Travel Stories Gallery?
 

Ok, what is the purpose of this, when I have my photos in my user gallery? Does it matter somehow where I have them and how I use the photos? What is the intent? Thanks! I'll be posting a travels tory soon, so I need to know!

Basically the travel stories gallery and the travel stories forum were put together so there would be a place for longer threads that detailed travel and places people have been with their MINI. The intent was that there wouldn't be short posts with no pictures, but rather people would be able to get more of a sense of what you've seen and where you've been. Given that desire for more content, but the travel stories gallery and the travel stories forum have moderator approval to accept the new thread/pics. If it's just a simple "I went to moab, here's my MINI" and no details, then more than likely we'll move the thread to MINI Talk. The travel stories gallery is there so that people looking for places to travel to can search through the gallery. That's why you would use that gallery as opposed to your personal gallery space (also the travel stories gallery doesn't count towards the storage limit like the photos in your personal gallery space).

Hope that helps a bit

Dave

Thanks! I'll get all of this together soon and figgure out whether I want to bother moving everything to the Travel Gallery or not. I appreciate the info!

Missile Silo Tour in Nebraska
 

On Saturday, my wife and I, along with 19 other MINI5280.org (Denver, Colorado area MINI club) members (two from eastern Nebraska) drove to the extreme southwest corner of Nebraska (about 170 miles from Denver), to take an exclusive tour of a 40-year-old former Atlas E missile silo, now a home. The silo was only operational for a couple of years in the early 1960's before closure. Historically, the Atlas E ICBM was deployed to facilities (not really silos) in which the missile was stored horizontally. Before launch, the missile bay door (concrete and steel roof) would slide open, the missile would be positioned vertically from a cradle, then fuelled and launched. These USAF silos were called "coffin" launchers. There were about 20 similar facilities placed within about a hundred miles of F.E. Warren AFB near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Zwonitzers purchased the abandoned and previously salvaged silo in 1996. They proceeded to spend months cleaning and outfitting the facility to a livable condition. They now have more than 5,000 square feet of living space including an underground patio. The total square footage is somewhere around 20,000. The Zwonitzer's home has been featured on cable channels such as Discovery, Home & Garden, CNN, and local Denver news. The drive there and back was not the most scenic in the state, but it was a fun and interesting tour. Here are our photos: http://coloradorick.smugmug.com/gallery/1416218

Links to other MINI5280 members' photos at www.MINI5280.org

Rick:thumbsup:

I was considering posting travel photos on MAM, but after taking a look at the Galleries, and here at the Travel Stories, I've decided to stick with my main photo sharing website at SmugMug.com.

The problem for me was - how best to mix photos with text? I would like to see NAM offer more of a blog or journal style layout, such as seen on my MINI log, here:
http://garywright.smugmug.com/Travel...13547458_zRkTk

This kind of layout allows viewers to just look at the photos, or to also read the text if they want to, without switching to another web page.

Any chance the web masters could come up with some kind of combination photos-plus-test format?

We just got back from a 7,000 mile trip in our 2006 Mini Cooper hatchback, from Alaska to Baja. We got a soft cargo top to hold camping gear, see our blog at:
http://wp.me/p2fBl9-dq

efclicks,

Nice job - looks like a great adventure!

Your reported MPG of 25, however, is suspiciously low, so I'm wondering if there is some reasonable explanation for it.

At first I assumed you must have an "S" model (with supercharger) for which 25 MPG might be expected, but I believe your photos show a "Justa" or base model, which I'm thinking should do better.

Based on 56 tanks of gas, I get about 36 MPG from my 2010 base model, 6 spd manual. (Worst tank = 32 MPG, best tank = 42 MPG.) My driving style is not particularly conservative. Cramming it full of camping gear and adding a roof-top cargo carrier didn't have much affect on my MPG (worst tank = 33 MPG). True, my plastic cargo box was probably somewhat more aerodynamic than your soft packs.
http://smu.gs/YTOqEa

What kind of mileage do you get without the cargo on top?

How are you getting your mileage figures? Regular or Premium gasoline?

Does your vehicle have stock size tires? Automatic or manual gears?

Did you drive above 65 MPH a lot? I get MUCH better MPG at 60 than I do at 70, but I favor the back roads over highways, so I don't see 70 very often.