National Corvette Homecoming 7/14-7/16/11

[Cadillac Tech]

Dash plaques

Our order is on it's way to our hotel in BG. See you guys soon.

 

[mtrocket]

COOL!! It will be GREAT to see you again!!

 

[sschooley]

Day 1 (July 13, 2011) the XLR's commence to converge on Bowling Green.

Tiffany's Dad (Mark and Kris); Quinn's Diamond Dell (Cathy); Lin Sue; IndyXLRV Guy (Corndog George); MT Rocket and Mrs MTR (Rod and Cindy);Photogirl (Kathy); Madmac (Brian and June); and sschooley (Steve) arrived in BG this evening and had a great dinner together. Another couple in a silver XLR with Illinois tags was also seen but unfortunately escaped before we could get to them. Tomorrow's another day....

Shared a few drinks and friendly conversation while taking over MT Rocket's hotel room after dinner. The party is off to a great start....Hurry!

Steve

 

[XLRATING]

We are hurrying! Look to be there a little after 7 pm. Lucky enough to have a friend w/a show car who is letting us use his pickup & trailer to save some wear & tear on our baby. So it may slow us down some but no complaints.

 

[FLVGuy]

Home Safe and early pics

I arrived home safe and sound. Here are some early pics.

 

[FLVGuy]

more pics

...and more

 

[FLVGuy]

NCH pics

...and some of "the gang"

 

[jjsea55]

Wow! Thanks for the pix! Looks like a great time with some beautiful cars in a historic setting. Would be nice if the individuals could be name tagged for those of us stuck behind a keyboard.

 

[Lola's Mom]

Thanks for posting the pictures .... There are A LOT of new faces .... and a lot of faces that I love seeing again. I am going to go through them again and again I know .... WHERE ARE THE STORIES?????

 

[airmike]

story

Ok a story. I stayed 40 miles north with Angels brother. He is a car guy, buys and sell a lot-1500-he claims. When he heard we were coming and staying with him he decided to find out what an xlr is! He lives 40 miles from the factory! and is into cars! No wonder they don't make em any more, nobody knows what they are much less tried to buy one. I practically wore my top out over there. I was like the carnival ride.

 

[Cadillac Tech]

Great time in BG!

WOW, what a fun time with you guys in BG. It was so nice to see everyone again and to meet new friends. There were many of you that we sure missed not being there with us. I was told there were 32 XLRs on display Friday during The Homecoming...very cool. The drive out to Barren River State Park for lunch on Saturday was a lot of fun; great roads & good food! The Bowling Green Assembly Corvette Club invited all of the XLR owners to dinner Saturday night @ Wah-Bahs. We ended up with 52 people for our "Farewell Dinner".

The coolest part of the weekend for Kathy & I was the beautiful bricks you guys got for us @ The Corvette Museum; what a wonderful suprise! It was even more special to both of us that we had our friends there with us. You guys are the best!

I'm sorry I didn't get down to BG in time to meet everyone that was there, maybe next event. I do have dash plaques for you. I started looking through Kathy's pictures last night & hope to get to work on the DVDs soon.

 

[Cadillac Tech]

Great pictures CornDog, Thanks for posting them.

 

[GizmoQ]

Another story. Saturday morning I offered a ride to one of our XLR owners who will remain nameless and his response to his wife when she asked, "how was it?" was so appropriate: "My neck got snapped back and I was firmly planted in the seat."

I also overheard one of the Corvette Drive and Shine judges say that he worked the XLR line there in BG during production , but never got a chance to ride in one. So I introduced myself and setup a time the next day to take him for a ride. Even with my new tires, TC on, and Performance mode the 1/2, 2/3 shifts were epic screeched tires. Afterward, he immediately ran back inside and told a buddy, so I had to take him out for a ride. Then one of the guys who built the retracting top (these were kits made off-site and delivered to the line "just-in-time") wanted a ride and I obliged him, too. Felt like I was an amusement park ride operator.

 

[GizmoQ]

Finally got around to uploading some of my pics:

Climbed the ladder at the Museum and took a pic of every car there at the time.

I couldn't help but get a closeup of the two lead cars lined up at the museum - mine and Dennis (we were both on this years Hot Rod Power Tour and still had our windshield decals on the cars).

I also tried to do some panoramic shots at the museum:

Tried the same thing at the Plant but we were rushed and people were getting in the frame:

Inside the plant I really like the tour room so I took at least this pick:

Tried to take a bunch of pictures at the Luncheon at the lodge but the only thing that came out clear was the aftermath of Rich tipping his Iced Tea over on the folks sitting around him .

At the end of the show, Joe Pruitt, the event coordinator, and the MC, Mrs Kentucky 2011 (Kristi Riggs), gave out awards. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I counted over 75 awards, recognition, and trophies for the corvettes which took quite a while.

And then there was the three XLR presentations. And when I looked around for Bruce and Kathy, they were gone. EEEEEEEKKKK! No one to take pictures for our group. So I ran up near the podium as fast as I could and snapped a few as best as I could. Quinn received a smock as a door prize.

MadMac and Thirsty4 (Brian & June) received the award for the longest drive. They came all the way from Alberta, Canada:

And unbeknown to me, the next thing I knew... Joe was calling me up to the stage saying he didn't know my name but everybody knew "Gizmo". I have no idea who the guy was standing next to me that I shoved my camera in his hands and said start taking pictures. I thought I was about to receive some sort of gag gift since I had been pestering him the whole weekend about different aspects of the event.

It was such an honor to accept the award for Plant Managers Choice. I was also saddened knowing that if Cubby had been there it would have gone to him. So Cubby, I accept this award on your behalf (I'm still keeping it, though )

The trophy has already found a home with my other prize possessions a 1991 eagle and fledgling (Air Force Academy Symbol) and my 2001 window from Air Force One (AF retirement gift).

 

[Lola's Mom]

Nice variety of pictures, Giz .... nice commentary too! It would be nice to have some names attached to some of the photos though .... like ... who is Rich spilling his tea on??

 

[GizmoQ]

Nice variety of pictures, Giz .... nice commentary too! It would be nice to have some names attached to some of the photos though .... like ... who is Rich spilling his tea on??

Previous post edited.

I believe the spilled tea incident included Onalaska's(Steve) wife, Diane and Julie's Mom(I hope I got this right, I'm terrible with names) Cecelia????

 

[Cadillac Tech]

A few pictures

Chicago Dave & his son Devin

Rod aka MTROCKET & his wife Cindy

Phrede & his beautiful XLR-V

 

[Cadillac Tech]

 

[Lola's Mom]

Thanks for posting the pictures ..... another great sampling of what we missed .. ..... Nice to see Rod & Cindy again ... How weird it is to see the XLR's in front of all Corvette signage ... it's a good thing Toffolo carries the XLR club sign around ! I really like that tunnel shot ... that would make the perfect picture for the last page of any photo journal of this trip. SO many new faces ..... well, maybe next time!
Thanks again for taking the time to put these up .... I love them.

 

[Cadillac Tech]

Quinn & LinSue

Rich "Homegrown"

Steven & Diane "onalaska"

Beautiful XLRs lined up to go to Wah-Bahs.