PaulGraz's Daily Blog for MINIs On Top!
Day 8, Saturday June 16th: MINIs On
Top, Mt Washington, NH:
There are several large MINI gatherings that happen annually, but for those of
us in the northeast, this is the BIG event. 2007 is the 5th year for MINIs
On Top (MOT). We had been to MOT in 2005, and had a great time - despite
the rain, fog, mud, rain - did I mention the rain? Yeah, it was kinda wet
that year. Well, this year will be different - the weather forecast is
MUCH better.
I should mention that last night was actually the first MOT activity - the
Trivia Contest. Our team consisted of Alli, Jane, Nancy and myself.
I knew we were in trouble when they went over the categories. One category
was "New England". That sucks for us "southerners" from New Jersey, I
guess this is one of the reasons why the same team keeps winning this every
year. So after a couple rounds, we were in last place. But then
the final rounds were license plates and movies - and we made some ground.
I think we finished 1 or 2 spots above last - Woo Hoo!
So Saturday morning we woke up to a great day, and headed down to the T&C dining
room for their breakfast buffet. I had been trying to eat light for
breakfast every day on this trip, but that'll be impossible here.
Now, for those reading that aren't familiar with MOT, the weekend basically
consists of these events:
-All the MINIs gather in the Loon Mountain parking lot in the morning.
-Then, we fire up the cars and go for a scenic drive (not necessarily all
together)
-Finally, we meet back up again as a group at the base of Mt Washington
-Dinner is served in a big huge tent, door prizes are given out, and then we
drive up the mountain in time to see the sunset.
Soon after, we met up with the NEMINI gang and hit the road. We drove down
to Lincoln, NH and picked up sandwiches for our lunch stop, and then drove over
to the Loon Mountain parking lot. We were kinda late, and already missed
some of the activities. One of the local schools has setup a car wash, and
my car really needed it - Nancy brought her car over too. It wasn't best
the wash job, but hey - $5 for a good cause? Why not...
Walking around the Loon Mtn parking lot, filled with over 250 MINIs is quite a
sight. You can see MINIs of every color, check out all the modifications
people have done to their cars, the different wheels and stripes that were added
on, etc. I got to see some of the new 07 cars in colors I had never seen
before, like Oxygen Blue and Nightfire red. And I also really enjoy
walking around looking at the vanity plates that people get for their MINIs.
While we were in the lot, Alli got a engine damper installed from Shoe - which
delayed our departure a little - so we were pretty much the last group of MINIs
to pull out onto the Kancamagus Highway (renamed by Alli as the Kango-Mango
Highway, but usually just referred to as "the Kanc"). Driving the Kanc is
the traditional MOT drive, but this year they added 2 alternate routes that go
over by Franconia Notch State Park. Yes, that means the choices were Kanc
or Franc. Cute, huh? We stuck to the Kanc, but it wasn't as crowded
with MINIs this year because some were off trying out the other routes. We
stopped for lunch at a small parking lot next to a covered bridge. Then we
headed over the covered bridge and continued our drive. One section of the
Kanc was completely torn up as they prepared to re-pave it - THAT was no fun.
But we circled around and headed north up near Attitash Ski resort and stopped
for some ice cream. Yeah, more ice cream. I got a very, very small
soft serve.
We circled back to the T&C so people could grab their warmer clothes - it's
always cooler and breezier at the top of Mt Washington - and then looped back
down to the base of the mountain. Before dinner was your last chance to
buy extra door prize tickets, or tickets for the grand prize - a 2 year lease of
a brand new MINI ($25 per ticket).
Door prizes were done in a "tricky tray" format - you drop your tickets into the
bag next to the prize you want to win. Nancy bought another 20 tickets, in
addition to the 5 you get just for being registered for the event. There
was also a new contest this year - For $5, you can roll 6 die, each of which
have a letter on only one side. The letters spell out "COOPER" - if you
roll "COOPER", you win a 2007 MINI. I gave Nicole $10 and let her roll
twice. I think she got 2 letters each time. BTW - all proceeds from
these various contests go to charity...
So then it's on to dinner. The food is always good, MOT always gets the
best caterer in the area. And then they start handing out awards.
Eugene (the orange convertible from FL you see in a few of my photos) won the
prize for driving the longest distance to get to MOT. (They didn't take
into account anyone driving from NJ, to FL, and then to NH!). And Wendy (aka
Marketing Girl) won a few awards as well, like dirtiest car. A few of the
people in our group won some door prizes. I won a $50 gift certificate
from PoochStyle.com -
and Nancy won the clear bra from
Helix. But the big
news came when they drew for the 2 year lease of the MINI - it was won by Jeff
and Meg from NEMINI. You should have seen the look on their faces!
And I couldn't think of anyone who deserved it more - they've had the worst luck
over the past year or so. Hopefully this means their bad luck is behind
them!
There was a drawing for a near-grand prize too - ok, well - a big prize anyhow.
A hitch and trailer from
MiniDoMore.com. They called out Nancy's ticket number for this - but
when she went up, they said there was a mix up and the ticket didn't match.
Apparently the person calling the number misread the ticket or something.
They re-called out the number after that but no one came up to claim the prize
as far as I know. Too bad, I got kinda excited over the prospect of
winning that....
So now it was time for what we all came for - the drive up to the top of Mount
Washington. The altitude at the top is a little over 6,000 feet - and it's
about 1500 feet at the base. The weather's great, so the drive up gave us
a good view. When we originally registered for this event, Nancy wasn't
planning to come - that changed at the last minute, but parking at the top is
limited to 225 cars, and Nancy had to leave her car at the bottom. So we
went up in just my car. Driving up the mountain is pretty simple, just
keep it in first gear and drive slowly and carefully. The road is kinda
narrow, and we did encounter a few vehicles that were coming down while we were
going up. But the drive up was uneventful and scenic. When we got to
the top it was like a photog's fire drill - the three of us jumping out of the
car, grabbing cameras, rushing for that perfect shot.
This is the third time Nancy, Nicole, and I have been to the top of this
mountain - twice with MOT, once on our own. There's a spot that's
considered the highest point which you can climb up to, and each of the 2
previous times we didn't make it there because it was too crowded. I was
hoping we could actually get a picture of us at the peak this time. So I
went up to the peak and once again found a big line of people. OK, time to
build up some good photo karma. Rather than just stand there and wait, I
offered to take pics for anyone in line. People were handing me their
cameras and posing next to the sign - I must have taken pics of like 30
different groups/families/couples. Eventually Nicole got a shot of Nancy
and I - but I don't think we got a pic of the 3 of us. Oh well, we'll just
have to go back again...
We walked around a little more, took more pics, then started to head down as it
was starting to get dark. Driving down requires more skill than going up.
Again, first gear only and the trick is to NOT ride your brakes. You'll
end up overheating the brake pads and rotors. Someone in front of us was
doing exactly that - just riding the brakes all the way down. Ouch.
We stopped around halfway to let him pull away from us a little, and then
continued on down.
When we got to the bottom, a bunch of cars were doing the "turn the headlights
on and open the hood" thing. You see, on the MINIs (up until 06), the
headlights are mounted in the hood - so you open the hood and the headlights
point straight up. But the new ones don't do this - and a few people with
the new cars got in the line and tried to participate. I guess they didn't
realize that there was a certain visual effect we were trying to go for.
Nicole and I hung around for a while to shoot this - the others went back to the
T&C.
Another MOT was over, but this year was a really good one! Long drive home
tomorrow...
As always - see my pictures link for the photos of the day...
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