MINI of Peabody 2010 Spring Rally

Posted on by Ian C.

Stop Press! It didn’t rain this year!

Thanks to the kindness of MINI of Peabody, I was able to enjoy another fabulous Spring Poker Rally, and so did loads of other MINI owners:


On the road. Our first “playing card” pit stop was at Hrach’s Mini Museum, at the end of some tight back roads and down a dead end street – it caused major chaos and traffic jams for the MINIs and other local traffic!

To avoid the chaos, we chose to skip Hrach’s (hopefully I can get to it some other time) – and then we were all alone on the roads! But after getting our extra playing cards, and getting very cold at Singing Beach (the Sun lost out to the Ocean there, some 20 degrees colder!), we headed back to MINI of Peabody to be created in with a checkered flag, and a final playing card:

 

And then, there was food and chat; and prizes (but none for us):

 

A great day, fun with MINIs, made even better by the weather – and Margaret doing my navigation; thanks, Margaret – and thanks MINI Peabody!

Previous years: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.

MINIsOnTop 2010

Posted on by Ian C.

This year MINIsOnTop has a new organizational crew, so expect some exciting changes – the first, announced today, is that when registration opens soon, it will be “online”; no more printing and mailing of forms!
Don’t fret – MINIsOnTop is happening again this year! We’re just moving a bit slower than our predecessors Ian, Theo and Michael did.
Registration will be online this year and will open soon. As always, it will be first-come, first-served. We recommend signing up for the MOT announcements list so you’ll be notified when it opens.
After rave reviews last year, the Attitash Grand Summit Hotel will be our base hotel again this year. The Attitash is a luxury resort, centrally located in Bartlett, NH between the Kancamagus Highway and the Mount Washington Auto Road. Please call (800) 233-7699 to book your room and be sure to ask for the MINIsOnTop special rate! Please note: the special rate is not available for booking online.

Personally, I haven’t figured what to do with MINIsOnTop this year, as GPMINI will likely remain in Florida, and showing up in an “SUV” Q5 might be un-popular 😉

“Second Wednesday”

Posted on by Ian C.

Winter storms in New England cancelled our flight back home today, so we’re “suffering” for a couple extra days in Florida – with the benefit that Margaret & I were able to join James & Steve and others at the George & Dragon pub for Sunshine MINIs of Orlando’s “Second Wednesday” get-together.
It’s lighter longer down here than back in Boston – but still it was dark by 7pm, so these pics are poor even by iPhone standards; though like they say “the best camera is the one you have with you”, so these pics will have to do!

Outside the George & Dragon was a London bus, so I lined up GPMINI for a picture – and the other MINIs lined up there too 🙂

I also learned from James of his Library Of Motoring blog, which he’s regularly posting to at the moment; I added it to the Google Reader feed list.