Corvette

Day 17 – Friday

Today was a fairly uneventful day, we were up early as usual and left the hotel in Meridian, Idaho at 5:45am PST with a goal of trying to make it all the way home. after a few stops for fuel & coffee etc. we found ourselves at an intersection where we turn right towards home, or we turn left towards Leavenworth, Wash. Left it was, we figured at only 4 miles away, we would have lunch and a quick walk around the town center before climbing back into the car for the final leg of our trip.

Before we knew it we were at the border crossing. The agent there was a little surprised with our answers when she asked us where we live and where we have been. She was wondering if we even had time to get out of the car and take a break with that kind of distance covered.

We arrived home at 8:45pm PST, what a day but we made it home. We originally planned to spend one more night in Wenatchee, Wash but we were done with hotels if at all possible.

So after 17 days on the road, and only 1 of those days where the car remained parked for a full 24 hrs, we were finally done!

 

Some noted details:

Left home on August 21st

Travelled a total of 10,516 kms, or 6,535 miles.

Our average fuel economy was 8.5 L per 100 kms, or 27.67 mpg.

Our average speed for the trip was 94 kph, or 58.4 mph.

Sustained many rock chips that will require professional restoration.

A broken windshield that will need to be replaced.

A flat tire that we had to replace on route.

Many stressful traffic situations while on the interstate highways.

We were informed that there were approx. 7,300 Corvette’s registered to attend the event weekend in Bowling Green, Ky. Not sure if they were all there, but they seemed to be everywhere. At one of our stops along route 66, we were even asked if everyone in Canada own’s a corvette, as many groups ahead of us had already made the same stop prior to our arrival.

Arrived home on Sept 6th.

Would we consider making the trip again in 2024? The answer is YES!

We have learned a great deal on this adventure and would change a number of things for next time, but most importantly, we have met a lot of great people on this adventure and plan to keep in touch with a number of them.

Maybe by 2024 we’ll be fortunate enough to have a new C8 model!

This morning we left Cedar City, Utah headed for Meridian, Idaho. There were no planned tourist stops, so we expected a fairly uneventful day to write about.

Around 9:00am we noticed a red sports car go past in the opposite direction, I know it was a Ferrari, but the surprising part is it looked to be what is known as an Enzo model. If I saw correctly, and even with my dash cam playback it’s hard to tell for sure, but those cars are worth between 1 & 2 Million dollars at the large auctions. So that was exciting to see on the highway!

Then I remembered one of the guy’s mentioned he was planning to stop in Salt Lake City, Utah and visit one of the premier hot rod builders shops, so I googled the address and we made the stop as well.

Anyone who watches the “Velocity” channel will be familiar with the show called “Bitchin Rides” and Kindig-it Designs. Customers from all over North America bring their cars to him to create top quality custom rides. Unfortunately they were filming a customers car reveal today, so although Dave Kindig (the owner), did come into the showroom for a few minutes to take a customer into the shop, we were unable to meet him personally. I did take a few pictures of his cars in the showroom, that have been featured on the show.

So it turned out to be a fairly exciting day for us after all!

After navigating our way through Salt Lake City, their six lanes each way, freeway seemed to go for about 30 miles, and we happened to be there right at noon in the chaos. All good, we made it to Meridian, Idaho for the night.

This morning we left Winslow, Arizona headed for Zion National Park.

Our first stop was at a Native craft stand on the Navajo Reservation, on route 89, the road to the park.

Next stop was at Glen Canyon Dam scenic lookout for some photo’s and a quick break.

Then onto Zion National Park for a very scenic drive, with lots of picture opportunities. Unfortunately there were no places to pull over, so we took pics while on the move.

Tonight we are in Cedar City, Utah.

 

For those who checked yesterday and did not find a post, I was unable to upload due to poor wifi connection. You will find Day 13 is now posted below.

Day 14

Leaving Amarillo Texas bright and early, we stopped about 3 miles down the highway to see what’s called the Cadillac Ranch. It’s like an automobile version of Stonehenge.

Moving on to Glenrio, New Mexico, we stopped at the Russell Auto Museum.

Then on to Santa Rosa, New Mexico to see the Route 66 Auto Museum.

We stopped in Gallop, New Mexico at a Dairy Queen for a round of Sundae’s as it was 100 deg. Here we saw an original Route 66 motel on the corner that was still in operation, they seem to have even kept their rates the same at $29.95/night!

From there we moved on to Holbrook, Arizona to see the Wig Wam Motel, we are told that Oprah has stayed in one of the Tee Pee’s not long ago for her TV show, not confirmed though.

Then on to Winslow, Arizona for our final stop of the day, and to see the “Standing on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona” photo attraction. For those unfamiliar, this is a line from the song “Take it Easy” by the Eagles.

That’s it for today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left Conway Arkansas this morning, first stop was El Reno, Oklahoma to drive on Route 66 for the first time, stopping at an old drive in movie screen that has since been tagged with a mural (The picture is of the back of the screen).

Moving on to Elk City, Oklahoma to see the National Route 66 Museum of memorabilia.

Then on to Shamrock, Texas to see the Conoco Gas Station and U Drop Inn Diner, one of the finest restaurants of it’s era on the original Route 66, even Elvis had stopped in to eat there on one of his trips.

Final destination for the day was Amarillo, Texas.

This morning we left Bowling Green, Kentucky on our way towards home. Heading south to Nashville, we then turned west on our way to Memphis for a visit with Elvis Presley at Graceland.

Since the time Elaine was a young girl, she had two dreams, first one was to get to see Elvis and the second one was to own a Corvette. Well today we drove through the gates of Graceland in our Corvette, to see everything Elvis.

I guess dreams can come true!

Our last day in Bowling Green began with a much needed car wash and dry. As we had done all we wanted to do at the Corvette Museum over the past days, we decided to go and explore another one of the attractions in this area called Mammoth Caves.

Rather than following the directions of our Nav system, I made a wrong turn and followed a detour route to a dead-end then had to backtrack. We finally found the Mammoth Caves National Park and our destination. What a place to see, as you enter, the cold air hits you like walking into a cooler storage room with your shorts and flip flops on, then you head down a bunch of steps underground. The cave walk went for about a mile underground before you turn around and make your way back to the entrance.

After our cave adventure we were ready a for a cold bottle of water, asking the attendant, we were told we could purchase a carton of water in the ice cream store. I thought maybe they have a different slang for bottle of water, well I was wrong!

 

We then returned to the hotel, it was 95 degrees here today when we headed to the pool with drinks in hand.

In the evening we made our way downtown with three other couples and single driver, to Steamer’s Southern Seafood Restaurant, that was well worth the drive.

That’s all from Bowling Green, we start our homeward trek tomorrow morning.

 

Today we managed to sleep in until 7:00am, nice to not be on a tight schedule for a couple days.

After our morning breakfast we drove over to the Museum for a our first official full day on the grounds.

We picked up our event T-shirts, visited all the vendor booths as well as the store.

We took our turn viewing and sitting in the new 2020 mid-engine Corvette.

Then we sat in the theatre and listened to a presentation from the leader of the corvette restoration group. Afterword’s we headed into the museum area with all the car display’s.

While walking through the display’s, we then came across the cave presentation, where a sink hole opened up under the museum and eight car’s fell into the hole approx eighty feet deep. They were only able to save two, the other ones are in some state of damage.

This morning began bright and early for a quick breakfast then getting ready for our scheduled tour bus to take those who wanted to go, over to Nashville for the day.

Here in Nashville they have live bands playing in most bars along the strip from mid-day on, and the windows are all open to attract their customers in off the street. All the bands playing here, work for tips only with the prospect of being discovered, and many are very good.

We started out our time in Nashville with a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame, what a fantastic place to visit. (Picture taken later on from the rooftop patio of “Jason Aldean’s Bar”).

Then it was lunch time, so we chose “Jason Aldean’s Restaurant” simply because our kid’s love his music, so they would enjoy the pictures.

After lunch we were off to see the Ryman Auditorium, home of the original Grand Ole Oprey. We enjoyed that tour more than the Hall of Fame tour, just the history and such.

Leaving the Ryman and walking a few blocks, it was time for refreshments, “it’s a little warm and muggy here”, we heard a very good band playing in “Kid Rock’s Bar”, so that was our place. Matter of fact it became our last stop for the afternoon as they were very entertaining.

Back on the bus for our return trip to the hotel and regroup. We had only a few minutes to drop off any souvenir’s in the hotel as we need to board the next bus taking us to the Corvette Museum for the evenings events. Upon arrival we saw the new 2020 Corvette’s on display at the entrance before heading into the store for a quick shopping session, before our “Jefferson Airplane” concert begin’s (for those younger folks, you may have to google them, but you have heard their music), there must have been about 5000 people in the outdoor amphitheatre for the show.

They played for about an hour and a half, then we enjoyed fireworks show to wrap up the evening.

 

Today we left Effingham Illinois for Bowling Green Kentucky.

Starting with us heading to Mid America Motor Works in Effingham for staging and prepping for caravan departure. There are 740 cars registered to leave this location alone, all in one long line up for the 4.5 hour drive to the museum, first stopping for lunch at the Ellis Race Park.

We were informed that we will be travelling between 90 and 100 mph along the interstate, lead by a police escort with intersection light control etc. to maintain the flow of cars.

We were not disappointed, reaching speeds of just over 100mph at times along the way, with one of our group members reaching as high as 157mph in an effort to catch up to the group.

We arrived at the National Corvette Museum at approx. 4pm for a quick group photo, then we were off to our hotel for the evening.