David's Blog

Today's leg of MTTS traveled from downtown Dallas (2 blocks from my apartment!) to Memphis. We all gathered in a large parking lot at 8am and left around 8:30am.

I picked up a cool MTTS shirt...although it certainly is not $36 cool.

Wired provided a bus with free WiFi access. I'm not sure how accurate their tally (see picture) was, but they did update it frequently.

I got in a convoy with 3 other MINI's. Alas, it was not meant to be. After only 30 minutes of motoring, the cops pulled over our leader. One of the other cars pulled over and waited. That left me and one other MINI. Not much of a convoy...so I drove slow and waited for another group.

The next group had 4 MINI's in it. One of them was Gary from MC2 Magazine. We stopped at a gas station and took some pictures of our cars. 4 of the 5 MINI's were red, so we lined them up for some photos.

Once we got back on the road, we hooked up with another 4 MINI's to get our convoy to 9. The first official stop was just after the Texas/Arkansas border. One of the red MINI owners (Toby) said he was turning around at this point and heading back. I decided to join him. We had our own 2 car convoy back to Dallas.

The pics are here.

Posted on September 4, 2006 10:09 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

MINI Takes The States (MTTS) is a two week trip setup by MINI starting on the West Coast and ending on the East Coast. It would have been a blast to do the whole thing, but I am out of vacation days for the year. I drove to Wichita Falls to meet up with the inbound MINI's and drove to Dallas with them. I met up with my co-worker Steve Baker at a Wendy's in Wichita Falls. We stopped once at a MINI rest stop that provided free ice cream. Once I got to Dallas, I went to get a free car wash, courtesy of MINI. I had dinner at Razoo's with the Metroplex MINI clan. Then I went to the Gypsy Tea Room for a MINI private party featuring free drinks and a couple of comedians and a couple of bands.

If you click on the Amarillo to Dallas leg of MTTS, and then go to "Details & Photos", then click on "Photos", then go to the 14th picture down, you can see a picture of me on the MINI website! I am the only guy with a red shirt sitting up near the front row with comedian Jay Davis on stage. Appearance on MINI website: check!

Here are the pics.

Posted on September 4, 2006 9:34 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Here are a few panoramic pics I created with Adobe PhotoShop from last weekend's MINI Takes The States (MTTS). The pic above was after we left Dallas for Memphis. I joined a convoy of 9 MINI's that had several red MINI's. The next time we stopped, we lined up for a red MINI photo op. My car is the one with the number 11 on the side.

Saturday night, MTTS took over the Gypsy Tea Room in Deep Ellum. The parking lot was overflowing with MINI's. I tried to take one 360 degree panoramic pic...but the distortion became too great, so I split it into 3 pictures. Doing a 360 degree panoramic photo would be easier if I had the right tool for the job, like this Sony panoramic camera.

Posted on September 4, 2006 3:19 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Today I drove to Wichita Falls to meet up with the MINI Takes the States (MTTS) convoy. I was meeting my fellow MINI owner/buddy Steve and his kid Oliver who left with the MTTS convoy out of Amarillo.

We wanted to meet up for a quick lunch so that we could get back on the road. I found a Wendy's with several MINI's parked in front. I called Steve and told him where to meet me and then I went inside to talk to the MINI owners.

It is easy to find people involved in the MTTS...everybody that registered has a red band on their wrists. I found a table of four people with the red bands on their wrists.

MINI owners are abnormally enthusiastic about their cars. Striking up a conversation is *not* a problem...just ask them about their cars and they won't stop talking.

I walked over to talk to the group with the red wrist bands to say howdy. I asked them if they were involved in MTTS. The response I got was a bit like "Flounder" in Animal House when he asked, "You guys playing cards?"...stares and dead silence. It felt like they were expecting me to ask for money or something.

One girl in the group spoke up after bit and told me they were from New Jersey and they were doing the whole trip, from the West Coast to the East Coast. I said, "You guys are hardcore!" and I left them alone.

Later that night, MINI hosted a party at the Gypsy Tea Room in Deep Ellum in Dallas. After a couple of comedians performed, some of the people behind MINI took the stage to welcome and thank everybody. One of the people that took the stage was Trudy Hardy, the marketing manager for MINI USA. Trudy was the girl I tried to talk to at lunch! Here is an interview Trudy did recently with BusinessWeek.

I *had* to confront Trudy about our awkward lunch time chat. I found her mingling in the crowd. I said, "you were the girl at Wendy's!" She smiled and said, "Yeah, I try to keep a low profile." It worked! I had no idea who she was until she was introduced on stage. That explains why these MINI owners at lunch weren't acting like MINI owners...they were trying to play it cool (although it came off as despondent...need to work on that guys!)

I asked Trudy if I could get a photo with her and she obliged me. Thanks Trudy...you are awesome!

I have a *bunch* more photos to put up from the event. Tomorrow we ship off for Memphis at 8am. Off to bed!

Posted on August 27, 2006 1:23 AM | Permalink| Comments (1)

Here are some pics from a driving class I took back in December of 2003.  The class is called “Practical Driver Improvement for Civilians.” It was such a blast! It is taught by police officers using the same course used to train police. The course is just outside of Kilgore, Texas. About 90% of the class is spent in your car.  The 2 day course only cost $75, which is a steal! You also can get a discount from your insurance for taking the class.

The class has 6 lessons:

• Evasive Lane Change accident avoidance
• Perception / Reaction Emergency Lane Changes for accident avoidance
• Evasive Maneuvering for Accident Avoidance (”serpentine” course)
• Precision Maneuvering Courses
• Precision Backing Courses
• Highway Response Courses

It is a lot of fun to learn what your car can and, more importantly, cannot do. You are not learning anything unless your car looses control!

Posted on December 7, 2003 11:48 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Here are some pics from the Metroplex MINI club. This meeting was at the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens on March 15, 2003.

Posted on March 15, 2003 12:43 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Some pics of my car, a 2003 MINI Cooper S.

Posted on January 2, 2003 12:18 AM | Permalink| Comments (0)