I left Villa Ridge very early this morning, around 5:45. I had to pass through St. Louis to get on I-64 to go through Evansville, IN on the way to Bowling Green, and I wanted to get on the other side of St. Louis before rush hour hit. The ride down to Bowling Green was uneventful and the scenery was pretty nice. Rolling hills and lots of greenery.
The first stop in Bowling Green was the National Corvette Museum. You may remember that in February, 2014 a large sink hole opened up under the museum and eight vintage cars dropped into the hole and were pretty much destroyed. Well, they have filled in the hole, and they are restoring the cars one-by-one.
Here is a picture of the museum from the outside:
The museum is very nice and spotless, with many Corvettes on display, going back to the first year of production, 1953, when they produced a grand total of 300 vehicles:
They had a number of examples from each body style (they are now on #7), including this 1968 model:
I can remember when this model came out, and it was, by far, the hottest thing on four wheels.
This is the "Skydome" area of the museum, where the floor gave way, and these are some of the eight cars that fell into the hole:
I think the guy in the picture is having a prayer vigil.
Here is another shot of the damaged (totalled??) cars:
The car in the foreground is the 1.5 millionth Corvette ever produced and it was on display at the museum on the fateful day. Here's another look at it:
Makes a grown man wanna cry, but supposedly, they're going to rebuild all the cars.
The museum was very interesting, very well laid-out, and very informative. I enjoyed my stay.
I left there and headed into the downtown area of Bowling Green to visit the Bowling Green Rail Park. It's in their old Louisville & Nashville Railroad Station and was pretty nice. Here's a shot of the train depot...
Lots of train memorabilia and information about the L&N RR from the time of the Civil War to the 1970's. After taking a spin around Bowling Green's downtown area (nice), I headed back over to the Corvette museum. Across the street from the official museum, is the unofficial "Art's Corvettes", which is a combination museum and used car dealer. The building was packed with almost 100 restored vehicles from the 1940's up to the 2000's. Most of them had a price tag on them, and in looking at them, I didn't think they were overpriced, at least by much. Here area a couple shots of some of the cars in the collection:
A 427 Ford Cobra Kit for $35k:
Not a bad price. I think the kit itself costs almost that much, and that's without the engine and transmission.
A 1958 Chevrolet Impala:
A 1940 Ford for $14k:
A 1972 Chevelle SS with a 454 Engine for $25k:
And a 1958 T-Bird with original paint, original tires, and only 9,000 miles on the clock for $35k:
Anyway, nice day today. I'll be heading out in the morning through Nashville and down to my brother, Rick's for a couple nights and then on home on Monday and Tuesday.
Miles today: 375
Total: 8,108