Chicago Spring Fever Drive – pictures

Sections: Uncategorized Mar 9th, 2003 23 Comments

[Update] Here are the pics of the drive and

here is the article written about it in the Kenosha News (thanks Ron!).

(BTW that's Lake MIchigan in both those pics just to the left)

I guess we use the term “Spring Fever” loosely. It was a great drive with a really fun route. What we didn't expect was a blizzard in Kenosha Wisconsin. It hit towards the end of the route thankfully so most of the drive was fairly leisurely and dry.

If anyone has any cool shots they'd like to share with the group email them to me and I'd be happy to include them with mine (with your name in the lower corner of course) on the photo page.

I'd also like to add a couple as headers to my page. So if you think you have any that might work in that format let me know!

Thanks everyone!

Written By: MF Staff

vlm

Woohoo! Fun! Don't know how I'll eat dinner! Roadfly post thank you for SUCH good planning, guys! vlm
drew

Wow…such cool people drive MINI's in Chicagoland (or should I say the Great Lakes region with people from Michigan and Minnesota). It was really great meeting all of you! Now if I can just put the screen names to all the faces!!
Drew

Oh, Gabe and Matt and anyone else who helped plan today's event, thanks.
drew

But seeing how many Mini's we could turn around in a dead-end road was fun too :)
Val

Fun! Fun! Fun! I've made it back to MN! Thank you for all the great route planning and organization of the group. I was amazed.
Jeeves

Val. Glad you got home O.K. Thought you might only get as far as Milw. Hopefully the roads were better, farther north and west…
Donna

My thanks to everyone too! As always, it was a great drive.
Eric

Thanks to all the organizers. This drive really gave me a good chance to get more familiar with the car. Now that I think about it, the weather changes helped me learn even more. I have never done this sort of thing before and it was a great experience. If it keeps growing, I might suggest a slightly altered format of dividing into groups of about 10. Several times yesterday it just seemed to be getting out of control. Not too bad yesterday, but imagine another 10 cars in the mix.
Ellen

First time for John and me too … superb fun! Great route planning, interesting weather planning – lol – each stop was a new treat: who knew it took so many steps to make a perfect Jelly Belly AND the burger was awesome. We're also new to FRS and loved the ongoing commentary along the way. It looks like I've got 60 or so shots on my mini-camera but I have to be on my home PC to download .. later tonight I'll share. Thanks again to Gabe et al, LN
Dave Markland

Thanks for another great Ride.

It was a new experience to eat at a car hop drive in in the middle of a blizzard!

I also am impressed with he emphasis on safety that in no way cuts out the fun during the ride

Dave
barky

(this info also posted on MCO)

My photo album is up at Imagestation.com. In order to view it, you must set up an account. Memberships are free, don't seem to create any spam, and allow you to view all kinds of photo albums. Plus you can create your own. Setting up an account takes only a couple of minutes.

While viewing the album, you can get the full-size version of any image just by clicking on it.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290552853
Steve

I had a great time also. We will have to do a “re-do” of the boat launch in Highland park some other time.
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

Great pics! Thanks.
barky

Found this mention in the Kenosha News. Doesn't appear that the entire story is online, though. Scroll down to the 4th headline…

http://www.kenoshacounty.com/index.php
SingaporeJim

Great thumbs up to all the organizers and other mini owners. It was a thoroughly wonderful experience! We should do this again real soon!
David

That was one great drive–and as a new owner, it was nice to meet so many nice, intelligent folks, reinforcing that I am nice and intelligent by virtue of my MINI ownership. :) Looking forward to the next one!
http://www.starwars.com Michael S.

Let's keep Krispy Kremes in the next drive as well. It seems almost everyone enjoyed that!
http://www.geocities.com/blue_mini_cooper_2003/ drew

Michael obviously doesn't care about my diet :) Seriously, if the drives grow in terms of participants at the rate they have been, we aren't going to all fit in a Krispy Kreme at one time for long. We may have to consider Eric's idea of breaking into smaller groups and only meeting all together at designated large meeting spots. But then again, when it's warmer outside, we could all fit in Krispy Kreme's parking lot and send one person in for 4 dozen doughnuts.
Steve Rosenblum

I don't think I could eat more than 3 dozen Krispy Kremes at one siting.. Splitting up into smaller groups would make it easier to get through traffic, but I think part of the fun is seeing a huge line of MINI's cruising in formation. Hopefully we will be able to keep finding fun roads with light enough traffic to stay together..
http://www.geocities.com/blue_mini_cooper_2003/ drew

True, Steve. I saw a couple of people on the side of the road trying to count MINI's
vlm

I agree–the impact of a gazillion MINIs together has got to be one of the best parts. I love the expressions on passersby when they realize that it's not a coincidence.
SingaporeJim's ,

The expressions of other drivers were priceless! Keeping the "caravan" of minis together was the most fun part of the experience! The Kenosha reporter did a great job with pictures and human-interest storyÃ¢â‚¬Â¦. I regret not informing my community paper–they wouldÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve loved it!

Before I forget, it was a pleasure meeting all of you, fellow MINI enthusiasts Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ looking forward to the next gathering :-)

SingaporeJimÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s, "Linda" (lingy2k@comcast.net)
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

I agree with Linda – I'd like to try to keep the caravan together as much as possible. BTW Ellen posted all of her photos for us to check out. You can see them here. You have to sign up for a Sony Image Station membership to view them.

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