WRAPUP: Great company, great food and great raffles!! The street was full of MINIs which drew a fair amount of attention..

It was a really fun afternoon of socializing and talking with MINI club members.

Huge thanks to the following for donating such fantastic raffle items: Bill Jacobs MINI, Dustin from AutoXCooper.com , Blake from CooperGear.com, Lori and Francis!! Jim from www.diecasm.com was unable to attend at the last minute, but stay tuned for some cool stuff in the future.

Thanks also to Taylor and family for being such gracious hosts and putting on a great party!!

Here are pictures from Taylor | Francis | Paul |

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WRAPUP: 41 MINIs and a handful of others (BMWs, VW, and Ford) headed out to explore the back roads to Starved Rock. Lots of new people were out for their first drive with the club. The much anticipated Finnie Road stretch was unfortunately freshly covered in pea gravel so speeds were down, dust and debris were up. The weather was as good as it gets for this time of year. We were treated to VIP parking at the Grand Bear Resort and a breakfast buffet in a large dining hall. Afterwards, several people went out to explore Starved Rock, while others took off for parts unknown.

Thanks to IllinoisEuro for joining us on this drive, and a big thanks to Dustin for all the organizing and planning of this event!!

Please email me at steve@chicagominiclub.com with links to pictures, and I will add them here

Pictures by Dustin | Francis | MOE4Me | Eric | Dan | Steve | Jeffery |

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WRAPUP:

Here is a writeup of the Galena drive from Dustin:

Saturday started out great with 11 MINIs, great roads out to Galena area, we picked up one Iowa MINI along the way and found 3 at Chestnut Resort.

After a nice lunch and passing out the Event Stickers, designed by Paul R., most of us hit the Alpine Slide (something Dustin should have skipped LOL), great fun was had by all.

A few of us hit Irish Hollow Rd and headed to the Tower for the group photo.

At the Tower we had a dozen or more MINI’s. A few groups went to dinner together and enjoyed Galena for the night.

We had a MINI from Bloomington, Peoria, a few from Iowa and the rest of us from Chicagoland.

Sunday found some of us downtown Galena for shopping and lunch. At 1pm we had a dozen MINI’s for the Sunday routes.

Fun roads, light traffic and great weather.

We passed by a cow that had found her way across the fence, only to cross over the next hill and find a herd of goats breaking free across the road to “greener pastures”.

On the leg back to Rockford we found a big bald Eagle in flight.

A great event, great friends, and YES we are working on next years event and will post dates below ASAP.

Photos by: Rob & Lisa | More Rob & Lisa | Bruce & Becky |
Big thanks to Todd at Toddsmods.com for getting the stickers created on such short notice!!

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