As I was battling through hail and rain to get to Holy Moly last night for Good Friday services, I found myself in the middle of a column of highly decorated classic Mini-Coopers, all about half the height of my own car and mighty cute.
We all drove along Arlington Heights Road in a pounding rainstorm, and then we all turned left at Landmeier Rd, which is an obscure but wide arterial road that doodles around in the back of Elk Grove Village in an area that’s partly residential, partly a confusing wasteland of commercial business parks and mostly-abandoned rail lines. If you go far enough east, you end up on the margins of O’Hare Airport. They all appeared to be headed somewhere in the neighborhood to the south of where I was headed; I wondered how the guy with the vinyl sunroof had fared with the heavy hail we’d had a few minutes before I encountered them.
A friend of mine at church, Bob Kalicki, is a big Route 66 fan so I’ll have to pass this along. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of them all – there were 4 cars in front of me and at least 2 behind me. What they were doing out driving around in the northwest suburbs (and nowhere near historic Route 66) is anybody’s guess. I haven’t had a chance to look at their website (it’s supposedly in French) but there are Mini fan sites full of posts about this current “raid,” which started Thursday the 21st. As Route 66 started in Chicago, it makes sense that they’d start in the city, but not to be in our area. Perhaps they were headed to a fan’s home for dinner, or to a club meeting?
World Mini Raids – Classic Minis from France are touring the US along Route 66. This trip is planned for 3 weeks. Thursday, April 21 to Sunday, May 15, 2011.Their group will include 9 crew of 2 persons and travel more than 6000km.Their website is in French, but Im told most web browsers can translate?http://www.world-mini-raids.fr/en/theassociationhttp://www.world-mini-raids.fr/en/homeThe planning for this trip has apparently been going on for almost 3 years!French Invasion of Route 66More details and maps in English here:http://www.minimania.com/web/threadid/91667/msgthread.cf
via World Mini Raids – France, Get your Mini on Route 66! – Forums.
I spotted them in Tulsa! They were eating at the route 66 diner and I thought they were driving FIAT’s. Ooops. They were good sports and I snapped a few pictures of them by their cars.
Awesome, thanks for passing this along.
They came by the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Mo. They also stopped at The World’s Largest Rocking Chair just outside town. Both are on Route 66.