John and Dianne Liebe pulled up in their white Camaro (hey, at least its a Chevy product) - seems John had a bit of trouble holding onto a bolt when doing some last minute “fine-tuning” last night :-( The bolt is now INSIDE the engine of his Vette - so they had to use the Camaro for the Caravan.

Our police escort has arrived. Everyone is lined up and ready to go. Roc starts the Driver’s Meeting and suddenly my cell phone rings. It’s Ron Rivers. He is supposed to be meeting us just beyond the toll booths at the PA border. He heard on the radio about a truck accident that has Route 78 in PA shut down!!!!!

NO!!!

Don’t do this to us! We’ve been planning this trip for two years - I’ve researched the route down the last 1/10th mile!!!! And suddenly we are faced with our highway being closed down! Roc tells the gang what is happening - and that we’ll tell them our alternate plan once we’ve had a chance to look things over. We have a quick huddle with the local police - one of who has a vacation home in the area of PA where the accident occurred. We get two more phone calls from participants we were going to pick up “on-the-fly” who have also heard about the accident. Our local police determine that the highway closure could last 4-5 hours. So it’s a no-brainer - we HAVE to take an alternate route. With the help of a map and the police input, we determine a route using the old Route 22 in PA to get us around the closed area.

Roc advises the group of our plans and we take off about 45 minutes behind schedule. It sure looks great with all those Vettes strung out behind us. The CB radio is chattering away and so are the Family Radios. Everyone is excited to finally be on the road and things go pretty nicely - for about 50 minutes. We cross into PA and the traffic on old 22 is very heavy due to the Route 78 closure and CONSTRUCTION!!!!!!! After a while it’s getting tedious, so the decision is made to jump off to the north of 22 onto some nice back roads that Roc and Scott have traveled many times in the past. Problem is, it’s a lot harder with 150 of your closest friends trying to keep up with you, so travel is slowed even more!!!! Jim and I are behind the pack - we dropped off for a comfort stop (I should NOT have had that cup of tea with breakfast). We make radio contact with Roc, he tells us about the change in our alternate route - and just as he is describing the exit I’m looking for - we drive by it!!!!!! Now Jim and I (and 6 other cars who needed a pit stop) are on a different “alternate to the alternate” - we take the next exit which will take us south of 22. We keep in contact with the cell phones whenever we both have a strong enough signal and eventually it is determined that our little group is moving faster due to its small size and we’re going to get back on 78 at least 15 minutes before the main group.

We’ve also been in touch with Harry & Elaine and Mike at Carlisle. They have a whole bunch of participants checked-in and waiting anxiously for us. I’ve got the banners with me, so instead of waiting for the main group - the decision is made for my “mini-caravan” to push on right to the Carlisle Fairgrounds. This way so we can get the people already there to sign the banners in an effort to help us get back on the road a bit faster.

We arrive in Carlisle just about when we had planned to LEAVE!!!!! The folks there quickly line up to autograph the banners and when Roc & Scott arrive with the main caravan they grab a very quick lunch and we call a Driver’s Meeting. The bullhorn we used there isn’t too great - but my big mouth helps get the message across to the gang in the grandstand :-) All the radio and cell phone communications during the first leg were intense. Roc and I figure it might be better if we were in the same Corvette so we won’t have to use them so much. Nancy gets to ride in the 98 with Jim (and the AC) and Roc and I take the lead in his 67. A police escort takes us out through the town of Carlisle and up onto Route 81. I took a bunch of photos of the caravan rolling through the mountain of PA and into Maryland. The best shot is actually going through the Cumberland Gap!!!! Wait till you see it! Roc’s 67 is getting low on gas, so we hand the lead of the caravan over to Scott and we jump ahead of the caravan for 10 miles so that when we get back on, we won’t be too far behind. . . . at least that was the plan. Despite the instructions not to pass the lead cars - when folks saw us jump ahead - they followed suit. Pretty soon, we’re all over the place. By the time we get gas and work our was back to the front of the caravan - more than 1½ hours has gone by and its almost time to get off in Clarksburg, WV for the end of Day One.

As we exit the highway - there is a television van in the median taking video of us for the local news. We all wave and continue on up the ramp. We are supposed to be met by a police escort - but the gang who jumped ahead of us got the escort - and when we get there - we’re on our own to find the dealership. We have to follow the directions printed in the book - and with the setting sun in our eyes(we are now two hours behind schedule) - we miss a small sign and go past our destination!!!! A couple U-turns bring us back to the proper road. Roc and I are concerned about stragglers missing this turn so we stay at the turn with my large Caravan 99 flag to literally flag them in. After about 20 minutes, Roc snags two total stranger “volunteers” to perform this task for us and we head down to the dealership.

What a sight!!!! There are hundreds and hundreds of Corvettes filling every inch of this huge dealership’s lots! They have a soda dispensing station set up as well as the souvenir T-shirt selling area. The lines for the rest rooms are enormous - but rank has its privileges :-) We roll out the third sponsor banner for Harry Green Chevrolet and the folks line up to autograph it as well. The TV crew has come down to the lot now - and they are interviewing many of the participants and eventually get around to Roc and later still, to me. They tell us they covered our arrival “LIVE” for the 6 o’clock news and some of the interviews will air on the 11 o’clock edition. The people at this dealership are sooooo friendly. There are quite a number of vehicles being serviced - including the Liebe’s Camaro, one of the Meshulam’s two Vettes and Joe Smock’s day-old Vette. Little by little - everyone departs for their hotels and we do the same

Thankfully, we acknowledge that Day One is finished!