It is time. Sadly. No other possession has provided so much joy. The 2002 MINI is now for sale. I ordered it on the first day they were available for sale in the US. To be able to do that you had to have put down a $500 refundable deposit months before they went on sale. So when the post card arrived (included with the car among many other promotional gifts from MINI) it was off for a test drive. One quick drive was sufficient and the order was made. It would be several weeks before it arrived from Oxford but it turned out to be one of the first 100 SO MINIs in the US.
I drove this car across Virginia countless times working for the VEF and visiting churches. It was in NC, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania and more. I loved picking an interesting road, like Rt 40 or 42, 231 out of Madison, the Blue Ridge Parkway, 58 across the bottom of Virginia or 13 up the Eastern Shore. One of my best memories is taking my grandson, Kellen, six years ago, to the Vintage Gran Prix in Pittsburgh where MINI was the marque of the year and we got to do drive the course and a lot of events plus charting a course from Williamsburg to Pittsburgh on secondary roads and byways. Route 30 from Breezewood has always been a special drive.
I took it for a last weekend adventure to Chincoteague in early December, it is still great fun and a great car.
