Friday, July 13th marked Day 10 of the MTTS cross-country run. Only one more day before the Motorers would be making their way into Golden California. But before crossing the border between Arizona and California, the band of MINIs would be crossing the border between New Mexico and Arizona. After an early Rise and Shine Rally and breakfast (7:30 am at Sandia MINI), it was 418 miles to cactus country, Phoenix Arizona.
Upon reaching Arizona, the MINIs made their way to the Saguaro Hotel, the host hotel as well as the site of the evening’s festivities. MINI of Tempe and MINI North Scottsdale threw the ultimate pool party. This fun event included lots of water, live music, food, drinks and plenty of sun. Wrapping up at 9:30 pm the MINIs and their drivers tried to catch as many zzzz’s as possible before participating in the second to the last Rise & Shine Rally on Day 11. Saturday morning would be the start of the last leg of the cross-country rally, 375 miles concluding in sunny California.
While the MINIs were driving from New Mexico to Arizona on Friday the 13th, Sis (Bitzie) and I were prepping for our infusion into MTTS. Say what…. well let me explain.
Living in California and not being able to take much time off from work, we could only jump in – at the end, Los Angeles, but we did not drive to the event, we did not walk either. My sister and I actually took a rather interesting route to get to LA and by that I don’t mean the roads that we traversered. I mean the modes of transportation.
We both own MINIs, her’s a 2008 Pepper White Cooper S Hardtop and mine, a 2007 Pepper White Cabrio S – Sidewalk package. We both love our cars so much that we did not want to subject them to the horrible roads of California. We are tired of chipped windshields, cracked windshields, damaged paint and all of the other road injuries that I5 and other California freeways/highways inflict upon our cars. We chose instead to take the train to LA and then rent a MINI once we got there. We had the privilege of bringing a sweet little silver MINI “Justa” Cabrio to MTTS. Being a rental, (a foster child of sorts) I am sure that she never thought that she would have the opportunity to mingle with other MINIs in the number or geographical diversity that she did. (Not to worry about OUR MINIs however, as the Pepper White “Coop” attended MTTS in 2010 and the 2007 Pepper White Cabrio (MINImowse) got to go to Disneyland a few years ago – almost as good; she even parked next to another MINI on the Mickey level of the Disneyland parking garage.
Our little adopted MINI was a real cutie and very quickly acquired the name “Bridget” as she was the bridge between our train travel and our participation in MTTS! Her home between rentals is right on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Newport Beach and she rubs fenders with Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Maserati’s, Porsche’s and Mercedes. She holds her own quite well and according to her “agent” she is quite popular. In fact, when we dropped her off on Sunday (that was really hard to do) she was already booked for another outing and this one was for 45 continuous days! Now that’s a rental bill.
Day 10 for Bridget consisted of several trips to Frys (we were building a desktop computer and server with family and friends), Pizza night and runs for the ingredients for homemade ice cream. The girls all turned in early but it was hard to sleep with MTTS just a few hours away.
As of this post the event has come to an end, but it was announced at the wrap party that there will be another MTTS event in 2014. So mark your calendars as you don’t want to miss this one. Where will they start from this time? Where will they end? What events will be planned? Many MINI minds are surely hard at work even now.
MINI TAKES TOOK THE STATES
MINI WENT FORTH. MINI WENT WEST. MINI WENT ALL THE WAY.
Click here for the MTTS Photo Album. While I have fallen behind in posting pictures, they will be coming soon.