Most liked posts in thread: Approx. cost of attending MOTD

Don't forget to budget an extra $500 for when you walk into the Helix tent and get light-headed with all of the stuff you need for your MINI. Remember, we do lay-away.

 

Scott, you could always create a Go Fund Me for this. People do them for all kinds of BS reasons. Why not to get the world to help you go to MOTD. I'll put in a buck.

 

Scott you'll need to keep a hand on your wallet while walking among all the vendors. Better budget for some parts & services. :yesnod:

 

I need to set up a fund raiser to get the 1.8 RMW stroker under the hood of the Rat!

You can do the Dragon cheap if you camp... I found a nice little trail off of Hellbender last year in the Jeep, you could tell people have camped there before with the fire pits and beer bottles, and a stock height R53 "could" go up it for a good ways... So theres free lodging!

If your camping it, bring a propane grill and a cooler! You could survive on a few hot dogs or something along those lines for $5-$10 a day! (Not counting beer, you can spend a lot on booze down there )

Gas is always going to be up there on the $$$ list, and there is no real way around that unless you park the MINI and just run around on a bike, scooter, or the trusty old shoebaru's.

So if you really get to pinching pennies, you could probably stay the week at the Dragon for around $300 and be semi comfortable... Unless you are driving a giant brick of a lifted Jeep 1300 miles to get there, then it will cost you about a grand just for gas!

 

If you plan on visiting the tree of shame, you may want to consider setting aside 10 grand or so.

 

I noticed that Booze line item at $100. At $5/drink, that's 20 drinks. Over the span of 5 nights, that's 4 drinks per--a reasonable party week (unless you're a lightweight such as myself in which case you'd be pissing blood by the end of the week). Maybe it's the crowd that I run in, but I'm thinking your budget for booze is a little light.

I really just posted this because the word Booze is my favorite word in the English language. Say it slow: Booooooooze.

 

Oh you'll survive...

Don't forget to add in any parts you may break, wear out, or have damaged while there... in the last 8 years, I've
- Lost an alternator on the Dragon (it had spun out its last watt) and limped back to Fontana, where the fine folks at Hendricks Mini from Charlotte same-day'd an R53 alternator to me (not cheap) for a late night/early morning install, made it home and that thing's still spinning...
- Speaking of spinning, blew out (as in BOOM) 3 tires (2 Mini, one trailer) when an out of control piece of spinning heavy metal the size of a refrigerator door appeared in my lane, trucks to my right and a wall to my left, all I could do was take it down the right side and go buy a set of tires...
- Inner right-side ball joint went all loosey-goosey, replaced, re-aligned in the parking lot, off we go...
- Blew out two Monro strut bearings (PLEASE do NOT buy awful Monro strut bearings!), they weren't TOO bad so I limped home...
- Melted the bottom of my shifter box due to a poorly-designed exhaust, my own fault, it sounded great but held too much heat in the front resonator (don't put a high - density spiral muffler under the shifter!), live and learn... replaced with race exhaust (thanks Chad!), sounded like an F1 car for several dragon runs, then all 600 miles home... which as tiring...

NOW.. My Mini has >100k miles on it, and at the time was modified pretty well, and the parts that wore out were either defective (Monro and my home-designed exhaust), somewhat old (alternator at 70k), or damaged by road debris (tires), and I tow a small trailer, so some of that is "normal wear" and to be expected. Just inconvenient that it happened in rural NC, but very convenient that the nation's 3-4 best Mini wrenches are all clustered within 125 yards of each other!

You SHOULD, however, budget for at least a set of front brakes if you're going to be running pretty hard, and possibly 1/2 a set of front tires, again, depending on how far you drive and how hard you run.

And that's all at the speed limit (or so), driving safely and never obnoxiously!

 

Wow. I'm going to direct the next kid who comes knocking on my door asking for funds to go to Disneyland to this website.

 

You can visit the tree for free. If you are going to donate to it... that could be expensive.

 

We bantered about it in the past. Even tried a collectible swap one year and pretty much no one showed at all. Several inherent issues as I see it. And don't get me wrong, not trying to kill the idea and I'll be happy to add it to the schedule next year, but here's my take. You need folks to bring stuff. Most folks are leery about schlepping a bunch of items up (especially larger ones) knowing they may be taking them home with them. Most folks don't want to park there butt behind a table for several hours hoping that one buyer will come along and then miss out on all the other fun.

I think Ways Swap table works really well. You bring your item leave it with Way. Folks can smooze it any time during the day, you don't have to mess up your schedule and then you pick up your money when and if it sells.

With that said, if someone wants to host one, get a hold of me in October and we can put in on the schedule for 2016 :biggrin5:

 

Registration is 10 Bucks.

Dinners such as the Welcome and Farewell are optional and run about 20 bucks. If you have never been it is worth it just to get an idea of whats going on.

T Shirts are like 20 bucks a pop too, again, all optional. I will state that for you Scott if you attend in 2015 an event and Donuts T are on me.

Meals can be had on the cheap if you cook your own. Often a group sharing a cabin will do that. At the lodge it ain't cheap. It is a resort after all. But breakfast at the round table is not to be missed.

Lodging is going to be shared at this point. I'm not up on the latest costs.

Gas is a little higher there too. Not terrible, but remember this is an out of the way area not real close to interstates.

Looking forward to seeing you there this year.

 

A big part of the budget is lodging. If you stay at Fontana and split a cabin with a group its not bad maybe $550 (per Person) *that's my cost after the 3 way split for the week.

We pay off our whole week in advance so we don't have to deal with it when we are there.

Our group has two cabins and we bring our own food (Dinners) and have group meals so we really do not buy any food except when we take a day drives and stop for lunch.

After $10 registration + any event t-shirts you buy its just fuel and whatever you want to spend your money on when you walk down vendor's row.

 

Were staying at Phillips motel and with gas from Florida and extras I'm budgeting a grand.

 

MOTD Registration and shirts $70
Gas for entire trip $350
Pre-trip oil & filter change $60
Shared Cabin for 6 nights $600
Food for week $250
Booze for week $100
Pre-event new brakes, coilovers, control arms, fuel pump and filter, paint, stripes and tires $7000
Driving in the lead group on the donut run... PRICELESS

 

You mean "Full Service BBQ" in Maryville, TN.

 

Invested the money reserved for that line in a Valentine One...

 

Not really a swap meet but WMW has a used parts table.

The swap meet is a good idea but it would only work for one or maybe two dedicated days like Friday and Saturday.

 

Oh boy, here I am a complete NOOB and already making suggestions... If a swap meet were set up as an 'event' , for example--Saturday, between 1 and 5, it may be a draw for the event.

Every so often, a guy comes up with a great idea for an accessory and makes a high quality product. He does it part time and then life gets in the way and he stops making them. But, they show up at swap meets.