[dmcs]

** Fun Run to Kartchner Caverns and beyond **

I’ve already got tickets for the 12:40PM tour on August 23, 2003. There were 11 spots left and going fast. If the 12:40PM tour fills up, they say they run tours every 20 minutes, so try to get the one just before or the one just after.

They say we need to be there a hour prior to the tour. So we need to be there by 11:40 AM. Our Tucson-area meeting point will be the Gas City station on exit 302 (Ft Huachuca/Sierra Vista, AZ Hwy 90) off the I-10. There is a McDonalds there as well as a couple of motels. I’ll get more info on the motels later and post it. I’m planning on staying Friday evening. However, I’m sure some of the PHX area people will drive down that AM. Plan on 2 hours from PHX to get to exit 302.

We’ll leave Gas City (exit 302) around 10:30AM to head down to the park to be there in time for the tour.

After the tour, we’ll be heading on south bound to Fort Huachuca and head thru the fort (we’ll get temporary passes to go thu but it requires having proof of insurance, a driver’s license, and registration, which I hope everyone will have anyhow). Motoring thru the Fort is scenic and the road out the west gate is packed full of twisties perfect for the Mini’s. Don’t go too fast or you’ll miss some beautiful scenery. We’ll head down thru Elgin over to Sonoita. There’s a restaurant there called “The Steak Out” that’s supposed to be great! We’ll head out from there down Hwy 82 thru Patagonia. Patagonia has a great Mexican food place called Santos. So down by the fort we’ll make a group decision on which one to eat at. After Patagonia, we’ll head down to the Mexico border to Nogales. Up the I-19 to Arivaca Rd to Arivaca. Another twisty Mini-type of road. Lots of Happy Motoring miles there! There’s a quaint coffee shop we can stop at in Arivaca. Then we can go back to the I-19 up to Tucson and then back home.

Definitely plan for an all day event. The last one we did down to Tombstone and Bisbee was 15 hours for me. Left home just before 6AM to get to Tucson at a decent time then arrived back at 9PM. Then again I live on the far North side of PHX. So this time, lesson learned, I plan to head down to Tucson the night before and stay in a motel. However, that doesn’t mean all the other PHX area MINI folks will have to. I suggest you can meet at Denny’s at I-10 and Chandler Blvd (NE corner) and leave there around 8AM. Just be sure to be at exit 302 by 10:30AM Saturday so we can make it to the Kartchner Caverns State Park in time for their mandatory 1 hour prior to tour time arrival.

Kartchner Caverns State Park Web Site

Call 520-586-CAVE for reservations (VISA and Master-Charge)

Throne Room Tour (1 hour 15 minutes)
$18.95 (14yrs+) – new pricing!! See info below…
$9.95 (7-13yrs)

Price now includes the park entrance fee. If you make reservations, but cannot make it that day, they do have a policy where you can change your date/time by calling in. Call them for more details. They will send you a confirmation in the mail. You need to keep confirmation letter you receive in the mail. You’ll need it to get into the park and then again for the tour itself.

This is an Arizona Mini Owners club sponsored event. I’m the one coordinating it for them. However, you do not need to be a member of the club to participate.

Any questions, feel free to post them here.

Happy Motoring!
Dominic

[mjmarquez]

I just ordered my 2004 MCS yesterday at Mini North Scottsdale for mid to late October delivery. Looking forward to taking part in some Mini runs in southern AZ. I'll keep an eye out for future events.

Mary Anne

[dmcs]

Quote: Originally Posted by mjmarquez

I just ordered my 2004 MCS yesterday at Mini North Scottsdale for mid to late October delivery. Looking forward to taking part in some Mini runs in southern AZ. I'll keep an eye out for future events.

Mary Anne

You'll find an ever increasing number of Tucson area MINI owners. And there's plenty of things to keep your MINI occupied with around those parts. Plenty of twisty roads to streatch your MINI's legs on.

[dmcs]

Oh, I forgot to mention. Participating with us on the fun-run doesn't mean you have to purchase a ticket for the cave tour. If, for whatever reason, you don't want to go spelunking, you can always hang out somewhere around the park then go with us on the "beyond" part. The beyond is going to be lots of happy motoring miles!

Dominic
Happy Motoring!

[dmcs]

I've got two emails from people who want to come on the fun-run, who won't be doing any spelunking. Considering it was just yesterday I made this trip known, that means there's probably be more who'll just motor.

I was just running the numbers thru my head and noticed that the fun-run will take us well into the late afternoon. So plan on a late one!

I heard the 12:40 is filled up, but some have gone with the 12:20. Has anyone booked for the 1PM tour?

[dmcs]

>> I’ll get more info on the motels later and post it. I’m planning on staying Friday evening.

Found a Motel6 (go to motel6.com and enter Benson, AZ for the location) at exit 302. Also found a Holiday Inn Express (http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ex/home) at the exit as well.

Anyone know of any others?


>>However, I’m sure some of the PHX area people will drive down that AM. Plan on 2 hours from PHX to get to exit 302.

OK correction here, exit 302 is going to be about a 2.5 hour drive (about 142 miles) from Chandler Blvd exit 160 of the I-10 in the PHX area, so please plan accordingly.

See you there!
Dominic

[dmcs]

Hi all!

I just wanted to write a quick note to thank you all for coming out to motor with me.

Whew, what a great time I had. There were 9 new MINIs and 2 classic Minis, with twenty people all together. The day started early for the Phoenix area folks. They hit the road around 8AM and met up with us down at the Gas City on Exit 302 around 10AM. I had stayed the night in Sierra Vista and met up with 3 other MINIs from Sierra Vista at 9:30. Another MINI came over to exit 302 from Tucson. So the 7 MINIs motored down to the State park just 7 miles south of the I-10. Two more MINIs showed up as we were waiting for our tour time. One was a straggler from Phoenix and the other was from the eastern side of Arizona. The two classics were going to meet us just outside the park after the tours.

The caverns were beautiful. Everything was just as nice as advertised. It's amazing they just found these caverns in 1974. I could have spent more time there exploring their exhibits in the welcome center, but there was motoring to be done. So, after the tour, we make a quick pit stop at the gift shop then hit the road. We had an adventuresome join up with the two classic Mini Cooper S's, thank you Bill for you help in the situation. Then we headed south to the Military base (Fort Huachuca) and got our temp passes. In we went for a slow cruise thru of an active military base, and went up onto Reservoir Hill on the base where you could overlook the valley to the east and to the north. What beautiful vistas we had of the monsoonal thunderstorms as they rolled across the valleys.

Then we went out the Fort's back gate and onto a very cool twisty road. We stopped a couple of times just to catch our breath. Everyone seemed to be smiling and some were high-fiving each other. So I knew J. and Jenny had picked out some of the best twisties for us to motor on in the Sierra Vista area.

Some were definitely ready for food. So we motored quickly down some more rural roads over to Sonoita for dinner at a steak house. Out plans were that after dinner we'd head down to Nogales and then back up along the I-19 where there was a road that is reportedly more fun than what we just did. But, I think we must have been enjoying each other’s company way to much because we didn't get out until it was dark. There were two thunder cells headed our way, we were sleepy from our bellies being full and it was dark. So we agreed that we'd have to do the I-19 areas on a future fun run. There's also a lot of vineyards we can tour thru as well as many happy motoring miles of twisties.

This fun-run was a little different from the others I've put together. This fun run had a group activity, the cavern tour. So we didn't get to motor on as many miles of twisties as previous fun runs did. However, I think the time we spent chatting and getting to know one another, the time spent on the fabulous cavern tour, and the short bit we got to motor really made it into a very special and memorable fun-run.


Some pix. I'll get mine posted later today...
http://www.minicooperonline.com/modu...um.php&page=22

[dmcs]

My pix now uploaded here

Here's some of the highlights!

[Pflashinaz]

Here's more pics