Before the trip
For nearly a year I've been acting as webmaster for the Motorama page on the NCM website. Click HERE to view that page. You can also click HERE to see the page on our entry.
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!
Friday, May 31, 2002
I got her down from the lift:
(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!
Sunday, June 2, 2002
Gael and I drove out this afternoon to pick up the '64. Jody had found nothing that needed correction and pronounced her road-worthy. He also replaced the seat belts with new ones I'd bought some time ago.
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 mid-year Corvettes have virtually no luggage space with the top down.
Monday, June 3, 2002
Today I learned that Bill's bride, Ruth, is going to come along to keep Bill company; cool!
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.
Tuesday, June 4, 2002
Took the car into Jumper Chevrolet. I 'splained the situation. They said I'd hear from them. Time passes....
Wednesday, June 5, 2002
Got a call from Mac at Jumper. He put the technician David on the phone. Seems that they don't have the proper containment system to drain the R12, clean the system and replace it. They did judge it to be low on freon so they put two cans in (@ $70/can!). Said that's all they could do. I told them that I was having a medical procedure on Friday and I'd get the car from them next week.
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Picked up the car, paid the $174 bill. Driving home, tried the A/C. Not only does it NOT blow colder than when I dropped it off -- it blows hot. Just hot. $174 and it's WORSE! I called Mac to complain, got his voicemail. No response, no fix, no pay (I'm going to dispute the charge) AND Gael and I will be on the Motorama with no A/C.
Not so bad; people drove 1,000 miles for decades with no A/C. We can do it!
Monday, June 17, 2002
I've known for some time (years, actually) that it wasn't smart to have only one ignition key for the '64. Blanks for those early years are hard to come by so I ordered one from Rik's Corvette Parts a couple of years back. Decided today that I should go ahead and have the key cut -- can't find the $%#%@%$%@ blank (of course)!
One call to Rik's and four more 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.
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Package from Rik's arrived as promised. Took the key blanks to Home Depot to get them cut. Surprise! Their key-making machine is "too advanced" to cut a 38 year-old key! Took the blanks to my local Ace Hardware store (where they have an "old-fashioned" key machine) and, for 50 cents each I have two new sets of keys! Now, if I can arrange not to lose them....
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
Changed out the mirror in ten minutes. A single Allen screw is about the limit of my mechanical ability. Thank goodness the outside mirror mounts with only one.
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 toward 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):
Chaz Cone & Bill & Ruth Donovan - 1964
Jim & Shirley Hornaday - 1966
George & Vicki Hicks -1972
John & Sally Sullivan - 1975
Jim & Beth Rhea - 1976
Dennis & Leslie Stepanik - 1990
Noel Osborn and Judy Martin - 1992
Dick & Judy Yanko - 1993
Robert Bush - 1994
Trudy & Al Berman - 1995
Henry Younger - 2002
I hope to have pictures to post tomorrow.
Thursday, June 20, 2002 -- and, we're OFF!
Yes, today's the big day (at least for Bill, Ruth and me). George Hicks brought a few(!) things by this morning to add to the load in Bill's pickup:
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...
Friday, June 21, 2002
We all gathered for the excellent Continental breakfast at the Country Hearth. Those anal-retentive types who failed to wash their cars when we returned from Wendell's last night washed them this morning. Before hitting the road for ten hours.....that's what being committed to the Corvette way of life does to you.
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..
(photo courtesy Bob Craig)
...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 web 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 super-nifty 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 Detrot 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 |
Beth & Jim Rhea
And, yes, apparently in Michigan, All Corvettes Are Red:
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!
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