We bought our first MINI in 2005. The convertible was a very fun car to drive – especially when we could have the top down. Larry would often say how fun it would be to drive it to all 50 states. But we knew that the car was too small, the kids were in school, and we didn’t have the time off to do something like that.

Our next MINI was a Countryman that we bought in the summer of 2011. Still having the itch to drive a MINI to all 50 states, Larry compromised and drove this car from Boston to Seattle with Cameron (age 13). They had fun stopping at various baseball fields, the biggest ball of twine and other fun tourist attractions, but they pretty much drove straight across the country, definitely not hitting every state.

As retirement drew closer, the subject of driving to all 50 states started to take shape in a way that hadn’t happened before. We looked at it more closely, figuring out what route to take to hit all 50 states in a fun and efficient way. We no longer owned a MINI, so we started looking into what MINI we would get, and decided that buying a Countryman in Hawaii, and then having it shipped to Long Beach California was the easiest way to include Hawaii on our tour.