It’s been a heck of a weekend, that’s for sure. We just got back from A MINI Vacation in Vegas, and while we had a good time… I’m glad to be home.
The Wife posted on her blog about our adventure getting to Las Vegas. I truly loath the drive down there… Interstate 5 through California’s Central Valley is about as dull as it gets – that is until you get to Route 58 and I-15 through the Mojave Desert!
Things slowly started looking up on Thursday though – albeit slowly. We headed over to the event hotel to meet check out the goings on – and were surprised to discover that the friend we called on the road the day before had called ahead and told the folks in Vegas that we had difficulty getting in. Even more surprising was that recounting the story was surprisingly therapeutic. What was also neat was the swarm of activity around the MINI after our arrival, while we had planned everything that was being done, it was nice to see everyone working to get it all done. First was a visit to Waylon and the folks at Way Motor Works who installed new brakes and a strut tower brace – then Todd who started replacing the stripes that were on the car with some new ones AND installing a very cool roof graphic too.
Friday was a VERY good day. Db, Todd, and I headed over to the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch for the first race of this year’s North American MINI Cooper Challenge. From what we could see the race was pretty good, the downside of this type of track is that unfortunately it’s not easy to see much of the track. Even better though was that I got to take a few laps on the track myself. This was the first time I have ever driven on a race track, and while we weren’t going very fast especially compared to the guys who were actually racing, it was a very cool ride. I’m not sure just who set it up, but one of the guys from Way Motor Works also took me for a ride in a well modified MINI for a few very fast laps around the track… Those were very cool, yet as fast as we went that time – I was told that we would have gone even faster if the car we were in had race tires installed… Oh, and there were the skanky “bikini models” who were down at the track for the taping of some show on MavTV – No I’ve never seen MavTV either…
That night was one of the highlights of the entire weekend – The Strip Cruise. No, not that kind of Strip Cruise, a few hundred MINIs swarmed out on to the Las Vegas strip honking, waving, blasting music and just overall attracting attention. I know it doesn’t sound like much when you read about it here, but trust me it’s a LOT of fun.
There were a few other events that we participated in as well, and by the end of the weekend we were in much better shape than when we first arrived in Las Vegas. Although, I think what just make the weekend great is that we got to spend some time with some good friends that we just don’t get to see often. The great thing about being involved with the MINI community is that we’ve met some great people that we probably never would have met otherwise. While we now know lots of folks and there were quite a few people there this weekend that we were happy to see. However, we really were just looking forward to seeing just three people. One of the things we’ve learned is that it’s nice to have good friends to hang out with when you travel… This weekend was no exception…
I’ve got a few pictures that I’ll post soon.
