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At a stop light near Palm Desert, top down in the MINI. A gold PT Cruiser convertible pulls up alongside us.

PT: Hey, nice convertible!
Me: Yeah, you too

The big news of the week (so far anyway) is the arrival of my new MINI, Carrie, named after the Sex and the City character, not the evil child from the movie of the same name. If you want to know more about her, then head over to the mini blog.

Big news of the day: my new MINI has completed production! Hopefully it will be down at Southampton docks in a few days and then onto a boat headed for California. Maybe by the end of August it will be in my grubby mitts!

This morning on the way to San Diego, the area near the border patrol station was buzzing. For about a mile I was paralleled by a helicopter and I saw many border patrol vehicles off the freeway, parked in various ‘ready to go’ locations. At the station everyone was being stopped and officers were having a very good look in the windows and, in some cases, the boot too. However, when I pulled up in the MINI I was waved straight on – I guess they knew the people they were looking for couldn’t possibly be hiding anywhere in my car. One more benefit of driving a small car.

Everyone is aware of the heat that one endures in the desert during the summer months, but many people don’t realise that we also get some nasty winds that pick up the dust and create little blizzards. Of course, Saturday I had my MINI detailed so last night the winds were fierce and down by Imperial Airport there were patches where you could not see more than a few feet where the dust was being blown across the road. I’m glad I was only driving by and not trying to land there. So today the MINI has a nice film of dust on it; still looks good though.

Another interesting thing about desert life is that when its hot outside the water in the toilet bowl gets hot. When you sit down to do your business, sometimes you get a real warm blast of air up between your legs. And not a lotta people know that.