Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Mini Birthday Bash
Tonight was the Mini Birthday Bash held at the Lakeview Park Bankshell on the shore of Lake Winona. We were treated to an evening of '60s music by the Invaders. They played it all and then some! The Beatles, Dave Clark Five, The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Rollling Stones, etc. Yes, people were dancing and singing along. Good times! They were also selling a CD plus a tee shirt for $15. Now is that a bargain? Or is that a bargain! We also got a gigantic cupcake and a pop. The cupcake had a chocolate mini on top of it. Then we were off to dinner. We headed to a restaurant and decided it wasn't what we wanted. Then to our amazement one of the staff came out and said "Your looking for a different type of restaurant, aren't you?" And she suggested two. We went to the Ground Round and it was delicious. I'm determined to make it back there to have a steak before I leave after seeing Terry's. NUMMY! Linda and Terry and I are off to Mall of America in the morning. YIPPEE! Better get some zzzzzzzzzzz's! Have to make sure I'm well rested! Dave has to take the UHaul and trailer back tomorrow. Mike is going with him to drive him back so I CAN GO SHOPPING! What a guy! Thanks Mike!
Show and Shine Day
Show and Shine Day has arrived! Dave and Adrienne watched sadly as everybody left for Show and Shine without them. We wandered across the road and found ourselves a nice Nissan Sentra to rent til Friday. We checked out exactly where we have to return the UHaul tomorrow and came back to find Rick Higgs with his car torn apart so we hung around to lend a hand or get in the way whichever worked best for Rick. Finally we took Rick and Elaine's box lunch tickets as well as ours and headed out to the Show and Shine to find food. We were all starving. We got there and were turned away from the MINI road. Because we were nobodies in our Nissan we had to go use a different parking lot and walk down a steep hill and up about 50 stairs to get to the site to find there were indeed plenty of OTHER cars parked there. Linda and Terry kindly drove us back to our car when we were done looking. We raced back to get good parking spots overlooking our rooms. I found out Starbucks is about 20 feet from my room. How great is that? Roger has gone off with Dave to help him unload the mini in preparation for returning the rental gear tomorrow. Tonight is the Birthday Bash at Lake Park Bandshell. Cake and pop. Yahoo! We are hoping we may have a solution to getting home but I think we'll be working on a backup plan as well, just in case. Virginia there was NOTHING to buy for Muffy there. A BIG disappointment. Oh yeah, the weather is definitely NOT HOT!
Monday, June 29, 2009
We have arrived - Mitchell to Winona - 546km total 3247kms one way
Well, we have arrived, a little later than planned, but safe and sound in Winona. We did have more problems with the Cooper S and finally 225 miles from Winona, we decided to put it on a trailer..so located a U-haul rental place, and found what we needed 20 miles away. Place a reservation and headed off .. just 4 miles away the Cooper S died on the I90..and coasted to the side. Just when we were going to split up and head off to pickup the trailer, I found the problem, the distributor wire had fallen off from the vibrations along I90. With the car running again, we all made it to the rental shop, loaded the car, and headed for Winona. The next thing to sort is how to get the car home. Will post pics from the car show tomorrow night. Mike
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Day 4 - Sturgis to Mitchell SD - 600km
Another good day on the road, althugh with navigatort Mike and his side kick Rog-rog, making a few errors starting out..we went round in a few circles..all part of the fun. We then had a side trip to Mt. Rushmore to see the 4 presidents. What great roads on the way in, although hilly, but lots of curves, and we took the back way out via Hwy 40 which was another good Mini road. We stopped in Wall to see the famous drug store after reading the 252 signs posted along the way.. we saw the first ones in Montana, a couple in Wyoming, but the most are in South Dakota. We had a nice lunch there, cleaned off the multitudes on bus and headed for Chamberlain to see the Akta Lakota museum, where we cleaned even more bugs off the cars! By now the temp is up to over 30 degrees, (86 F) so we were running hot..not the cars, but the people, other than the new Mini who were being windswept by the air conditioning! We ended the dat at Mitchell, home of the Corn Palace.. and spent asome time fussing with the Cooper S which astarted to run rough. we found the exhaust pip has been wacked enough to bend the clamps and deform the new pipes, probably from one of the road to bridge bumps we hit earlier in the trip. We solved the rough running with a setup of the points, which had closed up the gap and were too tight.
Day 4 and Adrienne is heard from
Last night it was decided we would start a bit later today so what happens when we are all snug in our beds and SLEEPING? Some idiot pulled the fire alarm! So much for the extra sleep. I think everyone woke up at their normal 5:00 a.m. anyway. Today we visited Mt. Rushmore. You could spend days at these places! They have so much touristy stuff built up around them. It was very large and impressive. They have an amphitheatre and as it was Sunday morning they had a church service. From Mt. Rushmore we took a different route out (hoping there would be smaller hills and they were, thank goodness. Our next stop was Wall Drugs. Another huge tourist attraction with something for everyone. On the way there I was told to stop reading out the signs along the road saying what Wall Drugs had or there would be no need to stop having already found out what they had. Hmmph! After a tasty lunch there we headed out to Chamberlain South Dakota to find the Akta Lakota Sioux Museum. We crossed the mighty Missouri to get there. First decent body of water we've seen since home. It was a lovely AIR CONDITIONED museum and it was FREE and we had 30 minutes to see it before it closed. I got the distinct impression it is connected to a residential school. Didn't they get rid of all those? Anyway, it was REALLY hot out and we had been travelling in it for hours so Mike and Rog provided us with water and Linda provided Rog and Dave with those neck cooler thingies. WOW! What an invention. Between the air conditioned museum, a chance to park in the shade for half an hour and the bandanas we made it to Mitchell South Dakota for the night. We have just returned from dinner at the local truck stop (delicious of course!) and found our own bandanas in their truck stop store along with bisexual bug cleaner. Go figure! Everybody is outside working on Dave's car once again. It seems to be a nightly ritual. That's it from me. I'm listening to The Lion King in the comfort of my air conditioned room, I've been well fed and I'm ready for whatever comes next.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Bozman MT to Sturgis SD- 843km
A long day but with lots to see. We started by going to the Little Bighorn Battlefield Museum, and then headed off to see Devils Tower in Wyoming. By the time we arrived in Spearfish, all the rooms were full as they were holding a Rodeo..so on to Sturgis, Sd where we got the last rooms after checking a few places! The VTEC continues to run well, getting close to 50mpg, taking on less gas than either of theother two cars. The Cooper S has lost the starter solinoid, so we are opening the hood and pushing the button to get the car started. She is also blowing a bit of oil and seems to be burning oil, although the exhasut is clear.. The new MINI just zooms along, with no issues, and in utter comfort! Some if theroad surface along I90 was enough to send both Rog and I up in our seats hitting the roof on the way over the bump! On towards Winona...Mike
Friday, June 26, 2009
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