Bob Craig's Motorama Story
The Alternates
"They Also Serve, Who Stand and Wait"
To kick off the 50th anniversary year for Corvette, the National Corvette Museum assembled a complete set of Corvettes, 1953 through 2002, to make a journey.
The National Corvette Museum's Historic Motorama started in Flint, Michigan,
birthplace of the 1953 car, and traveled to many Corvette-related sites throughout the Mid-west.
To ensure that a complete set of cars would be available for the Motorama, a second set was selected and put on 'standby' in case a primary participant could not attend. My car and I were honored by selection as the 1997 Alternate to the Historic Motorama.
While most of us were not "called to duty" (a couple of our compatriots were), many of the Alternates assembled in Bowling Green on Thursday, June 27, 2002 for our "day in the sun".
We began at 8AM with a continental breakfast at the NCM. Wendell Strode, NCM Executive Director, was our host. Wendell distributed our Kentucky license plates and registration slips. The number on the plate corresponds to the year of production. 1997 was the 44th year of production so I received "44".
After the obligatory "viewing of the safety video" ceremony (pardon the jest but I've seen this video more than I've seen Star Wars) we drove over to The Plant for a tour. Parking was first class, just outside the plant entrance.
After the tour we received a nice certificate from the Corvette plant to commemorate our participation.
Back to the cars for a nice cruise through the southern Kentucky countryside to lunch at the 1869 Shaker Tavern.
After lunch, a short drive took us to the Shaker Museum.
While we were all parked at the Shaker Museum, I thought it would be a good idea to get a picture of each car.
Following the example of Chaz Cone's Motorama Webpage,
specifically his Sunday page, I present:
The Alternates' Beautiful Behinds
Yes, I know that last one is Wendell & Jan's...
As we left the Shaker Museum, we assembled our cars in year-order for our parade into the NCM grounds. In and around the center circle outside the Museum's main entrance, we assembled our display.
The earliest example present from each of the five generations was positioned in the center circle with everyone else parked in a circle around us.
Yes, that's my '97 parked in "Vee formation" with the '54.
A Great Day in the Sun!
…capped off by the arrival of "The Primaries"
That's Larry Hayes, NCM Historic Motorama Coordinator, driving the Monte Carlo pace car.
Click HERE to return to the Main Motorama page.
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