Chaz & Gael on the Historic Motorama
Before the trip
Here's our '64:
She only had 350 miles on her since her restoration in 1997 -- so we weren't at all sure she was up to the nearly 1,000 mile drive ahead. Thankfully, Jody Gregg of SpeedHound Racing and Performance, Inc. offered to check her out. Thanks, Jody!
(didja notice the bent BBS wheel there on the left? Read all about it by clicking HERE).
...and drove her to Jody's shop in Social Circle, GA (about 45 minutes east of Atlanta):
What a beautiful shop Jody has! If you need anything done to any model Corvette, give Jody a call; you won't be sorry!
I mentioned that the Motorama trip was nearly 1,000 miles from Flint to Bowling Green. I didn't mention the 1,300 or so miles from Atlanta to Flint. That's because my good friend Bill Donovan who owns TrailerSource has agreed to trailer the Corvette from here to Flint -- and to follow along the Motorama route with us in case anyone needs a tow. And the bed of his pickup will serve nicely as luggage storage since the mid-year Corvettes have virtually no luggage space with the top down.
Speaking of "cool", the only thing not quite right about the '64 is the air-conditioning is a little weak (yes, it has factory air; eat your hearts out!). It just may be that it's blowing as strongly as a 39 year-old air conditioner blows but I'm having it looked at today. Friend Bill has a business neighbor "Hoppy" that can add R12 to an old A/C unit.
Took it to Hoppy and he added a can of R12. Seems a bit colder but I'm thinking I'll take her in to Tom Jumper Chevrolet and have them check her out.
Not so bad; people drove 1000 miles for decades with no A/C. We can do it!
One call to Rik's and four blanks were on their way to me overnight. While I had them on the phone I ordered a replacement outside mirror. The ball-joint in the mirror is so loose that the mirror blows out of alignment at speeds over 50 MPH.
I checked the A/C again; it had NOT magically fixed itself in the last few days.
During the last few days I've been talking on the phone with George Hicks and Bill Donovan about our mini-caravan from Atlanta to Flint. The plans have been afloat a bit but they have to firm up soon -- we're leaving TOMORROW!
Here's the plan (today): George is bringing his and Vicki's excess stuff over tomorrow morning at 9am. Since Bill's pickup has a tonneau, he's graciously offered the bed to those who have Corvettes with limited storage. That's ALL the Corvettes except the C5....
Bill will bring the truck/trailer over to the house at 11:30a and we'll load up the car and fill the truck bed. Then we pick up Bill's bride Ruth at their home and head on up I-75 to Bowling Green. George and Vicki will be on the road probably ahead of us but we'll meet up again in BG (if not before).
Wendell and Jan Strode have graciously offered their home (the 1869 Homestead B&B):
for a get-together Thursday evening in Bowling Green. In addition to Bill, Ruth, George, Vicki and me, several other Motorama-ers will be joining us. Here's the list (in model year order):
Bill arrived at about 11:15a and we loaded the pickup AND the '64 onto Bill's brand new trailer.
We have a name for our little trucking enterprise. Here's the sign on the side of the truck:
Any idea what "T O F" stands for? :)
Then, it was off to pick up Bill's bride Ruth and hit the road.
George and Vicki went on ahead figuring we'd be able to find Bowling Green just fine.
The drive up was uneventful but, boy, are we glad we were going West on I-24 instead of East. There was apparently a rock concert or something at Exit 111 and the eastbound cars (coming from Nashville) were stopped completely for at least ten miles! We never did find out exactly what was going on but we know they were all trying to get off at Exit 111. Maybe it's an omen and we won't have bad traffic going the way we're going for the week. Yeah, right....
When we checked into the Country Hearth, there were a bunch of our mini-caravan folks already there:
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| Jim & Shirley Hornaday ('66) | John & Sally Sullivan ('75) |
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| George & Vicki Hicks ('72) | Henry Younger ('02) |
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| Noel Osborn & Judy Martin ('92) | Dennis & Leslie Stepanik ('90) |
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| Dick & Judy Yanko ('93) | Robert Bush ('94) & Rand Shinn ('98) |
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| Trudy & Al Berman ('95) | Jim & Beth Rhea ('76) |
At 6:30p we all headed over to Wendell and Jan's B&B for a cookout; for some reason, the expected '93, '94 and '95 cars were no-shows. But, in addition to Wendell and Jan, our hosts were NCM Board members Larry Martin, Gary Cockriel and Vince Perriello and spouses. Larry helped line all the cars up (there were seven Motorama cars) for a photo-op:
Mine? The only one on a trailer? Yep. I tried to send up the crowd by explaining that the '64 had no engine and that Bill, Ruth, Gael and I would be riding in Bill's truck and towing the '64 for the entire Motorama. Nowhere in the literature was it written that the selected car had to actually "drive" on the Motorama..
A few bought it -- for a while.
What a lovely home the 1869 Homestead is!
Wendell offered thanks:
..and we all dug in. A grand time was had by all.
We all returned to the Country Hearth and hit the sack early. We're leaving for Flint Friday morning at 7am...
We were met at the hotel by Glenn Darwin and Bobbie Jo Lee. They're driving up in the Museum van and could help haul luggage.
Unfortunately the van pulled out and left for Flint before any of the Corvettes were ready to go. But off we went anyhow. Because many of the ten cars in our group were older models, frequent stops were the order of the day; at any rate, we're OFF!:
At one of the rest stops just outside Cincinnati we..
..were joined by Kurt & Caroline Meier in their perfect 1954. And Rand Shinn picked us up there in his black 98 C5 as well; please ignore the fact that he's pictured above with Robert Bush (allegedly in BG). Poetic license..
For the balance of the trip we had a new star of the show (for sure):
Some of us split off to have a cookout with friends Ed and Shirley Duprey. Ed owns Great Lakes Trophies and Engraving and is the guy who makes the Registry name badges and those for dozens of other Corvette clubs. He also made the supernifty 12" x 18" Motorama plaques that we're all so happy to display with our cars.
We got to Ed's at about 6pm. Gael had flown into Flint earlier in the day and made her way to Ed and Shirley's to meet us. She was already two glasses of wine into celebration when the weary travelers hit the driveway. Ed and Shirley had invited local Corvette friends to the cookout so there were lots of folks to party with.
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| Pat & Tony Vernogis | Bob & Diane Shalla |
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| Bill Dickey & Terri Presty | Barbara & John Morrison |
After a great feed (and, thanks so much Ed and Shirley)
.. our (now) three-car caravan headed to the Holiday Inn Gateway Centre in Flint. Now we had to de-trailer the '64 in the dark. No real problem except it's hard to get good pictures in the dark. But Ruth did the best she could:
It was all accomplished with no loss of life or limb! A big "THANK YOU!" to Bill and Ruth!