Covered Bridges Country Roads 2

Today we took another car ride in the country for some sight seeing. We took NYS Rt. 30 south to Arkville, NY. The trip on Rt. 30 through the Schoharie Valley is very nice. Lots of farms and little traffic. We stopped in Blenheim, NY to check out a covered bridge that spans the Schoharie Creek.
In Arkville we took a ride on the Delaware & Ulster Railroad. It is a nice scenic ride along the East Branch Delaware River. The weather was perfect and the trip is nice and relaxing.
After our train ride we took some county roads over Roxbury mountain to Delhi. Along the way we stopped at Fitch's covered bridge near Stamford, NY. From Delhi we took NYS Rt. 10 north to Richmondville, NY. Another great road with lots of farms and scenery. I can't wait for our next day trip in the car(or SUV).

Automotive Media

One of the many ways I like to follow the automotive scene is through print and Internet media. There are a few different magazines I like to buy and read.
My favorite magazine right now is Hemmings Sports & Exotics. It focuses on classic, antique and modern classic sports cars. Keith Martin's Sports Car Marketplace is a great magazine focused on high end classics. It also covers and commentates on recent classic car auction results. Grassroots Motorsports is like the modern day Hot Rod Magazine. It is THE magazine for the person who wants to daily drive, autocross and track day their personal car. Great project cars and car reviews.
On the internet side of things. I check my local Craigslist for cars every single day. You never known what is going to show up. I found and bought my Fiat 850 spider from Craigslist. Speedtv.com for auto racing news and auto industry news is a daily view also. A nice online magazine is Windingroad.com. nice car reviews and discussion forums. I have also bookmarked fiat500usa.com blog to stay up to date on the latest news from Fiat's re-entry in the US market.
These are all great places for the auto enthusiast to get a quick fix.

Top 10 Lists

I thought about doing some more top ten lists. All of them would of course be my opinion only. Some I thought of were ugliest cars, best looking cars, favorite cars from the 70's, etc. It surprises me how difficult these lists are to do. I mean 10 ugliest cars of all time! Cars have been around since the late 1800's and there are thousands to choose from. I might need to narrow the category down some. Maybe ugliest cars of a decade or certain manufacturer. Ugliest cars I have seen. I guess I have some work to do on this.
Doing a top ten list of your favorite cars is tough to do. The list would most likely have cars on it that I have never owned. How does one know something is their favorite if they have never tried it. I will give you an example. Most of my life I wanted a 1967 Pontiac GTO. A few years back the opportunity was there for me to purchase one. After owning the car for a few years I came to realize that I liked the car, but it wasn't what I always imagined it would be. Can I put the car on a top ten favorite list? I still really love the style of the car and driving a 4-speed muscle car is a must do. So yeah, I'll always have a soft spot for the 1967 GTO

Old Sturbridge Village.

My family and I spent the weekend in Sturbridge, MA visiting Old Sturbridge Village. Luckily the main part of the village was missed by the recent tornadoes in the area. The town of Sturbridge was not so lucky. There were some areas that were devastated.
On Saturday at Old Sturbridge Village they had an antique car rally. A majority of the cars were A model Fords. In fact there was almost every configuration of A model Ford ever made. Also a few nice Cadillacs including two from the teens. The highlight of the display were five steam powered cars. Four of them were Stanleys and one of unknown make. One of the Stanleys appeared to be a very early model made of wood and had tiller style steering. Another one of the Stanleys was later and had a more tradition steel frame and sedan style body. At the end of the day all the cars paraded around the village grounds before exiting. I had never seen a steam powered car run before much less five of them. That was worth the trip alone. The engines run in near silence. This allows you to hear the creaks and groans of the old suspension and framework going over the unpaved ground.