Counting Blue Cars...

Another AMVIV has come and gone. A MINI Vacation in Vegas is a yearly gathering of MINI and mini owners and enthusiasts. It’s hosted by the Sin City Mini Club and held at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino. More specifically, on the roof of the parking garage at Palace Station. Mini owners, their cars, and lots of vendors assemble there to enjoy a shared love of a vehicle. True, car clubs are not new. Classic car meets and exhibitions have been going on almost since the invention of the automobile. The mini itself celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The event here in Las Vegas is in its 6th year. This is my 3rd as a member of the Sin City Mini Club and my 4th overall.

This year I was more active in the planning/hosting of AMVIV. I did some prep work and quite a bit of volunteer work during the event. I worked at the registration table so I know that we had around 361 cars register for the event. More cars always show up even if they aren’t registered. Vendors are not required to register their cars, and usually a few mini owners notice the large groups of minis around town and follow them to see what’s going on. All are welcome.

The numbers were smaller than last year when we had in the neighborhood of 500 cars all totaled. The economy was probably a big part of that. But AMVIV is still the largest yearly organized Mini event in the U.S. MINI USA puts on an event called MINI Takes the States which occurs every other year. I’ve attended both events so far in 2006 and 2008. Those events had more total participation but being cross-country and large regional events it makes sense more people can come out for at least a part of them.

Anyway, this year was the first time I stayed on site at the hotel for most of the weekend. I bunked with my friend and fellow club member Annette for the first two nights. Then I stayed in the hospitality suite with Mr. and Ms. Cone, our event/club mascots for the last night. In previous years, I just drove back and forth from my home in Henderson, a twenty-minute ride from Palace. I’m glad I let Annette convince me to stay over this time though. I got to experience the extra-added entertainment of late nights at the Irish pub downstairs. Watching some of my usually tame club mates getting silly on 50 oz. glasses of Guinness was quite an eye opener. Even though I am not a drinker and I don’t participate in the silliness, it is a bonding experience. Spending almost 3 whole days with folks I usually only see for a few hours once or twice a month did bring us closer together I think.

The event is best documented in photos or video probably. But I just wanted to mention some of the highlights. I only went on two “runs” during the event. The Strip Cruise and the Valley of Fire run on Sunday. Most of the rest of the time I was at Palace Station manning one of the registration tables, browsing the vendor booths, or just basically hanging out. On Saturday I manned the 5th stop on the Poker Run at Hot Rod Grille in Henderson. I got to hand out playing cards to each mini that stopped by to complete their poker hand. The winner was car 007, obviously a lucky number! From there it was on to SAFE HOUSE for the Show and Shine car show. Since I had to stay at my Poker Run post until 2:30, I missed most of the activity at the show, the judging had been completed, and they were just announcing the winners when I got there. Checks were presented as the SCMC and Desert MINI each made a $2000 donation to SAFE HOUSE to aid in their mission to help victims of domestic violence. More money was raised by the show participants; making a total of about $5000 raised. Fox 5 News covered the event and there was some footage on TV that night but I haven’t seen it yet. I’m sure we will see it at one of our next club meetings.

I enjoyed all my volunteering time; it was always busy, windy or chaotic, and I ended up with major “raccoon eyes” from the sun. But it was a blast. MINIs and Minis were everywhere, just walking around looking at them, seeing every color and variation, mods, graphics and just the strong personalities of the cars and their owners is something that just never gets old.