Ideas for this Summer's Chicago Area Drives

Sections: Uncategorized Mar 13th, 2003 50 Comments

I wanted to have a post that we could all share our ideas for future Chicago area drives. From my perspective there are two distinctly different ideas; (1) day trips that are easy to reach from Chicago or it's suburbs and (2) trips that require a stay overnight in a hotel or B&B.

Several people have recently mentioned the latter with some great ideas. Obviously the downside is that it would greatly limit the amount of people that could attend due to time contraints etc. The upside is that it would most likely be a great time and a nice mini (no pun intended) weekend getaway.

While I'm not against that idea I think we may want to focus the majority of our attention on events that most of us can make time for. Chicago folks, what are your thoughts on this?

Written By: MF Staff

Jeeves

I have a idea for end of summer MINI get together (not the next ride)that combines all the Chicago and Milwaukee area MINIs. How about attending a Cubs vs Brewers baseball game? In Milwaukee. Why Milwaukeee?.. 4 Reasons Easy to buy a block of seats, since Milw has low attendance. Big parking lot to hold a MINI tailgate party on! They play rain or shine with the retractable roof. Cheaper tickets… The good dates might be Sept 5,6,and 7 Fri Sat Sun. Fri and Sat nights and a Sunday afternoon game. Thats just a thought but tickets and planing do need some lead time. Comments?
Steve Rosenblum

Sounds good to me… I am not a huge baseball fan, but I think it would be a great MINI get-together. I also like Milwaukee better than Chicago for traffic/parking, and more of a road trip. Sat or Sun would probably be easier for me, but I could do Fri as well.
Donna

Sunday of that weekend would work for me; sounds like a fun time!
http://www.starwars.com Michael S.

We always seem to head north, is there anything west or towards Indy? like the dunes or something. Just to mix it up. Wisconsin does have nice roads and lots of curves (gotta like that), but I remember something out off of 80 toll west. Any ideas?
barky

If we do the ball game thing, maybe we could get mentioned on the big scoreboard? (they do that sort of thing there, right?) We would have a name for our group by then. :)
barky

There's a big MINI meet in Canada in September (drat, it's the weekend my hubby is competing in a half-Ironman). Perhaps we could plan a similar event for the Midwest, including a track day?
Ellen

Sept 28, 2003 – Indy Motor Speedway – F1 Gran Prix. Another MINI group is forming a club to be recognized by IMS so they can drive the track in conjunction with having a ticket to the GP. Can we do that?
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

There has been some talk about a national MINI meet in Oklahoma but I'm really not sure where that's gotten. There's actually a East meets West Mini meet in Rockford scheduled for the summer of '04. That is definate and is being run by some classic Mini clubs that have put these kind of meets on before. I'm sure it'll turn into more of a new MINI meet though. Another thing to remember is that there are two dealer drives tentatively scheduled for this summer as well; Knauz MINI in Lake Bluff and Internation MINI in Milwaukee.
http://www.geocities.com/blue_mini_cooper_2003/ drew

Gabe, you mentioned the East Meets West event to me last Saturday, but I couldn't find anything online about it. Do you know of any links pointing to information pertaining to it?
Donna

What is Knauz planning??
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe Bridger

It's still in the planning stages but Knauz is going to have something along the lines of what International MINI had last year. I would expect it sometime in the late spring or early summer from what I've heard.
http://www.geocities.com/blue_mini_cooper_2003/ drew

An employee of International MINI in Milwaukee said this on MCO… “We are going to have a rally some time at the end of this summer, and we are finding out about something that may happen around the end of May too.”
Kei

How about attending the June Sprints (are MINIs racing SCCA yet?)or a vintage race at Road America? We'll all park in the MINI M_.
SingaporeJim

A slightly off topic post, anyone up for Dim Sum in Chinatown? We could take meet up in Wilmette and take LSD.
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

Always! This is a bit embarresing but I've only just discovered Chicago's Chinatown and I can't wait to get back.
Deborah

How about another mid-summer trip? The suggestion for the dunes in Indiana would make a great summer day trip… we could motor down in the morning, BBQ some lunch and hang out on the beach all day playing. Those that want to could camp out that night or just drive back in the evening. Anybody else? I am also still planning a 2nd Annual MINI Campout weekend at Devil's Lake in September.
Deborah

Drew & folks…

As for the West Meets East Mini Meet 2004… Yes, it's definite. It will be in Rockford, IL in the beginning of July during the week. It will be a three day affair. It will be tons of fun. The Chicago club (M.I.N.I. — classics and new) and the St. Louis club are hosting it. I'm on the planning committee. I'll post more details as we make our plans public.
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe Bridger

Just to clarify a bit M.I.N.I is a historically classic Mini club that has some new MINIs involved as well. The proposed New Chicago MINI club will be a seperate entity that will focus different aspects of motoring (more in line with the new MINI). And regarding the St. Louis Club that is helping them with the “East Meets West Meet” I don't believe it's the new STLMINI that has been started with the help of MINI Cooper Online a couple months ago. I believe it's an older club that as far as I know has no web presence.
Deborah

The St. Louis club I'm refering to is the Madmen, which does have a website. There is a link to their website on the new STLMINI website. Some of the Madmen are involved in the new club. The Madmen has been a very informal classic club for maybe 20 years. They seem to be quite friendly to the new MINIs and just as the Chicago M.I.N.I. club has done, treats all Mini/MINI lovers alike. But what Gabe says about the difference in the club focuses' are very true. Classic clubs tend to welcome MINIs, but they do lots of concourse events and social meetings without a lot of motoring. MINI clubs tend to focus on the motoring with social events thrown on the head or tail of a cruise. Both have their place and I think you can belong to either or both and enjoy the benefits each has. I do both and enjoy it…. Enough said! I know Gabe wants to plan an event for May. Any good dates? I'd like to see monthly (or more) events for the summer. Some should be a casual cruise and others can be more involved (like overnights).
Jeeves

Open weekend in May? How about 17th, and 18th. Thats about one month from the April 26th planning meet/drive.
Jeeves

OR… “The Italian Job” is scheduled to open the weekend of May 31st, June 1st. We could bring all the MINI's to an afternoon show. MINI's watching MINI's is that considered narcissistic?
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

I think the Italian Job is a fantastic idea!
SingaporeJim

Where is it opening? I'm in Italy right now if anyone wants a DVD.
jeeves

The Italian Job opens May 30th. no word yet on who will open,it's still too soon. Unlike the 1969 Michael Caine/Benny Hill original this one starts in Venice Italy, then moves to L.A. The 2 featured MINIs seem to be a Cosmos Black Cooper, and a Chili Red (I think) Cooper S. I suggest we take in a matinee on that Sat. 5/31 or Sun 6/1. Or, I'll simply go see it myself. I can hardly wait!
Steve

I think it would be fun to do a group thing as well..
jeeves

O.K. so if we met at the Highland House,(or other chosen spot)and had a little lunch. We could do a little driving, and end up at some northwestern area movie plex to watch The Italian Job for a mid afternoon matinee. We could set details as they become available,and at the April meeting. But at least we have a shell of the idea. BTW. have we set a final date/time/place for the April organizational meeting?
dot-scott

could we find a drive-in theatre to see 'the italian job' at?
http://www.geocities.com/blue_mini_cooper_2003/ drew

Unfortunately, all of the drive-in theatres in Chicagoland are gone now. Of the two closest, one is on Cicero Avenue south of Lincoln Highway in Monee. The other is on Route 34 way past Aurora (like 30 miles west of it). Either of these would be quite a motor for most of the group.
http://bridger.us/mini Gabriel Bridger

Jeeves – I'm totally down with this idea. I think we have enough time to be able to discuss this at our next meeting so we probably don't need to worry about details now.
http://www.starwars.com Michael S.

Good theatres with parking are the AMC's South Barrington, Addison, and Cantera (west toll road). Northlake General Cinema is good as well. Crown Village 18 here in Skokie off Thouhy is nice and close to me at least.I also might miss the April meeting but make that Rally thing, so I will take pics and report accordingly.
Steve

Skokie is having a 4th of July parade (I am sure other towns are also…) How about a MINI parade
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

I'll actually be out of town during the 4th of July but don't let that stop any plans!
Deborah

There is a drive-in left in McHenry. It's about 55 miles NW of the city… but only about 15 minutes from me. Dinner and cruise ending up at a drive-in playing the new Italian Job would be superb!
http://www.geocities.com/blue_mini_cooper_2003/ drew

A little off subject, but here's an interesting tidbit…An article in today's Washington Insider reports that President George W. Bush recently acquired a MINI Cooper S that he uses when he's in Kennebunkport, ME. It said that the car was purchased in Texas and driven to Maine by a “family member” (it wasn't specific). When asked about it, President Bush said that he bought it just to make runs to the store when he's at the family vacation home, but he's already put on a couple of thousand miles motoring around the Kennebunks. The article said it is blue, so I'm assuming Indi but could be Electric. Maybe we can get him to motor out to Chicago for one of our drives. :)
http://www.geocities.com/blue_mini_cooper_2003/ drew

OK, I lied. To my knowledge, there is no Washington Insider and President Bush hasn't made a run to the store in a few years. Hope you all had a fun April Fool's Day. :)
Kim

For a Weekender trip what do people think of visiting the Wolershiem Winery up in Wisconsin? It's between Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells. This way everyone can stay at the cheapo hotels and cruise up and around the Dells plus we all get to participate in a great wine tasting. We're new to this site but there seems to be some great suggestions. We just purchased and received our new MINI S and it's so much fun! Can't beleive we were actually thinking of getting a Jetta! Yikes!!
Jason

A fine driving experience would be a weekend drive to Door County. I was there last fall and a Porsche 356 club was up there from Chicago. The roads and towns are perfect for the Cooper. I wish Vermont & Quebec were closer to Chicago. I love driving the B roads of northern Vermont and The Eastern Townships in Quebec. North Hatley QC is a world class resort town with very few/no loud New Yorkers, Woops…Sorry New York :) Fine B&Bs and plenty of fine French food and roads with charm of New England 50 years ago. The natives are also very proud of keeping the Anglophone thing alive in a mainly Francophone Quebec. A very interesting mix of cultures!!! Sorry for the long post but……..I always look forward to my summer holiday!!!
Steve

Is anyone doing the track tour at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 15th? It's a track tour for those who've had tickets to the 500. If anyone is going or knows of a Mini Club that's going to be there, let me know. I'd like to meet up with other Minis:-)
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

I'm going :)
Jim – LTL M CPE

The IMS “open house” is actual for USGP ticket holders, rather than Indy 500 customers. You get one pass if you have 4 or more USGP tickets. I am a ticket holder and have a pass to the June 15 event if someone needs it. I will be at Gingerman that weekend and unable to attend. Just let me know if someone would like the pass.

Jim
Steve

Gabe, Are you meeting up with any other Mini owners? I attended the tour last year. Watching the Ferrari's go around in a group was impressive. Imagine a bunch of Mini's!
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

I'd like to. I need to get in touch with the other MINI owners attending. I know of one other person from Chicago going down as well.
Jim

How about an autox event with one of the local clubs like WAI http://waiautox.org/ TSSCC http://www.tsscc.org/ or one of the local SCCA regional events out of Milwaukee at Miller Park?
Steve Rosenblum

I think a fall drive through the Kettle Moraine area in Wisconsin would be prety neat.. Don't know if there are food places for larger groups though.
Maxwell Heathcott

I've never been to the Kettles, but I hear it's nice. I'm still fairly new to the Chicago area, so I don't know where some appropriately twisty roads are. I would definitely be interested in a nice day drive, and perhaps the Milwaukee baseball game in September.

Any more word on Minis at Indy?
http://bridger.us/mini Gabe

I've heard there will be another Indy MINI drive in July. As far as IMS goes you can drive the track on the 15th if you've purchased 4 tickets to the F1 race.

Shortly there will be an announcement made about a Chicago drive in July as well. Stay tuned!
Steve Dybedock

This Sunday is the track tour at the IMS. Anyone interested in meeting ahead of time?
Ellen

I've got a pass to drive IMS on Sunday. We're meeting at the MINI dealership @ 10 am and driving to the Speedway together from there. I'll be in Indy the night before. Email me if you want more info. See you there …
Steve Dybedock

Ellen, I think meeting at Dreyer and Reinbold is a good place to start. See you then!
http://revorg.org/mini.html Scott

If you're up for a ride north to Madison, it would be great to see a bunch of MINIs strut their stuff at Matt Jacob's Auto-Bration on June 28. See http://revorg.org/autobration.html for details.

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