Our route took us from Vancouver to Redding California via I-5. On the way, a group of Japanese young folk in an Eclipse came over and checked out our MINI at a rest stop in Oregon. We met them again at the Motel in Redding and they came over and chatted with me. We also saw one car on I-5 weaving extremely dangerously near Tacoma. I just backed away and stayed out of his way. But eventually, he rammed a car onto the concrete barrier separating them from oncoming traffic, then tried to pull a hit n run. The victim chased them down. As we witnessed it, we were slightly delayed. Grants Pass in Oregon was lots of fun to drive, but other than that, I-5 is a pretty boring highway. We did get a picture of a flock of seagulls on a field, though.
The next day, we drove down I-5. A rock hit my windshield and cracked it, but we kept going until I got bored, then cut over to highway 99, which was just as bumpy by we passed more towns. The rest of the drive to Las Vegas was uneventful. The Mojave desert sure was windy. No wonder the windmills were all there. I and my wife had this sudden fascination with windmills so my wife went crazy with the camera. Our MINIs are so aerodynamically sound that I didn’t even notice the wind until we stopped to get out and take a picture. I could barely push my door open against the wind.
As we arrived on Monday night and AMVIV didn’t start until Thursday, we stayed with my brother-in-law. They have a dog named Gracie. Gracie exhibits the personality of our MINIs, playful, fast and agile. We went up to meet with a few of the Sin City MINI Club to see if they needed any help setting up. They seemed to have everything under control.
On Thursday morning, we joined up for the drive to Route 66 from Oatman to Kingman. That was a lot of fun. If you watched the movie Cars, it was all there in real life. Route66 is as twisty as advertised and we had to be careful not to step on the Mule droppings. We had lunch at a diner and returned to LV with a crossing of the Hoover Dam. It was spectacular (and crowded). The bypass highway they are building was also an engineering marvel (or nightmare if you’re an engineer). Then we got back to attend the mixer. That night I was outside and met up with others and we discussed picture taking, cars, and just met with different people. I just marvelled at all the different personalities that make up the MINI community and finally was able to put faces and personalities to people on the various forums. I met Patricia and Monty too (from Alberta).
The next day, we went to the Shelby Museum and Las Vegas Speedway. While others went on a day long cruise to Death Valley. Since we came through there on the way in, I decided to pass on that drive. Besides, I was beginning to get tired. I also had an Alta 22mm rear swaybar installed and a brake light pulsar installed. That night was the cruise down the Las Vegas strip. I was told 250 cars went. Again, great organization by Sin City MINI Club to get this together. Somewhere in there, the NCAA basketball game ended and the drunks came out. My MINI and two others were shot at by somebody with a high powered pellet gun. Thankfully, my wife and daughter were not in the car, the light had just turned green. That pellet would have gone through the open window if I had not just stepped on the gas pedal and the results would have been quite different. Kevin from Desert MINI saw my car get hit and he told me to drop by Desert MINI the next morning and they would see what they could do to help. My wife called just about then and asked were we were as they were waiting a few blocks up, watching the MINI turn the corner. It gave me to opportunity to tell her we had a problem and just doing that probably removed the sense of panic and fear that was being built up in my psychy at that moment.
On Saturday, we needed to head home so my daughter could get back to school on Monday (spring break ends!) but were delayed in our departure as I visited Desert MINI. It turned out they didn’t have any replacement glass in stock so they just cleaned up the broken glass and taped plastic over my window for me. As it turned out, the plastic came off about 4 miles up the freeway so I stopped at my brother-in-law’s place and borrowed a box. We cut out a makeshift window and used two different types of masking tape (to avoid paint damage) and tape a "window" in place. Then were on our way. The drive through Arizona (northwest corner), Utah and Idaho were spectacular. We stopped in Ogden for dinner. Looks like we stopped in a bad part of town. My wife wasn’t feeling well so she stayed in the car. A Van from Oregon parked next to us and also went into the restaurant. While having dinner, some young kids went over to our cars. Seeing as we had cardboard on our window, they must have assumed my car had already been broken into so they proceeded to break into the van. My wife called 911 and honked the horn to disperse them but when we left to continue on our journey, it was obvious, this was a very dangerous area for tourists.
I just drove until i got tired, though our goal was to make Boise Idaho, we didn’t. We stayed overnight in a Motel8 in Burley. Again, the drive over the 6150ft elevation was a lot of fun. Even in the dark. This is where xenon headlights and foglights came in extremely handy.
Then the next day we drove into Oregon, north to Yakima (Washington), then on I-90 to Seattle and home. We find snow in the Snoqualmie Pass in Washington and had to stop a number of times to apply more masking tape for waterproofing purposes as we drove through a thunder and wind storm in Oregon.
The border officer just asked where we lived and what happened to the car and then waved us through. I guess he felt sorry for me.
All in all a great time. I can say it was an adventure. Well worth doing for gearheads at least once in a lifetime.
A few pictures with more to come can be found on Flickr.
