Ok the 17th is a Sunday it sounds good to me.and wednesday is a good day for me to be able to make it out to MOA. 3:00 is the earliest I can get there. So yes, that sounds good to me.

 

I added and updated your first post - note the time on Wednesday.

 

Ok everything sounds good to me, I may get there early to shop around a little and get a feel for the place..hmmm time to buy LOTS of maps and Highlighters.I look forward to meeting you adam!

 

Awesome. Should be a good time. I'll bring my one map and some ideas. Here's my cell phone number in case you need to find out where the heck I'm at - 612.703.8209. I don't usuallly plan my outfits a day in advance, but for you Zak, I will. I'll be sportin' an orange short-sleeved shirt. My wife got it last week for me for my birthday!! woohoo

 

Wow makes me feel special.

 

Ok, so the route is in place, ahh, heck, I think I should let adam do this, he's better. I hate typing long things because it reminds me of typing all the five page papers here in college!


P.S. I'm looking at the map right now! I'm going to be drooling over it tonight and I'm thinking about a trip over my spring break to maybe Montana, Wyoming, and those states so I can find some no speed limit zones, aka drive at a controllable speed for Montana. :smile:

 

Zak, Brandon and I met last night and came up with a route that will hopefully be pretty fun. The route changed slightly since our meeting, but I think we'll see some good colors and some nice twisty roads! Here's the details:

 

HuH? You're going to wash your mini? ITS ABOUT TIME! Hey you wanna wash em together and make a ruckus out of it? Scare people, grab attention? That one place you showed me sounds good to me, I just need to dig up my quarters. :smile:

 

BTW, Hey adam are you free for like the whole night on friday? I'm thinking we should drive through the route to make sure it's suitable, and to make some last minute changes.

 

Well - I said I might wash it...

I'd love to drive the route ahead of time, but I don't think I have time. I'm packed pretty much every day until next Tuesday

I think for the maps, I'll try to make little route-books if I can, with pages and a cover that says Fall Color Tour 2004 or something. But that might be getting ahead of myself.

I could probably wash the MINI this afternoon if you're open? Otherwise I'm not sure when. Saturday??

 

Good route! Not sure of our plans for Sunday, but it's possible that we could join the gang in Wabasha, if you stop. Of course, it would only be Wabasha to St Charles probably...

 

I'm open this afternoon, My cell is (734)649-5634. I'll be out motoring a bit

 

Even if you can make part of the drive, that would be awesome. I'd love to meet you.

 

Dang - I left work just before you posted this. How about Saturday sometime? I'll call you to find out.

 

Saturday sounds fine to me. Just try to avoid the mornings. I haven't been sleeping well lately. But I will make it for the tour no doubt!

 

Count us in. We'll meetcha in Wabasha about noon-ish.
Adam, I'll PM you.

 

I would like to thank all of those who showed up and decided to join us for this wonderful event. For those of you who didn't follow Me, Brandon, and Adam you guys missed out on the best part! Wish you would have been there! Well, I had a blast, enjoyed every moment of it. Now I have to fall asleep so I can get an adequate amount of rest before classes tomorow. I have to pack a little before tuesday and I hope to see you guys soon. Maybe we could do this in the winter too? Think about it, Mini's getting sideways in the snow, on the twisties, and not flying off the course. Good idea? hopefully there will be snow!

 

We had a blast too! Thanks for letting us join up halfway through. It was fun meeting everyone and pushing Katie faster than she's ever been before!

 

Zak - thank you for pushing for this!
Brandon - thanks for making the route and the map links.
Everyone else - thanks for showing up on such short notice! I didn't make very many maps and we used all of them!

Yeah - it was a great turnout. Everyone met at our place around 10am. There were about 6 MINIs and one very non-stock Focus ZX3 (he's going to be ordering an S shortly - so that's why we let him come with ). We gassed up and were on our way. We managed to stay together and in a line for awhile, with people at intersections letting us pass through ahead of them, the whole time smiling and pointing. In typical MINI fashion, we did several u-turns and I even managed to disguise a u-turn by going around a city block.

The colors were awesome. It seemed like the right time, although it had been windy a couple days prior, so there were some bare trees, but there were still a lot of color. Brandon did a fantastic job of picking a route along the river so we could get some nice pictures with the river and colors in the background.

We did another u-turn in Wabasha and met another MINI who drove up from Winona, but we lost a MINI, as they had other plans later in the day. We stopped for lunch at a local bowling alley and then headed back out on the road. We were on the highway for a bit and got a chance to really stretch our legs out a bit . The next stretch looked good on the map, nice and twisty - but ended up being a dirt road for awhile. However, it wasn't very dusty or gravelly (is that a word??), so it wasn't bad at all. Of course there were a couple Colin McRae moments, just for grins! The scenery through this section was awesome. The road was winding around small lakes and swamps on one side, with bluffs to your right and off in the distance on the left. The views were great with the bright colors reflecting off the water and offset by contrasting dead trees and foliage. We stopped for some more photos (which I'll post as soon as I get some).

After a short stretch, we lost the Winona MINI, as they headed back home. We pressed on towards Rochester, enjoying the views as we passed over hills, through state parks, small towns and got several looks and waves from people.

In Rochester, a couple MINIs opted for a different route home and 3 of us agreed to finish out the route. The next section was the most fun, with steep changes in elevation AND direction! The road was wonderfully twisty and made for some nice video footage from Brandon's MINI. There was a little bit of tire howling and plenty of perma-grins! Although, I think my wife's grin wasn't quite as big as ours....she was hanging on reminding me that she didn't want to die - I LOVE YOU CUTIE!

Now it was pretty much highway the rest of the trip home. It was starting to rain a bit. There was one stretch left that kinda felt like a rollercoaster as we tore through the farmland and secretly hoped we'd get airborn, just a little.

We finished at my place at 266.9 miles and about 7 1/2 hours for the day. We watched a little bit of footage from the video and then laughed and talked about certain spots. It was an awesome day. The weather was great, the people were better and the fun factor was awesome!

I feel so lucky to own a MINI - not only do I have a blast driving my car everyday, I get to meet new people all the time and share something special and feel part of a group. This is really great.
Once I receive some pictures, I'll post them for you guys. I can't wait to do this again!

 

The bummer news from the FCT. Katie got 2 rock chips. Her first ever! Now she's officially broken in, I guess.

 

ahhh crap! sorry to hear that. Is it the windshield - oh sorry - windscreen or the hood?

 

One on the bonnet, right above the clear bra, and one is on the bumber next to the license plate.

Guess I need to pickup some touch-up paint next trip to the Cities.

 

I hate the one right above the clear bra. I'm convinced someone should make a clear bra kit that covers the entire car!

 

No kidding!