The Third National Corvette Caravan

The Georgia Caravan
June 24-30, 2003

June 30th -- Bowling Green - Happy Birthday, Corvette!

Well, it's almost all over but the singing -- and that was interesting all by itself.

We gathered in front of the NCM starting about 8AM. The crowd was enormous. The museum had erected a small stage to the left of the entrance so we knew there'd be speeches and awards. The vendors were still doing great business; I'm sure this week has been the biggest sale of Corvette-related add-ons, apparel and memorabilia in history.

Gael and I finally met Karen Lundgren and Joan Clark (both of HardcoreVettes):


(and Karen got her dash plaque!)
Maker's Mark (the bourbon people) donated thousands of 50th glasses; seems it's their 50th anniversary as well. The PA announcer said that they were giving them out and the line quickly formed. We Corvette types will line up for ANYTHING so long as it's free!



When 9:30 rolled around the crowd (those not waiting in line for their free glasses) turned their attention to the stage:



The museum staff brought out all the tickets for the Dale Earnhardt Z06E drawing and put 'em in the big drum. You know that Mike Yeager is a dedicated chairman of the NCM board when you see him moving handfuls of raffle tickets into the drum.

Here, Mike and Hib Halverson both spot the same UFO (I guess):



Here's Larry Hayes who acted as MC for the Birthday Finale:



He introduced the Mayor of Bowling Green who spoke so briefly that I doubt she has much of a future in politics:



All the owners of the Heritage display cars were recognized (in model year order, all 50 of them) with a nice plaque. The cars had been on display in Nashville and caravanned (again in model year order) to the NCM yesterday. Here are a couple of them:




The 1980 display car was provided by Motorama friends Tom Ferrara and his daughter Mary. If you kept up with the Motorama last year (www.historicmotorama.com) you'll remember that Mary was one of two young ladies (pre-teen) that were on that trip. And she'll (likely) be the only one of us who'll be at the 100th Corvette Anniversary Celebration already scheduled for June 30, 2053

Oh, yeah. The singing. The Idaho contingent present an Idaho state flag to the museum. Del Bunce (leader of the pack) stated a little-known rule that if the Idaho flag was flown over any facility AND the Idaho State Song was sung, that property automatically became Idaho property.

SO they sang the Idaho State Song. Sadly, Del kept the microphone. I'm guessing that the NCM did NOT revert to Idaho based solely on the song being several tones off key... :)



There were other warmly received presentations and, thankfully, no one else sang.

Then, a most unusual thing happened. Tom Patrella, a benefactor of the NCM, had told Mike Yager that he would match the money raised for the building fund this weekend. Mike announced that the NCM had raised $85,000 for the fund! True to his word Tom stepped up and gave Mike his check for another $85,000! What a generous gesture!





Then they brought out the cake. Sadly it was insufficient in size (only about 9" x 12") to feed the thousands of us gathered about but, hey, it was a symbolic birthday cake, OK?



After that was the drawing for the Earnhardt Z06E.  I didn't win.  Sheesh!

We packed up the car (again) and headed home for Atlanta. On the way we encountered just about the only rain we saw since the entire Celebration began for us on Tuesday. Tired but happy we arrive home safely with a set of memories we'll be talking about for years. Wouldn't have missed it for anything!!!

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Postscript: For those of you who know Gael and her recent negative experiences (medically) associated with Corvette events, I'm pleased to report that she returned home with no broken bones and no need for orthopaedic appliances!!  Perhaps the jinx has been broken (as opposed to major bones being broken)..



For those who do not know about Gael and her negative experiences (medically) associated with Corvette events, click HERE and HERE.