April 14th



Well, here we are again! Motoring out on another adventure.

 

This time, we found ourselves chasing the sunshine. We planned our route and took off, only to find we had to change our plans quickly due to humongous black rain clouds. Silly us, planning a route! We know better now.

 

We headed west on Hwy 101 and dove off onto Hwy 112, where it looked like there may be some sunshine. We were looking forward to opening the sunroof and being in the country. As it turned out, we made a good choice. The route along Hwy 112 has some spectacular scenery, but sometimes you have to hunt for it. We love the drive through Salt Creek and on further through the Agate/Crescent Beach area. It's a really beautiful place. You can park for free at Salt Creek and enjoy the beach with all the other people, or you can pay a small fee at Crescent Beach and enjoy an empty beach all day long if you want to. Either way you can't lose!

 

Onward we went. Hwy 112 is the scenic route for the Olympic Peninsula. At times it dips down to where you can see the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We happened upon such a place and it pretty near took my breath away, the light was so perfect.

 

I love the beauty of the water and beach next to the gnarled, mossy trees.

 

 

 

 

Hwy 112 is not a boring drive, it twists, turns and goes through lovely forest and over many rivers. The road ends at a T where you have the choice to go towards the Makah Reservation or South to Forks via Hwy 113 or what we locals call Burnt Mountain Road. Since we were already most of the way there, we decided to head on to Forks. Burnt Mountain Road meets Hwy 101 at Sappho, which used to have a little store and gas station and was a landmark. The store burned down years ago and now all it has a cardlock gas station. Kind of sad. We took a spin through Forks and were headed back towards home before we even blinked.

 

Heading East on Hwy 101 back toward home, we found the rain and were even snowed on in a couple of places. When we were motoring around Lake Crescent, I found it quite beautiful in all its gloominess. You have plenty of time to enjoy the sights around the Lake because it is very long, the road hugs the Lake most of the way around and this is one place you do not want to speed. It's in the National Park and the Rangers take their job very seriously. So just relax and enjoy the view.

 

Happy motoring!

April 7th

Sunday was our second day with Coop. We took some time to become better acquainted then we were off again...motoring where our whims took us.

We went up over Black Diamond to the Elwha River and Coop handled the road beautifully. It's a great paved road up in the foothills of the Olympics where there is not much traffic and the scenery is beautiful.

Then we headed West to Piedmont Road, which is a notorious road in our area for it's twisty & narrow unruliness. Add the facts that it's on Lake Crescent, which is a large lake and people actually live along there, and the road is used as a "shortcut" (which is a relative term around here) from one side of the mountain to the other side, and you have quite an interesting driving experience. The road is closed to commercial vehicles, but that doesn't mean large LARGE 4x4's don't use it, so sometimes it's a squeeze on the corners. Anyway, one of the main reasons we bought a Mini was because it was fun to drive, right? Well, driving at least keeps the driver busy, but being a motoring passenger I found myself closing my eyes with fright in a few places! Needless to say, the driver had himself a lot of fun with that road.











We ended up at Salt Creek, where we paused for a fashion shoot because Coop looked so good. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but he really is purple. The metallic undercolor is blue though, so that color shines through in the sun.

We headed off once again, but East this time. We were not ready to head for home yet, so we motored over Sequim way and explored places we had not seen in quite some time. The whole Sequim/Dungeness area has grown so much over the past ten years, it's hard to find some of the old landmarks we used to navigate by.

As we were on our second adventure with Coop, we began to notice a cool phenomenon. When people see us, they stop, smile and wave. More so than with any other vehicle we have owned. We have also found that when telling people we bought a Mini Cooper, the immediate reaction is a huge smile, then they want to talk about it. It's nice to share the Mini Cooper vibe!

April 6, 2013

Our Mini adventures begin with the new addition to our family...Coop.
He's a 2005 Mini Cooper in Purple Haze Metallic, with 26,500 miles on him.
The interior is Lapis and Gray Gravity leather with blue carpets and black mats and has a panorama sunroof.

We begin on my birthday, April 6th, with finally deciding to go car shopping. Not that we don't have any cars, but because the cars we do have are very, very tired and probably wouldn't make it very far out of town. Anyway, we girded our whatever's and headed out to do battle with any car salesmen we ran across.

It was just our luck we decided to check out a car we had seen online in our town before heading towards the bigger cities. We pulled in and headed towards the cars on the lot when Dave swooped upon us and took us under his wing. He soon ferreted out of us what we were kind of looking for, which was to see and sit in the Mini Cooper Convertible they had on the lot so we could judge if we really wanted to pursue that avenue of cars.
Dave excitedly informed us he had a "cherry of all cherries" on the lot that had just come out of detail and had been taken in on a trade a few days before. Out through the shop we went and to the back of the lot. Then we saw Coop. He was magnificent in all his purple glory, sparkling in the sunshine. He had me at Hello, but I was trying to stay cool and collected. Opening the drivers door I could not help but smile at the interior colors, blue and dark grey. What a wonderful combination!

So, we actually did go look at the other Mini on the lot and decided as we would be using the car we bought as an every day driver, that the visibility out the back factor in the convertible would be problematic to deal with every day. Besides, it wasn't purple.

Ok, so next came the test drive. We took separate test drives so we could compare notes after. I was first, and it was not long before I knew I could not go home without this car.

When thinking up a name for our new addition, I mentioned the name Coop and found out that Dave told DH, Steve, that I "drove it like I stole it". Since D.B. Cooper is so famous in this area, and after all, Coop is a Cooper, we had our name.

After paperwork was done, we took Coop out for a drive and really started feeling how much fun we were going to have on our coming adventures.

There ends my most awesome birthday ever!!