When you read this, I’ll be on day two of my 1,500-mile caravan from Portland to the Alfa Romeo National Convention in Ogden, UT.

I’ll be driving our 1991 Alfa Romeo S4 Spider. With just 30,000 original miles on it, it’s been a joy over the past six years and 4,000 miles.

While it doesn’t have the live-wire response of our 1965 Giulia Spider Veloce, it has an easy, relaxed feel about it. Maybe it’s the power steering, or power brakes, or A/C, or Bluetooth stereo. Who knows? But all those things make it the perfect ride for our road trip.

I’ve also got the perfect co-driver in Axel Catton. German-born and now living in Scotland, his byline has appeared in numerous European car magazines (and in numerous languages). While we have been Facebook friends for some time, we have never actually met. Both of us are Land Rover buffs, so I’m sure the discussion comparing Series S2A and Series 3 rigs will be ongoing.

My son Bradley was headed to Seattle for a few days, so I asked him to take the Alfa for a shakedown cruise.

Lucky I did, as on the way there a horrible screeching sound was heard whenever the A/C was turned on.

A quick note to the SCM mafia up there resulted in a referral by John Schommer the next morning to VRM in nearby Redmond.

Bradley reported, “Russ was our tech. He was really friendly and I enjoyed meeting him. At first glance he said the bolt and spacer that held the bottom of the AC compressor to the engine were missing, and there was nothing he could do about it. Then, he looked a little further and both the bolt and the spacer were laying in the bottom of the engine bay.”

I didn’t realize this Alfa had been optioned with a loose-parts recovery system.

After an hour, they were back on the road. In the best of all worlds we would replace the belt. But time has run out so we are on the road. The specter of no A/C or power steering is not going to stop us now.

Next week will be our update from Utah.

How do you prep for a road trip? And what spares do you carry? I look forward to reading your answers below.

Read my previous blog posts here.

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