MINIs On Top

MOT 2006

Conga line of MINIs heading up Mt. Washington

This weekend was the 4th edition of MINIs On Top and we took Nemo to New Hampshire to experience it. Now, I'm definitely not a car rally kind of person but this really intrigued me. Sunset on the solstice from the top of Mt. Washington. Plus, getting to see 250 other MINIs and drive some of the twisty roads in northern NH was also a draw.

We drove up Friday afternoon. I had reserved a room at The Inn at Thorn Hill in Jackson. I'm more interested in being up there in the winter for XC skiing, snowshoeing and boarding so wanted to check the place out. The inn was quite nice - the restaurant's wine list even nicer. There were tons of Harley motorcycles out on the road since it was Motorcycle Week up there. It would seem there's some kind of kinship between MINIs and Harleys - many of the riders beeped, waved and gave us thumbs up as they passed.

Saturday morning we took backroads to Loon Mountain to meet up with all the other MINIs. I'm totally jazzed to get side stripes, rally numbers and boot stripes for the car. Also saw a set of checkered flag floor mats that I'm lusting over. We drove the Kanc with a group of 100 MINIs or so and then cut back to Jackson to avoid traffic in Conway. We met up with everyone later for the ride up the Mt. Washington Auto Road.
I remember the first time I hiked up Mt. Washington via the Tuckerman Ravine trail. Surrounded by beautiful forest, then above tree line, nature everywhere. Then upon arriving to the top, you have to climb over a guard rail to get to a parking lot before you can get to the small group of buildings on top. That just seems so sick and wrong! I thought, who would ever DRIVE up here? How lame! Ooops...guess I'm one of the lame ones. But at least it was for the sunset (which we didn't see as the clouds moved in) and at least I was driving a MINI.