Step 11- Smile for the camera
OK so the Marriot forgot to bring me breakfast which was a bit of a drag and made me 15 minutes late :( I ran around giving out the forms and then was lucky like crazy that the incredibly nice woman whose name I forgot offered to hand out the rest at the entrance. I set about photographing the rows you can't usually see the folks in the tech tent and the sponsor booths. Again, lucky for me Sean Smith and JonT offered to shoot for me because I had left one of my Smart Media cards at the hotel in my rush to get out. I think we will get everyone this year. :) I wish I had had more time to hang out at the Upgrade Corral, there was a load of great stuff going on there and I heard the BMW factory folks marvelling at one stereo set up in a black Z3 with Hawaii plates.  Thanks Bill! I inhaled a bratwurst and marvelled at the karioke-style rocker playing Jonny B Good before the incredible tech (I think his name was Sean?) removed the door dent I got from a careless Z3'er on my right rear wheel well.  The line for the tech tent  One of the wonderful techs touching up Inside the tech tent
That reminded me to run back to the Owner SolutionZ tent and get my Z3Solution Door Guards. 
JonM showed up with a rainbow of armrests 
There was a lot of running involved. Over to the Performance Center for the tour (gotta love a classroom with removeable doors so the cars and drive into the class), back to the Zentrum for the virtual tour (that was COOL!) more water from the Zentrum snack shop. That is the cheapest I have ever seen those little water bottles sold- 79 cents! Oops back to the shop in the Zentrum to pick up my remote control Z3- gotta have that for this winter when I need something to "drive" on a snowy day. I wonder if I can make it autocross? It already has a dent in its hood. Maybe I will have it painted Boston Green when I have my hood repainted someday. Yakitayakitayakita run home and bathe and change and back to the Zentrum for evening festivities. Step 12- More BBQ please. Lots of funny stories at the Saturday night BBQ but the best were told by the inventor of the Z3. "Ve had to make it vider. And then vider. And then vider. Oops, ve made a mistake, a six cylinder engine fits in the engine compartment." Tim UK's rendition of his adventures in the Z24 on the Dragon were pretty hilarious. I was looking forward to a full night's sleep before the Sunday drive and return home - plenty worried about tropical storm Dennis- the sequel. This storm had already come and gone, but according to dire predictions from the Weather Channel it was coming back and planning to sit on our heads and toss our cars around in heavy winds and rain. Not fun. JonT, DaveP and I decided to head straight home instead of the Sunday Drive and brunch. I packed and signed on to the Weather Underground before I went to bed and discovered that their prediction was not so dire and I trusted it more than the Weather Channel. I went downstairs to tell JonT the good news and suggest we take a morning drive after all. He was not impressed. I went to drop off a bag of dirty laundry in Emmy and found ShagMags and sharks all over my car. Bummer. So JonT and I stayed up until 230am with the staff of the hotel and their list of guests and my list of ShagMags and matched up as many as we could. Yawn. |
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