Hello there Eastern Iowa MINI's! I am putting together a weekend get away drive for the last weekend in August. This drive is targeted to end in Madison, WI for Taste of Madison. I love the Taste of Chicago event and think the Taste of Madison event would be a great event to make it to.


The plan is start the drive on the 30th from Iowa City, and then head to Wisconsin to meet up with the Wisconsin and Illinois MINI groups to finish up the drive to Madison for an evening at the taste.

Once we head north we will make a stop for some leg stretching and lunch. After some leg stretching we will continue our drive north east with the first days drive ending with us arriving in Madison Wisconsin for a nice dinner and possibly some pestering of the Madison MINI group. Taste of Madison hosts around 60 food vendors and live music so I would expect Saturday night to be a night on the town eating and taking in some concerts.

Day two will essentially be a return trip back home, with the night before being the mainstay of the Taste. If you want to revisit the taste you can of course do so, but Thanks to Dustin from the Chicago MINI Driving Group there is a Sunday Vineyard Tour driving west after breakfast, then North and back east to Madison. For those that have to head back(such as myself) We will part from the Vineyard tour at around noon to head back home. For those that want to head home on Sunday afternoon or Labor Day/Monday it will be a fun filled day and night back in Madison area.


Updated Winery Tour info!
Here's some more details. Meet at 9am for Breakfast in Downtown Middleton WI at the Hubbard Ave Diner, http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&...3&z=16&iwloc=A At 10am street side drivers meeting and head out. Anyone that wants to join us is welcome. We will visit 4 local Winery's in a tour of 160 miles. The 2nd and 3rd vineyards are near the Iowa state line, the 4th is half way back to Madison. Should be back in Madison late afternoon. There will be a stop for lunch TBD.


If you are interested in making the drive please let me know so I have a good estimate of what we can expect for numbers so I can contact Madison area hotels for pricing on any possible group discounts. Hopefully this is something of interests to all of you EIM Minis.

I will post a link to this on our EIM site and MinisofIowa.com

 

Tenativly sign me up! I may be able to get some deals on Marriot hotels in Madison let me know

 

I'm definitely interested

 

Sounds good Just need some more interested people

 

Does this replace the June 7-8 drive?

 

This will be in lieu of the June 7th 8th drive.

 

I'm hoping to make it out some weekend and work out route details for this event. If you think you'd be interested or know of some Madison Minis interested let them know. Ill post the route as soon as I get it done. Still have a few months left for this though Hopefully we can get an ok turn out and eat some good food.

If your interested at all Lisa and I will be heading to Taste of Chicago for the day on the 4th of July weekend (at least were supposed to be heading there)

 

The 4th is our anniversary 16 years this year!!!

 

Oh wow 16years eh! Thats great..not even 5 here..

 

16 years at 35 years old been married almost 1/2 my life now and loving every minute

 

What a nice thing to say, Brian! As long as we're throwing out numbers, 32 here, in July.

 

Ok so I am now going to try and work on this more this week since I have the week off basically. Hopefully I can get some communications going with the Madison MINIs and we can have a little joint venture. Madison is not to far away from Iowa City and the Quad Cities and all so we can leave early and get up there fairly quickly if you would all like and kind of make it a one day event with overnight optional for those that feel like making the drive back that day. In any case, Ill have a route map and all up hopefully this week. thanks!

 

Route is a basic route straight to Madison so we can maximize time at the Taste and with the Madison group. I still need to communicate with the Madison group more to see if they have some good driving routes up north there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...9,3.397522&z=9

^^ Route..

If I can get a number of people going and staying over night I can start calling hotels to try and arrange a discount. Thanks!

 

HR, there are some fun, paved country roads in SW Wisconsin that you might want to consider as an option on the way up. D3m0N, Oldsbear, and I went cross-country between Mineral Point and Blue Mounds last year on our way to the Madison MINIs' HHH event just guessing at the route and ran across some pretty good curves and scenery--and didn't add much extra time. Something tells me that the Madison folks likely have some even better route suggestions.

Also, I recommend changing the title of your thread from its current, generic description (i.e., "weekend drive") to something more specific like "Eastern Iowa MINIs Taste of Madison Drive - Aug 30-31" or words to that effect. Gives it some pizazz, uniqueness, and might attract more attention and interest (maybe even from the WI MINIs). I think one of the NAM administrators can do this for you if you request it.

I'd likely join the procession in Dubuque on the way up. Not sure about overnighting in Madison yet but will check with SWMBO and will let you know.

Thanks for coordinating this!

__________________

 

Hey Iowa,

This sounds like a great event. Was just in Madison and it's a great place and great roads. You may enjoy this place on Sat night, https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=146631 and also note, I stole a room on Priceline in Middleton, West side of Madison, just 24 hrs before leaving this last weekend. Nothing in Madison is more then 15 min drive. If you would like to see the route we used for Galena last year send me an email at info@autoxcooper.com . There was also an event last fall west of Madison called the Hilly Hundred, posts on NAM, that would give you some good routes too. Hope that helps and Hope I can make it.

 

yep the HHH (Horibly Hilly Hundred) that was a great drive

I think I still have the maps let me check if I do I will post a scan

 

For some reason the edit option is missing from my first post....so I cant seem to change the thread name. I wanted to before but ran into the issue, I guess I could contact a moderator to change it.

 

Yeah, I think you need a moderator. Even D3m0N and I can't do it, and we have the extra super secret Coordinator functions...

__________________

 

Yeah for the moderator that changed the title

Being an Admin on like 5 other sites makes it odd to not even be able to edit a thread title

 

Ok here is an updated route map, it's not set in stone yet, but I think everyone will really like the Wauperton area roads. I need to drive up there and scout them out again for good twisties and then try and get those recorded into the GPS I also need to talk to the Chicago group and Madison group.

Route Map

I believe everything is paved roads, there may be one coated gravel there, but I could not tell in the street view shot. Didn't want to include gravel so we wouldn't have to worry about paint chips or anything, but sometimes to get to the good roads you have to take an only ok road. Hopefully the Wisconsin MINI group can offer some advise.

 

Now we're talkin'

OBTW, the first half of that little stretch of Waupeton road is pure gravel--no chip seal at all...very dusty. The second half is where D3m0N bent his wheel last November .

A nice alternative would be to stay on Ridge Road (it's actually C9Y but marked as C63 on the Google map) and go through Balltown. Still a nifty, curvy road, actually a bit shorter, and has some of the best views of the Mississippi valley you'll find anywhere.

 

Yeah I wasn't sure which one was the gravel one, I've driven them all up there but never remember names. When we get Walt back we are going to head up there to drive and drive the route and make a few adjustments to it based on surfaces..

 

Looks like you go right through Holy Cross. I plan to go at least for Saturday. We will probably not stay over night. We live close enough to Madison that we can drive back up Sunday if we want. And that gives me more time behind the wheel! Especially since my spouse drove Baby for the first time Sunday and totally fell in love! I will have to share drive time now If you can give me an ETA on your pass through Holy Cross, we will join up.

 

^^^ Yep we'll be heading pretty much smack dab through holy cross to head up there Well hopefully take off from Coralville fairly early in the morning so we can get to Madison within a good amount of time left in the day.

I hope to hit Holy Cross no later than 10am, and make it to Madison by 3pm for some food and fun!

Basic agenda goes like this.

8am meet and depart Coralville Res.
10am meet up with Northern Iowa MINIs
11am meet up with Wisconsin MINIs and get some lunch possibly?
3pm arrive in Madison wisconsin to check into hotels and head to the Taste!

Hopefully that works, I really need to get talking to whomever heads up the MadMinis group, and get an email into Dustin to see if the Chicago MINIs want to come up also.

I updated the route map to stay on 63. I think 52 is pretty good also, 55mph twisty road, but Ill have to check it when we head up there soon. If anyone is interested in going along to scout out the route let me know

 

On the route you have scheduled, the road from Farley to Holy Cross is closed (Y13). It is a major construction which is scheduled to be finished at the end of summer 2009. You would need to find a different route. A good alternative would be Hwy 136 to 52 south at Luxemburg.