I liked this exhibit, an old Mobil station.
One of the nicer-looking Corvete race cars
The older end of the Corvette timeline
By the time I actually got moving eastward, it was 10:45am.
First stop: Nashville. I was going to stop by at the Grand Ole Opry, or Opryland USA, and to the Hermitage, which was Andrew Jackson's home, and is supposedly beautiful. On the way there, I saw a Camping World store, so I stopped there. I bought one of those map sticker sets, where you get an outline map of the US, and individual stickers for each state, so that you can advertise on your RV where you've been. Once I get a chance to wash it, I'll stick it on and fill it in. I also bought an indoor/outdoor thermometer, some levelling plates (because despite having the levelling jacks, a lot of campsites are so non-level that the jacks don't have enough travel), and more holding tank chemicals.
Anyway, they told me at Camping World that Opryland USA closed 2 years ago! Nothing to see there. Sigh. Well, I stopped for lunch anyway, then headed for the Hermitage. But once I got close, I decided that I just wasn't into it. Didn't interest me. I drove right on by.
When Mark and I were in Minneapolis, we noted that the place has a lot of pride in itself. Seemed like the people there really liked being from there. I think that may be that important element of a good place to live. Nashville, despite being "The Music City" and "Home of Country Music" doesn't have that feeling ... it seemed like a boring place.
Oh well. On towards Kentucky. I stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green (where all of today's pictures come from). As I walked inside, there was a new yellow C5 convertible parked right out front. A couple was there, checking it out. The guy said, "Yup! That's the right VIN! That's ours!" They had ordered the car and opted for delivery at the museum, and today was the day. They were very excited. The car was gorgeous.
Inside there is more Corvette memorabilia than you can possibly imagine, as well as near-perfect examples of nearly every Corvette ever made. Most are still privately owned but are on display at the museum, and others are donations to the museum. The museum has no official connection with Chevrolet, BTW, so it's impressive that they've done what they have.
Check out some of the pictures to see what I found interesting.
After that, I went back out to the motorhome to figure out what was next. I knew that I wanted to stop by the Mammoth Caves National Park, but it was now 4:30 so it was clearly to late to do that tonight. There is a campground at the park, so I called to check that out. No hookups, it's "primitive" -- but that's okay, I'm self-contained. But they have a 40' maximum length, and I'm nearly 60' with the trailer. Oh well.
So, I found a private campground not too far from the park. Then I called the reservation line for the cave tours, to arrange a tour for tomorrow. There are 10 different tours you can do. I had no idea which one I wanted to do, so I switched from the automated thing to talking to a real human. She was more helpful, and I opted for the "Historic Tour", which is a 2-hour "strenuous" tour. 2 miles long. I'm looking forward to it. It takes place at 9:30 tomorrow morning. Check out tomorrow's page for details!