and 
found the address was a post box, so I left UPS and headed to the Post 
Office in downtown Chicago...24 hours!! but a electrical fire closed 
them down. It isn't meant to be... I still have it in the car, now in a 
big box! I stayed in Milwaukee last night and headed out to see how much 
turf I could cover today. Wisconsin is a really pretty state. Huge 
highway patrol presence...  So here I sit in Minneapolis...6:30 pm and I 
guess I'll hit the road and try to get another 100 or so up the road.

The Alfa is running great. lowest tank has produced 25 mpg. All others 
are a clockwork 26 mpg.at shall we say, spirited paces. Great on the 
road, no problems at all so far, knock on wood... (rapping head). Tires 
are visibly wearing!! Ha! but perfect wear, 3100 miles so far. To you 
oil burners, you know who you are...1/2 quart down from full since 
leaving Florida, at last check. How's that for tight? Not bad for the 
dark side of 80,000 miles.

Anyway, I am headed for Fargo, ND and the to Montana. Of course, I'll 
only go 55... yuh. Ah hah. Final target is Seattle, to see what the heck 
goes on there with that club!

Home via Oregon and Cal. coast.!! then Beans and weenies in Texas.
My butt is printed into the seat cushion folks!

Bye for now!



Bill Harkell
Alfa Romeo Search and Rescue Society
Tampa, Florida
Currently on the roads of America!!!
http://pw2.netcom.com/~alfabill/enter.htm


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------