IKEA & BBQ with MAMA

After cleaning GBMINI I headed south to meet up to 20 other MINIs at the services on I95/128 just south of I90:

From there we took a very circuitous route first south, then north, then south again, back past where we began, before finally heading properly south towards IKEA!

We did successfully arrive at IKEA and after admiring their IKEA zipcar MINI we headed into the store to do some shopping!

After IKEA we headed to Smokey Bones restaurant for lunch, where they coped admirably with being invaded by 20-30 MINI folk!

We ended the day with some of us heading back north through Boston and the Big Dig tunnels, sadly too busy with traffic to be as much fun as the run back in 2004

It was a great day to see MINI folks, chat, shop, eat, drive and just have fun! Thanks to everyone that came 🙂

MINIsOnTop proclamation

For the very first MINIsOnTop back in 2003, a small “coup” was a proclamation from the then Governor of New Hampshire, Craig Benson, declaring June 21, 2003 “MINI Cooper Day”.

This has since become a tradition, with the date each year declared “MINI Cooper Day” in New Hampshire – this year was no exception. It was decided this year to present the proclamation to MINI USA, so first each of the “yellow shirt” volunteers wrote a small note to accompany it:

(including one of the last messages from MaxaMINI)

The proclamation was (eventually) fully signed and delivered to MINI USA – and much appreciated:
… Gerry Matthews and Jim McDowell, loved the Proclamation. They showed it to Tom Purves [chairman and CEO of BMW (US) Holding Corp] who is having it framed and hung in the Executive Dining Room …

All of this to say:
MINIsOnTop will happen again in (mid June) 2006! If you are interested, join in the chat on MINI2.

NEMO christmas party 2005

Another snowy day for the NEMO christmas party, just like in 2003 (which was actually in early 2004 due to snow on the original date); I missed the real 2004 party due to last years MINIs Making-A-Wish. About six MINIs and one classic Mini showed, and with the bad weather GBMINI is once again very dirty!


The “usual suspects” showed up, including both Daves, Ken, Greg, Paul, Hrach and of course Faith & Bruce. After a seriously garlic-laden lunch, the Yankee swap proceeded with just a few popular items this year – a clock made on a wooden cutout of a classic Mini changed hands about 5 times, and some Guinness glasses also proved popular: