International Mini Meeting '99 / Mini 40th
'Become, Be or Acquire'


Monday 23rd
Was 'going home' day.

After getting up (and guess what routine I did again ? :), and some cookies for breakfast, we started to pack up. The evening before Boris had already pre-packed most of his parts which also were packed into the Van. After we were done we drove over to MTB HQ to find they also were about ready to leave.
We said goodbye ('See you later' for some of us) to Andy and Arnoud, who were going in different ways. The latter took MTB up on their offer to bring some of his parts back home, enabling him to actually use his caravan the rest of his stay in the UK :) The rest of us left for Heathrow where we would be dropping off Boris and Avi. Although we made good time; only made one stop for gas, one to fix the exhaust under one of the MTB Mini's and only got into a small traffic jam near Heathrow, my schedule was getting rather tight by the time we got there. So after unpacking all of Boris's stuff again and saying goodbye to everyone I set off for Dover trying to catch my ferry home.

I must admit I might have broken the speedlimit a bit on the way, but as a result I got to Dover in time to catch the ferry to Calais.
The ferry-ride again wasn't one of great pleasure to me; I really don't like these kind of ships, but I survived without getting to sick nonetheless.
Just after getting off the ferry I spotted a couple of Austrian Mini's stranded on the hard shoulder. I stopped to ask if they needed any help and just as I was about to set off again Frank & Saskia also stopped. After comparing usual cruisingspeeds we decided to drive up together. Although Frank wanted to wait with taking in gas till we were in Belgium (it's cheaper there and we are Dutch afterall :), I had to stop at the next services as I was getting rather low on fuel.
Turns out that there isn't a single service up on the motorway in France and the first one in Belgium was some 20 miles after the border. In short; I ran out :) Luckily though I always carry a bit extra which just got us to the next service.

After that it was 'full speed ahead', and indeed Franks cruisingspeed didn't differ much from mine.
So we made good time and before we knew it we were back home again. The week had now really come to an end...

 

 

Sunday 22nd IMM'99/
Mini 40th
Epilogue