AMVIV2 05

2005 Wrap Up and Photos for A Mini Vacation In Vegas 2005

by Andrew Ross

The Beginning

Last year, 2004, Dominic Tuso organized a fantastic event in Las Vegas. There were over 200 MINIs plus several classic Minis. There were over 350 people in attendance.

The day after most of the attendees had headed home, Dominic and I plus our respective wives had lunch to discuss the sequel event. We talked about things that could have gone better, things that worked well and ideas to make AMVIV 2 bigger and better.

Around August, for reasons of his own, Dominic decided that he would prefer not to organize the event again for 2005 and asked online for volunteers to take over the event. There were a number of groups and individuals who offered, and the final outcome was that my offer to make the Sin City MINI Club the host was accepted. If the general SCMC members didn't want to do it, Donovan and I committed to do it ourselves, but the rest of the club stood up with us.

So now, the SCMC was on the hook. Great. We'd better get started. None of us had ever organized anything like AMVIV before, so there was a fairly steep learning curve. From the initial responses we've had in the 2 weeks since the event, I guess we did ok. Anyway, enough babbling. On to the pictures.

Donovan and I (Agro). Your event coordinators.
Photo taken by Dominic Tuso

The hotel

This year, after contacting most of the Strip and near-Strip hotels, the decision was made to go with Palace Station as home base this year. Not least in the decision was their agreeing to give us exclusive use of the top floor of the parking garage for MINIs and Minis. Also, the group rate price they gave us was outstanding compared to most of the other price quotes we received.

Photo taken by Tuls

The view of the Strip from the parking garage at Palace Station
Photo taken by Andrew Ross

The MINIs parked on top of the garage as of THURSDAY night!
Photo taken by Andrew Ross

The Dam Run - Friday morning

Bright and early (well, at least it was bright) on Friday morning, we set off from Palace Station towards Boulder City and Hoover Dam. The count of cars leaving the top floor of the parking garage for this run was 68, but we know we gathered a couple more on the way down from the roof and picked up a few more on the way. Pretty good turnout for the 1st run of the weekend.

We left the hotel and tried to stay together as much as possible as we headed down Sahara to I93/95. Would have worked better if 2 of the 3 drive leaders (Todd and myself) hadn't neglected to turn onto Boulder Highway when we should have, but we eventually got everyone to the Dam, just with a slightly more scenic route.

Some cars went through historic Boulder City, some bypassed it, but every car had to go through the security checkpoint. As far as I know, no-one had any issues with security, except Dominic of course.

After hanging out at the Dam parking lot for a while, most of the group made the drive further into Arizona and down to Willow Beach. This is a cool, twisty drive to the Colorado River below the Dam. It was a fun drive unless you were following too closely behind the car in front of you, in which case you may have collected a couple of rocks.

This is where Dominic was when the cops decided he was a threat to national security and needed to have an example made of him.
Photo taken by Avery Wong

This is one of the dangerous photos Dominic was taking at the time.
Photo taken by Dominic Tuso

This shows where Dominic was in relation to the sign that he was disobeying. My feeling is that if you can still see the front of the sign, you aren't past it.
Photo taken by Avery Wong

The police told Dom that they would be VERY upset if they saw their faces on the Internet over this episode. Unless the cop was Jack in the Box, this pic should be fine.
Photo by Andrew Ross

A bunch of the MINIs at the Dam parking lot
Photo taken by Avery Wong

A bunch of the MINIs at the Willow Beach parking lot
Photo taken by Avery Wong

Motor Up The Mountain - Friday afternoon

About 1:30pm, the convoy of MINIs left Palace Station for Mount Charleston, the closest ski resort to Las Vegas. Official count of MINIs leaving the top floor of Palace's garage was 70. We got onto the Interstate and headed towards the mountain.

The directions took us past the 1st road up the mountain, for a more fun drive with less traffic on the Lee Canyon road. A few cars decided to head straight to Mount Charleston Lodge on the 1st turn-off, which meant they missed the gatthering at the peak of the mountain.

After arriving athe top of the mountain, people pointed at Las Vegas local Steve, in his brand new MCSC who did the entire drive with his top down in almost below freezing temps, and other people in shorts or bare feet in the snow.

Pictures were taken, chatting took place, then we headed off again to the road that cuts across the top of the mountain to Mount Charleston village. Another fun, twisty road, no rocks this time though.

After stopping for restrooms and more chatting and pics at the Lodge, we headed back to Vegas so that people could get ready for the fabulous dinner at Hofbrauhaus, organized by the equally fabulous c3club.

MINIs on top of Mount Charleston. I love this "smiley face" picture.
Photo by Juan Calderon

MINIs on top of Mount Charleston.
Photo by Andrew Ross

MINIs on top of Mount Charleston.
Photo by Andrew Ross

MINIs on top of Mount Charleston.
Photo by Andrew Ross

MINIs on top of Mount Charleston.
Photo by Andrew Ross

MINIs at Mount Charleston Lodge.
Photo by Andrew Ross

MINIs at Mount Charleston Lodge.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Dinner at Hofbrauhaus - Friday night

I arrived at about 6:30pm, after being one of the last to leave Palace Station. It was raining, and the traffic on Paradise was about normal (i.e. heavy and full of idiots in SUVs). Parking was ok, a block away from the restaurant and when I got to the HBH, they took our money and sent us in.

The dinner was fun with authentic German Biergarten food and beer. There was music, there were contests and giveaways, there was more beer... a good time was had by most. There was a big turnout, with over 200 people attending.

The C3 group put together the dinner, arranging the event, prizes, contests and basically everything involved in the Hofbrauhaus evening. The evening raised a significant amount of money for charity, with the main recipient being CAN (Cure Autism Now).

The Sin City MINI Club would like to thank C3 for organizing the dinner, allowing us to focus on organizing the hotel, the drives and the main event of the weekend, the Boot And Bonnet Show.

MINIs in the parking lot for Hofbrauhaus.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Just some of the prizes that were given way at Hofbrauhaus. These prizes (and others) were generously donated by sponsors and MINI vendors.
Photo taken by Avery Wong

Even though it was raining outside, it felt like an outdoor Biergarten in the restaurant. As you can see, attendance was high, and everyone had a great time.
Photo taken by Avery Wong

One of the contests was that each attendee received a cardboard MINI and crayons to decorate it with. The best decorated MINIs received prizes.
Photo taken by Avery Wong

The Red Rock Run - Saturday morning

We left Palace Station a little after 8:00am with a group of almost 70 cars. Very good turnout for so early in the morning after all the beer at Hofbrauhaus the night before.

The route for this run was not the most direct (straight west, dealing with many traffic lights) but a much more pleasant drive for a Saturday morning. We headed down Interstate 15 and then headed west on I215 towards Red Rock. A few of the cars that left late followed the directions in the route book instead of the string of cars and went the wrong way on I215, but they worked out what was wrong and caught up to us. Thanks to Dominic for turning that group around.

It was pretty cool getting through the entry gate for the Red Rock Conservation Area and looking back at 70 MINIs queued up waiting to get in. For 2006 we are going to see if drivers can pre-pay and just drive straight in.

The road through the Red Rock park is a 13 mile, one way scenic drive. It has shows off some incredible scenery and has several parking areas scattered around so that visitors can stop and get a better look. The road is fun to drive (when you aren't stuck behind a minivan) with elevation changes and twisties galore. With the rain that the area had seen, some of the washes had running water and were...um...surprising to cross.

The Sin City MINI Club has done a non-AMVIV related run through Red Rock, and I would heartily recommend it as a drive any Las Vegas visitor should do.

MINIs in one of the parking areas in Red Rock.
Photo by Colorado Rick

MINIs gathered at the 1st parking lot after entering the park.
Photo by Andrew Ross

MINIs still gathered at the 1st parking lot after entering the park, from the reverse angle.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Driving through Red Rock .
Photo by Mark Ryan

It can be hard to drive on a twisty road while taking pictures of all the MINIs piled up behind you. Sorry about my hand in the mirror. 8)
Photo by Andrew Ross

MINIs in one of the scenic lookout parking areas. Bet you didn't think Las Vegas had such beautiful scenery around it, did you?
Photo by Andrew Ross

Another pullout.
Photo by Mark Ryan

The Boot and Bonnet Show - Saturday afternoon

After heading back from Red Rock, we had a decision to make. All our planning had the Boot and Bonnet Show as the focus of the whole weekend. We had marketed it as being on the top floor of the Palace Station parking garage with spectacular views of the Las Vegas Strip and the mountains. But it had rained much of the morning and we knew attendance would be down if MINIacs and vendors had to operate in the rain.

So we made the decision to move the BnB down 1 floor to the 5th floor of the parking garage. Now everything was under cover. No MINIs were getting rained on, no goodies or mechanicals were getting wet. It wasn't perfect, but we still think it was the right decision at the time. Of course, it didn't rain a drop after about 11:00am, so we could have stayed up top, but if we had stay up top, it probably would have continued to rain all afternoon.

We had vendors galore and multitudes of people walking around looking at all the cool MINIs. We had Randy Webb doing pulley (and other) installs. We had Mike Syfritt of Aesthetic Creations installing graphics. We had several MINI clubs selling t-shirts and other club merchandise. We had Seven Enterprises, MINI FINI, M7 Tuning, Kensington Motor Cars (a MiniMania affiliate) and TCE Performance Products showing off their products, and selling a few too. Jeff from Motor Swag was there delivering the shirts he designed especially for the event and selling all sorts of MINI/Mini swag.

Departing from, and ending back at, the BnB was the first AMVIV Poker Run. By the end of the run, we had almost 60 hands turned in with a VERY respectable 4-of-a-kind being the winning hand. The theme of the Poker Run was "Classic trashy Vegas". For those who didn't find all the locations, they were Elvis-O-Rama, The Liberace Museum, The Gambler's General Store, the only Drive-Through Wedding Chapel in town, and the Welcome To Las Vegas sign. Everyone I talked to who did the Poker Run said they had fun and saw parts of Vegas that they didn't even know existed. That's what we were trying for.

After the Poker Run drivers got back to Palace Station, it was time for the goodie giveaway. All the companies on the event sponsor page of your route book donated items as giveaways. All the vendors who I just mentioned as displaying wares at the BnB, plus the Sin City MINI Club, C3 Club, SOCAL MINI Maniacs, the NorCalMINIs club, Redwood MINI Empire (and some other MINI clubs, I apologise for forgetting, it's been 6 months), MiniMania, MINI FINI, Moss MINI, Vacucam and North American Motoring all donated MINI related items for us to give to attendees. I know that some of the Sin City Club members won prizes at the BnB show, but I didn't even have a ticket in the drawing rfor myself.

The crowd around the SW corner of the Boot and Bonnet Show. There were installs going on when this picture was taken.
Photo by Andrew Ross

AMVIV BnB attendees wandering around looking at all the cool MINIs.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Some of the vendors showing and selling their wares. Seven Enterprises had a prime spot, and TCE Performance Parts were right next to them.
Photo by Andrew Ross

The crowd waiting to win big during the giveaway phase of the day. I think they were glad not to be out in the rain. Or, they would have been glad to be out of the rain if it had been raining. Oh well, it's later in March for 2006. Hopefully, rain won't be a consideration.
Photo by Andrew Ross

In this shot, you can see the Seven Enterprises (again), Aesthetic Creations, The Sin City MINI Club and MINI FINI areas.
Photo by Avery Wong

The Sin City MINI Club booth and the Trading Post.
Photo by Avery Wong

Obviously, NORCALMINIs were fundraising. I hope they made a bunch of money for the club.
Photo by Avery Wong

The Las Vegas Strip Cruise - Saturday evening

Once the Boot and Bonnet show was done, MINIs and their owners regrouped at about 6pm to do the traditional Strip Cruise. The official count of cars leaving the roof of the Palace Station garage was 105 MINIs. Wow!

For this year, we thought we'd try and show the out-of-towners (i.e. almost everyone) some of Downtown Las Vegas. Old Vegas stuff is cool. It's the stuff you see in old movies...the Smoking Cowboy sign, the Golden Goose, The Plaza... Anyway, thanks to those newfangled traffic lights and damn SUVs, the group kind of got split up through downtown. We won't be doing THAT again as part of a cruise.

We finally got all the cars onto the Strip. Admittedly, spread into 3 main groups, but that's ok. Damn those traffic lights! I was leading the 1st group and it was a BLAST! The group I was in was sitting 3 MINIs wide and about 15 MINIs deep. We were honking horns to grab attention from the Pirate Ship and the Volcano. Not that we really need to, everyone was looking and pointing at the multitude of MINIs. From what I was told, the other groups of MINIs had pretty much the same experience.

After we went past the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign and turned around, we mostly pulled into a parking lot behind a McDonalds to chat and take pictures before heading off to a free night for drinking/gambling/watching strippers/whatever else you did in Vegas that stayed in Vegas. I went home and was asleep by 9pm. It had been a long weekend already and I was due back at Palace by 7am on Sunday morning.

Getting ready to depart Palace Station for the Strip Cruise. Cool view, huh?
Photo by Andrew Ross

About ready to leave Palace Station for the Strip Cruise.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Staged and ready to go.
Photo by Mark Ryan

Going past Binions Horseshoe (home of the World Series of Poker) and the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas.
Photo by Emis

Going past the end of the Fremont Street Experience, IMO the best free attraction in Las Vegas. I think this is a fantastic photo. One day I hope to be this good a photographer.
Photo by Hafid

We're now actually on "The Strip". 50 or so MINIs in this group.
Photo by Ed Moss

Still on The Strip.
Photo by Avery Wong

Still on The Strip.
Photo by Ed Moss

Still on The Strip.
Photo by Ed Moss

Still on The Strip.
Photo by Ed Moss

Finished with the Strip cruise, most cars pull into a parking lot for chatting, pictures and deciding what to do next.
Photo by Avery Wong

Same parking lot, nice picture of MINIs with the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in the background.
Photo by Avery Wong

Still in the post cruise parking lot.
Photo by Andrew Ross

The Valley Of Fire Run - Sunday morning

Sunday dawned bright and sunny. Too sunny for a lot of people after a free Saturday night in Las Vegas. Exactly the weather we wanted for Friday and Saturday. Oh well, there's always hope that next year will be bigger and better.

We left Palace Station in a convoy of about 80 cars and headed up the interstate towards the Valley of Fire. For the Utah and Colorado people, it was on the way home. In fact, several of the UT and CO cars didn't exit for the park and just kept on heading home. Wusses! Just kidding, we'll see you in 06.

Once we did some of the roller coaster road to the park entrance, we all queued up to pay our $6 per car entry fee. I later spoke to Jim, the Park Supervisor, and he asked me to email him some pictures of the line of cars at the gate, to help him convince his bosses that they need another cashier there. 8) I was glad to help. He also told me that for 06, we can collect money in advance and prepay for the park entry. I'm going to try to set that up.

After everyone was in, we all motored to the Visitor Center and hung out chatting and taking pictures for a while. Then most of the cars headed up the road to Mouse's Tank. This is a spectacular road and is used in a lot of car commercials.

As cars started coming back to the Visitor Center, several just kept going and we decided that the group thing was pretty much done. So a small group of us that were heading back to Vegas did the rest of the drive, leaving the park via the opposite end and heading back through the sweeping curves along Lake Mead. A fast, fun drive. We got back to Palace Station in time for lunch and to say goodbye to the California and Arizona groups who were heading back home.

We ate, we drank, we ate again, we drank more. I know that a decent number of cars stayed Sunday night too, since there were about 40 rooms on the group rate for the Sunday night. I was in my own bed on Sunday night and slept the sleep of the just. Or at least, the totally exhausted. 8)

Getting ready to depart Palace Station for the Valley of Fire.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Staged to depart Palace Station for the Valley of Fire.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Off the Interstate, what a fun drive.
Photo by Mark Ryan

The "roller coaster" road between I15 and the Valley of Fire gate.
Photo by Katrina Nicosia

Lined up at the Valley of Fire gate.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Lined up at the Valley of Fire gate.
Photo by Katrina Nicosia

Heading to the Visitor Center. Fun road!
Photo by Andrew Ross

In the Visitor Center parking lot. Mountains, sun, MINIs, twisty roads, what more could anyone ask for?
Photo by Andrew Ross

In the Visitor Center parking lot.
Photo by Avery Wong

In the Visitor Center parking lot. I know I took it, but I just love this picture.
Photo by Andrew Ross

A MINI on the return trip from Mouse's Tank.
Photo by Andrew Ross

Back in the Visitor Center parking lot after the group returned from the dead end Mouse's Tank road.
Photo by Andrew Ross

On the way back to Las Vegas via the Lake Mead Recreation Area. A slightly faster, fun drive
Photo by Katrina Nicosia