MINIs invade Paramount's Kings Island, Ohio - July 18th, 2005 - Part I
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Coordinator :: MINIsota Motoring Society (MMS)
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From: MPLS. MN
MINIs invade Paramount's Kings Island, Ohio - July 18th, 2005 - Part I
I can't remember how it all started, but sometime back my wife and I noticed that PKI was going to be adding a new rollercoaster to their stable of fun. It just so happened to be The Italian Job Stunt Ride, a heavily themed rollercoaster. Instantly we knew we were going to head down to ride it. I talked to a few people in our local club and we were trying to figure out a date that would work.
Someone was already ahead of me! As there was a thread here about a collaboration with the park to turn this into a grand opening/MINI owner's event (To quote one of our members as he was riding The Beast) BRILLIANT!!
The wheels were turning....
Someone in our group came in contact with a person who was working on the event and we tried to stay in contact with the events to come. As things fell into place we called area Inns and hotels and informed them of the upcoming invasion.
For our group in MN, it would be a long drive. We decided to break it up into two days. That way we'd be well rested for the days' activities. We decided we'd leave late Thursday afternoon and agreed at a meeting spot just outside of town. 2 of our MINIs got a late start and stuck in traffic, so we decided to head out and we would wait in Eau Claire. It was decided that my MINI would lead since I had the Valentine One. So off we went!
We had radios so we could keep in contact along the way and inform others when we had to use the rest stops and whatnot.
Here's part of "The Crew"
(note the expensive, custom signage we have)
The best colored MINI around!
Crossing into "cheesehead" territory
After a rather quick trip to Eau Claire, we stopped for dinner. It also gave our other 2 MINIs a meeting spot so they could joing the train. Once we finished our Subway, we headed out to check out the new leapard stripes on Saffron, the gold MINI, aka SHEMINI. HEMINI is on the right.
Now we have everybody in a line and we're pretty much taking up the left lane. The looks as we pass peole are great. We get peole waving, thumbs up, etc. For the most part, people were pretty good about not getting in our line, but a couple times they did. I think they just wanted to be cool for a second.
Of course there were some rest stops, as Madison was still a couple hours away.
That night we arrived at the Best Western in Madison. I had received a fun route from a fellow MINI owner who lives in town. I mentioned it to the group, but by then beer and hot tub was on the brain! After I had checked in my wife informed me that I left the drain plug on the cooler open and the back of the MINI was soaked. Nice....
The pool area was very welocoming. The hot tub was actually hot and for awhile we had the place to ourselves. Then at 10pm we got the boot and get sent to our rooms by the staff! Just a little longer?!! Puhlease!!
We woke up at the but-crack of dawn and enjoyed a hot breakfast, which was a nice departure from the usual continental breakfasts. I think we were on the road by 7:30am or so. Our goal - Indianapolis by 1pm to meet up with some Chicago MINI peeps.
Welcome center sign
Some windmill thingies along the way - kinda hard to see, sorry.
Here's a shot that I thought would turn out better than it did, but it's kinda neat anyway
Things are going pretty good so far. The Valentine One has only gone off a couple times without any ensuing drama, we're making good time and we are guessing that we won't lose any time. Only part of Indianna likes to play along with daylight savings, so we are hoping that we're still on schedule of meeting up with the Chicago MINIs. I kept trying to get the truckers to honk their horns by doing the arm motion of pulling on the horn, but my wife kept stopping me, saying something like it's illegal for them...or something...
Once we realized we weren't going to lose any time - yet - we called the Chicago group and told them we were kinda close. They figured they were about the same time out and we talked about lunch. He told us we could park at the dealership and there were lunch places within walking distance. Great!
We arrived at the dealership pretty close to our guess. We met the gang and then realized we were taking up their parking spots so we moved to a back lot. The dealership was nice. I didn't meet anyone from inside, but the place was clean and they had a lot of MINIs. Their service area looked nice as well. Very open and huge. Every stall seemed to have the feeling of being outside, even if it didn't have it's own garage door.
Here's my lunch buddy! We just happen to have the same size head. How do I know this? Because we did the "put-your-hands-on-the-side-of-your-head-and-now-bring-them-to-mine-test". It's highly accurate
After lunch we hung out at the dealer for a few minutes - you know, to get warmed up for the parking lot ettiquette in Ohio!
I've always wanted checkerboard mirror caps!
This was one of my wife's favorites....
Time really flies when you're having fun and gawking at other MINIs definately FUN! Finally we realized that we should get going as we still had a ways to go and we would be losing an hour along the way. The Chicago group had a couple radios, so they changed stations to match ours and we were off!
Now we're on our way again and we have TWICE as many MINIs this time! Once again I'm leading the way and immediately we get seperated cuz of a light. It was bound to happen with that many cars, but we slow down and soon we have everyone. All in a line. In the left lane. It's just awesome to look in any of my mirrors and see MINIs and MINIs and MINIs. I'm so excited!
We make a stop and let people gas up. Turns out there's one more MINI on it's way. We tell them what exit we're at and they soon join us. It's like a travelling car show. People are looking and waving all over again. Just like when I first got the MINI on 2002.
Everyone's here, we're all gassed up and ready to go. We finish the drive to the Kirkwood Inn, near the park and are treated to another great sight - MORE MINIs! The lot is full of MINIs, from all over the place. We pull in get our rooms and run around and talk to people.
What I've always liked about owning my MINI is the fact that you can do something like this. Hang out with others who love the car and are oftentimes more of a dork about it than you! Also, there's hardly ever the same car twice. Maybe similar stripes, but different wheels, or mirror caps, or roof. It's really great.
The Cincinatti group was kind enough to arrange a Meet and Greet for us at Skyline Chili that night. So after some washing and talking, we were off to the MnG.
My wife and I were staying with some cousins of hers and they met us at Skyline Chili. They had never been this close to MINIs before, so this was a real treat for them.
Seperated at birth?!
Another one of our favorites
A beautiful ending on the day
It's now The BIG Day!! Saturday morning and we get to go to the park! Since we stayed with family, we called to check in with our group and find out when they were leaving for the park. Since we were only about 15 minutes away, it was easy to meet up with them. The drive to the park was awesome. We had about 7+ MINIs in tow and happened to find a route that had some twisties in it . As we came close to the park, we were turning left at the same time as other MINIs were coming at us, turning right, onto the same road. As we poured through the intersection, into our own lanes, the look on people's faces waiting must have been that of awe. It was truly a wonderful sight. We made our way to the front gate and got lined up to enter.
Another great colored MINI!
One of our members was on a road trip on the East Coast and at first didn't think she could make this event. However, they did some fast sightseeing and met us at the Kirkwood Inn! Here she is at our Reserved Parking area in the park.
BTW - her eyes match her MINI. No lie!
My wife and I
I like this one too (even thought it's not BRG):smile:
And here's most of our crew from MN
As we were directed to our reserved parking, there were several MINIs who had the chance to be on display closer to the front gates. They got to park on the grass and had a nice little info sheet to post so that everyone looking could see what had been done to the MINI. We happened to get one of our own, Saffron on the grass. Of course, that's where leapords love to be anyway, so it was only fitting.
Once at the front of the park, we checked in and received our VIP lanyard thingies. Jeffrey is one of the organizers of the event and it was great to see him there and talk to him. Maureen was the other person and she was there all day as well. Here I am getting my VIP status - oh yeah...
Once in the park, Maureen walked us back to the Italian Job coaster. What was cool is that it was roped off and people were waiting at the ropes to go by. We got to go past them and once in the area of the coaster, they had high top tables with figurines of MINIs and safes with money and gold falling out to keep the spirit of the movie and the ride.
This whole area was ours! Just MINI folk. It was pretty cool. Most of us grabbed some food and then imediately got in line for the ride. The breakfast was great. Bagels, rolls, muffins, fruit, coffee and juice. It was a nice light breakfast.
Nothing like a cliffhanger, but that's all I have for now.
I'll get the rest up soon - hope you like 'em!
Someone was already ahead of me! As there was a thread here about a collaboration with the park to turn this into a grand opening/MINI owner's event (To quote one of our members as he was riding The Beast) BRILLIANT!!
The wheels were turning....
Someone in our group came in contact with a person who was working on the event and we tried to stay in contact with the events to come. As things fell into place we called area Inns and hotels and informed them of the upcoming invasion.
For our group in MN, it would be a long drive. We decided to break it up into two days. That way we'd be well rested for the days' activities. We decided we'd leave late Thursday afternoon and agreed at a meeting spot just outside of town. 2 of our MINIs got a late start and stuck in traffic, so we decided to head out and we would wait in Eau Claire. It was decided that my MINI would lead since I had the Valentine One. So off we went!
We had radios so we could keep in contact along the way and inform others when we had to use the rest stops and whatnot.
Here's part of "The Crew"
(note the expensive, custom signage we have)
The best colored MINI around!
Crossing into "cheesehead" territory
After a rather quick trip to Eau Claire, we stopped for dinner. It also gave our other 2 MINIs a meeting spot so they could joing the train. Once we finished our Subway, we headed out to check out the new leapard stripes on Saffron, the gold MINI, aka SHEMINI. HEMINI is on the right.
Now we have everybody in a line and we're pretty much taking up the left lane. The looks as we pass peole are great. We get peole waving, thumbs up, etc. For the most part, people were pretty good about not getting in our line, but a couple times they did. I think they just wanted to be cool for a second.
Of course there were some rest stops, as Madison was still a couple hours away.
That night we arrived at the Best Western in Madison. I had received a fun route from a fellow MINI owner who lives in town. I mentioned it to the group, but by then beer and hot tub was on the brain! After I had checked in my wife informed me that I left the drain plug on the cooler open and the back of the MINI was soaked. Nice....
The pool area was very welocoming. The hot tub was actually hot and for awhile we had the place to ourselves. Then at 10pm we got the boot and get sent to our rooms by the staff! Just a little longer?!! Puhlease!!
We woke up at the but-crack of dawn and enjoyed a hot breakfast, which was a nice departure from the usual continental breakfasts. I think we were on the road by 7:30am or so. Our goal - Indianapolis by 1pm to meet up with some Chicago MINI peeps.
Welcome center sign
Some windmill thingies along the way - kinda hard to see, sorry.
Here's a shot that I thought would turn out better than it did, but it's kinda neat anyway
Things are going pretty good so far. The Valentine One has only gone off a couple times without any ensuing drama, we're making good time and we are guessing that we won't lose any time. Only part of Indianna likes to play along with daylight savings, so we are hoping that we're still on schedule of meeting up with the Chicago MINIs. I kept trying to get the truckers to honk their horns by doing the arm motion of pulling on the horn, but my wife kept stopping me, saying something like it's illegal for them...or something...
Once we realized we weren't going to lose any time - yet - we called the Chicago group and told them we were kinda close. They figured they were about the same time out and we talked about lunch. He told us we could park at the dealership and there were lunch places within walking distance. Great!
We arrived at the dealership pretty close to our guess. We met the gang and then realized we were taking up their parking spots so we moved to a back lot. The dealership was nice. I didn't meet anyone from inside, but the place was clean and they had a lot of MINIs. Their service area looked nice as well. Very open and huge. Every stall seemed to have the feeling of being outside, even if it didn't have it's own garage door.
Here's my lunch buddy! We just happen to have the same size head. How do I know this? Because we did the "put-your-hands-on-the-side-of-your-head-and-now-bring-them-to-mine-test". It's highly accurate
After lunch we hung out at the dealer for a few minutes - you know, to get warmed up for the parking lot ettiquette in Ohio!
I've always wanted checkerboard mirror caps!
This was one of my wife's favorites....
Time really flies when you're having fun and gawking at other MINIs definately FUN! Finally we realized that we should get going as we still had a ways to go and we would be losing an hour along the way. The Chicago group had a couple radios, so they changed stations to match ours and we were off!
Now we're on our way again and we have TWICE as many MINIs this time! Once again I'm leading the way and immediately we get seperated cuz of a light. It was bound to happen with that many cars, but we slow down and soon we have everyone. All in a line. In the left lane. It's just awesome to look in any of my mirrors and see MINIs and MINIs and MINIs. I'm so excited!
We make a stop and let people gas up. Turns out there's one more MINI on it's way. We tell them what exit we're at and they soon join us. It's like a travelling car show. People are looking and waving all over again. Just like when I first got the MINI on 2002.
Everyone's here, we're all gassed up and ready to go. We finish the drive to the Kirkwood Inn, near the park and are treated to another great sight - MORE MINIs! The lot is full of MINIs, from all over the place. We pull in get our rooms and run around and talk to people.
What I've always liked about owning my MINI is the fact that you can do something like this. Hang out with others who love the car and are oftentimes more of a dork about it than you! Also, there's hardly ever the same car twice. Maybe similar stripes, but different wheels, or mirror caps, or roof. It's really great.
The Cincinatti group was kind enough to arrange a Meet and Greet for us at Skyline Chili that night. So after some washing and talking, we were off to the MnG.
My wife and I were staying with some cousins of hers and they met us at Skyline Chili. They had never been this close to MINIs before, so this was a real treat for them.
Seperated at birth?!
Another one of our favorites
A beautiful ending on the day
It's now The BIG Day!! Saturday morning and we get to go to the park! Since we stayed with family, we called to check in with our group and find out when they were leaving for the park. Since we were only about 15 minutes away, it was easy to meet up with them. The drive to the park was awesome. We had about 7+ MINIs in tow and happened to find a route that had some twisties in it
. As we came close to the park, we were turning left at the same time as other MINIs were coming at us, turning right, onto the same road. As we poured through the intersection, into our own lanes, the look on people's faces waiting must have been that of awe. It was truly a wonderful sight. We made our way to the front gate and got lined up to enter.Another great colored MINI!
One of our members was on a road trip on the East Coast and at first didn't think she could make this event. However, they did some fast sightseeing and met us at the Kirkwood Inn! Here she is at our Reserved Parking area in the park.
BTW - her eyes match her MINI. No lie!
My wife and I
I like this one too (even thought it's not BRG):smile:
And here's most of our crew from MN
As we were directed to our reserved parking, there were several MINIs who had the chance to be on display closer to the front gates. They got to park on the grass and had a nice little info sheet to post so that everyone looking could see what had been done to the MINI. We happened to get one of our own, Saffron on the grass. Of course, that's where leapords love to be anyway, so it was only fitting.
Once at the front of the park, we checked in and received our VIP lanyard thingies. Jeffrey is one of the organizers of the event and it was great to see him there and talk to him. Maureen was the other person and she was there all day as well. Here I am getting my VIP status - oh yeah...
Once in the park, Maureen walked us back to the Italian Job coaster. What was cool is that it was roped off and people were waiting at the ropes to go by. We got to go past them and once in the area of the coaster, they had high top tables with figurines of MINIs and safes with money and gold falling out to keep the spirit of the movie and the ride.
This whole area was ours! Just MINI folk. It was pretty cool. Most of us grabbed some food and then imediately got in line for the ride. The breakfast was great. Bagels, rolls, muffins, fruit, coffee and juice. It was a nice light breakfast.
Nothing like a cliffhanger, but that's all I have for now.
I'll get the rest up soon - hope you like 'em!
1st Gear
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
From: Gainesville, Georgia
Fantastic review!! Jenny and I really enjoyed it. Wasn't it fun going into the park in the morning? They didn't know what hit them when all the MINIs converged to the gates all at the same time. Too cool. BTW, Jenny and I were in the BRG/BLK MCS with the Italian Job banner on the windshield and the 4 rally lights.
It was great meeting everyone in the Minnesota Group. You guys are great! Anytime you come down to Atlanta please let us know!
Thanks again for the great pics and story...Scott
It was great meeting everyone in the Minnesota Group. You guys are great! Anytime you come down to Atlanta please let us know!
Thanks again for the great pics and story...Scott
Coordinator :: Chicago MINI Motoring Club
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 842
Likes: 1
From: Skokie, IL
Way cool.. Thanks for the writeup (and thanks for a few pics of my car in the bunch, even though it is not BRG!!)
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Coordinator :: MINIsota Motoring Society (MMS)
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 874
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From: MPLS. MN
Originally Posted by ScottGBRG
Fantastic review!! Jenny and I really enjoyed it. Wasn't it fun going into the park in the morning? They didn't know what hit them when all the MINIs converged to the gates all at the same time. Too cool. BTW, Jenny and I were in the BRG/BLK MCS with the Italian Job banner on the windshield and the 4 rally lights.
Originally Posted by ScottGBRG
It was great meeting everyone in the Minnesota Group. You guys are great! Anytime you come down to Atlanta please let us know!
Thanks again for the great pics and story...Scott
Thanks again for the great pics and story...Scott
Originally Posted by ernesto
Way cool.. Thanks for the writeup (and thanks for a few pics of my car in the bunch, even though it is not BRG!!)
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