A 4,986 Miles Thank You

[Brian Pleet <bpleet@domain.elided>]

I wanted to say thanks.

My wife and I just returned from Alfiesta 2002...4,986 miles from Calgary 
AB to Costa Mesa CA return.

Just 24 months ago I convinced my wife (and myself) that it was time to try 
a new hobby. Three months of research later I drove home (Halifax NS at the 
time) from Toronto a 82 Spider with 81,000 miles. Shade tree mechanic 
experience...zip, Alfa knowledge...I spelt it correctly.

What a great bunch of people, what an engineering marvel! The Alfa digest 
has been a saviour several times, even when the answer sounded like "read 
the manual".  The suppliers of parts and services may not always get it 
right the first time, but they will not quit until it is right. The AROC 
organization is impressive, and the staging of Alfiesta compared favourably 
with several professional conventions I've attended over the years. You 
should have my wife's exclamation when we won the "best of class" at the 
Concours. Even when we arrived at the Seattle meeting place a day early to 
join the caravan, Tom Callahan was gracious enough to invite us to his home 
for dinner and accommodations, even to complete strangers. Thanks Tom.

The trip was, in my wife's words, "the best vacation we've had together". 
Along the way the lock on a vent window fell off, and the city roads along 
the way sometimes  tested the newly installed sump guard. Otherwise the way 
down was happily uneventful and a wonderful experience. On the return, we 
did run into a problem with hesitation going up mountains with the 
temperature over 110 degrees, but the car never stalled, and opening the 
filler cap on the other side of the summit vented some very hot gasoline 
vapors and the car continued. Lesser vehicles, many newer and more 
powerful, were pulled over on the side of the road awaiting recovery of 
their cooling systems. Not a bad trip with just under 30 mpg.

Thanks to everyone for the great Alfa experience.

P.S. I 'm sure I heard my wife say that she liked the looks of the GTV



Brian Pleet
Calgary, AB
82 Spider
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