The Roamin' Ponies Mustang Club (RPM Club) Cruise Photos
Roamin' Ponies Cruise #14
On Saturday, August 8th, 2009, members of the Roamin' Ponies met up in South Deerfield at Yankee Candle.
Yes, Google Maps pointed to the WRONG start point (sorry Al).
After a bit of photography and conversation, we set out early on the backroads.
Route 116 was a pleasant surprise (and newly added to the route), as I was not aware that there were "country roads" in Western MA until Shane mentioned it!
Taking a cue from previous cruises, we all kept in tight formation, which allowed us to stay together and not have to pull over to get other cars out of our line.
We had to detour around the 10k run scheduled for Shelburne Falls, so we opted to stay on 116 until we caught Rt8A.
Well, folks, Rt8A is a beautifully scenic rural road... that hasn't had a fresh coat of blacktop in 40 years...
We had to keep our speed down a bit to save our shocks (and backsides), but the twisty roads were still fun...
Aside from the poor pavement and numerous downhill grades, the scenery was awesome!
Unusually short telephone poles and some farm machinery completed the rural feel to the cruise!
A brief disagreement with the GPS unit had us detour into a Reggae Festival...
If we weren't hungry we might have hung around a while...
Back on track we wound our way for 30+ miles of Rt 8A along some of the twistiest roads we've seen!
The backwoods route had nothing to slow us down!
We only passed a few cars along the way, otherwise, we were on our own! Not the place to get stuck at night!
Boy, were we happy to see the sign signaling the end of Rt 8A!
After actual road construction in VT, we regrouped at Rt112. Taking note of the warning on the mirror, Paul is actually in front of me…
As we intersected with Rt9, we met up with Joe and his awesome 1990 Mustang SSP around the Wilmington area.
A short pitstop for gas and munchies, turned into a nice group photo.
Joe's pony always attracts attention!
Getting back on the road with almost non-existent traffic, we kept a tight formation as we clipped along…
RT100 is the quintessential "country road"... Superb scenery, twisting, winding roads with excellent surface!
Did I mention, NO TRAFFIC!?! Perfect day for a cruise! You folks from CT need to come up and visit!
With a change in route we hit the Townshend Dam/Lake for some excellent photo ops!
The scenic backdrops were everywhere!
What a super collection of american iron!
Don't mind getting pulled over with one of these now, but back in the day, ouch!
Rt100 is my favorite road in VT so far… and you can see why…
Taking the scenic shortcut on Rt35 (to avoid unpaved road) we headed towards Rt103 and our late lunch!
Curtis' All American Restaurant (" The New Place") is the best BBQ place around!
Curtis' is fabulous, but if ya go, you GOTTA get the "Super Hot" sauce!!
After lunch, we jumped back on 103 until we picked up Rt100 again in Grahamville.
The weather was perfect for cruising.
On the road again, another 2010 Mustang in Grabber Blue joined our ranks for short while, just like last months cruise!
We have to mind speed limits in congested areas. We are upstanding citizens don't you know!
Picking up Rt100A we headed directly for US4 and the Quechee Gorge! The scenery along the way was excellent.
It was hard to navigate, take pictures, watch for police, and enjoy the scenery all at the same time!
Traffic slowed to a crawl through the little town of Woodstock, but the people checking out our cars was worth the slight delay.
Stopping briefly at the Quechee Village Shops we hopped back over the bridge to the Gorge.
The gorge, as always, is quite impressive. View to the north.
As you can see, this is the reason this cruise was subtitled, "Quechee Gorge-ous"...
Extended views to the north (left) and south (right).
After some more conversation and final photos at the Gorge, we headed for I91.
We ran into one of Joe's buddies on I89 and we had a "spirited" cruise before breaking off for I91S.
After Joe and Al broke off, Paul, Shane and I stopped in Bellows Falls for some ice cream at Dari Joy.
This was a nice ending to an awesome day of cruising with a great bunch of folks!!
I'm looking forward to our next cruise in September!
Updated 8/26/2009
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