We start our ultimate one-day journey on a cloudy humid October morning. Today’s trip was a bit unnerving for me as I had invited my parent’s on the trip, letting Dad (“I was born to drive this car”) drive my Miata while I rode with al. Departing shortly after 10:00 from our meeting point with the tops down and sun popping through the clouds, we took a short ride to Berry’s Farm to stroll around the grounds for Hallamore hitch Clydesdale horses.

Clydesdales are impressive animals. They are surprisingly friendly, the horses actually moved to the fences to greet us. We noted how docile the horses seemed to be with what appeared to be an less than substantial fence compared to their strength until one of our group discovered the wires running along the fence were live, OUCH!

After our short visit to the farm, we proceeded along a scenic ride to Westport Rivers winery in Westport MA. Our group had a choice to take the winemaking tour and/or partake of the estate wine tasting, and/or take the tour at Buzzard’s Bay Brewery. My companions and I decided on the Tour and Tasting at the winery. The tour was interesting and we discovered how small the ripe grapes were and how sweet they tasted. We saw the brewing room, visited the Wine cellars, and learned about how wines are made using the Champagne process. We tasted the Chardonnay Estate Classic, the Rose of Pinot Noir, the Johannisberg Riesling, which were the estate wines. And then we sampled the Estate Sparkling wines The Westport Blanc de Blancs, The Westport Brut Cuvee RJR, and the Westport Imperial Sec.

Running behind schedule we quickly wrapped up our glasses, and for some, our wine, jumped in the Miata’s. We picked up the people who had decided to visit Buzzard’s Bay Brewing and headed off down another scenic road towards lunch. Due to a report of my clutch making noise (which turned out to be driver related), I was back behind the wheel of my Miata (yahoo), and appreciated that our host, Les Barton, picked some great curvaceous coastal roads to take us on.

The Backeddy restaurant with their waterfront location specializes in use of the local cuisine and the abundant availability of seafood in their menu. It appeared the favorite meal choices to be the steamed Muscles or clams, the chowder, and the pulled pork sandwich.

Once again, still behind schedule, we headed off to the Sakonnet Winery in Little Compton, RI. This time Mom (“this car is fun, it’s just like driving a go-cart”) was at the wheel of my Miata, Dad pouting that he had to share and I was back with al. Due to the lack of time, we had to forego the scenic tour down Sakonnet point.

At Sakonnet, we parked in a field by ourselves and the 27 Miatas displayed in four-columns were quite impressive. At Sakonnet, about 1/3 our group decided to take the tour, while the rest waited outside in the courtyard. The tour consisted of a video summarizing a year in the life of a vineyard, viewing of the crushing and brewing room and a tour of the bottling area. Being a gadget conscious crew, a few male members of the group got caught tinkering with a centrifuge looking device, which is used for freezing and removing the yeast and sediment from the wine, during the early fermentation period. The wines we tasted at Sakonnet were the Fume Vidal, The Estate Chardonnay, The Cabernet Franc Reserve, a Claret, The Rhode Island Red, and the Cirius, which was a desert wine.

We left Sakonnet Winery just in time to view the beautiful sunset, (sunrise for you al), and several members opted to stop for the prerequisite cone at Gray’s Ice cream stand in Tiverton RI.

Upon leaving Gray’s, 8 Miata’s decided to journey to Providence to see Waterfire. Waterfire is a free, multiple barge bonfire display that is lit several times throughout the summer on the Providence River Canal. There are walkways and bridges along the canal that allow one to view the display from both angles. Some lucky attendees were able to pre-arranged to take gondola or pontoon boat rides up and down the river. Words cannot describe the romantic crowded atmosphere we encountered, but it is an event not to be missed, if you find time to fit this into your schedule.

Many thanks to Les Barton for escorting us on this drinking and driving tour, the great roads and the Ultimately beautiful weather.

I highly recommend for those of you who are taunted about the amount of time you spend on trips with the club or your Miata: to take a friend or family with you, if you find yourself with an empty seat. My Parents had a great time. They learned through driving her; how she performed on great Miata roads, and why I had to get my own. I took Bob’s advice to share the joy and we are all glad I did.

Sheila Grenon – ‘92 Brilliant Black