We're Still in Kansas, MINI

By Tamara Warren

The MINI group from the right part of the country has arrived in Kansas as we near the end of the MTTS journey. We spent a good part of our day under wide blue skies, surrounded by acres of wheat crops, making our way westward. The day started at the driveoff on the border of Missouri in Kansas City. I was back in the front seat with my travel pard’ner (as they say in this part of the country) Natalie Bauters, who heads up MINI USA corporate communications. We were feeling a bit adventurous, so we joined a group of about 20 owners to descend 650 feet below at the Kansas Underground Salt Museum in Hutchinson. We cooled off in the stabilized 68-degree Fahrenheit climate and soaked up the briny salt air. We each took home a piece of souvenir salt.

We emerged starving and the fresh fixins’ at Roy’s Hickory Pit BBQ satiated our appetites. We ordered the specialty – a lean beef brisket sandwich with a side of slicked dill cucumbers and baked beans, accentuated by Roy’s sweet, tangy sauce. We may just be the first MINI to make the scene in Hutchinson, judging by the reactions of the restaurant owner who had never seen a MINI up close. We kept our wagon rolling west, pausing at the halfway point of America just outside of Kinsley. We landed in Dodge City, Kansas in time to catch the staged duel at the Boot Hill. In the aftermath of the theatrics, MINI owners delighting in soaking MINI USA Vice President Jim McDowell with squirt gunshots. (Apparently, he had it coming, with a track record for squirting unsuspecting owners at morning drive off points.) Come high noon tomorrow we won’t be in Kansas anymore, as we make our way into Colorado country. As they say in MINI world “Denver or Bust.”