Drive My Car

AMVIV 7 has come and gone, and as usually there were some memorable moments. There were a lot of differences this year. A new location, Aliante Station. And I didn't go on any of the runs. I've been on most of them already. And I worked at the event so much it kept me at the Sin City club's tables. And then there was the Dent Guy working on my car. Although everytime I said it people kept thinking I said dead guy. But, no. The Dent King in fact was working on MINIfir's boot over two days. So she had to stay put anyway.

I went to In-n-Out Motor-In with Larry Thursday night, and Friday night after the mixer I was really too tired to go anywhere. Saturday though MINIfir and I manned a poker ru
n stop, Desert MINI. When I was done I met up with Jeff and Annette at their poker run stop, the 7-11. They'd let Mark's brother Chris drive little Monty and he let them take a ride in his GP. This swapping of cars turned out to be fortuitous. We went back to Aliante to turn in our tally sheets and then Annette asked me if I wanted to come see a classic Mini Chris was thinking of buying. Plus, she said, he's got a water buffalo. This is how it happened: Chris had had such a great time in Monty. And a guy at 7-11 spotted them and said his son had a little red mini just like theirs in his garage. Would he be interested in selling it? Probably. He doesn't live far from here. So we all hopped in cars. Jeff and Chris T.'s Dad in the GP, Chris F. and his wife in Monty and Annette drove me and Chris T. in her VW (a non-mini, but mine was still being worked on). We all followed the leader to this house just a few miles from Aliante. It was in an older North Las Vegas neighborhood. There were just a couple of houses on the street. We pulled up at one and the owner greeted us along with his friendly Corgi, Lucy. He let us through the fence to come look at the car.

Sitting in his garage was a dust covered mini that turned out to be an amazing find. It was a 1964 Austin Mini Cooper S. The guys looked her over and began to assess the work she would need. But Chris was ready to buy. He took out his wad of cash and said, Let's make this deal. While they took care of it, we were invited to have a tour of the yard.

This is not a usual AMVIV weekend occurance, but there he was. Fred, the water buffalo.

He was relaxing in his pen, next to a few horses, a sheep, some goats, a pig, chickens and lots of dogs. Certainly something you don't see everyday. By the time we'd seen the entire zoo, the little mini had been rolled out onto the driveway. It was not running. It would need to be towed. And Chris had already called for a tow truck. It arrived and the driver began loading up the little mini. We all stood and watched and the owner who was selling it understandably seemed sad to see her go. Jeff said that he wished he and Annette had found such a fine mini so close to home. They'd gone up to Washington state to get Monty. Chris had scored a great classic for only $6000 cash. He had it taken to Aliante, washed and detailed. A true beauty.

All that was left to do was wait for the dent guy to finish with MINIfir's boot (it came out pretty nice) and then go off to the White Roof Radio party. The show was fun, then we went to the Mexican place in the hotel for dinner. It was the latest night out I had. And we were still in bed by midnight.

The next morning, I worked the breakfast and then we wrapped it all up. Another AMVIV had come to an end. It was hectic and exhausting but still well worth it. The attendees seemed to like the new hotel and to enjoy the activities. And we didn't stay out til all hours, but we still had a good time hosting it. And now we've got to start thinking about next year.