[alfredj]

Hill Country Rendezvous
1st. Annual Mini Cooper Rally
Fredericksburg, Texas
Labor Day Weekend
Saturday and Sunday
August 30 - 31st.

Main Street - Market Platz - Down Town

email: alfredj aecc@ktc.com for pdf Flyer of event

[BruceK]

Cool!



and welcome to MINI2.

[james4513]

Got the invitation from the nice guys in San Antonio. Looks great - see you there.

[rob_lewis]

We're picking up my wife's Cooper S tomorrow, and would like to take her car and my Cooper to the event. However, I couldn't get any idea what the Rally is. If it's just a drive, we'll take both cars. But, if it requires navigation, we'll have to choose just one to take.....

Does anybody know?

-Rob

[Mini Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by rob_lewis
We're picking up my wife's Cooper S tomorrow, and would like to take her car and my Cooper to the event. However, I couldn't get any idea what the Rally is. If it's just a drive, we'll take both cars. But, if it requires navigation, we'll have to choose just one to take.....

Does anybody know?

-Rob

www.aecc.ktc.com

[smlawrence]

As of Tuesday 8/27, 93 cars had pre-registered!!! More than likely, quite a few more should randomly appear.
Schedule of events --
http://www.miniownersoftexas.com/mini2.pdf

[miniPete]

I haven't seen any comments about the Hill Country Rendezvous. So maybe this is the first.

I really enjoyed the event. It was well organized, and everyone was in good spirits. I especially enjoyed the drives.

Thanks to Al for organizing the event. I don't know how many cars ended up being there, but my guess would be around 150. Those of you who missed it, missed a great weekend.

[smlawrence]

From what I could see, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and are already looking forward to next year.
The occasional rain, er... downpour, didn't seem to dampen any spirits on Sunday. Maybe because the weather was more British than Texan.

Saturday: Check-in went very smoothly. By mid-day, Minis filled the medium sized lots that had been reserved just off Main Street. Car counts were hard to pin down because of folks coming and going. My son counted 75 early in the day. I think that the event organizer mentioned that 98 made it on Saturday. Cooperflags and Terry Sayther were the only vendors with an active presence. (Smart move fellas!) I have a feeling that will change and more will attend next year. The Poker Walk gave everyone a chance to peek into a number of the quaint stores along the main drag. It also provided an opportunity for people watching. I lost track of how many times I overheard someone say "There goes another one of those cute cars!" Plenty of necks were stretched due to double takes. The drive to Luckenbach was uneventful. No famous celebrities were spotted at the old general store. Out little go karts certainly did do a terrific impression of an old western flick where a band of outlaws takes over a small town. Of course, everyone was smiling an laughing, so I'm not sure just how intimidating we were. The alternate route back to F'burg was the kind of road legends are written about and Minis are built for. Make sure that you seek out the 'Old Tunnel Road/#9 Highway' if you ever make it to F'burg. What a roller coaster! The Sat night party (new city sponsored event, not Mini specific) was fun even with the light turnout. There were only a couple of Minis that took up the opportunity to park/display inside the event grounds. I think the only thing that kept more people from participating was that you had to stay until 11:30pm. Yes, we were a bunch of early night party poopers. But hey! We had driving to do tomorrow! The storm clouds provided a hint of what was to come the next day.

Sunday: Depending on where you stayed, the overnight hours provided a little or a lot of rain. In either case, everyone was treated to an elaborate lightning show. The organizer offered the option to drive en masse to Llano's Cooper BBQ or leave in groups in order to help keep the serving line managable. I think everyone was chomping at the bit (being so early in the morning, I don't think that it was due to hunger) and didn't give standing in line much thought. Within a few minutes, nearly every Mini had blasted off. Hint for those who are not from the Llano/F'burg area: Another road to add to the Must Do list is the Willow City Loop. After having a great lunch (Texas Monthly was right), we took off in much smaller groups (full tummies) and headed towards the next pit stop, Doss. Unfortunately, this was when the heavens really opened up. One of the roads just outside Doss had a low water crossing that was too high for common sense. We'll have to make it back to those roads someday. They held sooooo much promise. At this point, it was pretty much evey Mini for themselves. Most made it to the winery, F'burg, or the Fairgrounds in one piece. There may still be a mapless Mini or two puttering around the hill country looking for a way out.

Overall? Huge success for a first time event!

[smlawrence]

I was having so much fun, I missed a number of photo ops, but managed a few quick snapshots.

[miniPete]

smlawrence,

Thanks for the great writeup about the ralley. One thing occured to me. It would have been good to have everyone somehow provide their login to this site if they have one. It would be good to know how many people are members here. I would bet that many people do not know about this thread.

What do you think? Do you think that Al might have people's emails or member names to mini2

[miniPete]

SMlawrence,

Are you the person whose son had a full house and did not win the prize?

[smlawrence]

Hi miniPete,
Although my son was along for the ride, his hand was... ummmm... shall we say, a shack. We certainly had a good time, though
Steve

[Bigtwistee]

What a great weekend!
Just unboxed my new PC after being offline for a while, stopping here first to say howdy and how much fun it was meeting everyone. (tho a little tardy)

And how about that BBQ at Coopers?? Possibly the best I've had.

Ill be uploading some more photos to my gallery later.