I attended my first MINI club meeting here in merrye olde Englande last night, and met lots of nice people. They speak funny, but the love of MINIs and driving like maniacs is universal! (I had to drive 45 minutes (@45 miles) to get to the meeting! And most of that was on M5 and M4 driving about 70-80mph. I’m still getting used to England being a bigger island than Oahu. Oh, and when I talk about when I arrived in England, I keep saying “I arrived on island …” doh! ) We met at a nice pub not far from Bristol, but before the meeting we had a fun run through the English countryside. It was already dark, so I didn’t get to see much scenery unless it was only a few feet from the driver’s side window (and on English roads, a lot of scenery is that close … stone walls and hedgerows, for example, which somehow looked closer the faster I drove). I couldn’t believe how fast we were driving on all those narrow twisty roads, through little villages, even some real backcountry bits where the (one-lane) road seemed more like a paved ditch than anything else, with steep muddy sides and trees. It had been raining earlier (of course) so the roads were muddy and also had lots of puddles, and for the first time since owning Lucy, I understood why there was a jet wash for the headlights. I had to call on all of my BMW Car Club of Hawaii driver school training to keep up, but I managed. Lucy went through a lot of windshield wiper fluid last night, both front and back, and she has never, ever been so filthy! I would have given her a bath today, but it was really cold and windy, so she’ll have enjoy her mudpack a bit longer.

And Beastmaster … get this for a kowinkadink … the MINI2.com Beastmaster is a member of the Severns club! Crazy, huh?

The club plans on having several runs this year, so I’ll be seeing plenty of English and Welsh countryside over the next several months. I guess I better stock up on windshield wiper fluid.

Oh, and everyone thought my MINI of Hawaii T-shirt was really cool.

I sure do miss the Hawaiian sunshine, but the sun here is finally starting to show its face more often, and I hear it gets a little warmer here in the summertime. I’m starting to think that Lucy’s outside temperature gauge is stuck in the lower 40s (F). Guess I’ll find out in a few months (I hope!).

I also miss Spam musubi, but I’ve been too lazy to make any. I don’t suppose any of you would want to run to your nearest 7-11, buy about a half dozen nice, warm, saran-wrapped Spam musubi, and overnight FedEx them to me? No??? How about some Dave’s green tea ice cream? Pleeeeeeeaaaase????

Hope y’all are doing well away down there in the Aloha State.

Cheers

Angel and Lucy :smile:

 

I'm glad you're having some fun in good old England. Pretty soon you'll be spelling behavior and parlor as behaviour and parlour.

I never knew where Beastmaster lived, but he did PM me on MINI2 a couple years ago when he found out he had a similar name as mine's. I actually did most of my posting on MINI2 as they are a great resource for the MINI. I wasn't turned onto MCO, nka NAM until Sylvia told me about it one day at MoH.

Have fun and keep up those driving skills!

 

wow, i think that'd be fun to get my mini a bit muddy. at least muddy enuff to require use of those headlight washers.

somehow i keep imagining those 4 wheelers doing the mud bog thing...except, of course, it's with our minis!

btw, i bet you could sell your hawaii-logo'd stuff for big $$. at least that's how it was in mid-america, which was just about as cold if not colder than that big island you're on. and almost as good an accent.