MINI Takes the States!

The MINI Takes the States tour hit Chicago/Joliet this past Sunday! I drove down with my niece, Kendra, in Brisby:



My parents and younger niece, Paige, took my Dad's relatively new 2012 Countryman. This was what we saw of it for most of the trip:



We started by gathering at MINI of Grand Rapids along with close to 100 other MINIs and MOGR's staff all driving MINI's from the lot.



One of the show pieces of the Chicago event was this R56 ArtPrize submission, which started with us at MOGR:



We all got goodie bags, coffee, bagels, and boxed lunches from Panera, then set out for Southern Michigan:



We met MOGR's Southern Alliance in Stevensville, MI. This was the scene behind the McDonalds that we invaded:



All in all, the trip was much slower than I had expected. The caravan of MINIs stayed right around 70mph, which is slow for me and from what others tell me, was a stark contrast to the 90mph+ pace of the 2010 run. Also, I94 was a nightmare in both directions. Very often the freeway would come to a sudden halt, only to just as suddenly start moving again. I really need to get my break pads replaced, heh.



After a strange drive through the middle of nowhere and over some of the worst roads I've dared take Brisby down, we finally arrived at the Joliet Auto Club. MOGR and friends were the first to arrive, but many more were on the way:






The event itself was underwhelming, although I have to admit that we did not take part in the MINIcross, which was clearly the focus of the day. It was still fun though. Checking out the hundreds of different MINIs was great.










Here is the album link for the rest of the photos from our trip.

~Ben