We hid the Mini at Nick’s house, and on an incredible day that I will never forget, we put the Mini out at a location and had Samantha driven out blindfolded to see it. Overheating and electrical issues plagued us the whole way home. So after a brief fifteen seconds of bartering, Nick, a good friend Sam Janowski and I were driving the Mini home from the lower mainland to Kamloops on one of the hairiest road trips I’ve ever done. But I fell in love with the little rust ball the moment I saw it. Now you may be saying, “Well that’s not a Mini Cooper” and well…you’re right. And at that time I decided I needed to buy Samantha a Mini.Īfter a year of searching, my friend Nick Neu and I found through Dave Hord and Classic Car Adventures a seemingly-not-horrendously-conditioned 1974 Austin 1000. So as courtships go, one thing leads to another and if an oblivious boy is eventually hinted at enough, he will decide to propose. It should also be noted, that when we were married, she upgraded from being a “Minnie Cooper” to a “Minnie Cooper S” See? That’s fate. And when I learned about her rather adorable name I told myself that if she managed to put up with me for any length of time I would buy her a classic Mini. I have always been a driver, with an obsession for traveling and classic cars that has spanned a lifetime. Her name however, is probably the most crucial part of this story. So while one part of that is good, the other leads to a lot of rock, paper, scissors battles for radio control on road trips. I know now, that as I sent her songs I liked, and she would heartily agree, “Yes that’s a great song!” that she was lying the entire time to keep the conversation going, and actually detested my taste in music. And after a horrendous attempt at convincing her to like me, she eventually had a brief lapse in judgment that prompted her to say yes to a date. I met the then-Samantha Minnie Cooper eleven years ago. I suppose now that the lead characters of this play are introduced, at least on the Classic Car Adventures side, I should introduce my wife. Dave and Warwick founded Classic Car Adventures in 2009, and that’s where this story truly begins. I forget exactly which rally car he was crawling out of after installing GoPro cameras, but with a casual, “Heyo” and a dismissive wave, we were introduced. Somewhere along the way, I was introduced to Dave Hord. Warwick would go on to do the video at my wedding, and I owe the vast majority of my business’ success to his example and mentorship, and that of his team at Subaru Canada/USA. We had no idea that meeting would spark a friendship, meeting on rally stages and service parks around North America. Despite working for different media companies, I found myself grudgingly admitting that they might be smarter than my initial assessment had allowed. And just as I moved my truck, the then-Canadian Rally Champion Patrick Richard drove by and shotgunned the area I had previously occupied with thumb-sized gravel. Warwick, walking by with his co-worker and friend Dean Campbell, informed me that it was a rather unsafe spot to park. I had parked my truck in what I assumed was a safe place to avoid rocks and debris. Ten or 11 (maybe 12?) years ago I met Warwick Patterson on the side of a rally stage near Calgary Alberta, Canada. I would listen and nod, but never truly join in other than to offer some comments on the weather, or to talk about the photos I had taken of the cars: there was always a piece missing to my involvement in that conversation. Hearing the answers always made me smile. I had heard this exchange countless times over the past eight years on dirt corners or at the shoulder of the road, at lunch breaks, and at coffee shops. But regardless of what path the answer would travel, it would start with: “Well…” It would be said with a smile, or a rueful shake of the head. The other was the start of a conversation, an offer to sit and enjoy the company and the companionship that can only be found at the end of a long day of driving. More of a, “How are you doing, how is the car, how were the roads, nice to see you,” all rolled into one small question. One as a casual line used in lieu of a greeting. “How was the drive?” The question was asked in one of two ways.
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