KillerKar
September 18th, 2006, 12:27 PM
Well ... FINALLY I can post (don't ask - it's a long, bloody story ... my PC decided it wanted to freeze up four times on Sunday ... grrrr ... )
Firstly, I had a BLAST on Saturday at Graylyn! It was great to meet some of the folks in the club that, up 'til then, I only knew by a name on a screen. :D It's also gratifying to find out that, yes, ya'll are just as nuts about MINIs as I am, so I fit right in. Thanks for making me feel so welcome! And kudos to Flow MINI, too, for providing an awesome breakfast!
I think the Club appeared to be the largest showing of one particular car group at Graylyn! I certainly don't think there were as many (no pun intended) of anyone else there ... it was just want I wanted to see, too: a phalanx of MINIs!
As for my Flow MINI loaner car that Ed Simmons was SO kind to let me have ... WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! It was a MCS - and I'm getting a Cooper - but I believe that if I learned anything at all from this weekend, I learned exactly how passive my driving experience has been up to this point ! :D Aside from a '94 Ford truck I got in '94 (WHY I got it I don't know - my brain was seized by aliens I think), and the experience of driving a Jeep Wrangler for a brief period while my T-Bird was in the shop, all my other rides have been automatics. You put it in "drive'", you fuggeddaboutit. Sheesh! I think ... no, I KNOW that the T-Bird, when she gets traded for my MINI, will be the last automatic transmission automobile I will EVER have.
Is this possibly one reason why so many other drivers seem (to me) to be driving around in a fug of some kind? They look like robots - Gary has a phrase for it: "DEAD MAN DRIVING!" You poke them - they don't move!
Seriously, I was so engaged with the little MINI, which was incredibly patient with my novice shifting (it only stalled out once!) that I was confirmed in an opinion I've held for some time: having that active, engaged relationship with the car you're driving makes you a safer driver and ... blast it, it's MORE FUN!!!!! (in a MINI, anyway - can't speak for anything else).
The only bit of bad news - Gary took beaucoup pictures on Sat., but our camera had apparently decided to be obstreporous. When he downloaded them all last night, he discovered that they were all horribly over-exposed! :( Basically, he got a few license plate shots for possible use in "MC2" but the rest were ... well, "unuseable".
Needless to say, we were ticked. Hopefully that will NOT happen on the next MINI outing. And hopefully I will have my baby on the next outing, too!
Anyway, just wanted to post my Graylyn thoughts - does anyone know if Hemingway's car sold?
Laura
Firstly, I had a BLAST on Saturday at Graylyn! It was great to meet some of the folks in the club that, up 'til then, I only knew by a name on a screen. :D It's also gratifying to find out that, yes, ya'll are just as nuts about MINIs as I am, so I fit right in. Thanks for making me feel so welcome! And kudos to Flow MINI, too, for providing an awesome breakfast!
I think the Club appeared to be the largest showing of one particular car group at Graylyn! I certainly don't think there were as many (no pun intended) of anyone else there ... it was just want I wanted to see, too: a phalanx of MINIs!
As for my Flow MINI loaner car that Ed Simmons was SO kind to let me have ... WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! It was a MCS - and I'm getting a Cooper - but I believe that if I learned anything at all from this weekend, I learned exactly how passive my driving experience has been up to this point ! :D Aside from a '94 Ford truck I got in '94 (WHY I got it I don't know - my brain was seized by aliens I think), and the experience of driving a Jeep Wrangler for a brief period while my T-Bird was in the shop, all my other rides have been automatics. You put it in "drive'", you fuggeddaboutit. Sheesh! I think ... no, I KNOW that the T-Bird, when she gets traded for my MINI, will be the last automatic transmission automobile I will EVER have.
Is this possibly one reason why so many other drivers seem (to me) to be driving around in a fug of some kind? They look like robots - Gary has a phrase for it: "DEAD MAN DRIVING!" You poke them - they don't move!
Seriously, I was so engaged with the little MINI, which was incredibly patient with my novice shifting (it only stalled out once!) that I was confirmed in an opinion I've held for some time: having that active, engaged relationship with the car you're driving makes you a safer driver and ... blast it, it's MORE FUN!!!!! (in a MINI, anyway - can't speak for anything else).
The only bit of bad news - Gary took beaucoup pictures on Sat., but our camera had apparently decided to be obstreporous. When he downloaded them all last night, he discovered that they were all horribly over-exposed! :( Basically, he got a few license plate shots for possible use in "MC2" but the rest were ... well, "unuseable".
Needless to say, we were ticked. Hopefully that will NOT happen on the next MINI outing. And hopefully I will have my baby on the next outing, too!
Anyway, just wanted to post my Graylyn thoughts - does anyone know if Hemingway's car sold?
Laura