MiniUSA has just launched a contest for owners of these popular little cars that uses a "scavenger hunt" theme. And the "Mission #1?" According to the online instructions; "Find a diner that looks like it's been around for a while. Park your MINI curbside and tell it to say "cheeseburger and milkshake." This is the shot to get."

The Mini in the enclosed photo is parked in front of a diner I don't recognize. If anyone can help out, please let us know.

And I guess this means we'll have to take the Official American Roadside Mini out to our favorite diner. Boy, won't that be tough duty!

POWELL -- It's almost 9 p.m., and the summer sun has nearly set. Inside the concession stand of the American Dream drive-in in Powell, the popcorn is popping, the pickles-on-sticks are on ice, and over the 191 speaker boxes across a gravel parking lot, the strains of "Sea of Love" by the Honeydrippers crackle through the speakers.

Just past 9 p.m., a cartoon of dancing concessions lights up the screen, and for the 25 cars spread across the parking lot, the show begins.

The American Dream drive-in is the last drive-in movie theater in the state. At one time, there were more than 30 in Wyoming. In Powell, whose population is around 5,400, the drive-in is thriving, with people from as close by as Cody, Billings and Worland and from as far away as Sweden and Venezuela coming to be a part of this uniquely American tradition.

Business didn't go according to plan at the Executive House of Akron. The 200-room motel, proposed in the late 1950s as part of a large complex to revitalize downtown, never seemed to meet the lofty expectations of its promoters.

It was the right place at the wrong time.

The 11-story inn was announced in 1957 as an anchor for a proposed civic auditorium between South Main and Water streets. Akron merchants Julius and Lawrence Siff, who operated D.M. Siff Shoe Co., owned a vacant lot at State and Water streets and hoped to develop it.

Chemung Speedrome co-owner Bob Stapleton hopes to begin work this fall on a new drive-in theater at the racetrack complex.

The Chemung Town Board last week approved a special use permit to allow construction of an 80-foot-by-60-foot screen as long as Stapleton meets several stipulations.

Stapleton hopes to show movies Thursday, Friday and Sunday nights between April and October. The Speedrome has races on Saturday nights during the summer. Stapleton plans to show movies on Saturdays as well in the spring and fall when there is no racing.

Rina Frye's family goes to the Star Vu Drive-In every weekend, but on Friday, June 10, a wind storm destroyed a portion of the screen and leveled the box office.

Owner Kenny Cole decided it would be too costly to reopen the drive-in theater ... and the second oldest drive-in in the state closed.

Tonight, the Star Vu Drive-In will reopen because a group of citizens, led by Keith and Rina Frye, have spent their summer bringing the theater back to life.

It's where college professors and construction workers sit side-by-side at yellow counters. The Waffle House is a 24-hour diner where the coffee's always on, the grits always bubbling.

It's where hungry folks from all walks have been coming for 50 years to get cheap, hot food that's become as familiar as the matter-of-fact greeting: "Hey ... what y'all havin'?"

There are 1,500 Waffle Houses spread across 25 states, as far west as Arizona and as far north as Illinois, but the chain is still rooted deeply in the South and retains a distinctively down-home, blue-collar aura.

By Kelley Bouchard | Portland Press-Herald | August 12, 2005

Portland's plan to sell the Miss Portland Diner to a controversial restaurateur is dead, trumped by competing efforts to redevelop the Bayside neighborhood and extend passenger rail service north to Brunswick.

City officials decided Wednesday night to abandon their pending deal with Michel "Sal" Salvaggio, a former restaurant owner from Falmouth. They plan to seek new proposals after they complete a land swap with the Maine Department of Transportation, which could involve a city-owned lot on Marginal Way that was earmarked for the diner.

"We don't really know what land is available for the diner," said City Councilor James Cloutier, head of the community development committee. "Once we know more, we'll invite everyone who's interested to bid again if they want to. But at this point, it's just gone on too long, so we had to cut it loose."

Barre, VT -The city's famed eatery, The Farmers Diner, has unexpectedly closed its doors, but founder Tod Murphy insists he's planning to reopen despite what he said has been limited financial success.

After work Sunday afternoon, the restaurant's dozen full- and part-time employees were informed that the diner was closing effective immediately. Murphy said the painful decision to temporarily close was made last Thursday night. The restaurant, which opened three years ago with a mission to give local farmers a market for their products, is expected to reopen in October, he said.

Opening weekend for the Blue Moon Light drive-in in Galesburg ended as a success, with an estimated 800 plus vehicles converging on the 2875 West Main Street location over the course of three days to view "Batman Begins" and "War of the Worlds."

"We've had so much good response all weekend," said the theater's co-owner Teresa Carlson, "it went real well."