As you will note from my gallery pics, I've replaced the original chrome radiator grille set with the AeroKit Grille set. I'm planning to be at both the 17 August and 19 October gatherings, en shallah.

I've noted that there is at least some folk amongst MCS owners interested in going with an MC type chrome radiator grille set. I'll bring my old set along to the Presidio- first come, first served.

O.K. I am back from my "Mini Road Trip" down from the SF Bay Area to Southern California and Back. Put over 1100 miles on the Mini during this trip, and I didn't see a SINGLE new Cooper during my time on the road. The car continues to be a guy magnet. ;)

Things I've learned on this trip:

1. The wind screen attacts kamakaze moths. They love to die green & yellow death in the big valley. :eek: And the wipers don't remove the goo. Had to stop at rest stops and clean the windshield often.

2. The Cruise control is strange: Unlike regular cars, when you engage the Cruise Control, the accelerator pedal holds position and moves around while the car keeps the speed. On the Mini, no such movement. So, when you resume autopilot from slowing down, the car zooms off, (The CVT really revs the engine) and you sort of feel a bit out of control!

3. The Navigation system works great, unless you go to mountain roads (I was visiting a friend off of Frazer Park, and the voice lady often *****ed about me not being on a digitized area. Same problem at the Russian River. Maybe more roads on the 2003 CD.

Well, all that aside, I am rested enough to go to the Mini Meety-greaty if it is actually happening Saturday Morning Next (August 17th) Once whomever is planning this gives me the specific location where we are supposed to end up!

Haven't really seen this all nailed down on the thread.

Let me know. If it is warm, I'll be in a tank top, so the mystery of my screen name will be perhaps become obvious.

I don't think any one particular person is organizing - more of a consensus meeting this saturday. There are two things going on.

1) Some people are planning on heading down lombard street en masse. That is at 8:30. I don't know if there is a meeting place other than the top of lombard - anyone have any more details on that?

2) A mini MINI meet at the parking lot at the Visitor Center at the Presidio. That is at 10am. There was some thought that perhaps some Marin backroads motoring might be fun from there - but currently know definite plans other than to hang out with our cars and meet each other.

Along those lines - I was thinking about posting something to craigslist about the meeting - try to get some people who may not know about MINI2 - any objections?

Hope to see you all saturday -

shawna

Does anybody have a friend that can snap (digital?) pictures of the Lombard MINI train?

Lombard can get pretty hectic, so I'm assuming we'll have to pick someplace nearby to gather for (8:30am, right?) the drive down it. Any ideas?

Thank you for the Info. I have a digital camera, but I may be busy driving down Lombard (If I can get my sorry ass out of bed that early). But I'll try to take pix at the meet.

:D

I can try to get my boyfriend to snap a digi-pic of the Lombard run provided:

1.) I'm up early enough to make it over there (I have to come all the way over from Laurel Heights! ;))

2.) My boyfriend deems this endeavor a valuable reason to miss sleeping in and Saturday morning cartoons.

I will work on #2 (shouldn't be too hard) and hopefully see you all this weekend!

Jennifer

shouldn't somebody post the event on roadfly?
isn't somebody taking care of the route for the run at 10 am or is it just meet and greet then babye...?
how many a re confirmed going?

Originally posted by ctownsend
Lombard can get pretty hectic, so I'm assuming we'll have to pick someplace nearby to gather for (8:30am, right?) the drive down it. Any ideas?

Good point. How about the parking lot at the end of Van Ness down by the water at about 8 to 8:20 am? Fairly close to Lombard and I would think parking wouldn't be too much trouble that early on a Saturday (not that I'd know since when I lived in The City I was never up that early on weekends).

Sounds like a great plan (parking down at the North dead end of Van Ness)!

i think the plan for saturday has been to keep it relatively small as a bigger meet is being planned for October when more people have their cars.

As there was a shark sighting last weekend and the weather is cooling down - there should be relatively low traffic volume heading over the hill to Stinson. A ride to the beach - lunch at the greasy cafe there - and hope that the fog burns off for the ride back? There are some great roads going north and then inland from Stinson - but I was thinking we'd save those for when there are more of us - no?

Cheers -

Shawna

Shawna & all concerned,

I also thought the Aug. 17th meet would be smaller
and more casual than the one in October.

Now that I've settled in to my new job I should have more
time to organize the October event. Hopefully we can
get some feedback from people on the 17th about what
they would like to do in Oct.

My wife and I were at Stinson, Inverness, Olema & Nicasio
last Sat. Probably on some of the same roads you mentioned.
Hopefully they will be less crowded in October.

So we meet at the foot of Van Ness @ 8AM & The Presido
parade grounds @ 10AM.

Sounds Great!!!!

Hello friends and enthusiasts of the great MINI Cooper...

I think that Sajanus idea, which seems to have been blessed by Minirossa, is very good about meeting at the end of Van Ness St. near the beach at 8:00 a.m. Followed by the meet at 10:00 at the Presidio Visitors Center Parking lot at 10:00 a.m.

Something I sense in the last few comments above is that it seems some of you prefer to have a small, casual meeting and you seem to worry it may not be the case for this coming Saturday.
I don't think there will be that big of a turn-out. I may be wrong, but I think the more people that show up, the better. Maybe we can start a head-count! (Sejanus, Dr. Bob, mini_girl, minirossa, ctownsend, rambo, unit63, RedBackFur, pacbob, Juanello) Anybody else?
I think it is always nice to see other MINIs and meeting people who share the same passion for the MINI as you do. I believe everybody who has shown some type of interest in attending the saturday meeting is aware that this coming meeting is very casual. Therefore, I hope all of you that worry about that, stop worrying and be more optimistic of having a good time and making the Saturday MINI meet a success.
I hope more people show up this Saturday, and look forward to meet all of you.

See you on Saturday!

Cheers!:D ;) :D

Juan

:D

I am still planing to be there this Saturday. I have a bunch of questions for all of you.


Bob

i will be there, can someone just post an address that we are meeting at? i want to use mapblast. but ill be there bright and early!

I'll be there with my two day old MINI! WooHOO!:D


Assuming it doesn't break down or something.:rolleyes:

Originally posted by Juanello
Maybe we can start a head-count! (Sejanus, Dr. Bob, mini_girl, minirossa, ctownsend, rambo, unit63, RedBackFur, pacbob, Juanello) Anybody else?

I'll be there!

My wife and I plan on being there too, although we have another appointment later in the day so we won't be able to stay long

I cut through the Presido a couple of nights ago & it
seems that the visitor center maybe in a new location.

For those of you who are coming to the Presido meet
from out of town follow the signs to the MAIN POST.

The Parade Ground is there; it is a huge parking lot that runs parallel to
Montgomery between Lincoln & Sheridan.

It is hard to miss since it is the largest parking lot
in the entire site.

Sorry I cannot post a map but my new work computer is
not cooperating!

Hope this helps.

See everyone tomorrow, bright & early.


Bob:D

Twelve MINIs (+/-), their owners, and several spouses and friends had an informal gathering at the San Francisco Presidio on Saturday morning. I'll leave the bulk of the discussion and photos to others, including the earlier runs down Lombard!

As one should expect for summer in The City, the fog was hanging over the Golden Gate Bridge and the air was a bit nippy. It is a good group and should serve as the core for a great meeting in October.

Most of the group headed off for a run over to Stinson Beach. I, on the other hand, headed down the Peninsula to see my (then) 10 hours old, 2nd grandson!! Sometimes Family takes precidence over car stuff.

Hmm, so we go to the Presidio on the same day that the Baltimore group go to Fort McHenry. What is thing about MINIs and old army bases? Anyway, just wanted to say it was great meeting you all today. Convoying down Lombard was quite amusing. We left a lot of slightly confused looking tourists in our wake and I suspect we will be in many vacation photo albums. I hope the rest of you had fun driving to Stinson Beach and I look forward to seeing all the photos.

Here were are coming down Lombard. I'm the one waving!

We'll get the pix in a gallery soon.

And here we are, after the first run down Lombard, getting ready to do it again (Assuring the tourists were keeping out of our Conga line).

:rolleyes:

I think the funniest part is the sound of all these Mini Power Steering motors Whining away as we puttered down the hill.

The following few posts are the pics I managed to get at Lombard Street and the Presidio.

Here's a road sign that should bring a smile to the face of any Mini driver (this at the top of Lombard Street)

Resized to keep vBulletin happy (I hope)

Our intrepid crew commences the descent:

I think that's RedBackFur in my door mirror...

Originally posted by piperpilot
I think that's RedBackFur in my door mirror...

Of COURSE thats me behind you! Who ELSE would have such great taste in colour choice! <EG> :D :D :D :D

You can just see one of the fog-shrouded towers of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.