Very true. 15 years ago, I finally did the trip a friend and I had planned after watching Easy Rider at a film fest at SIU-E. I jumped on the bike, headed out west out Route 66. From there, I rode the Pacific Coast Highway on and off to Washington, cut back across through Yellowstone, and back home. I was gone for 8 weeks and they were the greatest.
I'd like to repeat it in a Vette, but I don't have the 8 weeks. Instead, I hit a road trip that is doable in a weekend occasionally. Drive it, Zora didn't build them to look at them.
Don't put it off, plan it and then do it as soon as possible. Last year I drove the '04 from home, to the Black Hills, Rushmore, Cody, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Portland, Washington, down the coast, then back up and went across to Salt Lack City. After that I just cruised on day trips like Cheyenne, St Louis, and Nashville, until I got to South Carolina. Stayed with my son for awhile and then on up to Mooresville to see the NASCAR layouts. Hit some more state parks and up through Kitty Hawk and then headed back home.
Started with 380 miles on the odometer and returned 5 weeks later with
8,500. Got everything in order at home and went back to South Carolina and worked on my son's new house with him for a week. All together I had driven it 13,800 miles in 8 months and was down at the factory with it to watch them build my '05 the last week in Sept. Took delivery of the '05 and headed to South Carolina again. It's now 14 months later and it has 14,000 miles on it and been in 14 states. In the mean time I put over 2,000 miles on the '72 and a few on my van.
There is a down side to this and it's age. In 1991 I made a 3 week run through the mid-section of the states and was allot more comfortable than I was last year. Time is your enemy.
Marriage and kids are my enemy. Can't squeeze all of them in the Corvette and can't leave them home. wouldn't have a home, or cars, to come back to if I did. Home is where you hang your hat, but losing the cars???
Somehow I doubt that your family is your enemy but it sure seemed like mine was every now and then. Fully understood that, so when the kids were home I bought a motor home and did a loop around America with the family. Did it in the middle of the '73/'74 gas crunch, expense hurt like hell. Then sold the motor home for more than I paid for it to help pay for the trip as the gas crunch loosened, just luck. The last Corvette had been gone for 8 years.
They still talk about their trip out west and some of the things they did and people they met. As a boy growing up on a poor farm I never had a vacation with my parents. One of my goals was to get my kids out to see what I hadn't seen. They'll never forget the foot thick layer of beer cans in the park pool at the Cheyenne rodeo, we were parked 4 per stall.
OTOH I'll never forget finding out years later how many vehicles they mooned or what the signs said that they held up in the back windows. I now have a clear understanding as to why all of those vehicles passing me would give us a funny wave. Also it explains why they seemed to know the girls that stopped at the same park one night. Great time in my life and I found out about it allot later. Parts of it were hell while living the day to day grind.
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