The first step for MINI Takes The States was a simple get together at San Francisco MINI just Sue, the monkey, me, and around 600 of our closest friends. So how does this work? We paid $45 each to register for the entire event, It didn’t matter if we went to one stop or all the way $45. When we arrived we were given a badge that would be scanned at each stop, a lanyard, a button, and a drink ticket. There were photo opportunities, and chances to buy things like the coveted MTTS 2014 grill badge. There were waiters roaming around with food and basically it was a ginormous cocktail party. Once we got in we ran into our old friends (and a few new ones) and chatted about the upcoming adventure.
Wow! After visiting my parents I headed north to San Francisco and the start of MINI Takes The States 2014. While I spent a few years in Bay Area while growing up, I don’t remember much of that time except for Japanese lunches visiting my dad at work and trips with my grandparents to FAO Schwarz (I ended up getting Dinky Space:1999 and UFO toys). I’ve returned to the area time and again, enjoying the city and I’m happy to have any excuse to visit (like my wonderful sister in-law & her cat, Brad). While I hit some of the highlights from our visit I left out a lot. I drove up from Los Angeles and picked put Sue at the airport. So we headed north to Santa Rosa and the Schulz Museum which was as emotional an experience as the Calvin & Hobbes retrospective in Columbus, Ohio I saw months ago. Talk about pulling geek heartstrings… we had lunch had “the Mothership” with Sue’s sister, and stopped by the Presidio to see Yoda at Lucasfilm, running into a MINI owner who was touring around. We visited a close MINI friend and MINIon and ended the visit with a walk around the Mission… All in all a wonderful geek filled trip- with MTTS still in the future, but throughout the whole experience I felt like I was being watched.
So I arrive in Los Angeles and spend a few days with my parents… After the comic about my high school reunion, no I did not see any of my friends from high school.
When I was last at my parents house they had one dog, a miniature Shih Tzu. This time they have a new dog, who is in desperate need of some obedience training according to Cecil. Within 30 seconds of my arrival the dog had decided that Cecil (my stuffed monkey) was a new toy. I was instructed that I needed to put anything I didn’t want to the dog to get on a higher shelf, not on a chair or table. Perhaps the canine inmates were running the asylum.
I had a nice visit with my parents, my mother had been in the hospital for some heart issues that actually turned worse once I left (she’s much better now). I was really glad to spend some time with them, since I don’t get much of a chance due to our geographic distance. As for their dog… I’ve realized after all this time I’m a cat person.
So as “Cecil” and I headed west to the MINI Takes the States 2014 Starting line in San Francisco. I pretty much drove as straight through as I could. My first stop (after the LEGO Store) was in Kansas to see a man about some stripes to increase the horsepower of Alfie, my Roadster. After a nice visit, I headed to Denver pulling in late and going back to my old college driving technique of pull in late, get up early. I watched the sun rise around Grand Junction and headed into Utah thinking I could stop in Las Vegas for the night. I got into Vegas and it was still light out so I decided to continue on and as I closed in on the California boarder I encountered something I had been able to avoid the entire trip… traffic. While I had wanted to miss rush hour traffic driving into Los Angeles, I had forgotten the Sunday night traffic caused by the people returning from the weekend. “Cecil” was acting weird through the entire trip. Usually he tries to get as many photos as possible, but he had suddenly become camera shy. I figured the monkey was resting up for MTTS.
As for the comic technically speaking I really felt I couldn’t do justice to the landscape we drove through. It was awe inspiring. I stopped a bunch of times along the way to take a break and cache a little. Hopefully tonight I’ll log those caches. I am sorry about missing Tuesday, with the start of school I’m trying to get back into the swing of things and ended up with meetings almost every day this week leaving me little to no time to actually get ready for my class. I’m hoping to get caught up a bit this weekend as the adventure (in the comic) continues. See you Tuesday!
So
on my way out to MINI Takes The States 2014 I had to stop off for one thing… The Lego Mini Cooper. The kit was released July 18th to LEGO VIPs and that happened to be the day I was heading out. I waited for our local Lego Store to open and was the first person to purchase one. I built it on the road (not while I was driving). I even had a friend (motorinbadges.com) who does vinyl graphics create something for the trip I thought since it was MINI Takes the States “Minifigs Take the States” would be amusing so I filled the Mini with as many Minifigs as I could (31 without much effort) and went back on the road… I discovered that while LEGO stays together there are some ways you can pick something up and it will break. Over the trip I learned how to expertly pick up the Mini Cooper without much damage. Fortunately one of the first stops on MTTS 2014 provided us with a box lunch, a box that fit the Mini almost perfectly, so it wasn’t rolling around on the back ledge. Here is the complete album on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/penfold/sets/72157646133272314/ While I didn’t “go all the way” or “Coast to Coast” or “Chowder to Chowdah” I did end up getting some nice shots of the Classic Mini while on the road.
While many of my friends are traveling cross country on MINI Takes The States (they are leaving St. Louis for Chicago this morning). For me it started off with a quick journey West to the starting point in San Francisco with Cecil?!? or maybe not.
This summer it’s MINI Takes The States again. Again I’m planning on going (at least part way- curse you school starting the first week of August). Over the years Cecil has created a following on these things, it started at MINI United and this merry little band has grown each year. This year I’ve been designing badges for members each with a different MINIon. So I sketched out this one for MINIon #1701. I’m still working on a bunch of these, and hopefully will get them finished in time.
Here is the finished work…
This summer it’s MINI Takes The States again. Again I’m planning on going (at least part way- curse you school starting the first week of August). Over the years Cecil has created a following on these things, it started at MINI United and this merry little band has grown each year. This year I’ve been designing badges for members each with a different MINIon. So I sketched out this one for MINIon #1701. I’m still working on a bunch of these, and hopefully will get them finished in time.
Here is the finished work…
