Maggie takes a break among the fall leaves.

Dropping down into orchard country.

Apples still on the tree – these are huge Sekai-Ichi variety, excellent eating but not ready yet.

Our favorite fruit stand, Prey’s, a few miles east of Leavenworth on Highway 2.

Endless apples! They have dozens of kinds of apples, and the late varieties aren’t yet picked and available. We picked up 10 lbs each of Tsuguro, Granny Smith and Macintosh, plus some early Red Bartlett pears.

The squash displays were beautiful – plus, winter squash is yummy even if it is a lot of work.

I’m not sure if the bunches of dried peppers were decorative or for cooking/eating.

These sunflowers were really beautiful against the deep blue sky.

This picture has nothing to do with apple orchards – but the stark hillside and feathery clouds in the evening light were a really striking combination.

The lens flare is horrible on this shot, but I still like it. It was taken from the moving car, top down, as we drove into the mountains, directly toward the evening sun.

Note: After Apple Picking is a poem, by Robert Frost.

Maggie feels especially MINI next to the aircraft carriers.

We pulled up next to the CV-62, the USS Independence, decommissioned in 1998, and got out and wandered around in the rain. This place is a photographer’s dream, or at least it would be in the sun. The huge bins of parts, the giant ships, and the juxtaposition of Puget Sound blue, rainforest green and battleship gray is pretty striking.

The USS Independence, slowly being stripped down.

It makes me think – if a mountain of metal could tell stories, what tales she could spin! The thousands of men who have lived aboard her, the journeys she’s seen, the battles, the heartache, the victories… the ghosts who walk her halls must be restless and agitated to see her dismantled around them.

It makes me once again thankful for the men and women who’ve dedicated their lives to serving, living aboard this giant floating city for months at a time while she charts her way from port to port.

The fishes that swim — the rocks — the motion of the waves –
The ships, with men in them
What stranger miracles are there?
     ~ Walt Whitman, “Miracles”

Today was a spectacularly sunny day – we’re hoping for more of it tomorrow and Monday. (The forecast is for increasingly cloudy, sprinkly weather by Monday, but weather forecasters have been wrong before.)

Enjoy your long weekend!

In our experience, MINI is a superb practitioner of this. Every interaction we’ve had with them has been classy, fun, and has had a very personal touch. Buying a MINI is not just acquiring a cute little car, it’s joining a community with its own benefits, culture and rewards.

Today, we got a package from MINI. Ostensibly, it was to send us roadside assistance cards and some finance information. But in the package was:

• A personalized note from MINI
• A pen, journal and rubber band – all MINI branded
• Mousepad with lots of red MINIs and checkered flags
• A static cling window poetry kit
• Little metallic gold body decals
• Dice antenna topper

Inside the box was a flap. Printed on it was “Nothing behind this flap. Zip, nada, zilch.” When we, of course, looked behind the flap there was an envelope marked top secret. It contained a MINI decoder template, a decoder prism and 3-d glasses. Apparently the decoder template can be held over a MINI ad for a secret message.

It probably didn’t cost much to put together and send, but the thinking that goes into their branding and marketing is amazing. Even more so, they’re not trying to gain our business – they already won it, months ago – they just want to ensure our brand loyalty years down the line.

The extended family-like feeling and superb customer follow-through make owning a MINI fun. If we weren’t already thrilled to bits with our car, it would certainly make us consider buying another one from the same company if we ever replace the one we have.

Plus, in this extended club drivers wave to each other. Random acts of friendliness are a major bonus. ☺

Ron mapped out a twisty, windy, beautiful drive. We stopped at two state parks – the below pictures were at Kopachuk & Twanoh State Parks, respectively.

After the cruise, Bryan and I drove by my sister’s home to visit Maggie-the-MINI’s cousin, Pumpkin the vintage VW convertible. The old-and-new picture is great – Pumpkin is a fun little car.

It was a top-down, beautiful spring day. In spite of my hat and SPF-30 sunscreen, I now have a slight sunglasses sunburn. I look forward to many more events with this group!

I’m not a car junkie guy. My folks (correctly, in my estimation) made sure I knew how to change oil, fill fluids, change a tire, etc., but I don’t get any kick out of working on them. My car choices to date have been pretty pedestrian (Chevy Beretta, Dodge Intrepid, Ford Taurus, etc.)

I knew the Taurus was going to graduate to be the boys’ car, and I knew I wanted something that got good gas mileage. The Ford F-150 Crew Cab we bought a couple of years ago and rarely used didn’t fit the bill, and ended up being the trade in bait. We would need the Toyota Mini Van for all of us to be in and for road trip, but I didn’t want to commute in it.

At some point, and I don’t know really why, I became intrigued by MINIs. Not because of The Italian Job either…I didn’t see it until after I’d ordered this car. Maybe Austin Powers. So, as noted in the earlier article, I drove MINIs a couple of times, and ordered one a couple of days after Christmas. (Heavy Irony Note: We ordered some furniture from a well-known brand name furniture store in November. It still isn’t here. Our car, built in Oxford, England, came in less than two months. Sheesh.)

Since I ordered Maggie, I was able to enter the order number onto MINI’s website and follow her progress as she was being built. Very cool. I also heard periodically from the dealership, Northwest Mini in Tacoma about the car’s progress.

Now, a word about the dealership and our contact (:::ahem::: “Motoring Advisor”, I’ll have you know, thank you very much) there, Jay Hammon. Best. Car. Buying. Experience. Ever. And honestly, I’ve had some good ones, because most of the time on the bad ones, I walk out. Jay was super nice and super patient and super accommodating. They made the whole thing easy. No BS, no silly dickering, no “what will it take to get you into this car today”. It was like “Hey, we have a pretty cool product. Drive one, if you like it, we’ll hook you up with the one you want, the way you want it. Have a Coke, too.” They gave us more than book for the truck. We never even dickered a bit there. It was a nice truck, and they played fair. How cool is that?

They made the whole buying and financing thing easy. They sent me the forms in advance, I filled them out, and we had our deal in about 15 minutes from when I handed them to Jay. Diane Steeves, the finance manager, was so nice I was stunned. Usually at that stage they are trying to up sell you to death, and act like you’re a moron if you don’t buy every little warranty. They had some deals, they were decent, and we said we’d think about it. Finis. Not a problem, no pressure, lots of laughing, and we were treated like sensical adults, for gosh sakes. Sign the papers, here’s your keys. Nice.

Jay spent a good deal of time showing us how to use the car, especially to convertible top and radio, stuff I could have figured out eventually from the manuals, but this was much easier. Easy to read manuals, though. Oh, and here’s a nice new small road atlas. Here’s a book showing all of our dealerships, where your warranty is good. We have to work on the car more than 3 hours, we give you car to use. You come in for an oil change, we’ll drive you to the mall. We pay for the oil change for 3 years too. And brakes. And wiper blades.

Like I said. Best. Ever.

Now about the car. MINIs are special. They’re quirky. They’re cute. They’re designed by Germans (BMW, specifically) with British style. The car is well thought out. The controls are in reach and make sense. The top works great, and you can retract it with the key fob. It will retract partway to be a moon roof.

The front is comfortable for two. The back seat is a joke, but you know what, Jeri and I went to Costco today in the MINI, and loaded it all up ok. I could even see out the back.

I got a manual, and it works fine. I like manual transmissions on small cars, it adds an extra dimension of fun. This one shifts easy and has plenty of zip for a small four cylinder. It’s easy to turn and park because of the size. I’ve driven it 300 miles…there’s still a little less than 1/2 a tank left.

The radio is a Harmon Kardon, and is very nice. I added an Ipod connector, and while it isn’t as functional as I’d hoped, it is nice and it charges the Ipod as well.

Overall, it is a kick to drive and I look forward to driving her every day. So, I’m officially hooked to a car. If you’re thinking about an economy car, MINIs are well worth a look.