The Independent American Magazine for all Mini Owners
Issue link: http://mc2.epubxp.com/i/33537
________________________________________________________ Bats and Butterflies U pon completion of a 5800 mile, nearly two- week long road rally this past summer, not to mention consumption of approximately 22 pounds of BBQ, most people would come home, hang up their keys and put their feet up It would take more than the world’s largest catsup bottle and a steel, fire-breathing dragon to get them back out on the road. Not so for a couple of indefatigable MINI owners from Jacksonville, Florida. Two days after returning home from MINI Takes The States, Ryon Lippincott gathered the Jacksonville Area MINI Motorers and, with the promise of bats and butterflies, led them off to rendezvous with MINIACs from Tampa, Ocala and Gainesville, Florida, for a fun filled day of motoring and sightseeing. This overcast, August Saturday found us winding along back roads from Jacksonville to the Florida Museum of Natural History at the Uni- versity of Florida for our first stop. Here, we were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of exhibits, planning rooms and storage areas by fellow MINI owner and museum employee, Tom Kyne. Then we were turned loose with hundreds of butterflies in their four-story tropical, enclosed Butterfly Rain- forest, where many of us served as transportation to some of the butterfly residents as we wandered among waterfalls and lush foliage. Strolling thru the rest of the museum exhibits we worked up quite an appetite, so we motored over to a Gainesville institution, Burrito Bros. Taco Co. This little hole in the wall (literally, as it now functions out of a window in a church kitchen) has been a UF tradition since 1976. Famous for their burritos and their guacamole, it was a guaranteed destination and crowd pleaser. On our way back to our MINIs we did the usual stalking of unsuspecting MINI motorers as they passed by, knocking on their windows to 62 MC2 Magazine www.mc2magazine.com tag them at stoplights, etc. Back in our MINIs, the burble of our exhausts turned heads as we motored thru the university campus on our way to Lake Alice, known for the size and quantity of UF’s namesakes, the gators. Once parked, we stopped to photograph an alligator as it drifted over to the bank, but decided to move on as it got a little too close for comfort, heading over to the two largest occupied bat houses in North America. As dusk settled in the bats began to awaken with first just a few emerging and darting haphazardly across the evening sky. Then, with encroaching darkness there was a sudden, low, continuous whoosh as thousands upon thousands of bats began to stream out of the houses, seeming to follow a pre- ordained flight path as they rounded a tree, not ten feet from where we stood, before heading out over Lake Alice and into the surrounding country- side. It was an incredible sight! It is estimated that there are approximately 200,000 bats that take flight here nightly, and the exodus from the bat house lasted about 15-20 minutes. We checked on our alligator friend and then said goodbye to our fellow Sunshine MINIACs as we called it a day. Once in our MINIs we motored on home, bathed by the orange glow from our cockpit lights and the internal glow from a good MINI day. Special thanks to Tryon, Tom and Angie Holland (who directed us from place to place) for making our motoring adventure such fun. So, whether it’s a 5800-mile road rally or two hour, 120-mile jaunt in your own backyard, remem- ber…you have a MINI, so use it! There’s always someplace interesting to see and it’s much more fun with other MINIs. Thanks to Sunshine Minis