>John Oliva and fellow transplanted New Yorker Frank Howard spent some of the
>bench-racing time at the meeting decrying the lack of good Adirondack Mountain
>roads here in the Midwest. Terry and I promised to show them the good roads in
> Western Wisconsin (Hi, Bob Bownes! Did you ever find them? Ed Solstad's
> vintage rallies often cover them.)Frank says he loves to go vacationing "back
> home" around an area just west of Lake Placid where he says the roads are
> excellent.
I found a few in my ~ 3 years there. Especially in and around the
Chippewa and Mississippi River valleys. I'm afraid that they cannot
compare with those found west of Lake Placid though. East of Lake Placid
as well. The roads there may twist and turn, and drop a few hundred feet
into the river vally, but not for very long. I only found them in
stretches of 2-4 miles. Not like the 'Dacks at all, where the road winds
up and down mountains for hours. And different from the Rockies, where
the roads wind *UP* and *DOWN* and the altitude gives any engine a struggle.
And yet a different flavour from beautifull California, where Lahonda Road
rises 3200 feet from sea level in Redwood City, on the SF bay, to the little
town of LaHonda, on the ridge of the peninsula, and back down to the beach
at San Gregorio, looking out over the Pacific, in the space of 30 miles
of tight, twisty roads careening around pines and redwoods. Possibly my
favourite road anywhere. The only reason I can come up with to drive to
next year's VTR meet in Seattle is so I can drive down to SF, meet the
Bay area SOL, and drive that road in my TR-6.
But one of the roads I learned to drive on also comes to mind, curving
gently along the seacoast, 15 miles, with a 5 mile twisty section in the
centre from Bangor to Ballywalter. Past the Copeland Islands, the harbour at
Donaghadee, with it's fishing boats at anchor, the standing stone on the yard
of the house known as 'Kilcoroon', the bowling green south of the little
harbour,
the waves rolling over the rocky beaches on your left, the orchard on the
right as you plunge south at speeds only acceptable to a teenage kid driving
a MK II Capri past the hedgerows so close they skim and thwack the mirror on
the left side of the car. Ahh, to make the run to Ballywalter for an afternoon
snack of fish and chips with Piggy, Insane Lorraine, and Ann again...It's a
miracle
we didn't kill ourselves in those years I spent in Northern Ireland.
Bob `Having good old days memories at age 29` Bownes
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