Wow! Can you believe it? Corvette is 50 years old and counting now! What a wild week we had to celebrate it. Our good friends Dave and Sue Bacher worked very hard to get their 71 Vette aka Bruiser, ready for the 50th celebration. We worked together to get the car ready to drive. It came down to the wire to the point we were still pulling wrenches the day before we left on the trip. Dave and Sue planned on driving the 71 there and back, and Nikki and I planned on putting the 69 on the trailer and pulling it behind the RV.
Having just been to Bowling Green with Killer last year, our purpose on this trip was more to support Dave and Sue, and to become a historic part of the 50th celebration. We started out on Tuesday around noon driving to Lake City, Florida to meet up with the Florida Caravan group. Bruce Glueck Chevrolet hosted a caravan BBQ kick off at his private "Gator Island" in Jasper, Florida. In many ways, this was the highlight of the trip, and the best hosted event I have ever seen in my life. We had hundreds of Corvettes and their owners all taking part in free Sony's BBQ, music, raffles, and beautiful weather.
Wednesday the carvan headed North. We parked the RV at Bruce's house that night and rolled out that same morning. We all headed to Atlanta Motor Speedway for some hotlaps and total Corvette excitement. Killer stayed on the trailer, but Bruiser got some hot laps on the road race portion of the race course, as well as a parade run around the entire speedway. We headed just North of Atlanta for the second stop of the event. The traffic in Atlanta was terrible! As we settled in for the night, we realized we had a problem. Some 400 miles from home, and the roof a/c unit on the RV quit cooling. I was still fighting a flu bug, and we had no desire to tough out the stay in BG with no climate control. This was a major problem, as we planned on living out of the RV while staying at Beech Bend in Bowling Green. After much debate, I decided to pack up and head for home on Thursday morning. Dave and Sue drove the remainder of the way into Bowling Green unsupported, but trouble free, and we beat feet for home.
This was tearing me up! After all this time and effort, we were now back in Orange Park, while the world of Vettes was ramping up in Bowling Green and Nashville. I woke up Friday morning, and thought about what ALWYN678 wrote to me on Corvette Forum....."You should drive it instead." So, I woke Nikki up and told her to pack some bags, loaded the 69 with tools and supplies (or shall we say crammed), and we hit the road at 9:00 a.m. on Friday headed to Bowling Green.
We rolled North with hot, but otherwise perfect driving weather. The car ran perfect, the a/c pumped cold air, and the engine temp stayed under 210 with the a/c on high and bumper to bumper traffic on I-75. It turned out that Nikki's father, uncle, grandma, and other family were traveling through Nashville to Ohio that same Friday night! We rolled right into Nashville within an hour of her family. We pulled a tad over 13 mpg on the way up.
After a good nights sleep, we dropped the top and rolled the final hour into Bowling Green. There was a constant stream of Vettes in all directions. It was a thrill to meet up with Dave and Sue and finally park Bruiser and Killer side by side after the long journey. We arrived too late to obtain passes to Nashville, and opted instead to visit Mammoth Caves. We spent over four hours under ground in 54 degree temps walking through a maze of connected caves and tunnels. We wrapped up our Saturday adventures with a dinner meeting with members of C3VR .
Sunday was the start of the Bowling Green based celebration at the NCM. After an excellent breakfast with Eugene Nickel and family, we headed over to the NCM. There were people there from all over the world. Dennis Gage from My Classic Car even stopped over to take a picture with Bruiser and Killer. We parked Bruiser and Killer together. We wrapped our day up with an early trip back to the Hotel, a warm shower, and some much needed rest. After a bit of debate, and some cool treats at the local Sonic, we decided to head back on Monday Morning and skip the cake cutting ceremony.
After checking fluid, and cramming our bags on board, we rolled out of Bowling Green with Bruiser in the lead, and the top dropped. A tropical storm rolled through that same weekend, giving us overcast conditions, and cooler weather. Just North of Chattanoga, Bruiser's alternator went nuts. It started putting out 18 volts on a constant basis. We limped into a gas station where it proceeded to pump out too much current and blew the 50 amp maxi fuse. Thanks to some quick thinking, and handy tools, Dave and I carried the old alternator into Manchester, TN to find a replacement. After a two hour delay in our schedule, we were back and running. The tropical storm had met us head on at this point, and we had to roll the top up. The starter failed at the same time as the overcharge, so we found a suitable alternative to start Bruiser.....push!
It seemed like the road kept getting longer. We drove well into the night, and finally split off about 10 miles from each of our homes. As we parted, I thought of all the years of hard work and planning that went into this weekend. There were times when it did not look like Bruiser would be ready, and we both leaned on each other to get it done. In the end, it was a 100% success. The added bonus was running Killer the 1,600 mile journey with no defects, and we all got home safe and sound.
Until next time......................................
