Hi all,
Let me first start this posting by thanking the numerous people who have send us advice, invitations or helped us in one or another way in making our trip to the USA possible!
We have just returned this morning from our three week tour to the States which was an overwhelming experion. We have fitted in as much Corvette related activities in our trip as possible.
I'm planning to write an extended article about our trip for the Driveline but I don't want to withold you all a summary:
After landing onto Washington Dulles airport we took a shuttle to the Holiday Inn to sleep and get rid of the jetlag. Next morning we took a cab to Manassas to pickup our RV to start our 2900 mile trip. After carefully getting familiar with the US road system and traffic light setup we took a short first day trip via the 66 towards Leesburg to visit Chuck and Fredi Burge. They surprised us with a first class lunched, a tour to see all the Vette's currently at their home and have a look in their Corvette related rooms (thanks again !!!) We were very happy to lend their car to drive to the Washington Metro system to have a first glance at Washington DC using the orange shuttle service.
The next day we drove through Pennsylvania towards Maryland to visit Mike McCagh to have a look at his spectacular Corvette collection. Impressive to say the least!
We stayed on a campsite in the Maryland area to continue our trip to New Jersey to visit the beach area and see the ocean. The trip took two days to get there but was worth it...
Then we headed back to Pennsylvania to experience the Corvette Carlisle show. We spend two days on the fairground but the intense heat made us decide to head North towards some cooler area.
We visited the Niagara falls and had a spectacular view from the Canadian side on the falls and also spend a day at Marineland. Gary Bishop arranged a tour at the GM St. Catherina Corvette engine plant (thanks Shawn Chapel for the excellent tour) where we saw the GM truck and Corvette engines being build.
Then we headed West towards Detroit and back South to Bowling Green. We arrived just before the Labour weekend on which the 10th anniversary of the Corvette museum was celibrated. We had a very nice tour through the museum (I loved the SR-2 and Corvette concept cars) and could enjoy the small fairground for the celebration activities.
We were forced to stay for 3 days in the Bowling Green area since the factory wasn't operational during the Labour weekend for the factory tour. We filled the time with an excellent visit to Mammoth Caves. Absolutely worthwhile, so put it on your list next time you are around!!! Tuesday morning we finally visted the factory but unforunately the line was down so we could see the new C6 coupes in all various stages of completeness but didn't see the whole process in motion ;-(
Then we headed back to Washington (2 days tour) to spend another day in Washington (Arlington cemetary to see the Kennedy graves) and shopping in the Georgetown area.
The next day (yesterday) we cleaned the camper, brought it back to Manassas and headed back to the Netherlands to get jetlagged again...
Alltogether a fantastic trip which we won't forget during our livetimes! Thanks all who helped us organizing it and it was more than a pleasure to meet some of you in person!!!
greetings,
Rob and Simone!
Let me first start this posting by thanking the numerous people who have send us advice, invitations or helped us in one or another way in making our trip to the USA possible!
We have just returned this morning from our three week tour to the States which was an overwhelming experion. We have fitted in as much Corvette related activities in our trip as possible.
I'm planning to write an extended article about our trip for the Driveline but I don't want to withold you all a summary:
After landing onto Washington Dulles airport we took a shuttle to the Holiday Inn to sleep and get rid of the jetlag. Next morning we took a cab to Manassas to pickup our RV to start our 2900 mile trip. After carefully getting familiar with the US road system and traffic light setup we took a short first day trip via the 66 towards Leesburg to visit Chuck and Fredi Burge. They surprised us with a first class lunched, a tour to see all the Vette's currently at their home and have a look in their Corvette related rooms (thanks again !!!) We were very happy to lend their car to drive to the Washington Metro system to have a first glance at Washington DC using the orange shuttle service.
The next day we drove through Pennsylvania towards Maryland to visit Mike McCagh to have a look at his spectacular Corvette collection. Impressive to say the least!
We stayed on a campsite in the Maryland area to continue our trip to New Jersey to visit the beach area and see the ocean. The trip took two days to get there but was worth it...
Then we headed back to Pennsylvania to experience the Corvette Carlisle show. We spend two days on the fairground but the intense heat made us decide to head North towards some cooler area.
We visited the Niagara falls and had a spectacular view from the Canadian side on the falls and also spend a day at Marineland. Gary Bishop arranged a tour at the GM St. Catherina Corvette engine plant (thanks Shawn Chapel for the excellent tour) where we saw the GM truck and Corvette engines being build.
Then we headed West towards Detroit and back South to Bowling Green. We arrived just before the Labour weekend on which the 10th anniversary of the Corvette museum was celibrated. We had a very nice tour through the museum (I loved the SR-2 and Corvette concept cars) and could enjoy the small fairground for the celebration activities.
We were forced to stay for 3 days in the Bowling Green area since the factory wasn't operational during the Labour weekend for the factory tour. We filled the time with an excellent visit to Mammoth Caves. Absolutely worthwhile, so put it on your list next time you are around!!! Tuesday morning we finally visted the factory but unforunately the line was down so we could see the new C6 coupes in all various stages of completeness but didn't see the whole process in motion ;-(
Then we headed back to Washington (2 days tour) to spend another day in Washington (Arlington cemetary to see the Kennedy graves) and shopping in the Georgetown area.
The next day (yesterday) we cleaned the camper, brought it back to Manassas and headed back to the Netherlands to get jetlagged again...
Alltogether a fantastic trip which we won't forget during our livetimes! Thanks all who helped us organizing it and it was more than a pleasure to meet some of you in person!!!
greetings,
Rob and Simone!
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