June 1, 2014

The beginning of the 2014 adventure.  We started this trip EARLY at 4:35. Our first stop was in Bowling Green, KY where the guys revisited the Corvette Museum.  (We first came here back in 2010.) Back on February 12th a sink hole opened up in one of the large open areas of the museum and swallowed eight cars. Apparently there is a cave located beneath museum that they were unaware of. They were able to recover the cars, some of which were one of a kind, from the hole and now have their remains on display. Taylor, Samuel, Caleb and Andrew had a blast climbing into the driver's seat of the new 2014 Stingray.

From there we traveled up 65 towards Louisville and enjoyed the scenery with rolling hills and picturesque barns then onto Indianapolis. (Because of several interesting bridges in Louisville, we never even realized when we pulled into IN.) Here we continued to check out automotive history. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was originally built in 1909 to see what the cars of long ago were capable of. In the process, people could come and get a look at what they were considering buying.  We enjoyed a guided trip around the track as we learned of a bit of the history. The museum was filled with winning cars from the 1909-2009 and trophies. They even had a car that had been clocked at 650 mph out on the salt flats in Utah. 

One of the grandest moments, however, was at closing time. As we were leaving and the parking lot was pretty well cleared out, the boys spotted the owner of a brand new red Corvette heading for his car.  They followed him to get a closer look. He and his wife had just flown into Nashville yesterday from Lincoln, Maine and had driven to Bowling Green to pick up his custom ordered car - a gift to himself after 40 years of work and getting the last child through college! He was very gracious and was glad to share the experience with the boys. It took a few minutes of looking at his owner's manual, but he finally figured out how to open the hood and let the boys marvel at the engine. He cranked it up, let them listen to it purr, and showed them how the top lowered. As his wife was preparing to take his picture in front of the museum, he offered to give one of the boys a ride around the parking lot. (My thoughts were...How do you offer A ride to THREE drooling boys?! But it was fun to watch it play out.) For probably 5 seconds they all stood there frozen in awe, when Caleb and Taylor finally snapped back to life. Both, almost in sync, began a mad dash - one around the front, the other around the back- to the passenger door. Caleb squeaked in a bit in front and looked pleased while Taylor somewhat disgusted, but nice about it, backed off. The fella said to Caleb, "Why don't you let big brother have a ride?" pause, pause, pause, "and I'll come back and pick you up." Problem solved. Lap one, Taylor. Lap two, Caleb, with a slight squeal of the wheels. Lap three, Samuel. All three WINNERS thanks to an extremely nice man. As he began to head over to pick up his wife she said, "Don't you dare!"  She knew the "little boy" driving the car wanted to show off one last time and peel out.

We then headed north on 69 towards Fort Wayne. I have been searching for historic covered bridges that we might be able to stop and see along the way and thought I had found one in Noblesville.  Alas it was located on the grounds of a history museum that was closed for the day. I hiked through a field and looked through a pasture and believe I caught a glimpse of it off in the trees. Though we weren't all able to enjoy this one, it looks as though we may be able to spot others along the way.  We finally pulled into our resting place a little after 9 and bedded down for some MUCH needed rest.