June 12th, 2004
What an introduction to a great bunch of people with great little cars!
We recently joined the Mass Miata club, not really knowing who or what to expect, but filled with excitement of our first real run with our ’95 Merlot “M”, we had a spirited ride up to Vermont on familiar roads where we joined the crew on the deck of the Green River Inn on a beautiful evening in June. We were greeted by some of the nicest people we’ve met in a while and were made to feel welcome immediately. Phew!
After owning several varieties of this size sports car and other fun toys (BMW, Austin Healy, Moto-Guzzi,), it is a pleasure having fun with the Miata as it is very reliable and just purrs like a kitten. It was also great not seeing drops of oil under the car when we stopped. After all, the real reason the British drink warm beer is they have LUCAS powered refrigerators!
We found that we had lots in common with many folks in the club (the adventure of building houses, the thrill of driving our Miatas, “landsharks”, “candy-grams” and more). We were impressed with the level of organization that we encountered at every turn. Mass Miata is the most organized of any club we have seen and it seems to be done seamlessly while always having a good time in mind. We even got a call from Donn a few days before to welcome us and to make sure we were all set with our ride up as we were coming from a different direction than the herd. At the Green River Inn, the brand new owners (of just 3 days) handled our large crowd admirably, if a little tentatively. We think they’ll do fine!
After dinner a few of us took a walk to explore the area and encountered our very first “attack lama”, found an old cabin we all wanted to buy (complete with satellite dish), and had a great time avoiding the 2 “caahs” that happened down the road.
The next morning broke clear and bright and very chilly! But the sun soon warmed everyone up and it was tops down and “Clutch Out” at 8:30 sharp for the beginning of a truly fantastic day of driving.
The full complement of 19 cars made sure to take care of the new kids on the block, keeping us in the middle of the pack, since we were one of the few without a CB. The biggest advantage here was the ability to push the car a little without having to worry about the local constabulary! Thanks to everyone!
Once again we were greatly impressed with the organization of this driving event; from the morning stop at an auto memorabilia house/store in the hills of Vermont to the lunch in Saratoga, NY, every pit stop was perfectly timed. A family-style dinner followed a very exciting day of driving, with lots of laughs including the new Vice President of the club and Second Lady who still haven’t seen a “Vermont Window”! Thanks so much to Dave Moore for arranging a truly inspired route on some great roads that we never would have found on our own.
The next morning was another perfect “10” and less chilly than the day before. There was no official “Clutch Out” time but many of us headed for the Mount Equinox hill climb and had a great time watching the classics attack the mountain. We gave a shot at some fairly active new-member recruiting (from new members!) with one of the local “race event corner guys” who was stationed at the starting line. Hope it panned out.
After enjoying a relaxing “rock” on the porch of Basketville across the street with fellow club members, we headed out for our scenic trip home to the Berkshires, definitely feeling like we had joined a great group of folks with great cars.
Thanks everyone for welcoming us and sharing your love of Miatas.
Being that our lives at the current time need about a dozen more weekends added to the year, you may not see us often, but we hope to see you all again soon!
Zoom Zoom
Oliver and Sharon Palma
Sheffield, Massachusetts
