West to East, now South to North?

Posted on by Ian C.

I had so much fun doing MINI Takes The States – and loads of other people did too … so much so, that there is a plan for a Florida to Maine drive next year: The Great Ice Cream Run, and I’m very tempted 🙂
How about a seven day trip from Florida up to Maine including stops at some of the best ice cream shops you’ll ever visit? Homemade ice cream!
And for the real enthusiast, how about topping off the whole trip with MINIs on Top 2007?

Check out the Great Ice Cream Run website for more info – and “watch that space” …

And for loads of fun, check out the Great Ice Cream Run movie!

Rain, Apples, and Sundaes

Posted on by Ian C.

Today was wet – but it didn’t stop 10 MINIs getting together to drive, pick apples and eat ice cream, including Brian, recently from Indianapolis, joined us, showing off stripes from Todd Pearson. The wet roads and sometimes heavy rain slowed down the drive, but with the trees starting to turn it was still pretty!

Arriving at George’s Hill Orchard, we met Peter who had driven up from New York, and had the choice of buying or picking apples, and having lunch:

 

After lunch, more driving, partly through roads with no surface(!) and our final destination of the day, to Colonial Candies – with candies, and penguins!

 

Many thanks to Sheena for organizing this event (see this MINI2 thread) – also thanks to Ivan for putting together a great music selection (and he asked me to say “I didn’t skip any tracks!”)

Amherst Pulley Party

Posted on by Ian C.

I wanted to visit todays pulley party in Amherst, NH to say “hi” and to show off GPMINI 😉
It happened that Margaret & I had to go to Milford, NH this morning – and it turned out that we were just a couple of miles from the party MINIs, so it all worked out well!

I got to say “hi” to lots of MINI people I’ve met before – Joe, Pat, Pat, Pete, Pete, Jim, Jason, Richard, Rick, Jock (I hope I got everyone!) – and I also met a few new people, including Sheena & Robert. I saw Pats new MINI (congrats Pat!), and Jims not-so-new-but-still-looks-like-new MINI (see NIIICE from a few years back):

Joe & Jim both told me about this new “ICE” polish from Turtle Wax, which they say is perfect for the MINI since it leaves no residue on the black wheel arches! Jim coated part of GPMINI, including half a wheel arch – and considering there was no pre-washing and I’d just driven 70 miles in rain, it looks pretty good … it also feels amazing, a really smooth finish on the paintwork:

I’ll be buying some of this soon – and hopefully Josh will also buy and report on it as a follow-up to his recent wheel arch trim test 🙂

Oh – and I let Joe drive GPMINI – he’s one of the best people I know to give me a good comparison report, and he was VERY impressed … his first comment when he got back was to wonder if the tires weren’t runflats, because they ride so smooth!