I MISS YOU GUYS!!!

<sniff-sniff>

I sure hope that you're all having fun!!!

Sorry you couldn't come along. We miss having all of our crew here. We've had lots of fun and most people are heading home today. See Don's photos on his site (click here) and others on the AMVIV thread (click here). I'll post some soon...
Rick

Good Morning 5280 people.

Rick, thanks for posting the link. I will move more pictures around for viewing over the next couple of days.

Still in LV, pretty quiet around here without 400+ MINIs.

Driving 95 South to Riverside then the 15 South to San Diego. I have not seen this part of the desert for at least 15 years, so it should be fun.

I will post a picture or two tonight in the picasa albums.

I miss my daily drives in the foothills.

Don

The EARLY caravan left LV at 5:08 am yesterday, taking the southern route on the basis of a snow and ski forecast in Colorado. Yes, it is longer. Yes, it is scenic. Yes, these folks like to boogie. In the group:

• Ron and Shelley
• The Candians (more on that later)
• Mindy and family (CSCO)
• Jim and Carol (Pueblo)
• Michael and his girlfriend
• Al
• Chuck and Alberta
• Myself

Made good headway down thru N AZ and then thru ALQ. At that point, the Canadians (Oh yes, they had another incident. There was significant wind. The black trim piece on the left front of the windshield flew off. Kind of like pigs flying out your butt. Middle of New Mexico. Broke. Jim put the remainer on with, us, clear duct tape and away they went. No cares in the world) headed EAST on I-40 rather than thru Denver. In retrospect, Denver might have been a good choice. You see, they went thru the TX panhandle right into OKLAHOMA CITY where of course, there were tornadoes last night.

Can't wait to hear about THAT one. They were going to try to go straight thru I think......Maybe we can check on them tonite....

Denver made it home about 9:30 to drop into bed. Cannot find the blackberry and the phone won't even turn on now. Quite a trip.

JPS

Well, The other Denver group was far less eventful, and for that I am thankful.

We left Vegas at 6:32 am and arrived out of the mountains in Denver at... wait for it... 6:32 pm. With the time change that's 11 hours including fuel, bio and food breaks. We saw a little rain (hardly enough to wet the road) in UT and about twelve snow flakes on the Vail side of Eisenhower tunnel, then some more flakes in Idaho Springs. There were no delays worth mentioning; which is fine by us.

Hopefully Jason and Mark have an uneventful drive back to Canada, good luck guys!

I had such a great time & miss everyone already!!!! Looking forward to seeing everyones photos! Maybe we could do some kind of photos presentation at Aprils MINI5280 meeting? Has it been decided where it will be?? I'm sure it would be fine to have it at the dealership if that interests anyone? We have a good wall upstairs in the meeting room here at the MINI building. Let me know!
Thanks to everyone for a wonderful time in Vegas!!!!

I've posted my AMVIV 2008 photos on my SmugMug album site, here. In the 1st photo below is Jason, from Ontario, Canada, driving the LV Strip! In the 2nd photo, Agro, the Aussie and AMVIV organizer, is as friendly as ever.
Rick

Hey,
We're glad you all made it home safely. It was a fun trip and we enjoyed meeting a lot of new mini people. We'll see you at MITM, if not sooner.
Jim and Carole

Good pictures Rick, it's always fun to see other people's point of view.

Glad everyone's home safe now, I heard this afternoon there was a terrible accident on I-70 near Vail, looks like we all missed it.

I am still so wasted. Yesterday I was sore, stiff and foggy. Today, just cold - where is the 80 deg temps when you really need them?
Late last night I put up our pictures on our Flickr site; unedited and unfiltered so give me a break. You can find them here: http://flickr.com/photos/maybeefamil...7604340097103/
I had a really great time and a very enjoyable ride home. Sorry we didn't get a chance to say goodbye Jim, but by the time I realized we were in Pueblo, you already turned off.
Thanks again for the caravan, radar detectors and good company.
Wonder if those canooks made it back?

1 new windscreen $218
1 interior cleaning to get marinara sauce cleaned up $80
1 broken wheel bolt $92
1 a-pillar replacement $71

Out running 2 tornadoes on your way home from a 10,000 km roadtrip from Vegas where you motored with your friends

Priceless

Mastercard will help get you by,
but the MINI will get you through EVERYTHING else!

I arrived home at 430am EST. Tuesday morning

can someone email me my a-pillar mod pic? someone took one, I didn't cause it was raining non-stop all the way home....

Dude, you rock! Glad you are home safe... it was a fun-filled weekend. As for the picture of A-Pillar, check Chuck's Mnimaybee's link. He took a couple pictures.

Hope to see you at MITM this year.

Glad everyone made it home safe.
Nice meeting and driving down with you guys.

We took the south route through Oklahoma back on Sunday early. We made that decision last minute due to the weather reports for Denver and Rich's tire/suspension setup not being snow friendly. We made Oklahoma on the first night at 3a.m. (15 hours driving after the 2 hour time changes) and stopped because of a thunderstorm ahead of us. Tuesday we hit the road after about 3 hours sleep to try to outrun the tornado producing t-storm. (we were one county away from a sighted one at one point). It caught us in Missouri. We got home at 10:30 on Tuesday night. (another 16 hours 3/4 of it in blinding rain)

I have to upload some more pics/video of the drive home. here is the drive down gallery: http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/i...albumview=grid

the AMVIV gallery: http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/i...albumview=grid

The drive back is coming soon

Glad to hear that everyone got home alright, it sounds like there was a lot of bad weather out there.

It was apleasure motoring with everyone, and we look forward to seeing you again sometime. Consider coming down for Minis in the Mountains this August, it's a pretty good time.

we took the same route and stopped at the red roof inn in oklahoma... due to the tornados too...

arrived home in my driveway.. 430am... tuesday morning...

Still working my way back to Colorado.

I will leave San Diego in the morning. Stopping in Holbrook, AZ, then on to home.

Here is a link to some SD pictures today, it turned out to be a nice day. They are still saying rain on Thursday. Hummm.

See most of you at the MINI5280 meeting.

Don

Glad to hear that everybody (almost) is back safe and sound, less a few small incidents. We're back too, Wed 5:00 PM (MST). We left St George, UT a bit after 7:00 AM (MST). Dry roads except a bit of melting from the sides that meanders into the roadway on W side of Vail Pass and E side of Eisenhower Tunnel (I-70). Had a great, relaxing time in St George. On this trip, the MCS turned over 40,000 miles and I turned 50 today. Years, that is. We're glad to be back home and looking forward to the next (?) road trip. Time to look at the others' photos. My photos here.
Rick

All good miles and good years I hope!
Happy B-Day Rick.

I finally made it back to Louisville with 3081 miles racked up on Scooter.

Great trip, nice roads other than parts of I40, which I traveled on twice, a short stretch down and a long stretch back to Colorado.

Had to do a fast wash in Needles, CA since a truck dumped brown crud on me as I was passing, not sure what it was but I could not see out of the windshield. I think I used about 1/4 bottle of washer fluid getting it partially clear. Spray wash water in Needles is very hard, instant spots.

Picked up some windshield rash and a nasty little rock chip on the windshield in Colorado. Lots of sand out in LV and California across the desert.

Fun drive out with Chuck and Rick with the wives, good overnight in Utah and a blast with all those MINIs at AMVIV 5.

Spent a couple of quality hours cleaning Scooter today and doing a Hydro spiff. Butterflies be gone, I hope.

I suffered a cracked windshield and some scratches from an attacking tumble weed in New Mexico. Sucker waited in the ditch till he saw me, then flew out in a Kamikaze maneuver and nailed my hood. Also got numerous chips.
Oh well, worth it.

Chuck,

You going to be able to PC the scratches or have to repaint the entire MINI for those shows you love?

Sorry to hear about the attack tumbleweeds.

You going to do a new windshield at Schomp with a MINI OEM?

Don

HAPPY BELATED 50th BIRTHDAY RICK!!!!!!!!
How come we didn't celebrate your birthday in Vegas?!!

There is the 5280 meeting tomorrow for a club Birthday celebration!