Corvette

This morning we got up early to take a side trip with three other cars and groups of people, from the Chula Vista Resort to the Mecum Auctions headquarters in Walworth, Wisconsin.

 

 

One of our new friends is on the police force in Wisconsin, and has a close personal friend working at Mecum, who offered us a private tour and visit. Amazing is the best word to describe it if your a car buff in any way. We saw cars ranging from approx. $40k up to $2 Mil USD, with background history stories included, all kinds of memorabilia, and a collection of vintage outboard boat motors.

Then we stopped for lunch at a small town named Walworth in Wisconsin, before pressing on to our meeting place for lunch, where we caught up to our caravan group and rejoined them for last leg of our trip into Effingham Illinois, for the night.

Later in the day, we went over Mid-America Corvettes for a dinner event including entertainment.

All in all, a great day of driving in the sunshine, and visiting with some very nice people.

This morning we left Sioux Falls SD headed for Wisconsin Dells, WI.

We had to go through about an hour of heavy rains that I have not experienced in years, all while keeping pace with the caravan group. Thankfully we managed to drive our way out of the storm and see some dry highways for a while.

Stopped at a Chevy dealership for lunch, they welcomed approx. 250 cars over the course of two or three hours, then we headed onto our destination for the day.

Not many pics today, but here are a couple from our lunch stop.

This evening we are staying at the Chula Vista Resort, looks like a beautiful place that we would love to explore and take advantage of, of course we are leaving in the morning on our next leg.

Our 29th Wedding Anniversary, now that’s a long time!!! What better way to spend it than in the sun with our car and new found friends on a holiday.

We started out under the sunshine this morning from Rapid City, with a short drive to the town of Wall, South Dakota. Just happens to be where WALL DRUGS began, if your ever around this area, you need to see it.

We pressed on to the Badlands of South Dakota, much like our Drumheller but so much more scenic.

By the time we left the Badlands, we were already running short on time for our evening events. So we put the hammer down and ran 3 hrs straight through to Sioux Falls SD. Got checked in at the hotel, then 15 mins later we were off to our meet and greet with the Sioux Falls Corvette Club for dinner.

 

This morning we are heading for Wisconsin Dells.

Today’s adventure began with a trip back to the Chev dealership to have our new tire installed. We were done and on our way by about 9:30am, and off toward Mount Rushmore where we were very lucky enough to meet up with our group again.

Got some great pictures before moving on toward Needles Hwy, this is a must do in a sports car, very windy with incredible scenery.

After a brief stop in the town of Custer for lunch, we pressed on to Crazy Horse Monument, although they wanted $30 per car and so we only took pics from the parking lot. At that point Elaine and I broke away from the group and went our separate way, as we had missed the town of Deadwood from the previous afternoon’s events. They were having a very large car show in that town and there was no where to park for miles, we were also running late getting back so we only drove through the town and kept on going.

At 5:30pm we had to gather in the hotel parking lot and all caravan to Old Storybook Island, which is a park with a large parking lot for what must have been 70 Corvette’s. We had a catered dinner of ribs, Brisket and Chicken etc. which was very good. Then headed back to our hotel to get ready for the next morning, when we move on to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Good morning,

Well here we are recapping day 3 of our travels. Our instructions were to fuel up, check my tires, and meet at the casino parking lot on the hwy out of town. Once again in the rain we headed out. Of course a few of us googled the casino and headed that way after our fuel stop, only to find out there were about 5 of those casino’s in Billings Mt. Of course we were at the wrong place, after some frustration of how to find the correct casino, we saw another one of our members and I chased him down and got a hold of him on our radios. He was able to GPS the correct place and told us to follow him, all worked out.

Mid morning it finally began to clear up and we got to enjoy the sun, for the rest of the day. We made a few rest stops, including one in Moorcroft Wy, then on to Sturgis for lunch.

I had a sense that I should get to a dealer or tire shop to have my issue looked at which we did rather than stopping for lunch, we proceeded on to Rapid City and the closest Chev dealer to our hotel. Good thing, they found a nail in the tire and proceeded to patch it, one thing led to another and the tire was not suitable for high speed driving so to take it easy on a temporary repair. I was informed there were only two replacement tires available in the USA, and the closest one was 5 day’s away. Not able to accept that news, luckily Elaine found a guy at the dealer who has a Corvette and understood our predicament. Long story short, with his help we located another Corvette guy in town, (we have certainly found that they all stick together and help out when needed), that has a tire shop but was closed for the weekend, he offered to bring over the dealer this morning for them to install and get us back on the road.

We are headed for the dealership this morning to get fixed up, rather than joining our groups on different adventures. This afternoon we plan to go see Mt Rushmore, Keystone, Crazy Horse and possibly Deadwood.

Day 2

This day did not go as well as the first.

We started out in the rain, made it through the border crossing with 24 cars in our first group. Then after a brief gathering at the first rest stop in the USA, we set out on our adventure.

About an hour into the drive, we experienced gravel on the highways for approx. 30 miles. Well sports cars, gravel, and 85 miles per hour don’t mix, we now have 24 cars that have sustained some type of road damage, for me I received many rock chips and a chipped/cracked front windshield. After a quick lunch stop in Helena, Montana, we finally experienced some sunshine for an hour or two.

Then we drove through the worst monsoon rain I have been in for many years (visibility was probably a couple hundred feet, and the local drivers were still going at about 65 mph).

We were climbing a hill out of Butte in the rain and my Low Tire Pressure Warning came on. We all pulled over on the side of a 4 lane highway, (thanks for the help from the rest of the drivers), in the pouring rain and used a small electric pump to fill it back up (that was fun!).

Anyway, after an 11/hr seat time day, I am done and calling it a day!

 

We managed to get away this morning at approx. 5:40am. Beautiful sunny day all the way to Calgary Alberta. Arriving at Capital Chevrolet/Buick in South East Calgary around 1:30pm local time, to meet up with our caravan leaders and the cars from Northern Alberta, for lunch and a send off parade.

From there, we must have had about 40 cars heading towards our final destination for the evening, in Lethbridge Alberta. After checking in at our hotel, we all drove over to Davis GM/Buick for a gathering and welcoming dinner and show, where we were joined by a few more cars. There must be approx. 50 cars in the parking lot tonight, more cars to join us along the way tomorrow.

We will be leaving in two groups tomorrow morning, crossing over into the USA, stay tuned.

Welcome to our Corvette Caravan Adventure

August-September 2019

Randy & Elaine Barker, British Columbia, Canada

First a little background: Every five years, corvette owners across North America join together at the production factory and museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky on the September long weekend, to celebrate the legendary car from Chevrolet. I first heard about this event shortly after the last one in 2014. At that time I marked it on my calendar and started doing some research into what it’s all about. On the May long weekend in 2018, we were at the Chev dealer in Kelowna BC, looking at trading our 2008 Corvette in for a newer model, which we did. During the process we met another couple doing the same thing and we began talking about the caravan trip. they gave us the contact info for the Alberta group.

After we got home with our new to us car, a 2015 Corvette Stingray with only 238kms on the odometer, I reached out to Larry, my new caravan contact, and the planning began. It has been a long 15 months of detailed work, but it seems to have gone by so fast.

On Wednesday August 21st, we will be leaving our house and heading out on this adventure. Our first stop will be in Lethbridge Alta, to meet up with 62 other cars and couples. From there, we will leave in the morning as a group, with a local tv station on hand to mark the send off event, our trip will take 8 days to reach Bowling Green. Each day we will join up with more groups of cars. I am told that our final driving day will include approx. 700 Corvette’s in a line up, escorted by the local troopers in police “Corvette” cruisers.

 

Our trip will see us stop in these cities:

Home – Starting Point

Lethbridge, Alberta

Billings, Montana

Rapid City, South Dakota x 2 nights

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Wisconsin Dells, Wyoming

Effingham, Illinois

We will then spend 4 nights in Bowling Green, Kentucky, taking in the Corvette factory and museum, as well as day trips to both Nashville and Memphis (to see Graceland). before beginning our 6 day trek homeward.

Conway, Arkansas

Amarillo, Texas

Winslow, Arizona

Cedar City, Utah

Boise, Idaho

Wenatchee, Washington

Home – Finish Line

 

I plan to put up a new post each day, but this is my first attempt at a blog, so bear with me and check back often!