M.A.D.M.E.N. Odometer-Where we went in March

It was March Madness with the M.A.D.M.E.N.!

We started out March with dinner at the Happy Rooster on the 12th. The restaurant opened just for us last time. Not so this time! It turns out they’ve extended their hours and now serve dinner. There were 24 of us present and our co-chair Marsha Sue Carter encouraged everyone to stand up and introduce ourselves. We had a few new people and one out-of-town MINI owner who joined us.

Our MINIs waiting in the rain in Winkleman, Arizona. Las Vegas bound!

Kingman, Arizona. No more rain!

In the middle of March, a small group of us took a MINI vacation in Las Vegas.  Yes, yes, yes, we knew AMVIV is coming up in May! We still wanted to go and enjoy the sights and sounds of Las Vegas. On the 19th, four cars motored, in the rain, from Tucson to Winkleman where we picked up two more cars and continued on. We stopped for a late lunch on Historic Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona, for some tasty treats at Mr. D’z Route “66” Diner.

A stop at the Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam was our next stop and all those dam jokes just didn’t stop. We marveled at the dam construction, noticed and commented on the low level of the dam lake, made some new dam friends, and took a bunch of dam pictures. We did not take the dam tour, some of us had done that previously and we were now ready to get to Las Vegas.

The Arizona side of Hoover Dam.

We rolled into Las Vegas in the late afternoon and two cars had to immediately find a car wash. That night, AJ and Chris went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay while the rest of us (Steve and Kim Campbell, Jesse O’Dell, Jim Couper, Erin Savov, and Jodi Lynn Strait) went to Juan’s Flaming Fajitas where we had a great waitress and excellent food. It was here that we got to meet Jesse’s sister, Erin, and she instantly became an honorary M.A.D.M.E.N. for the weekend!

Friday was a busy day for us. First we visited Count’s Kustoms. Bummer, no Danny or Roli or Horny Mike. Horny Mike was spotted but he was on his way out of the shop with his Horny Mike bus.

You can own Manny, Moe and Jack!

Then it was off to Rick Dale’s Restorations. If you bought a t-shirt, you got a free tour of the shop in the back. We had enough tickets for everyone! Our tour guide was very nice young man named Chris and he showed us around with lots of interesting tidbits about what part of the restoration processes each of the work areas were dedicated to. We got to see Rick, his son Tyler, and Brettly who were all on the premises, this being a regular workday.

Car #1. Carroll Shelby was offered $26M for it and turned the offer down.

Next we hit up the Carroll Shelby Heritage Museum. For those of you who are both MINI and Mustang fans, this is the place to be! Souped up Mustangs, Shelby race cars and the original and first Shelby car were all on site. Their production floor was huge and it was amazing how many people had sent their cars in for Shelby customization.

Dinner on Friday night was at the Hofbrauhaus on Paradise Road. It was loud (the oom-pah band was definitely enthusiastic) and it was a bit warm inside but the German food was delicious. After dinner, we hung around the parking lot to chat. About what? Our cars of course! Then it was down to the Las Vegas Strip to walk around a bit and check out the underground gondolas at the Venetian.

Saturday, the 21st, was a do-whatever-you-want day. Some of us went shopping for tear-drop trailers, some wandered into Gilley’s to watch the Arizona game, some went clothes shopping, some went to the Springs Preserves for lunch. While AJ and Chris went to see the Chris Angel show, the rest of us met up again for dinner at the Chicago Brewery for some really good pizza. Overall, a great two days in Las Vegas. Home on Sunday!

March Madness didn’t stop there. Our last Saturday breakfast was on the 28th and we had 28 people join us at Chaffin’s Restaurant on Broadway. Someone play that 28 number in the lottery! Service was great and the food portions were huge; gigantic burro anyone?

After that, some of us motored over the Franklin Auto Museum (http://www.franklinmuseum.org) nestled on five acres right in the middle of developed Tucson. Our tour guide was the curator of the museum and he obviously loves what he does from restoring cars, to purchasing them, to grounds maintenance, to talking about all the cars including the mechanics and all the truly unique design features of each car.

Check out the Franklin album on our DMC Facebook page for more pictures.

See you in April! For more information on any event that the M.A.D.M.E.N. of Tucson have planned please email us.  madmenoftucson@gmail.com and check out the on line calendar. Happy motoring and don’t forget to wave!