Today we got the latest planned start of the Motorama. I say "planned" because we actually got underway about fifteen minutes early since it looked like the mother of all thunderstorms was on its way to Joliet. I watched the police motorcycle escorts don their foul-weather gear, remove it, put it back on, remove it, put it back on several times before we got underway, trying to outrun the worst of it.
We did get away, pretty much in "parade configuration", and ran a portion of Route 66:
...right past the famous Route 66 "Spaceman" statue...
(Courtesy Dave Gregorino ('67))
..on our way to our first event of the day -- a reception, box lunch and tour of Mid-America Direct in Effingham, IL.
We arrived a bit late at Mid-America because of various problems. One of them was my unlucky day on the road. We stopped at a mandatory fuel stop; several of us decided on Amoco and drove a mile off the main highway to find it. I pulled in along with Henry Younger ('02), Dave Gregorino ('67), Robert Bush ('94) and Bob Hardt ('01). As I was fueling, Jane Gregorino ('67) noticed greenish fluid leaking in significant quantity from the front of our '64. Looked suspiciously like some kind of coolant failure -- and it was.
The bad news: The air-conditioner compressor drive belt had succeeded in wearing a hole in the heater hose causing it to spew much of the coolant all over the inside of the engine compartment and onto the ground.
The good news: It seemed just to have happened as I pulled into the Amoco station.
The bad news: I'm out of the Motorama until it can be repaired.
The good news: The Amoco station employed a full-time mechanic!
The bad news: He could get to the hose replacement a week from Tuesday.
The good news: Dave Gregorino ('67) said he could fix it in ten minutes with the proper tools and a two-foot piece of heater hose.
The bad news: We didn't have (and the Amoco station didn't have) a two-foot piece of heater hose.
The local mechanic at least pointed us to a nearby parts store and frend Bob Hardt ('01) jumped into his white Z06 and ran for the hose. Robert Bush fortunately had a complete set of tools in his car (I don't know where he found the room; the creeper was a real surprise! Could he have a lift in there somewhere?)
Dave removed the pierced section of old heater hose:
You can readily see how much help Henry and I offered Dave.
Bob came back with a length of black hose; though it wasn't red but I didn't have the heart to send him back so we used it:
Robert had a couple of spare hose clamps, Gael had some Carmex that she uses for her luscious lips and it worked fine as a lubricant to smooth the installation. Dave only burned his hands five or six times on the exhaust manifold until we found him an appropriate glove:
That's Robert over to the left in the picture above.
Getting to one of the clamps was tougher than expected. Bob lost the toss...
A little water from the station hose and we were on our way!
Thanks so much to Dave for jumping in and solving this problem. And to Robert for the tools, Henry for the moral support and Bob for the parts-store run. And to the wives for their patience.
We arrived at Mike Yager's Mid-America Direct in Effingham, IL at about 12:30p
..and were treated to a great box lunch served in their air-conditioned (YES!) warehouse. Mike and Laurie generously gave each Motorama team a terrific "goodie" bag and wonderful hospitality from them and their staff.
In case you didn't know, Mike Yager is also the Chairman of the Board of the National Corvette Museum. His love for Corvette and for the NCM is obvious wherever you look.
If you've never been to Mid-America you should really visit! Mike and Laurie have a fabulous Corvette museum on premises with some of the most unique and interesting Corvettes ever built. For example, Mike has the very last 1999 Corvette built:
..along with the very last C4 Corvette built:
And don't miss seeing the customized Corvette built for the movie "Corvette Summer" starring Mark Hamill and Annie Potts. Very, very cool:
Mike has a special pin "My Garage" that you have to get from Mike personally. It's a real treat to have one.
After a great couple of hours at Mid-America we set off for St. Louis and our display in Kiener Plaza in the middle of downtown St. Louis within sight of the Arch:
The plan to parade inside Busch Stadium had to be scrubbed; Cardinal pitcher Darryl Kile passed away suddenly last week and they didn't feel much like celebrating -- we understood completely.
Thanks to the help of the Mayor's office and four St. Louis area Corvette clubs we were able to get all the cars packed into Kiener Plaza around the pool/fountain:
Several of the bolder ladies chose to dangle their tootsies in the pool. No one dared say a word; it was that HOT!
After a couple of hours answering questions, posing for photo-ops and receiving a proclamation honoring Corvette from the Mayor's office,
(I thought this was a clever idea Larry had; the proclamation was
received by Kurt Meier ('54) and Roger Macnider ('81) representing
the first and last full model years built in the St. Louis Corvette plant)
... we caravanned to tonight's Holiday Inn in Collinsville, IL (just across the river).
Wellllllll, our departure was slowed a bit when Jim and Phyllis Wendorf's ('77) ride failed to start due to a drained battery; seems an errant fan motor continued to run all afternoon. You can see parts of Noel Osborn ('92) as he attacks the battery with his hotshot battery. Got that sucker runnning, too:
At the Holiday Inn, Collinsville, IL, the four local-area Corvette clubs hosted snacks and drinks for us in the Holiday Inn parking lot.
They were so gracious and we appreciated so much the goodies they had for us. These smiles from Patti Wilmer and Kirk Fellabom ('70) exemplify how the local St. Louis Corvette folks made us feel. Thanks again!
Tomorrow morning we get to sleep in again before we begin the easten leg of the Motorama from St. Louis and on to Bowling Green, KY. We continue to have a ball!
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