21,648 miles - Out with the Old...

... and in with the new. My brother bought a new Subaru.



congrats bro... pics please :)

21,648 miles - Mother II

Flashback to the end of summer... September 3, 2006 to the MINIs Take the States (MTTS) Wrap-up party. I met up with the good folks at nemini; BandD, Mighty-Mini, Bootsi, etc... and I got to meet up with RGMINI06 and Pauliewalnuts from the OL. The wrap-up party was fun. It was held at Exchange Place in Jersey City. Unlike other MINI events I've attended, there was no mass gathering of MINI-Coopers in Jersey City. It would have been impossible. The MINIs were spread out across the various parking lots in Jersey City's downtown area. Mine? It was home... I took the light rail heheheee. The weather was great. There was food, beer and vendors. The folks who did the run all had great stories to tell, however they also had that 'I just drove five-hours straight and I really need to rest' look. LOL.

... but not me. :(

I failed to do the Washington, DC - Jersey City, NJ run as originally planned. Due to an, er... oversight at work, I did not have the Friday before Labor Day off. I could have still made the run, but weather wasn't cooperating and I didn't want to rush down to DC in all that windy rain and I never reserved a room and I had no one to drive down with and wah wah wah!!

Excuse me? What's MINIs Take the States? Whoops, my bad. MTTS was to promote the 2006 MINI-Cooper S JCW GPs (John Cooper Works Grand Prix). Two thousand were built, and a lucky 415 made it to the states... and for some of these GPs, this event was to be their inagural run. LOL! It was also an opportunity for the rest of us to just motor! There were approximately eight GP owners picking up their new cars that day. The GPs were all lined up nicely, and I did manage to take a few shots. Anyway, go check out the MTTS official webpage from the corporate site. :)

Flickr pics... my pics.

Motor on everybody :)

21,648 miles - A Useless Statistic

I added a free site counter from sitemeter.com. Let's see how this works.

LOL, I always wanted to know how often people access this site... prolly not a whole crowd... but I know you're out there. heheheee.

21,648 miles - Mother I

Wow... I wrote this entry way back in February of this year but I never finished it. So here it is (of course I cleaned it up duuuH). It wasn't a huge entry, just something to pass the time during those silent winter months as Leroy lay in hibernation.

Ok, my Monkey post mentioned that I was working on the 'mother of all blog entries'. That is not going to happen anymore. It is just too long. The entry would recap major milestones for Leroy like the one thousand mile marks, service done and MINI-events attended. Instead, each milestone will rightfully have a separate post. But I babble... without further adeiu, here is the old February entry titled "Modify my Love"...

7,996 miles - Modify my Love

If you check out the MINI forums on the internet or the tricked-out MINI that just wasted you at the last stop light, you will find a lot of people are modifying their tiny cars. For them, stock is not enough. Better performance? How about a pulley reduction, stiffer anti-sway bars, or a Borla exhaust. Looks? How about some new rims, custom paint, rally lights, grille badges and of course, decals decals decals. Someone mentioned that the MINI is all about individuality, so make it 'our own!'. Check out minimania.com, mossmini.com, minicarparts.com, or aestheticreations.net to list a few online merchants keeping MINI owners broke. People get super-creative with their MINIs and I'm constantly impressed with what's been done.

For me? I will pass on all the above. Stock rocks. My MINI is beautiful... both inside and out, with chrome in all the right places, deep shiny metallic paint, 17" stock rims, a well appointed interior. And as for performance? I'm quite content with its 163 horses. BMW did a great job re-designing the MINI and I'm not about to change a thing on my MINI... that is, until the warranty expires.

motor on... the last pic is a great comment on MINI madness gone mad. LOL.

21,648 miles - I Drive My MINI-Cooper...

... and I'm feelin' super-dooper yo they tell me I'm a trooper and you know I'm satisfied!! And at 8000 miles in five months? I'm definitely motoring. Here is a rundown of the past eight thousand-mile marks. Queue the music...
*puts the needle on the record*

18th of June - 14,000 miles.

Happy Birthday Rumali and Happy Father's Day Dad! How did I spend your day? Motoring home from MINIs on Top. I just made the exit for rt. 84 from Rt. 93... I was so busy keeping an eye out for the exit and the roads were crowded with speed demons and it was a hot hot day and I was anxious and I knew I had to keep my eye on the odometer and I... just missed the milestone by 2 miles. do'H!

7th of July - 15,000 miles.

After a boring day of work, I rewarded myself with meeting up with peeps and partying away in the City (that's New York City folks). I was on the Newark Bay Extension when I hit this glorious milestone.


1st of August - 16,000 miles.

I was heading home after a night out with friends bowling at the Bowl-O-Drome in North Arlington. It was my birthday, and I stayed out a lot later than planned... and the shot I took was taken while I sat in horrendous overnight construction traffic. Where was I? Western spur of the New Jersey Turnpike north of exit 15W.

19th of August - 17,000 miles.

Driving from my parent's place to Virginia. I spent the weekend with my cousin, his wife, the Redskins and the Jets. I specifically mentioned my parent's place because I travelled local county roads to get to the southern end of New Jersey. I was on one such road when I took this picture.

30th of August - 18,000 miles.

Driving to work... hands down the second best event for this lazy Summer day. Best event... driving home from work DOI!

16th of September - 19,000 miles.

Driving home after a failed attempt at paintball. I had lots of fun getting shot (those pellets sting!!) and I'll definitely do it again :)... o, I was on Rt. 278 heading southbound.

5th of October - 20,000 miles.

Major milestone!!! Not-so-major event. I'm heading home from work LOL. I was already in Bayonne (my hometown) when I hit 20k... in fact, I was just one mile away from my condo. The last ten miles were the hardest.

2nd of November - 21,000 miles.

I'm heading up to Dutchess County to take part in the Fall Nutscapade Run. LOL, I actually reached the Dunkin' Donuts starting point along Rt. 22 at around 20,991 miles but continued northbound for approximately five more miles so I could take the 21k mile picture before the run. I had a odd feeling that taking pictures during the run might not be such a good idea (and it wasn't... but that's for a future post heheee).

21,648 miles - Mr. March (or "Tail of the Dragon" Part II)

Democracy rules! Just as the American voting public ushered in a new political environment for Mr. Bush to navigate through, the folks in the OL have voted Leroy to be Mr. March for the 2007 MINI Owner's Lounge Calendar.

The picture was taken during an early morning run through the Dragon. I wanted to photograph MINIs breaking through the fog, but there were few MINIs chasin' the Dragon that early Saturday morning... so I took a few shots of Leroy instead.

A few notes;
1) 3d_geek, who organizes the OL calendar, edited out the telephone pole in the center background for the calendar. Thanks 3D!
2) The picture, titled 'Dragon Breath', placed third in total number of votes received... the May and June photos tallied higher. Over one hundred pictures were eligible for voting.
3) I actually submitted two photos, the second one was the MINI JCW GP line-up seen below (the right pic doi!), but it was not eligible for voting. Not sure why and I never asked.
4) I ordered two calendars... one for work and one for home :)

Motor on!!

Monkey

For the past few months I have lived with a monkey on my shoulder... whispering into my ear during those random moments of downtime where I find myself free to do whatever comes to mind that I have a blog that needs serious updating. I have been meaning to post for as long as I can remember, but only when Summer became Fall that I realized just how urgent the situation has become.

I have not updated this blog in almost five months.

Not that there hasn't been anything of substance to scribble down. I have just been lazy, plain and simple.

So for now, let me state that I am currently working on a few entries for this blog which should be posted within the next couple of days. I am also working on the mother of all blog entries LOL. This one may take awhile, but I am aiming to complete it by Thanksgiving. We'll see how it goes.

Well, that is it for now. Time for me to preview, edit, then post this odd addendum... with any luck this will assuage my monkey.

motor on everybody...