Mini Cooper Register National Mini Day – Beaulieu – Sunday 10th June 2018
Beaulieu was a special day for us as we joined the club members for our first road trip and second club stand show. The weather on the day from what we remember was reasonable with some sunshine albeit a little cold. We packed up “Flintoff” our little 1275 Tahiti, loaded Freddie (our young 2 yr old) and set off for Salisbury where the group arranged to meet. With Iain first to the car park, Jean not far behind then Dawn & Nick, we all formed a nice little mini convoy and headed to Beaulieu, certainly a highlight of our day, being part of a club and having a mini reliable enough to take us there with no scares along the way.
Upon reaching our location (through some lovely scenic roads in the new forest), we were directed to our pitch where the more experienced team members set about erecting the “Dome”. Breakfast was soon underway and tea flowing with precision organisation. A nice little chit-chat and we set about looking around the magnificent set of minis on display. We especially focused on several nice pick-ups which we have a special interest in with our slowly progressing rebuild of Gerald’s Dad’s 1979 pick-up.
Beaulieu as you would expect had lots on offer and we were able to negotiate a decent discount through mini spares for all the parts needed to progress our rebuild.
As the day progressed lots more tea a picnic lunch, Freddie meeting the group for the first time and being sociable for a change and to be behaving well (whoop).
The show had so much to offer and location was a good first outing for us, we have to say we thoroughly enjoyed the day, the only downside being we would have liked to have joined the team for a pint on the way back (non alcoholic for Gerald being nominated driver), but with Freddie flagging felt home was the correct course of action.
Looking forward to our next trip, and with so many great cars on display we bit the bullet and invested in a nice little 1275 “Italian Job” in British Racing Green, but that’s a whole new story!!
Siobhan & Gerald