MINI Takes The States 2010 – new plan!

So a couple weeks ago I booked to drive MTTS2010 from Atlanta to Denver; I was not at that time sure I could do it work-wise but I’ve now basically discussed and decided “yes” pretty well “no matter what”. In general I can do quite a lot of work while away from the office, for a short time at least – and August is always quiet at least with our European customers, so it should work out well.

I didn’t know if Margaret would join me, and wasn’t sure what George would be doing either (he’s been rather busy with other aspects of his life recently!), but hoped we might be able to do at least a partial-repeat of fabulous MTTS2006 …

 

I also had not figured what to do after MTTS2010, ending in the middle of the country in Denver; one idea was to maybe find a friend to leave the car with till AMVIV (assuming it happens in 2011).

Then I learned that George planned to get his car to the West coast, and drive the West MTTS route – which I have to admit is a much more interesting route, as it goes through my favorite places of Las Vegas and Utah!
Margaret said she’d like to join me – but wouldn’t it be good to start from the West coast as that way she’d be able to do “coast to coast” across USA (which I did but she did not, back in 2006!)

Finally, my friend Robert offered parking for GP0203 at his home near Los Angeles … then offered something even more interesting: a way to get GP0203 out there, from it’s home in Florida!

So, with huge thanks to Robert, and thanks also to Michelle at MTTS registration, I’ve switched my Atlanta sign-up to Los Angeles. GPMINI will get to the West coast before Margaret and I do, we will get to drive Phoenix, Las Vegas, Utah and Salt Lake City, and Denver in the GP – and then figure something for afterwards, before returning the GP to Florida!

August 2010 should be just as much fun as August 2006 was 🙂

MINI Takes The States 2010

Happily, MINI USA has created a MINI Takes The States that I hope to be able to enjoy, returning to the original “road trip” roots of fabulous MTTS2006, while giving a nod to the night-club style of MTTS2008 and MU, more popular with WRR organizers than with me 😉

There’s not a lot of detail so far, no indication if there will be nightly events like 2006, or just the parties at each end of the road trip legs – but offering a drive from Atlanta (closest to GPMINI) to Denver, is enough temptation that, after discussion at work, I’ve registered … and hope to actually participate in the drive too!

 

It’s a bit of a work gamble at the moment, although August is a quiet time for Europe customers, and I can claim to be driving past some of the others! So hopefully I’ll make the drive, and get a few more miles on GPMINI. With luck, meet up with some MINI friends too 🙂

MTTS’08 gift-swag

MINI friend “GP George” went to three of the four MTTS’08 events, Miami, Boston and Los Angeles. When I met him at Boston he gave me a couple of things picked up from Miami – the colored wrist band was different to that at Boston …
Then when George went to the Los Angeles event (and met up with MINI friend Robert), he was kind enough to pick me up some more swag – another color of wrist band, a car cleaning cloth (he’s trying to tell me something!), a really nice sew-on MTTS’08 patch, and a rather strange “sippy cup”:

Thanks, George 🙂