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| National Corvette Caravan '99 |
| It
was early 1997 when a small group of people, all members of VetteNet,
an online Corvette mailing list, started discussing the feasibility
of re-enacting the opening day caravans to the National Corvette
Museum for it's 5th anniversary, Labor Day 1999. The original group,
some of whom had been on the first caravan, numbered approximately
15 people from all over the country, most of whom had never met.
With the aid of the Internet, they started discussing what plans
needed to be made and work that had to be done. From those early
emails, 12 original caravans were designated, with New Jersey being
one of them. Roc Linkov volunteered to be captain of this caravan,
making NGCA the lead club and the planning started. Roc was joined
by a small group of enthusiasts with Scott Ressler becoming co-captain
and Kathie Summers the secretary. When the New Jersey Caravan left
on September 1, 1999, it was the culmination of more than 2 years
work and was part of a major memorable event in Corvette history.
The first caravans to the Museum, in 1994, totaled approximately
4,000 Corvettes. This time the expectations are for 10,000!
Unlike the first caravan, New Jersey was now the location of a lead caravan and at our start the New England group joined us. Participants from eastern New York also joined us at our official start location in Somerville, NJ. Southern NJ participants staged at a location in South Jersey and drove out to Carlisle, PA, where they joined the main NJ Caravan. Also joining at that location were people from eastern and central Pennsylvania, as well as those who attended Corvettes at Carlisle the previous weekend and stayed over to join the Caravan. They included participants from Canada, Virginia, and Ohio. From our mid-day stopover in Carlisle, we proceeded through Pennsylvania and western Maryland to West Virginia and our first overnight stay. At this time we were joined by those participants from western Pennsylvania. The next day saw us continuing on to Louisville, Kentucky, where the local club hosted a party for all of the caravans from the northern half of the US. The following morning all of the cars were be staged at the Louisville fairgrounds and escorted down I-65 to Bowling Green and the National Corvette Museum. A similar caravan left Nashville, Tennessee, made up of all of the southern caravans, timed so the two groups would meet simultaneously at the Bowling Green exit of I-65. Imagine the site of an interstate filled as far as the eye can see in both directions with Corvettes. Once at the Museum, which was open 24 hours a day for the entire Labor Day weekend, there were a number of activities going on, such as road tours, information seminars, rallies, gymkhanas, drag racing, a swap meet, GM plant tours, and a judged show just to name a few. There is no doubt that this was an exciting and momentous event, something to remember for a lifetime. Kathie was kind enough to prepare a Caravan Journal for those of us who could not attend the event. Check it out. We've also got pictures from the NGCA perspective. |
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