2012 MINIs In The Mountains 8/2 - 8/5 - Event Date: August/02/12 - August/05/12

Sounds ike a total redo of last years great run - and yes - it is a LOT of driving.  Hope you have a good time at the events - If you see a nice brown Sidewalk Edition Convert from Oaklahoma say Hi from Jack & Linda (Woodstock).  How has traffic been? PS - I know it is not easy to take time out to post with pictures while on and extended road trip so the trip updates you and Dave have been doing are REALLY appreciated.  Thanks. 

Edited by CINIMIN - August/01/12 at 9:46pm

Yes, we've made it to WinterPark.  Jack, I decided to take last year's route because I still had the notes and directions that Roy printed out for us and also because those were good routes to take.  One odd thing that Gina keeps mentioning is the lack of substantial traffic which has worked out great for us this time.  Even the construction delays have moved along without the stops although the two stops we did run into lasted only a few minutes.  Totally different from last year.  And for the trip down here there were several instances when we literally had the road all to ourselves (unimpeded twisties).  So we have been lucky with traffic and even luckier with the weather and now the events start at WinterPark but we will take a well deserved day off to take it easy.  Still haven't seen a moose...or a bear...yet.

Major envy! It's probably because I didn't go this year!

Rest day today but we did do the Alpine slide.  Still fun.  Later in the day we all lined up for the escort  (and there were a LOT of MINIs lined up for the police escort into the town of WinterPark.  (pre escort pics below) My on the drive pics did not turn out very well so I'm not going to post the one showing that. It was silly but fun to be escorted into town and the parade was well received.  Afterwards we had a nice dinner and then went back to our rooms.  Gina is preparing for the autocross tomorrow and we unloaded the unsecured things in her MINI for tomorrow.  Not as many vendors yet but I expect more to show up tomorrow.  I did hit up on the WOW guy for some pre WOW and WOW product.  Stay tuned...

Autocross was a lot of fun.  I didn't place or anything, but had a good time and my best time for the course was a full 8 seconds quicker than my worst time.  My last run, while not my fastest, was in my opinion, my best.  I felt like I did my best lines.  Dave agreed (or at least, he was polite enough to say he did ).  They were really strict on taking anythingouit of your car that could move around -- they even made me take out my floor mats!  To all the ladies out there, Autocross is a lot of fun; you should try it.

Pre-WOW is an awesome! product. The stuff really works well. I got some at AMVIV and finally got around to using it last weekend. Works as good as advertised. If they are selling Sonax that stuff works well too. In fact, I may place an order for you if you don't mind bring me some stuff back. Let me know.. thanks.

Home, finally this afternoon, safely.  Gina and I made great time but it is exhausting.  We found out today that the strange cloud in Idaho was actually dust and our cars were covered with it this morning.  A big thank you to Gina, she is a great travelling companion.  From all the twisties we drove, the close encounter with the buffalo, the autocross and all the great weather we experienced, we just had a great time.  Naturally, the most traffic we encountered was from Snoqualmie Pass down, as Gina put it, because Seattle was the largest city of the trip.  Another MITM in the books!

Great trip -= thanks for the posts along the way.  Glad you are home safe and get a chance to rest up. 

Glad you both had a great time! Thanks for the posts and pics - really enjoyed it.