America trip

**Jim T.** · April 22, 2004, 01:26 PM

Re: America trip

How about a couple of days in Bowling Green,KY and visit the Corvette Museum and in one day you can visit the Corvette plant twice, once in the morning and again the early afternoon and see the C6 being built? On to a hotel in Nashville I think there is a collection of Yenko cars, and on to the Gatlinburg,TN area there is a collection of cars made available by a person I cannot remember at the moment that will have several Corvettes. Lots more to see I am sure that I don't know about.

**Rob M.** · April 22, 2004, 01:34 PM

Re: America trip

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the tip but is KY (which state is this) on the route (like I stated before we are a bit lots on distance and driving speed) ? I would love to visit the Corvette plant and the museum (I have a video of an amateur visiting the museum and it looks great).

greetings,
Rob.

**Wayne K.** · April 22, 2004, 02:06 PM

Re: America trip

Rob,

Sounds exciting. If your going to make it to North Carolina get on the Blue Ridge Parkway and get off in Ashville to see the Biltmore Estate. They have a web at www.biltmore.com.. Take a look and see if that interests you. The Great Smokey Mt. National Park is right to the west of Ashville and a great place to spend some outdoors time. At the south end of the park on US129 there is an 11 mile stretch of road that has 318 curves. They call it the tail of the dragon,see web www.tailofthedragon.com. Wishing you a safe and enjoyable trip.

Wayne

**Pete Whelan** · April 22, 2004, 04:01 PM

Re: America trip

Rob,
KY stands for Kentucky, which is immediately west of West Virginia. I'll second Jim's comment about the Corvette plant and museum: definitely worth a visit. Log on to mapquest.com and enter your starting city and destinations along the way. It will give you recommended roads to travel and estimated distance and time values. Doing this will give you a sense of how far you will be travelling. You should have a very enjoyable trip.

Good luck!
Pete Whelan

**Chas Henderson #28127** · April 22, 2004, 05:12 PM

Re: America trip

Rob,
there is a real nice Corvette museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana that is located at exit 105 off of Interstate 69 that has a fantastic collection of c-1's. You could go there from the corvette plant, but while you are on the way, you have to stop in Indianapolis, Indiana and visit the Indy 500 race track / museum. Get an atlas of the U.S. and you can see that Indiana is ontop of Kentucky. Just my suggestion. Good luck.

Chasman

**Chuck S.** · April 22, 2004, 05:19 PM

A Super Human Itinerary (Super Long)

Rob, better do yourself a favor a buy yourself a road atlas of the USA so you can understand the distances and times involved with traveling here. At least make a rough plan of where you are going, and how long it will take you. In any event, I predict you will go home exhausted.

The US interstate highways are generally excellent compared to older state and county roads, allowing you to cover as much as a 1000 mi (1613 km) a day or more if you stop only for fuel and rest stops; it also helps to be superhuman and to have a vehicle that can maintain close to the speed limit. How long it takes to travel from A to B will depend on how much you stop for food, gas, or to smell the roses.

You can get travel directions and maps off the internet, but the directions sometimes leave something to be desired. You will find yourself going out of the way on a cowpath rather than taking the shorter, more direct route using an interstate highway...Computers! I would definitely have a hard copy of the atlas in case you have to inprovise or computer directions are whacko.

But, internet maps could be good device for general planning. EXAMPLE: see the link below for an example of traveling from Washington DC to Bowling Green, KY. Total distance = 689 mi (1111 km) which could easily be covered in one day. However, I note there is a lot of scenic stuff along that route (Abraham Lincoln's birthplace?), so you would want to dally along the way. Maybe allow two days. You will travel through Maryland and West Virginia...if Virginia and the Smoky Mountains are your goal, the route will be different and longer.

Bowling Green is near the southern state boundry of Kentucky. Gatlinburg, Tennessee is just south of Bowling Green on Interstate Highway 65 (We Yanks would pronounce it 'Eye-65' ). If you went to Pro-Team from Bowling Green, you would be recovering some of your original path on I-65, then probably proceeding up I-71 through Cincinnati, then I-75 to Napoleon, Ohio. Another path taking the "Blue Grass Parkway" (toll) to I-75 then to Cincinnati would take you through Lexington, Kentucky and the race horse farms of the 'blue grass country'. You would cross nearly two full states (Kentucky, Ohio) to get to Pro-Team in northwestern Ohio near Toledo. Total distance = 406 mi (655 km).

Once you leave Kentucky, I don't think you would have a lot of historic or scenic stops, so travel would go pretty fast. You should probably stop at a Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton, Ohio which has arguably the best air history museum in the world...I don't think you will see a comlete B-36 bomber in all of its hugeness in the Smithsonian.

From Pro-Team in Napoleon, you could proceed up I-75 to Detroit. It may be possible to travel from Detroit to Niagra Falls inside Canada, but Canajuns would have to tell you about their route which starts with Highway 402. If you came back into the USA, you would come back to Toledo, Ohio, then take I-90 east to Cleveland (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), then on to Buffalo and Niagra Falls.

From there, I presume you can find your way back to DC or Carlise...traveling north and south across Pennsylvania is problematical because of the mountainous terrain. If you need to do Carlisle first in the trip (Gettsyburg battle ground and national cemetary), just reverse the loop.

MSN Travel Directions - DC to Bowling Green

**Jim T.** · April 22, 2004, 07:07 PM

Re: A Super Human Itinerary (Super Long)

Chuck I believe you have Gatlinburg in your msg where Nashville should be, need to turn left on I40 from I65 to get to Gatlinburg. Wonder how many of the rental cars have the GPS mapping sytems?

**Chuck S.** · April 22, 2004, 07:08 PM

Re: A Super Human Itinerary (Super Long)

My mistake, Rob

Gatlinburg, Tennessee is in southeastern Tennessee (TN). I was thinking of either Goodlettsville or Gallatin, TN. Neither town is directly on I-65. The area between Bowling Green and Nashville was once quaint and scenic, but this was back in the US-31 days before I-65 was complete.

One long night, I took a wrong turn onto US-31E (east) instead of US-31W; that was an adventure. It was New Year's Eve, and those 'Billys beck dere were celebrating 18th century style. Every hamlet I passed through was blowing and going up until after midnight, with the entire drunk male population hitting the streets after that.

One attraction I forgot to mention north of Bowling Green, KY on I-65 is Mammoth Cave National Park. Take the Cave City exit; it's well worth the trouble. Mammoth Cave is not Carlsbad Caverns but it very close.

If you end up at Gatlinburg after a Smoky Mountain route, you would get on I-40 at Knoxville, TN and travel west to Nashville, TN, and then up to Bowling Green, Kentucky on I-65. The Smoky Mountain route would definitely be nice, but will probably add several days to your trip if you take some time to relax. Something to consider is arriving at Bowling Green plant on a week day...I don't know if the plant even operates on weekends, therefore no tour.

**Doug Flaten** · April 22, 2004, 07:46 PM

Re: America trip

While up in Michigan, you may want to drop by some of the Corvette vendors such as Corvette Central or Paragon. Those are a couple that I dropped in on when I was working in Michigan one summer. Or you might want to visit a vendor along your travels that has some used parts you may be in search of.

**Doug Flaten** · April 22, 2004, 07:56 PM

Do Merrimac Caverns & Branson Advertise

as far east as Kentucky? Might as well go take in a show hop on Route 66 to go out west, drop down to see the Carlsbad Caverns and run out to the West Coast too.

Point of interest to some travelers lost in W. Texas. The Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas just openned up a wing dedicated to Jim Hall and his Chapparal racing legacy. Since I am in OKC now, I have not yet been to it. However, my non-motorsport oriented sister said she was impressed with it. I'll probably go in a month or so. Midland's Chamber of Commerce would be proud of me right now.

**John W.** · April 22, 2004, 08:13 PM

Re: America trip

Rob,

I second Pete's suggestion for mapquest.com. Everything will be in miles instead of km's. Speed limits are about 65 mile per hour on the Interstate highways, but with a motor home you may want to figure on about 50 miles per hour to include gas stops and lunches.

From ProTeam in Napoleon, Ohio to Bowling Green Kentucky is 390 miles. That would be about an 8 hour drive with a motor home. From Bowling Green, KY back to Gatlinburg, Tennessee at the foot of the Smokey Mountains would be another 6 hour drive.

You will need a full day in Bowling Green, so that would make it a three day trip. To go from Napoleon, OH to Gatlinburg TN which is about the route that you originally planed would be about 9 to 10 hours driving. The scenery would be similar in many respects. Ohio and Kentucky would be rolling hills, and Tennessee would get you into a little higher rolling hills. North Carolina and the Smokey Mountains would get you some mild mountain driving.

Two and on half weeks is a pretty good amount of time to make the trip that you have planned. You will not be rushed, but you won't have time to waste.

Sounds like you are planning well ahead and should have a great visit.

**Chuck S.** · April 22, 2004, 11:08 PM

Carlsbad Caverns??!!

I don't know, Dougy, I think you are about to get ole Rob over-committed. We'll have to save two or three southwestern states for Rob's return visit. He could fly into Houston, and we'll start him off in the "coastal plains".

I don't know though...Texas alone represents about five or more distinctly different geographic areas, and it's farther from Houston to El Paso than it is from Washington DC to Bowling Green, KY. I guess if Rob came every year for about ten or fifteen years, he could see highlights of the whole country!

**Rob M.** · April 23, 2004, 01:08 AM

Re: America trip

Hi all,

Thanks for the excellent reply! I sounds like I should visit the next 5 summer holidays each area of the States since there are more then enough suggested places of interest. I wouldn't mind including one or two part vendors or oldtimer junkyards. So if any are known in the area don't hesitate to mention these as well...

greetings,
Rob & Simone.

**Allen W.** · April 23, 2004, 03:40 PM

Re: America trip

I live in southern Virginia but my son now works full time for GM. I visited him last summer when he was an intern for GM I went to the Henry Ford Museum. This is a worthwhile stop for gearheads like us. Yes I know this is a GM lovers site but they have all makes of cars there as well as lots of other interesting items. Note that it is a side trip offered at the NCRS National Convention this year. It will take at least 1/2 day just for the Museum. The Greenfield Village is good but if one has limited time the Museum is a must.
Allen

America trip

America trip

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