We gather in the hotel lobby at 9 a.m. to begin our journey to Bristol, Virginia. We say goodbye to the Beckers, who are going down to Nashville to say at the Opryland Hotel. We hop in our cars and after Jim leads the gang in a rendition of ring-around-the-rosy at a gas station we ask Scott to take the lead - and we manage to stay together almost the entire route. We pick Joe Horn up just outside the Nashville Airport along route 40. He got Eric down there with no problems and was ready and waiting for us when we drove by. Roc calls on my ever-present cell phone and tells us he has arrived in Bristol. We will call him when we get within 50 miles of Bristol. Paul Spangler is still planning a police escort to our hotel!

We stop for gas and Jewel doles out some of those “reds” - Twizzler’s Strawberry Licorice! I swear, she has revived an addiction I thought was long in my past.

We are met by Roc and Paul Spangler and Bristol’s Police Captain McCoy at the first rest stop just inside the Virginia border. Nancy has stayed back at our new hotel to await our arrival. After stretching our legs and making the requisite pit stop we climb back in our Vettes and are escorted to our hotel with lights-a-flashing.

They’ve got a section roped off for us by the Convention Center entrance - but we find we can all fit in the first row of the parking lot by the front door. Again - we stand around and chat with Captain McCoy and Paul. The Captain has arranged his schedule so he’ll be with us tomorrow and he says he’s looking forward to seeing all these Vettes running on the track! So are we!!!!!! This is a nine story hotel - and even though we’re down to just 8 rooms - we’re still spread all over the hotel. We just can’t seem to get booked into rooms that are near one-another.

Paul has made a dinner reservation for us and some additional Vetters from Kentucky for 6:30 in the hotel restaurant. We’ve been cooped up in our cars most of the day - so we’re a little rowdier than usual . . . . but then - how can you really tell???? We’ve been very fortunate on this trip - almost every restaurant has been willing to issue a check to each couple. Makes the math simple - but deprives Joe of one of his jobs. However, I’m sure he'll resume that job as soon as we get back to the Golden Touch. Paul tells us the game plan for Tuesday. We’ll be met in front of the hotel by some local Corvette owners and the police will escort us to the Bristol Speedway where we’ll play on the ½ mile oval and the drag strip!

After dinner - most of the men take the cars down the hill to a car wash - we ran through rain for a short while on the way in to Bristol - and the cars are realllllllly dirty!

Lights out early - its going to be a BIG day tomorrow!!!!!!!