It's been an awfully long winter. We've gotten more than our share of snow. We've gotten more than our share of rain, and we've had enough grey and gloomy days. Yesterday and today were the first two nice days in a long, long time. Still I fear it may just be a tease. We've still got plenty of winter and nasty weather left. As I sit at my desk I think about spring and summer and the great summer drive.

What is the great summer drive? It isn't a meet or even a group drive. It's something that you do by yourself. Just you, your car and perhaps a passenger. It has to be done on a warm and sunny day, a day in which you can feel the warmth of the sun bathe your body. I has to be done in a convertible. No roof to block the sun or to prevent the warm breeze from whispering through your hair.

It isn't a race. You can go fast if you like, but you don't have to. It's more of a tour, a time to see something new or something that you just enjoy seeing. Remember when you were a kid and you sat in the back seat of your parent's car, face pressed against the window? It didn't matter where you were going or when you got there, your pleasure was watching the road pass by and seeing the other cars and everything else that there was to see. That's what the great summer drive is all about. No time to get there, no real destination, no place to get to and no reason to go except just to go.

In order to do it right you have to clean your windshield. A crystal clear sight is all important. You need to take down your top and be in the environment. No radio, no tunes, just the sounds of your car, nature and the person sitting next to you. No real destination and certainly no time to get there. You do need to have a little sense of adventure and no fear at all of being lost. As a matter of fact, if you get lost the drive gets better.

So, where are you going this summer? Here's one that I have in mind.

Lunch in Woodstock. One of my favorite places in the whole world is Woodstock, NY. It's a simple 125 mile drive from here straight up I-87 except that I'm not going to go that way. I'm going to take the old Route 17 through the Catskills. Years ago, before there was an Interstate 87 people from Brooklyn used to take Route 17 to the summer bungalows and summer resorts in the "mountains". Route 17 wound its way up to where people used to spend leisurely weekends in the summer. That's all changed now. I-87 has been open a long time. And like many of the old roads, Route 17 has been bypassed. The Red Apple Rest, a landmark along the way, is long gone, and nobody takes Route 17 anymore. Nobody except of course someone taking a great summer drive.

Who knows, maybe I'll even end up in Woodstock. Lunch at the Little Bear on Tinker Street would be nice, or maybe at the Bearsviile Inn, of maybe just a few slices at Woodstock Pizza. Who knows? But that's one of the drives that I have in mind.


Anyway, dust off the S, change the oil, clean the windshield, check the tire pressure. In two and a half months it'll be warm enough for the great summer drive. I can almost hear the road calling now.

How about you? Where are you going for the great summer drive?

 

I'm not waiting for summer, Rob. I'm planning on taking my S to Pittsburgh at the end of May, for Vintage Spring Fling. I know that's not exactly what you are describing as a summer drive, but I really get into the long trips in my S. Sometimes the miles/days are long, but with XM and CDs, I've enjoyed watching the different scenery go by. I want to be at a Vintage meet again, driving my own S2000. I'm getting the car ready for it's third long trip to the east.

 

My wife and I play hooky from work twice a year, (spring and fall), just to take a nice drive in the S and have a late afternoon lunch on an out door patio somewhere. We have some of the best memories from those drives.

 

The Better Half and I usually go on a "road trip" every summer. It will be a spur of the moment decision.
Last year we were out on little cruise around town when I suggested we go over to the West Kootenay's on a little road trip.
Bingo! We did not even go home to get our toothbrushes, just called our son to come over to look after the dog.
We did have to buy a few essentials eventually but had a great weather and a great 2 day getaway!

 

I ran out of weather last year and our passports expired, so Nova Scotia is back at the top of the list. I always go up to northern Michigan, and we do the Tomcatt a couple of extra times each year. Last year we did the NC coast and the back roads of SC, and that was fun. I also got to go TX for a graduation in early June and may hit those wonderful roads in northern Arkansas, which my son and I used carve on motorcycles.

Hope you get to do yours, Rob, and enjoy.

 

I enjoy a drive anywhere especially in the S. I have been on long, long, long drives and short drives. This year I have 6 group drives (Dragon, Spring Fling, S2kDays, etc) planned plus a possible road trip to the west coast but the best drives are with the +1.

Anywhere is fine but we do enjoy Ohio Amish country. It amazes me how we drive through their beautiful country side with these complicated, highly technical machines yet they make due with horse and buggy. It makes me think who is better off. Plus the food they cook is delightful.

The downside is washing the "road apples" from inside the wheel wells

 

^ I drove through OH Amish country on my way up to one of the Route 26 runs. Very pretty. I loved driving through the mountains of WV to get there, too! And trips out to the Shenandoah via back roads. The +1 will be making a summer drive with his kids to Canada (Niagara Falls and the Toronto area) in July, via his parents' house in NJ. They may even see Marco (matrix) and Denise!

 

Rob,
Good to hear from you again,my friend.

Like Patty,our longest summer drive,will be from Québec City,to Pittsburgh,for the S.F.2010.

Why don't you do the same,and drive to Pittsburgh in May??? It would be a great pleasure to meet you again.

-Emil.

 

Personally I prefer the Amish Door in Wilmot. Much better than the one in Wooster. Just a bit of a drive for lunch.

 

Rob, I'm just happy to read another great Ralper post. It's good to have you back.

I need to learn to embrace the back roads. When I travel, i get out the maps and plan out the shortest route on the interstate. I don't know why, but I just can't bring myself to take the secondary roads. I got that "Great Drives" book that we were all ordering a few years back. I need to dust that off and plan something.

Lately, I've been thinking about a trans-continental drive. Start here in Boston and drive across northern US and into Canada until I get to Alaska. Then down the west coast into Mexico and Central America to South America along the coast of Chile to Rio. Then north via Argentina. I'd enter the US again in Texas and back home. This might be a year long trip. I think it would be a wonderful experience.

The trouble is, I just don't think things are very safe in the world.