Where I’ve Been, Corvette Edition

So, I listed off all those events in my previous post and you may be wonder how many of those events were for work and how many were for pleasure. To be perfectly honest, I see every one of those events as work. It’s hard for me to differentiate the two, which has its ups and has its downs. Either way, 2012 was a special year for me, because I drove the Corvette more than ever and had a great time doing it. The car is in need of several repairs and upgrades, but hey, that’s what this stuff is all about. Here’s where the Corvette has gone this year…

The first show of the year was just down the road in Graysville, TN. Here, my car is parked with Bill Sims’ roadster, which had just been finished at my dad’s shop.

The Grand…and the Corvette

Since I’ve been a baby, I’ve been attending the Grand Run in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. In fact, I attended it before I was born! We always made a family trip out of of the Grand Run, and I’ve started this tradition with my wife and I’m sure we’ll continue it when we have little ones. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I honestly don’t remember a lot of it, but we do have pictures and videos to refresh my memory. With a long history with the event, I still have a good time at the Grand because it never fails to bring back great memories. Certain cars that have been around since my early childhood are still in the same condition, and while they might be considered outdated, I still love ’em. One particular car that hadn’t seen the streets of Pigeon Forge since 1988 is my Corvette….for 2012, that needed to change.

Town was absolutely packed on Friday and Saturday. Out of all my years of going to Pigeon Forge, this is the fullest I've ever seen it.

An Easy Fix

I love it when something ends up being much easier than I’d anticipated, but it doesn’t happen that often. It makes my day much better when something simply works, rather than my usual routine, which involves spending 5 hours to do a 30 minute job. Of course, I’m talking about car stuff, particularly mechanic work. I can handle paint and bodywork in a timely manner, but when it comes to something that should be simple, I generally struggle. Here are some great scenarios:

1. Parts store gives me the wrong part
2. I don’t have the appropriate hardware
3. My efforts don’t actually repair the problem on the first go-round…aka misdiagnosis.
4. Something magically happens during the repairs that causes another problem.
5. Multiple trips to the parts store