Mini Nation: Fun and games in NH

Ever since we ordered our Mini (vanity plate CHEEKY) back in April, Retired Guy and I knew we'd go to the Minis On Top rally run up Mount Washington. Who could resist the idea of hundreds of gaily accessorized Mini Coopers caravaning up the highest mountain in the northeast? At 6,288 feet, the mountain's height matched the date of this year's (the sixth annual) Minis On Top: 6-28-08.

And we did have fun. Along with 215 other goofy Mini owners, we gawked at all the other interesting color combinations and car graphics, beginning with those in the caravan of Minis that started for the North Country from Area 51 off Route 93 just north of Concord. The Minis followed three different routes to get to Gorham, the town just north of Mount Washington where we spent the night. The next morning, everyone drove down to the Loon ski area parking lot in Lincoln for a meet that featured contests in various categories such as Best Sound System, Dirtiest, Cleanest, and Best Overall Car.

RG was hopeful he'd get a nod from the judges for his roof decal of the Rhode Island state flag, but he lost out to a very flashy number: a gull-wing door modification of a Mini that captured everyone's attention and took two separate Best awards.

But the most fun of all was watching the entries in a Mini Driving Skills (O)lympics. (The organizers weren't allowed to officially call it Olympics, because of copyright issues.) Dozens of hopeful Mini drivers waited in line to take their cars through an obstacle course of orange traffic cones, starting off by picking up an apple from the ground and then driving a short distance to balance it carefully on top of a traffic cone.

The course was much harder than it looked, and it was fun to watch the most macho entrants rev their engines only to stall out repeatedly. One guy in particular (a fellow Rhode Islander) came in dead last while more precise drivers — especially a woman from New York City — maneuvered far more delicately to place close to the top of the order.

"Next year," said Retired Guy. "I need to practice."

After all that excitement, the actual climb to the top of Mount Washington (in heavy fog) came as almost an afterthought. The best part of the Mini vacation weekend was meeting new friends Jeff, Monica and Catherine, with whom we've already planned to enter as a team in the Mini Trivia Contest next year.

Snow fun on a Monday: Windblown XC

A road trip is fun when you take a couple of friends with you: TomTom the GPS navigator and Sirius satellite radio make the time fly when you're whizzing up Route 495 for what might be the last day of cross-country skiing at the closest real touring center to Rhode Island: Windblown.
Located in southern NH just across the Massachusetts border in the quaint town of New Ipswich, Windblown has 40Ks of hilly trails that traverse Barrett Mountain in the shadow of the great Monadnock.


When it has snow, as it does now, this ski area is as good as many areas much farther
north — better, if you include the fact that you can leave Providence at 9 a.m. (after picking up a latte from Seven Stars bakery), be on the slopes by 11:15, ski for a couple of hours, and be back home before it's even dark at 4 p.m.
Yesterday, Sunday, Windblown had more than 700 skiers, but today, with most people back at work, there might have been a dozen.

Northern extremes: White Mountains, NH

Believe it or not, there's a ton of snow just four hours north of Rhode Island in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
(Photo at right is from the top of the Speakeasy trail on Loon Mountain in Lincoln, NH.)
This season, the north country has had more snow than it's had in nearly 40 years, a total so far of nearly 100 inches. Could it be that rumors of global warming have been greatly exaggerated?


So don't let Rhode Island's bare ground fool you: If you like to ski, either cross country or alpine, you should be in New Hampshire to see scenes like this (of the 1785 Inn, at left) and the Mount Washington Valley ski touring center in Intervale, North Conway.
The next few days could be your last chance to ski till next year, because when it comes to New England's climate, the only thing that's certain is that it will CHANGE.