Here are some of my pix from this weekend, covering mostly Red Rock and the c3 Breakfast on Sunday at Desert MINI.


































a quickr pickr post

 

OOps, one more

 

Thanks again for the best AMVIV yet you guys did so much to make this all fun for the rest of us, We do appreciate it. I am exhausted, after 4 days in Vegas, and 11 1/2 hours home. It was all worth it, saw old friends, made new ones, and never saw so many MINIs in one place. Also thanks to Palace Station for letting us do it again, and the Room was wonderful. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK Y0U

 

I'm writing this as a call for help.

As im writing this, I am currently stuck in Lone Pine with a flat wheel and a bent rim. I took the back way out out Vegas heading to NorCal, got lost and hit the Santa Rosa Pass in the middle of the moonless night on sunday and got a flat. Drove around in pitch black with no cell reception, flat tire and no idea where I am for about 30 miles scared shitless until I ran into a truck. The guy escorted me over to Panamint Springs resort where the owners we're extremely kind and let me stay in the parking lot with my Mini for free. Even offered me a free meal. I called the tow company this morning when I woke up and it was a 50 mile tow at 5 bucks an hour. AAA wouldn't help past 7 miles so I decided to stretch my runflats. I made it to Lone Pine where the service station is, but there aren't any tires my size, plus i've got a bent rim. I'm stuck here until I get new tires and a working rim. The service station can get em for me in 2-3 days, at 3-400 dollars a TIRE, plus I can't get the wheel without a Mini Dealership, which the nearest is 180 miles away. Actually there are 3 near me and they are all 180 miles in different directions (LA, Vegas and NorCal)

On the way over to Lone Pine from Panamint, I ran into Howard C who gave me some company and an escort to Lone Pine, he told me of someone who posts here on NAM called Nick (Yellow Mini with White roof) who lives in Bishop and works in Lone Pine. We headed over to Nicks place (across the street from the CHP office) and saw his Mini there, but he was out in a truck or something servicing for GTE. When I went back later his truck replaced the MINI so Im guessing he got off work and took off to go home at Bishop.

I'm trying to get in touch with him or in touch with anyone heading out this way to get some parts delivered or a spare rim I can use to hoof it back to Northern California (where I am now extremely late for work.), until then I am stuck here hemerraging money (this is after getting work done on my car in vegas PLUS losing money gambling) from motel bills and whatnot...can ANYONE help me out? I've got limited internet access here (the motel owner was kind enough to let me us his computer), so you'd have you reach me on my cell (909-964-8617). If you are reading this, Nick, please give me a call. If you can help out in anyway, please give me a call! Thank you!

I am currently staying at the Budget Inn Motel in Lone Pine.

 

Sandie, I am going to merge this thread with one already in progress. Glad you had a good time!

Avery, I just PM'd Nik (NAM username: xsmini) with a link to your post above. Hopefully, he will see your post and connect with you. I also emailed him the link and included your cell number and where you are staying. Good luck!

 

Thanks MINIClo, I wasn't paying attention just to excited and wanted to thank everyone. Sure wish you could have gone I so much wanted to meet you. Maybe next year.

 

I had to be in Los Angeles to attend an exhibition of my art. I will be there next year!

 

Mike rarely (never LOL!!) posts here on NAM but wanted to say he had a fantastic time. And a huge thanks to the organizers and we'll both be there next year...

Here's a link to just a few of the hundreds of pix he took:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mikeka...dKsnEByukFFS7o

Donna

 

Hey - we missed you, Donna! Mike looked a little lonely, too. Seriously, Mike looked like he was havin' fun, but you know what they say, about what happens in Vegas....Nah, he was pretty busy snappin' away to get into trouble, I think!

BCNU,
Rob in Dago

 

Looks like this Donkey had a hard on for MINIs.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mikeka...2e.jpg&.src=ph

 

A big Hip-Hip-Horray for Sin City MINI! You've pulled it off again. On Thursday evening, I counted 147 MINI/Minis in the Palace Station parking lot, and on Friday, 250 (by Sunday evening, only eight ). Not everyone parked or even stayed at the Palace Station, so I don't know what the final count was, but it was a very impressive plethora!

From the time I got there, until the time I left, non-stop fun. Even though I didn't get to go on the runs, it was great meeting all of you. There were so many new people this year, and will be even more next year...don't know how many lookey-loos came down from the Palace Station tower to ask us about our special cars. Chances are, they'll be driving one to AMVIV IV.

The runs were staged beautifully and departed on schedule, flawless! Everyone left the garage all spotless & purty, came back all filthy with the fun. Thank goodness most of us carry our own detailing stuff with us. Forget the spare tire, keep the Meguiars!

Speaking of detailing, Richard Lin (Octane Guy, THE Detail guy to know), El Presidente of the c3 Club, worked his hiney off detailing cars all weekend. Even after the c3 farewell breakfast on Sunday morning, he was still working on a Pepper White.

Randy Webb and team from Webb Motorsports, was also working their tails off - MINIs stacked four high for pulleys, exhausts, air intakes, etc. The team was kind enough to fit my MINI in for pulley and a spectacularly shiny new air intake, Webb Morotsports' very own. They’ve put the “Ziiiiiiiinng” back into my girl, and driving around is, once again, a new kick! Won’t ever be able to live without it, now. I had a chance to meet Waylan from Way Motor Works, too. Nice guy. Very intelligent in the ways of the MINI, and worked pretty much non-stop the whole time.

Super Duper thanks to Desert MINI for giving the c3 Club a place to have the farewell breakfast. Getting ready to serve 150+ people an early breakfast after a Saturday night in Vegas was challenging enough, but Desert MINI answered every need -shout out to Desert MINI – HEY-OH!

It looked like most everyone left on Sunday afternoon or evening, and the parking lot was a sad place. Those of us who stayed made the most of it, and saw more of Vegas and lost more money for one more day before heading off.

Thanks again Sin City MINIs, I had a blast and a half!


BTW - to whomever shouted, "get that F_ _ _ ing piece of Sh_ t out of here!" to the yellow Corvette that came up to the rooftop parking, that was my husband and 9-year-old boy coming to give me hugs and kisses before heading off. Thanks a lot. He only took the 'Vette to AMVIV because my boy couldn't miss school and I wanted to be in Vegas by Thursday. You left quite an impression on my boy.

 

We've got classless a-holes in our little community too....

I've been at Mini events where the "Classic" owners yell pretty much the same thing at the new Mini owners....

 

Agro-was glad to see your comment about space for the mixer,good call about no booze prior to the strip run.As the host club i can appreciate your concern with respect to liability issues.Because of the HARD WORK by members of Sin City Minis AMVIV was an huge sucess.Attention to detail(your maps of the runs)allowed the participants to arrive at their ultimate destination if they missed the caravan.Kudos to whoever was responsible for the maps.Q

 

Man what a blast. I've made all 3 and this was the best by far. All your hard work paid off in spades. The booklet was VERY well done and answered just about any question anyone would have. As this was the largest group ever for this event your hours of preperation really paid off from the assigned parking for vendors to the very active security detail at night. Thanks so much for a great time and look forward to next year.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I just got off the phone w/ AveryWo... he's still stuck, but Nick (xsmini) is bringing up his old S lites so he can limp home. I called to let him know to use MINI Roadside cause they'll take him to the nearest dealer...

Just an fyi to anyone else out there... if you're stuck, far from home or in the middle of nowhere, MINI Roadside (provided through AAA) will get you back to the nearest dealer. They'll also cover some of the hotel for trip interuption reimburstment... I let Avery know about all of this so he's going to give them a call to find get something set up.

 

 

I would like to thank:

Sin City MINIs
Agro, Todd, Mark Finn, and Team for providing a friendly place for us vendors to do our stuff, as well as holding the best AMVIV yet--like Maxmini, this was my 3rd AMVIV as well. Oooh, thanks to (Jeff??) the PA Guy for letting us use the SAME PA system that blew out Agro's rear windows. Thanks Todd and Mark for trying to keep my reserved vendor area free of stray MINIs. I still can't believe there was a MINI parked in my vendor space for 2 days, didn't we come to AMVIV to uhm, party together?

Donovan & John at Desert MINI for providing a host facility, raffle prizes, and accomodating us by moving the cars off the lot so we could all get our MINIs together in one place!

c3 (Cooper Club for Charities) Members
I won't waste bandwidth by thanking the entire team--I will do that on our own forum, but I do want to mention one person in particular.

Cherry2005--thanks for the sunscreen! I was dying out there in the sun trying to restore the poor damaged MINI's (see below). Thanks also for allowing us to fill your cabrio with most of the goodies from Sundays breakfast event, and finally, a big, BIG, thank you for being the kind and generous person you were for the donations you made to our cause.

Finally, I'd like to thank that Steam Cleaning company working on the ground floor of the Palace Station. These guys ruined so many MINI's this weekend with their dirty towels (using towels from the wheels to the paint, using towels thrown on the floor contaminated with all kinds of particles picked up from the ground and other cars.... that they help us detailers stay in business.

Thank You!

 

What a weekend. I came up by myself and wasn't sure what kind of weekend it was going to be, but wow, I am sure glad I did. I have been coming to vegas for 10 years and have never had such a good time just hangin out talking to people. It was great to put a face with all the names of people I have talked to via NAM. My favorite part was doing what Mini's do best, a day at the track. Thanks to everyone who helped organize the weekend, can't wait until next year.

 

Great event. My wife and I had one of the best weekends in 28 years together. We'll be back next year. Great people, great machines, great times.

With that said, the only "gripe" I have is the race might have been a bit better coordinated. We heard that the "Challenge" race was to begin at 2pm, and we would have been there in time for it if it actually had started at that time and we hadn't had to search for the route to get into the speedway area where it could be viewed. We actually got into position at about 2:15 or so. Some signs or a map (like the really great ones that the Sin City folks did for the drives!!) would have helped us get there in time. And then a little better coordination to publish and stick to a real schedule for the race start. (It wasn't hard to find the speedway, but rather, finding the way into the track after we got there was the hard part.)

Other than that (which we consider to have been a small glitch, since I still enjoyed watching the cars run through the course anyway, and my wife just read and napped) everything was as near perfect as possible.

Thanks to the whole crew who worked so hard, and to all the great folks whose company we enjoyed.

 

Looked like a great get together. Next time I'll have to sneak in to town and not tell the family I have in Vegas that I'm there, so I can actually participate in an event or two.

Agro,

My wife and I saw the damage to the car that the dang speaker did. The wind was blowing so strong. Hopefully it gets fixed for a reasonable amount.

 

and also near Mt. Charleston...

Attachment 11798

 

[
BTW - to whomever shouted, "get that F_ _ _ ing piece of Sh_ t out of here!" to the yellow Corvette that came up to the rooftop parking, that was my husband and 9-year-old boy coming to give me hugs and kisses before heading off. Thanks a lot. He only took the 'Vette to AMVIV because my boy couldn't miss school and I wanted to be in Vegas by Thursday. You left quite an impression on my boy.[/quote]

Cherry, sorry to hear about this, please tell your son not all of us are like that. Some of us are car nuts no matter what kind you drive. My son actually drove down with us in the group. He has an Acura RSX S. Of course he got teased but it was all in fun, and he had a great time. I like your husband's Corvette, just ignore those who don't play nice

 

Thank you Sandie.

My son does understand that there are bad eggs out there...I was probably more disappointed than either of my boys. Just a shame that someone would shout something like that with a kidlett in plain view.

 

Kids or not, I would expect more respect from this group, even towards other cars. It's sad to think that somebody who motors is low enough to act that way around others.

 

Just to let everyone know about Avery (stranded in Lone Pine, see above). He is all set up and good to go. I let him borrow my old S lites to get him back home. His were pretty damaged . If you see a set of s lites for sale with bfg's on them in the San Jose area let me know. ( Just playing Avery )

Awsome job everyone form Sin City . I'll hopefully have some pics up later today.

Nik