Joyriders

MTTS 2010

"On the road with Julie and Neo.

8/11/10

Just arrived in Grand Junction after a long day of driving. Stopped in Helper, UT to photograph "Big John" and at Papa Joe's to buy some beef jerky, or other meat based jerky.

Bummed to have missed out on the Salt Flats but apparently the salt can really mess up your car. Neo doesn't regret missing that. Some rest and a calm night here in Grand Junction, then off to Winter Park in the morning."

That was my lone journal entry during the trip. I couldn't even manage to write in complete sentences. I thought I'd have more time, being a co-pilot instead of a driver. But I ended up being pretty useless in that capacity too. Misinterpreting instructions and failing to make sense of maps. But Julie, she was doing it all. She was actually texting and posting on Facebook while driving. Every now and then, I looked at the live feed and saw posts from her, which she had somehow managed to type out and post while driving, while I was sitting there next to her. I could hardly manage to post one update a day, and when I did it was only stuff like, "has just arrived in Denver" etc.

One good thing about being a co-pilot, I got to look around at stuff. It's hard to do when you're driving. I didn't really manage to take more pictures than I normally would. I was still pretty forgetful and had hopelessly bad timing when I did get some shots. But otherwise I got to see a lot. The twisty roads, the scenic bits, lots of other MINIs.

The first overnight stop for me was Salt Lake City. It was kind of cool being back there, since I'd lived just south in Provo for 5 years. And I got my MINIfir at the dealership there, 7 years ago. The party they had at MINI of Murray was a bit disappointing. Partially because we arrived late, and it was mostly over, and then also because we missed an announcement about the change in the Salt Flats drive-off time. We left over an hour late the next morning, and ended up turning back with a small crew of minis we ending up traveling with for most of the rest of the journey. We stopped at a truck stop on the route back towards Salt Lake and had a nice breakfast. Mike made a little Salt Flats on the table, using salt and a tiny model mini.

Then we began the long road to Grand Junction. Eastern Utah was pretty dull. And it was peppered with state troopers. It was nice to be back in Colorado though. It had been a while. Since I went back to Colorado Springs to give that paper I think. Or maybe it was for the Teach for America interview, I can't remember which came first now.

The hotel in Grand Junction was nice. Then we met up with our motoring companions; DB from California, Mike and Scott from Arizona, Jim from Nebraska, Suzanne from Seattle (who was originally from Long Island and a Mets fan too!), me and Julie and this guy Markus and his son Ryan (forgot where they were from). We ate at the RockSlide Brewpub, where I got to watch the Mets blow a lead to the Rockies in the 8th inning by giving up a grand slam. Nearby Rockies fans cheered, and I sighed. The Mets did with that series though :)

Then we walked down the street to a gelato place to get some free ice cream compliments of MINIUSA. After a stop in a nearby bar for a drink, or two we headed back to the hotel. We met up with Gert Hildebrand, the head designer for MINI and a few guys who were apparently his handlers, looking after him. We hung out for a bit in the hotel lounge area and listened to some stories. I mentioned to one of the handler guys that I didn't have my Mini with me and explained about her tranny. He repeated my situation to Gert, and he said, you know the guy you need to talk to is Vinny.

The next morning we gathered in a nearby parking lot and did our check-ins and lined up to go. We managed to keep a pretty good sized group of Minis together, but eventually we ended up back in our little group. We stopped in Frisco for lunch and some photos, then got back on the road toWinter Park. It was a beautiful little town, at high altitude, the effects of which took me by surprise. MINIs in the Mountains was based here, and coincided with MTTS. We did a cool drive through town, we even had our own lane, and then we ended up in a park for some entertainment and relaxation. Mark and Ross had joined us by this time. Then we had dinner in another local pub. The hotels there were shocking. Mine was simply rustic, when I asked about cooling off the stuffy room, the guy just told me to open a window. It didn't get very hot there, but still this was an eye opener. Julie and some of the others stayed in the hotel across the street which according to them was nightmarish. It was likened by more than one person to the hotel in The Shining. We stayed in Winter Park most of the next day for MITM activities including a lovely Bar-b-que lunch up at the top of the moutain. We had to get up there by ski lift. After a group photo, we were off to Denver.

For this part of the journey I rode with Kerry, who I didn't really know at all before this. He turned out to be pretty cool with good taste in music. After hitting some traffic in Denver, we made it to my hotel. I waited there for Julie who was staying with me once again. She got into her Trinity outfit and we headed for the owners garage party at the Infinity Park events center. Unfortunately we took a long and unnecessary detour being mislead this time by google maps. We had actually been just a few blocks away from the venue, but we got there eventually. Pedro had arrived in town by then and we happily greeted him and added another number to our party of SCMC members. The party was pretty fun, basically a showcase of the new Countryman and some photos and video from the trip so far. Also this was our first time meeting up with those who rallied from the East Coast locations, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta.

We called it an early night so we could be rested up for the Red Rock run the next morning. For me it was the highlight of the trip. We first gathered at the Red Rock amphitheater where U2 had filmed their "Sunday Bloody Sunday" video years ago. We made our way down the steep steps to get a briefing and a bit of a cheering section going. We did this YMCA like action to awkwardly spell MINI. And there was a sing-a-long to "I Got a Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. It kind of fell flat due to the MINIUSA crew not having a way to amplify the music from the boom box they had brought. There were some break dancers that did their thing on stage and then we all climbed back up to the cars. It was a huge effort for me and I was glad to have made it without dying. They took some cool photos of what seemed like a sea of MINIs. Then we headed off to Estes Park via some of the coolest, twistiest roads anywhere. We left Red Rock in a massive group and stayed together quite a lot of the way. We took one wrong turn which was mostly my fault. Then we righted ourselves and got back to Denver. We arrived at the MTTS Festival which was on a rugby field at Infinity Park. We met up with Stormy, one of Julie's friends from a previous job. And he asked if I was the co-pilot who had shamefully never seen The Matrix. It was one of the funniest moments when I had to admit after riding all that way with Trinity and Neo that I'd never actually seen the movie. Julie posted it on Facebook, and then I was known as "the girl who'd never seen The Matrix."

The festival was cool. It was pretty similar to the one in Pasadena at MTTS 2008. Vendors and displays, food and music. There was a MINICross on the road out in front of the center. I got to try out a silver convertible on the slalom course. They had 3 MINI "e"s and I had to wait in another separate line to drive one of those. After a long wait, including an unspecified delay on the track, I finally got in to the electric MINI. The MINIUSA rep who rode with me gave me tips on how to drive this unique Mini. The accelerator was used for both accelerating and slowing down. The brake was only for stopping. It took getting used to. I went through the slalom again, doing a bit better than the first time. The MINI "e" was just as spunky as any other mini, and navigated the turns like a champ. The who rode with me introduced himself as Vinny, and I realized that this could be my guy. I told him about my MINI and that Gert had suggested I speak to him. He said he'd try to help and that I should find him inside the festival later.

I told everyone I could find to keep an eye out for him. Db, who knew him well, said he'd let him know I was looking for him. I finally found him on a picnic blanket getting ready to watch Blues Traveller with other MINIUSA folks. He took my information, and said he'd see what he could do.

Having achieved one of the main things I'd hoped to do on this trip, I felt some relief. I had done all I could to get some help with MINIfir's problem. Now I just had to wait.

Blues Traveller were great as usual. And it was nice just to end the whole trip relaxing and watching a great band. When it was over, Julie dropped me back at my hotel. She had booked a special hotel for this second night because her boyfriend had planned to meet her there. It turned out he couldn't make it due to work, but she spent the night in the hotel anyway. A nice treat for her after the Winter Park experience. I was in the same hotel two nights in a row, which was a welcome change for me after a different stop every night.

The next morning we packed up for the long drive back to Las Vegas. I had told Julie early on in the trip that if she got tired, I could drive while she got some rest. But it turned out on that last day, when she did kind of hope to have me drive a bit, I got incredibly sleepy and didn't manage to help out. Another boo for me as a co-pilot. One good thing that came out of the trip was that I got to know Julie much better. We decided to have a movie night some future weekend, so I could finally see The Matrix.

Twelve hours later, we arrived back at Palace Station so I could pick up the car I'd been lent by John and Pedro. Sunday night it was back home in my own bed, tired but happy I'd been able to join in the fun. It was bittersweet without my MINIfir. But I got home hopeful that I could get her back on the road soon.