luck is a lady

Day 10 - St. Louis, MO to Chicago, IL

If I knew when I got up this morning all the things that would happen today - I'd have done an Elaine Benes imitation, shoved someone and said, "Get out!".

As usual, I woke up way, way too early.  My room mate at the time wanted to have breakfast - a proper breakfast, tired of the fare at the Rise and Shines.   Outside, it was raining softly.   The valet brought around our cars and I decided that I didn't really want any breakfast - driving in St. Louis made me a bit tense and the rain now was coming down with more authority - so I begged off, proceeding to Gateway Motorsports Park for the Rise and Shine.

I followed several MINIs into the parking area, finding myself in the first line of cars.  Rain was pouring down at this point - lucky for me, I had the rain jacket that MINI USA gave to those of us traveling Coast 2 Coast.   I like puddle stomping and walking in the rain - oh god that sounds like a cheesy profile for online dating, doesn't it?   Anyway - I found my umbrella, put on the rain coat and got myself out of my car and over to check in.   And this is where I learned I'm pretty darn lucky...

The previous night's event had included a raffle for 30 or 40 highly coveted spots for hot laps with professional race car drivers in MINI Coopers.   My standing joke is that in raffles, I only win the booby prizes.   And somehow I had managed to miss the raffle that night.    Weeeelllll, as I checked in I was told that they had a surprise for me... as one of the first 15 people to check in I could sign up for a hot lap.   Holy Cow!  Hell yes, sign me up!  Making it even sweeter, I was able to ride along with fellow native Californian, Tyler Palmer who is the "official MINI supported driver in this years Pirelli World Challenge Season".  Terrific young man who has been racing since he was 8 years old.   Get out!   Here's video proof of how much fun the ride was.

I will never ever forget this morning!   Amazing.  Talk about putting a shit eating grin on my face for the victory lap that each and every MINI got to take on our way out of the park.

photo courtesy of Go11

Although I'd been keen to drive the Route 66 portion from St. Louis to Chicago, one look at the route sheet told me that this wasn't going to mesh with what by now was my route going style ROGUE.   And being at the front of the pack in my trusty Justa, I figured my friends in their S's would catch up to me along the way.   Off I set alone.

A remarkable facet of this rally is that when you're alone, you're not really alone.  There are other drivers who follow the same roads and at a rest stop just outside of Springfield, IL,  I found a bunch of MINI Coopers and their owners who invited me to join their group for the day.    I followed them with the intention of perhaps peeling off to catch a portion of Route 66, but had so much fun with their group that I had lunch with them and followed along all the way to the outskirts of Chicago.

the merry band of  motorers enjoys Culver's Butter Burgers - yum!

Into the Windy City I motored alone after waving farewell to these wonderful people.   Avoiding potholes the size of sink holes and cursing at the GPS which goes wonky among all the tall buildings in downtown Chicago - I found the parking garage where I had used SpotHero to prepay parking.

Checked into the historic Allerton Hotel, debating whether I wanted to go to the nighttime event at U.S. Cellular Field to watch the Chicago White Sox battle against the Texas Rangers.

The White Sox got spanked.  Bad.  But we, the MINI motorers of the USA had a ball.  

photo courtesy of Go11