Today was our first actual day with MINI Takes the States. We woke up really bright and early to meet up with the other MINIs at the dealership. There were a lot of bleary eyed MINIs in the parking lot this morning…. I don’t think MINIs are naturally morning-types. Their human counterparts roamed around and foraged for coffee and breakfast. MINI provided breakfast burritos, but Brian and I passed, choosing to stick with our Cliff bars. We had a very long drive ahead of us today and we didn’t want to risk tummy upset. (They appeared to be McDonalds burritos and I’m not positive they would have been gluten-friendly even without to flour tortilla.)
Everyone roamed around and talked… Lots of photos were taken and introductions made. Many of us have been following/planning with this group on Facebook for months… It has been exciting to finally meet (in the real world) some of the people that we’ve been talking to for so long. Brian and I met another couple that started their trip almost a month ago. We’ve been following their adventure online. They are going all the way across the county with MINI and throwing in a bunch of extra stops before and after MTTS for a total of TWO months travel! IN A MINI!! Maybe that’ll be me and Brian some day! (I have a photo of the four of us, but my computer won’t connect right now, so I’m blogging on my phone… Love my iPhone!)
We’ve been interviewed twice about our MINI… It’s so cool! I hope I can find the video!
As we left MINI Sandia (ABQ) this morning we drove through a crowd of people and out onto the highway where the police had blocked the roads. Superstar treatment!
MINIs streamed out onto the highway and zoomed into the hills of Albuquerque.
It was all very exciting at first… The sight of hundreds of MINIs caused a stir among the other cars… First looks of confusion then smiles as we passed. But as Albuquerque disappeared behind us the open roads of the plains stretched out before us boredom set in. The speed limit is 75… So that makes things more fun for the drivers… for a while…. I napped for a while… Played on my phone… When I had signal (which wasn’t very often) and quizzed Brian on his thoughts on alien life. Then Brian suggested I take another nap. Hmmm …
We finally arrived in Roswell, New Mexico shortly after noon. MINI had made arrangement for us to visit the International UFO Museum & Research Center. Brian and I breezed through fairly quickly. Most of the displays are news articles and documents relating to the Roswell UFO crash. I’ve been there before with Dad and I enjoyed reading the papers and looking at all the photos… Brian had been in the car too long and was in no mood for reading.
We found a quiet spot for our picnic lunch and had just begun to eat when another lady sat down at a table near us…. And started ranting and yelling…. Not at us…. And I’m pretty sure she wasn’t on a phone either…. One too many alien encounters, maybe? I dunno. We stuffed our lunch in our mouths and got out of there pretty quick.
After a quick stop at Target to restock our picnic supplies (and get me a bit of chocolate) we were on our way to Lubbock, TX.
At the Texas-New Mexico State Line Metroplex MINI of Dallas was there to welcome us to Texas.
MINI didn’t have anything planned for our evening in Lubbock, but a group of MINI enthusiasts had organized a meet up at a drive in theater. I’ve been wanting to go to a drive in forever…. Especially since we got the Roadster,so I pretty much whined and begged until Brian gave in and said we could go. The movie doesn’t start until nearly his bedtime… I promised to only stay through the first movie…Rise of the Planet of the Apes!!!
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