The Northern California segment and the Pacific Northwest segment of the NCM 99 Caravan to Bowling Green, Kentucky continued from the Independence Center, in Independence, MO for Mid America Designs in Effingham, IL, and on to Louisville, Kentucky. I split off just west of St. Louis to visit a colleague also building a LT1 powered solid axle Corvette on a Newman Chassis, and on to Nashville, where I secured free nights at the Marriott.

Sunrise was pretty nice. Seeing sunrise again was a different story. Tomorrow we start at 5:30, even earlier than today.

I stopped off in St. Louis to turn MuttVette into a ragtop. Since I failed in securing all the pieces for my top, and sufficient time to have it installed, my last option was to try to borrow one from someone I've never met, just exchanged email with for over a year on our respective projects. I even managed to convince Robert to give the keys to his Shark droptop to Jerry, another stranger he had never met, or even exchanged email with. The only incentive I offered was the keys for MuttVette, to give Robert a taste of what he has ahead with his own 62 Vette. Owning a 94 Vette, I think he was impressed, because I heard comments like "This thing has tighter handling than my 94."

Here's MuttVette, and Robert Jespen's chassis with a freshly fired LT1. Jerry and I were witnesses to the second firing of the motor. He tried to do it for neighbors the other night, but the battery didn't cooperate.

Here we are next to our respective cars. I challenged him to a race, but he said the car wasn't quite ready for those activities.

From St. Louis to Nashville we only saw three Corvettes. I guess that's what happens when you take a non-standard route. Here's the Arch in St. Louis along with St. Louis construction cones. Next time I'll take the bypass.

Once in Nashville, we went to the Opryland for the welcoming reception. There's an estimated 1700 Corvettes leaving from Nashville, and a couple thousand from Louisville in the morning. We'll see if they achieve the 10,000 they had hoped.

Here's the banner everyone in Nashville signed.

Here's the 2000 hardtop Jerry hopes to win in the Raffle. It's even got heads up display.

Ran into Dick Gulstrand  in the hall leaving the event. Asked him how the races went at Laguna Seca last weekend, and told him I saw the car at Dave Herlinger's shop the week prior. He asked if I was going to race my '61, and I said I already was, with a couple of C.A.R.S. events under my belt. Nice Guy.

Fuel Log