What better way to relax in the evening than to go to the infamous Seneca Lodge for dinner and a few drinks at the bar! We arrived there and, as usual, it was wonderful to rub elbows with other car lovers. This year, the major item being discussed was the Krohn driver who was only seventeen years old. There was talk that a decision had not been made as to whether he should be allowed to run. We were all concerned that the race might get canceled. I wasn’t too happy about this, since we had traveled so far to see the race. Things got a bit quieter when members of the Krohn team showed up with their bright green shirts.

After a few drinks, we went downtown with my buddy from Elmira, who was there with his 1934 Ford Bonnie and Clyde car. It was too early to call it a night, so we decided to get some local color at a microbrewery on North Franklin Street. Here, we were able to enjoy another brew before packing it in. When we left to go our respective ways, my buddy tried to start the old Ford but it wouldn’t. He looked up at me, hesitated, and then asked, "You wouldn’t have any WD40 with you, would you?" I just laughed and told him that he would be amazed to see what an Alfa owner travels with in his trunk (never any room for anything else, such as suitcases). I went to my trunk and, sure enough, in my box of spare parts and other miscellaneous items I found the WD40. He was thrilled, and after spraying about half the can on his engine we were able to get his Ford started and we both went in our separate directions.

The next day, it was time for the Lake-to-Lake Event. It started at the Pleasant Valley Winery, established in 1860. Included were a tour of the facility and wine tasting. It was nice and relaxing to roam around the winery as everyone arrived for the start of the rally. The turn-out was excellent—I believe there were over 100 cars in attendance. We actually tripled the number of Alfas this year. Didn’t take too much to do this, however, since I was the only one who showed up last year. Wish there were more—maybe next year? Seems like most of the marques were represented. The skies were cloudy, but luckily the rain seemed to hold off. It was really just a fun rally, designed primarily to traverse the beautiful hills and valleys surrounding the Finger Lakes Region. If you have never been there, you really need to check out this beautiful area of New York.

We were behind a couple of late-model Corvettes, so the ride was swift. One of the best parts for me was that the rally ended with a run around the original Watkins Glen Road Race Course. I always enjoy a romp around the 6.6-mile road course, but this time it was especially fun, since the Corvettes had bugged out by then and I was left with a beautiful 300SL in front of me and a modern Mini behind. We really had a great time. As we exited Main Street downtown and came into the sweeper, the 300SL got on it and we both bolted up the long run. We continued to play for about half of the run around the old track, especially in the corners where my Alfa had a lot of fun sticking to the 300SL’s rear end. I kept looking in my rear view mirror and could see the Mini having fun struggling to keep up. It really was a blast!

Our next destination was the Watkins Glen International track. Realizing how fast we were traveling on the road with the ‘Vettes, we figured we would be one of the first to arrive. To our surprise, we were one of the last. My guess is that many skipped the run around the old course. If so, they missed something special. Here at the WGI track, we were to run a few parade laps. As it turned out, the scheduled races were delayed and we had to wait. They made up for it by serving us dinner. Here, we met some interesting people and talked about our experiences on the rally. Interestingly, they served us beer and wine with dinner; I was surprised at this turn of events, since we hadn’t yet done the parade laps. My concern was that it might be a bit scary driving parade laps with a bunch of people who’d been drinking. But again I was to be surprised—the parade laps were fun, but the speed was reduced considerably—some of the slowest parade laps I have ever experienced. Who let that Honda Del Sol on the track anyway, and how did I get stuck behind him? But still, it was nice to experience the wonderful curves and elevation changes of the Glen once again. I must admit, however, that the run on the old course was much more invigorating.

The next day, we woke up to pouring rain—seemed it was raining all night. The races weren’t until the afternoon, so we figured it would be nice to go to the usual spot for breakfast. I called one of my buddies, and we planned to meet downtown in twenty minutes. As I placed the key in the ignition, I noticed that the key broke into two pieces. So here I am six hours from home without a key to start the car. Car guys are great, and when I called my buddy he told me he would see if he could find someone to make a new key. Being an Alfa, however, meant that no one had the appropriate blank. So at this point we decided to epoxy the key together and hope it might work. We found that all this accomplishes is to get half of the key stuck in the ignition. Next, we decided to hot-wire the car. We were probably into this project about an hour and a half when the owner of the hotel came by to tell us that we shouldn’t quit our day jobs, since we certainly wouldn’t make it as car thieves. Finally, though, we got it running.

We were all getting pretty hungry, so I jumped into my ‘74 Spider and my buddy into his Bonnie and Clyde Ford. I started to back up and realized that the ignition locks the steering wheel. Here we go again—now I needed to remove the ignition switch. This turns out not to be an easy trick. After removing the shroud around the steering column, I remembered that the screw that holds the ignition in place doesn’t have a slot but just has a rounded head. I guess they didn’t intend this to be taken apart easily. After tapping at the top of the screw for fifteen minutes, I started to think about what other specialty tools I might have for this task in my trunk. I suddenly remembered that I might have a hacksaw blade. Sure enough, I did! So for the next half hour or so, we proceeded to cut a notch in the screw head. It wasn’t easy to get a screwdriver blade into the newly-created slot, but eventually we got the screw out, removed the ignition switch, and released the locked steering column. At this point, we were all starving and headed downtown for breakfast. As soon as we sat down at the restaurant, we realized it was 11:45am. We asked the waitress if they were still serving breakfast, and of course the answer was no. So this is how I wound up buying everyone lunch.

The rest of the weekend, there were races that were very enjoyable, but the weather took its toll on all of us. It was nice that the rain held off until we finished the rally and parade laps, but then the rain hit and things changed dramatically from that point on. It rained and rained and rained. The track infield seemed to have about an inch of water the entire weekend. But we hung in there and made the best of things. Needless to say, there was a lot of drinking going on. My Alfa went from shiny yellow to brown. In fact, when we were trying to leave at the end of the day, I couldn’t get out of my parking spot—my friend Dean had to push me out. He was also a bit browner after I spun the tires a few times.

The trip home was uneventful, thank God, although I kept hoping that I wouldn’t get pulled over by a cop and accused of stealing my own car. Sure glad I like working on my Alfa, since I will probably be busy for a while getting it cleaned up and repaired for the next event. Even with all the rain and problems, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Really—I had a great time!