We got home a few hours ago from MINIs on Top (MOT) 2009, and we had an absolutely fantastic time! There is such a small handful of clear days on Mount Washington, and we lucked out and received a gorgeous, mostly clear drive to the summit, with a rainbow escorting us up the mountain!
We had a very good showing from the WNY MINI Club (but we really, truly missed you, Cathleen!). Mark (Spd) and Nicole (Trixie); Kim (Tedscar) and Jill, Brian and myself (PepperMINI) all "mini-vaned" up to NH on Thursday, and enjoyed a nice dinner in charming downtown Conway, NH. On Friday during the day, we each enjoyed separate activities, but met up for a cookout at the cabins that Mark and Nicole stayed at, and met up with Caroline and Dennis (Grammacoup), and invited another MINI owner to join in the fun. Afterwards, we headed to the Pub Trivia quiz and Sundae on Friday event, where we ran into Mitch and his dad. I'm proud to relay that Mark, Nicole, Brian and myself teamed up for the trivia challenge, and won third place medals (with our team named, "Don't Taze me, Bro!"). After the fourth round, our team was in the lead, but we got killed on the fifth round.
On Saturday, we met at the Loon lot, where we were able to choose whether we wanted to go on a drive, or watch (or participate) in the MINI Olympics. Most of us chose to watch the MINIlympics, which was a lot of fun. Then it was time for the drive to the top of Mt. Washington. The weather forecast called for thundershowers, but somehow we managed to get a clear ride up to the top, escorted by a rainbow. The views were so stunning. After we all made it safely to the bottom of the mountain, we enjoyed an after-party at the hotel.
On the way home today, we narrowly missed hitting a black bear in the road. Luckily, Pepper was able to quickly dart away from the bear, and the bear reconsidered crossing the road. We had such an amazing time, and hope that others in the club will join us next year!
2007 Astro Black [YES IT'S BLACK] MINI Cooper Convertible ("Pepper"); 2013 British Racing Green MINI Cooper S Hardtop ("Bini") and 2013 BMW X5 ("Wilhelm")
Wow! Those are some great pics (especially that one of Jill and Pepper's caboose!). We had a lot of fun with you guys.
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Holly
2007 Astro Black [YES IT'S BLACK] MINI Cooper Convertible ("Pepper"); 2013 British Racing Green MINI Cooper S Hardtop ("Bini") and 2013 BMW X5 ("Wilhelm")
2007 Astro Black [YES IT'S BLACK] MINI Cooper Convertible ("Pepper"); 2013 British Racing Green MINI Cooper S Hardtop ("Bini") and 2013 BMW X5 ("Wilhelm")
We are so glad that you enjoyed them and we can give you a disc with lots more. By the way we made it home at 10:15 PM after taking the back roads with Tedscar for about 250 miles and then spliting up and motoring down the highway for another 250. Great trip but nice to be back home again.
Great pics. Looks like you had a great time. Dennis looks a little scary in the mirror picture or is scared of going off the cliff. lol May be next year we will be there. Heres a happy girl. untill then see ya CJ
Dumpnrun wrote:Heres a happy girl. untill then see ya CJ Well there were happy girls up on Mt. Washington, but I don't know if any of them were as happy as yours! Congratulations to her!
We echo what everyone else said--it was great fun and a rare treat for us to participate (fully, I might add)! Thanks to Trixie & SPD for showing us a great route up to Bartlett and all the hospitality Friday night. PepperMINI showed us the ropes and the rites of passage up the 'hill'--thanks. We were so lucky that a couple tickets were available at the last minute, and we certainly thank the mountain for showing us its place in the world, from the lichen on the rocks and trickles of water down through the moss to those vast mouth-gaping views. We were blessed and grateful to share the experience with our MCWNY friends! (Mitch, thanks for scoping out tickets--sorry we didn't spend more time with you.)
We had a hard time coming back into the world so decided to take an extra day, driving the backroads yesterday with Gramma and Grampa Coop. Wow--what beautiful country and fantastic old architecture. Fun, fun, fun! Unfortunately, we Motored on by many outstanding picture-perfect views, but we've got 'em in our minds, for now.
And with that, here's a few pics, just for fun. Thanks everyone--it was a great time!
Ooooh, I almost forgot. Really glad you didn't hit the bear PepperMINI! Jill thinks it must have thought the MINI was another bear. She said pishaw on the bears and moose--she was tickled to see her first luna moth!
I found Ian's webpage with a listing of links to many of last weekend's MOT photog's pics. Scroll down a little on this page and you'll find the result of many of those big lenses we saw on the way down Mt. Washington. Maybe you should send a link to yours Mitch...
Here's a link to the MOT website, that has a video posted on it (which is pretty cool), and links to many other pics:
http://minisontop.com/
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Holly
2007 Astro Black [YES IT'S BLACK] MINI Cooper Convertible ("Pepper"); 2013 British Racing Green MINI Cooper S Hardtop ("Bini") and 2013 BMW X5 ("Wilhelm")
I found Ian's webpage with a listing of links to many of last weekend's MOT photog's pics. Scroll down a little on this page and you'll find the result of many of those big lenses we saw on the way down Mt. Washington. Maybe you should send a link to yours Mitch...
http://www.gbmini.net/wp/
I think I will once I get my gallery set up. The only problem is my gallery is set up so people can buy and I don't want to come across greedy. I am going to figure out how to go about it. Either a private gallery for MINI lovers to buy at cost or I am going to give half or more of the proceeds to make a wish.
Of course this wouldn't include any pictures of people. And I don't care if people download the image I put up just when it comes to the high res stuff or high quality prints.
None of this will happen until I have a day off to finish editing anyway.
