GBMINI#3

About 20 MINIs met up to tour the Budweiser Brewery, enjoy a BBQ on top of Pack Monadnock, drive back roads to Ice Cream, and end the day watching movies at the Milford Drive-in (Derek (MetalMiniMayhem) organized the event on this MINI2 thread)

I joined the other MINIs at Pack Monadnock in Miller State Park, where we filled the parking lot! The road up the mountain is fabulous, with exhilarating twisty bits and switchbacks in a short run with no scary drops to the side – better than Mount Washington in many ways!

At the top, a BBQ grille was prepared and everyone gathered to chat and wait for food; the weather was not great, with threatening rain and near zero visibility, but it had no effect on the fun factor of MINI owners gathering …

After lunch, we headed back down the mountain and drove some wild back roads (a little too quickly!), to arrive at Ice Cream!

Then it was finally time to head to the drive-in movie, where most MINIs chose the “scary adult movie” (Skeleton Key); I and two other MINIs picked the “G” rated “Valiant” instead, which was fun; the drive-in also offered good snacks at a reasonable price.

The price of admission ($18/car) is good value so long as you have more than one person in the car, and stick around to watch both movies – (not so good for me, on my own and leaving after the first movie)!

Today I headed in to Boston to “the other MINI dealership” – Herb Chambers MINI:

The reason was to meet with Annette (NoNo on MINI2), because her MINI has been “sick” and her original dealership, New Country MINI, completely failed to find the problem and eventually blamed her aftermarket air intake and/or exhaust – even though they had no idea what the problem was!
Pete (BWROOFCHEX on MINI2) helped arrange for Herb Chambers MINI to investigate and hopefully fix the car …

Herb Chambers MINI is different to MINI Peabody in a few significant ways – primarily they share a building with BMW & Porsche (so for example you have to go to a different floor to the bathroom, and outside to a different part of the building if you want to buy a MINI accessory).
The other big difference, due to their location close to the center of Boston, is a lack of parking – more than $4 of quarters (per MINI!) kept the parking meters happy while we were there …

Where Herb Chambers apparently is NOT different is the enthusiasm shown by their staff for MINIs – indeed both Steve & Rich currently drive a MINI, and Steves car is nearly as decorated as mine:

Also, there was only enthusiasm over the fact that Jared, Pete, Jason and myself all descended on their dealership just to hang out and chat with Annette while her car was being worked on …

In time, we all headed off for lunch at a nearby “fast food mexican“, then attempted to reach Fenway Park for a guided tour; we did get there, but with limited parking & time (due to a game tonight), we changed our goal to the New England Aquarium – the journey took us through lots of Boston, as one way systems prevented our direct route attempts!

 

But in time we got there, and after buying tickets we enjoyed the aquarium exhibits … highlights included penguins:

Next we headed over to Quincy Market for food, drinks and shopping; we were also treated to some amazing acrobatic entertainment, which culminated in one guy somersaulting over the other 7 – stunning!

 

Finally we spent some “quiet time” in the Christopher Columbus Park on the waterfront, before returning to the cars (and paying $29 parking, each!) …

 

A great day spent with great friends!

Oh – Annettes car is not yet fixed; one experiment did not fix the problem but did eliminate one possible cause … Mark at Herb Chambers MINI has promised that he will resolve the issue to Annettes satisfaction, as soon as he can.
Meanwhile, you can watch the MINI2 thread which I am sure Annette will update when there is news …