MINI Takes the States is officially over for me, as Mom and
I arrived back at my parents’ house yesterday evening and I’m back home today.
We spent two nights with my cousin in Wisconsin before heading out Monday
morning. Mom didn’t want to push through to Texas in one go so I arranged for
us to spend the night in Kansas City, not far from where my father grew up. We
stayed near Country Club Plaza and ate at Winstead’s one of my dad’s mother’s
favorite places. Mom was excited to get a real chocolate malted while I had a
chocolate milkshake with my burger and tots (and onion rings). The décor is
very 50’s Miami – pink and teal, with neon signs and a jukebox. I can just
picture Nellie sitting in one of the booths. It’s been more than 30 years since
I’ve been to Kansas City and I was struck by how hilly it was and how humid
when we walked back up the hill from the Plaza to our hotel. We left too early
and had too much driving ahead of us to stop by to see Dad’s old house but I’d
like to make it back there sometime to see that.
Missouri and Kansas were the only places we couldn’t find 93
octane gas. I still had my bottles of octane booster (I didn’t find the folks I
had promised it to before we left the MINI hive) so I was in good shape. I
found it interesting that a good portion of IH 35 through Kansas is tolled, but
like the Ohio Turnpike, it had nice rest stops along the way. That’s something
we came to appreciate during our time on the road – clean, well-stocked
bathrooms. It’s the little things, really.
We made our way through Kansas and into Oklahoma in good
time. I haven’t been to Oklahoma City since high school and I may go back for a
long weekend. One of the great things about this trip was the chance it gave me
to see parts of the country that I might not have visited otherwise. I’d love
to go back to Baltimore, for the aquarium and some of the historical sites
nearby, including Gettysburg. It’s so close and a beautiful drive. I may try to
do MINI on the Mack to help break the record and to get out to Mackinaw Island.
I could probably swing taking a week – a couple of days to drive up, a day or
two in the area, a day to visit family in Wisconsin and then back – without too
much trouble.
Thank you for following along on my adventure. I still have some projects I'm working on - editing videos, working on a web map of the routes & stops - and I'll post those when they're finished.
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