Hey Vlad,
I'll shoot you a PM also, but some of us from HR MINI, including Kathy (2FUN4ME) are planning on meeting up with you two in the Richmond area for BBQ. It's right off I 95 and the food is great. We'll grab a bite to eat together and send you on your southern journey.

Nice shirts too by the way! I think we might be able to find a couple of left over shirts from one of our events too!

 

I think you guys are going to have a very "FUN" adventure.

 

Tomorrows the big day.

Fill'er up with gas, check the oil, windshield wiper fluid, air in tires, coolant, confirm all exterior lights are working and get a good nights rest.

Give the MINI one last bath, too. I've found that a clean car rides smoother, runs better and gets better gas mileage. Well, seems too anyways.

...Les

I still suggest to take that short detour off I95 and drive down the beach at Daytona.

 

Enjoyed having lunch with VLAD and his co-pilot. We thoroughly enjoyed their stories (with translation) out of NYC.

 

Oh man did we have fun! Vlad and Sergey were great to have lunch with. What a pair of funny guys! Between talking MINI's and airplanes, we all had a fantastic lunch. Famous Dave's Bar B Que was as great as ever. I'm really glad we had a chance to meet them and swap a few stories. It's a memory I doubt I'll ever forget. If anyone else gets a chance to meet up with these two, you won't regret it I assure you!

Good luck on the rest of your adventure! I'll be tracking your progress.

 

Yes, we had a blast. Vlad and Sergey are the coolest.

For anyone interested, you can read the thread on our HR MINI board: http://www.hrmini.com/component/opti.../topic,3627.0/.

 

There is nowhere to drive further South no more roads. Thank you HRminiClub for feeding us and blessing... The trip is something I've hardly imagined... and it's just half of it. Write up with pictures will follow... when I come back

 

After checking, rechecking and double checking everything we were ready to go. Packed our minimalist posessions and settled in Holland Motor Lodge for the night. MINI found a Canadian buddy and they slept together. Both needed good rest because early morning they will carry their crews in opposite directions too far from Big Apple.





5 in the morning we hit the road on that months-long waited journey. NJ Turnpike was almost empty. Skyscrapers were still sleeping.





The Lady waived to us from NY Harbor.



It's a good thing to have somebody by you to take pictures. My co-pilot is an amateur photographer and he was snapping picture after picture. Literally thousands of them but only a hundred were viewable.

Early jet greeted us by Newark International. Probably the Captain owns a red MINI with white roof. Otherwise how to explain jet's paint job?



Interesting and funny stuff you can see while driving the only thing is you can not remember it. Only after looking at pictures you know that you saw it.

This lone rider was sitting by us on highway for good half an hour. Temperature was around 55F. Tough riders are those HD bikers.



Then there was a strange creature with missing wheel being transported.



We had our APRS tracker on all the time and had a situation. Stopped for a coffee break in those rest areas located between lanes on toll roads. Ten minutes after my copilot's special emergency phone rung (he had three ). Sergey's wife was calling stressed from Siberia. " Why the car is not moving and sits across the road?" was the question. Holly Connolly!! Half a world away they watched us moving on Google Maps and couldn't magnify it enough to see a rest stop...

 

I learned how to drive in waves. Good tactics. If you manage to stay inside the wave the average speed is higher. They roll around 85-90. Instinctively (or automatic) the speed slows when troopers are ahead. Troopers are good guys and they employ very different methods of catching the violators. I watched a good dozen. Depends on the state you are driving through. As was previously mentioned, you have to watch your speed. Our MINIs are fast.

Couple hours on the road again and we are approaching our planned stop where local MINI club will meet us for lunch.



GPS beat our old-fashioned charts and after couple loops we found this nice looking restaurant. Probably HRMiniClub owns it because we never saw the bill for food we ate and bear (sp) we drank




I gave my MINI a bit of fresh air to breath while waiting for Dale's Squadron. He called and said the squadron is closing on us...






to be continued...

 

And here they are - HRMINI Club! I spotted them far away and got my camera ready.

The Commander-in-Chief



Chief Wingman



Centerline Thruster



Top Racer



Blue Angel and Chief Sweeper in formation



They drive and park fast in Virginia. In 30 seconds MY MINI was surrounded by locals. All of them show stoppers. All of them are so heavily modified that I was feeling a bit ashamed of my stock-only car.



Greetings and introduction were followed by good lunch. The menu was great at Famous Dave's.







Small World of Mini People. Found common passion about aviation, swapped stories of a space program, even touched a bit of politics The Origin of the MINIs were discussed in details as well. My co-pilot was mentally absent from the content but smiled anyway so excited he was.





If you are in that heck of the wood, do not miss that restaurant, give them your business food is top notch.

Little show of the row. What a beautiful interior! Was done by the owner





Somebody is looking at us from out there



Group picture. Did you notice new T-shirt?



Sergey (center in red hat) wants to be a part of the history too.




Where else you can see two Mellow Yellow MINIs with identical beige interior? In Virginia of course. Mine and Kathy's.

Time was running out for us and we hit the road again. The impressions of that great meeting are still fresh in my mind. As soon as my other (faster) mode of transportation is ready, I will visit those guys often. Maybe I could jump in right seat with any of them for a fall colors run.

 

Views were changing rapidly.





Total driving time for the day was about 9 hours. I drove all the way, Sergey was ready to help any moment. Approached Chapel Hill and stayed with friend of ours for the night.



Done for the day. Tired but excited. For a moment I remembered that advice to stay at the hotels instead but it was worth to stay in this little hospitable house in the woods of North Carolina. Friends we didn't see for years.

 

We still had two hours before twilights and decided to visit Duke University, Botanic Garden and Horace Williams Airport. Our friend Andrey gave us very good excursion. We (mostly I ) even recovered from half-dead-tired

University Airport





Duke University met us with student performance. It was Sat night, April the 10th and students were dancing. What a show. Sergey used his BetaCam instead of camera and I forgot mine of course. Andrey the host took couple pix with his point and shoot soapbox.





University Notre Damme



Botanic Garden, it was already dark.



The culmination of the day was traditional Russian dinner.



There were stories and talks but my memory was shutting down. Sergey stayed, I checked my MINI and switched myself off... see ya all tomorrow...

 

Fantastic, I love vicarious traveling!

 

Thanks ACE, so do I. I didn't even expected the journey to be that good though 95% was preplanned and only 5% improvised.

 

Early Sunday morning I woke up early and could not sleep more. All kind of thoughts about how and where, when and what were all mixed up. I would not say I was fully rested.

Hosts persuaded us to have a breakfast otherwise they would not let us go. Thank You good people.



Leaving hospitable house



In case if somebody is stranded in those woods, look for this sign, owners love MINIs and have a spare bedroom upstairs.

 

Roads are so good in the Carolinas they could be used as runways.That huge MINI speedometer was very handy. You can not judge car speed without it



Georgia greeted us not only by troopers on Chargers.



First time I was driving in Georgia and I was surprised to find out that houses can go 80 miles per hour . Not 5th wheelers or mobile homes but real houses. Don't believe me? Drive there and check it out. A bit of proof is below.




The Georgians have some water too.



Florida met us with palm trees and rapidly changing weather. Thunderstorms were so heavy my MINI could feel it. Floridians can save a lot of money on car wash.



This little town is called Jacksonville I believe.



I had a thought to adjust our driving schedule a bit but after talking with a NAM member during the drive I abandoned the idea. The idea was to divert to Daytona Beach for a beach drive. John Herleman seeing that we could barely make it, advised to go to New Smyrna instead but we were arriving just before closing. So the plans were corrected again. Thank you John for right advice, as you said maybe next time... The event took place here





We zoomed through to make Stuart by evening. Cumulus clouds were brewing something ahead and above. We called our next MINI Hotel and explained the weather situation. Ed the host told us not to worry and go ahead. We did.
Man I never experienced that kind of heavy rain. My MINI was a Yellow Submarine so heavy the downpour was. Traffic crawled blinking on empty highway. Holy Cow, not a single picture was made.

In 15-20 minutes the thunderstorm was gone right by the time we took last exit toward Stuart, FL. It was dark, we found Ed's villa and called him. You know what he answered? " Where are you?I am waiting for you at exit 101!" We didn't have enough time to get scared because Ed showed up at the porch in one minute. Great sense of humor

... and there were stories and lies, dinner and beer. I dropped dead on a bed opposite to this corner.

 

Next morning I found my MINI with this huge immigrant he wasn't there last night. Anyway I will own the cubs if any



There was somebody else in the garage. I parked my MINI on the lawn, the behemoth mercedes moved to the other side and I tested this beauty



Also checked the other (water) side of the villa and rocked the canoe. Cool speedster. I want one.




This lawn serves as a helipad. Robinson helicopter lives here on sunny weekends.



Time to eat something. It was behemoth's turn to drive us to the restaurant. MINI was still sleeping on soft grass. We enjoyed the food in a famous but not Dave's restaurant.

 

The guy who hosted us has a nickname "Turbo". He is a retired pilot enjoying the life. His lawn is also a helipad for his Robinson. The chopper was not home that day but there was another bird in his hangar. Experimental RV-6A, great looking machine was nested in 5 minutes' drive from his villa.



"Turbo" has his own method to tow the airplane. He sits on the tail, nose goes up and Turbo backs out of the hangar. Why to buy expensive tow bars.



What kind of mod is there? Looks like it costs more than my MINI? Yep, it's an expensive autopilot...



I swear we were there

 

We can not leave the airport just driving out of the gate. Not very often the phrase " Russians Are Coming" is heard these days Perhaps it was heard last century during Cold War.

We stopped by "Turbo"'s buddy and saw this magnificent aerobatic aircraft. Just completely restored and freshly painted Extra.




I even chatted with the owner



There were many airplanes parked nearby. That monster belongs to a prominent legal expert you can judge looking at the tail. Not sure it's airworthy but impressive.





We departed right after this sleek. He took skyway we took motorway.



Almost forgot that we are driving to Key West

 

Vlad, it was great having lunch with you and Sergey. If you're ever down this way, don't hesitate to give us a shout. we'd love to spend some time with you again! Great pictures too! Looks like you two had a fantastic time. I'm still jealous!

 

Bypassed Miami as advised. Left the mainland. The weather changed at least three times during those couple of hours.



Then were a key after key after key... Beautiful views from long bridges.





Suddenly my MINI sped up. What's going on? She even bypassed a car using the opposite lane. That's the reason she saw a familiar silhuette of another MINI - first one after we left Virginia.



We stayed behind the local MINI for a key or two but driver was not interested. Didn't wave, probably was busy texting.
Couple of keys have passed, no more MINIs.





Then we saw an aerostat. Giant tethered baloon about 4 thousand feet high. It's barely visible on the picture but it was a cool view. They call the baloon Fat Albert and this thing is BIG.



Looks like we made it one way. Checked in Southernmost Point Resort on Duval Street the MINI will rest here for couple days.



We had a great room with ocean, beach and lighthouse view. Life is good!



Rented mini laptop for $10 a day and checked NAM.






First time we didn't care about tomorrow...

 

We had good time visiting Conch Republic. View from a cafe during breakfast.



South of Duval street, my Mini is right behind the palm trees



Before I visited Key West I was thinking that nothing can beat Central Park and Times Square views. I was wrong.



Below is just a compilation of random pictures made by my co-pilot at random time and place. You may like them.



Funny statues near Mallory Square.



Somebody else was interested. We took pictures, he painted .



Cruise ships



This ship is an air carrier Nimitz class. See that biplane landing on it? We will check it later.



A kit car. I was told that it's shipped in the box and need only couple hours to put together. Fiberglass work not counted.



Very funny trees are growing in Conch Republic. The bigger ones you can see only in Avatar the movie.



Under those funny trees and bushes there are flocks of chicken. Very agricultural place. Roosters, hens and chicklets. Everything is real and noisy

 

When I was in high school back in Soviet times I loved reading Hemingway. The stories were part of World Literature curriculum and the translation was superb. I always dreamed to see the places he saw and described. And in 30+ years I finally did it. Visited one of Ernest Hemingway's Museums. This is his Key West Home.



And this is happy seventh grader



Hemingway's kitchen. The stove looks exactly like the one in my first rental apartment in NYC Cabinets too...



These cats are direct descendants of Hemingway's cats. Or so they say...

 

There were mermaids



and MINI wannabees

 

Sergey and I are both aviation enthusiasts. I am finishing building my experimental airplane and he owns a beautiful Russian-built amphibian aircraft back home in Siberia. Long story short we rented this 1941 Waco biplane for a ride around Key West. Magnificent machine with mighty radial engine and sexy wood prop. We could not miss the opportunity to pose by her .



Kenny the owner and operator briefed us on everything. We were told that the waters we will be flying over are from 2 to 5 feet deep. Briefing lasted about a minute and up we went. First we checked a cruise ship steaming away.



Kenny was not only the driver but also an experienced guide. He was explaining to us everything, not forgetting to talk to somebody on the radio .



The speed of this orange bird was comparable with that of my Mini on Georgia's highway.



You can see everything from one thousand feet. A ship wreck



A private island



A big fish who wasn't there by the time we arrived Maybe an old man caught it and it dragged him to the sea.



An island just off the coast where Special Forces have a training center. It's somewhere to the left



or to the right