Chattanooga, Tennessee was the venue for the 2011 Mini Meet East, where Mini owners concocted and conducted another of their fantastic funkhanas. This local themed event would surely be an award winner, except for the fact that there aren’t any awards for funkhana design. (Having said that, we at Funkhana.com are now inspired to present awards for funkhana excellence. Stay tuned.)

The funkhana required each team to navigate a defined course retrieve certain items from each of six stations that depicted Tennessee landmarks and “pasttimes”:

• Ruby Falls - ruby red rock
• Whiskey still – gallon of moonshine
• Chattanooga Choo-Choo – firewood
• “See Rock City” barn – binoculars
• Moon Pie – purchase famous local snack food
• Outhouse – paper

Here’s a summary of the event excerpted from the New England Mini Owners website:

. . . our favorite event, the funkhana.  Nick Lehner of Illinois did a great job creating the event.  It featured local and tourist attractions.  The event started with the navigator collecting a rock from under “Ruby Falls,” then the driver had to back up to a stand for the navigator to purchase a Moon Pie (made in Chattanooga) for a quarter.  The next task, both the driver and navigator had to get out of the car to get a piece of wood and ring the Chattanooga Choo Choo’s bell.  Then the driver had to back up to an outhouse for the navigator to grab a piece of paper, go over to the “Rock City” barn to grab some binoculars, and then go over to get a bottle of moonshine.  During the course, the driver had to drive around two pylons, one forward and the other backwards.  We all had a blast, both participants and spectators. (written by Lorine Karabec)