News: OK / TX Panhandle Caravan

[Tuna]

Seven days on the road leading our Caravan across 5 states and back home now.

Susan and I were Caravan Captains for the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandle this year. Our Caravan started in Amarillo, TX with Caravans from Southern California/Southern Nevada and Arizona/New Mexico already there.

Susan and I like a "northern" route from Oklahoma City to Bowling Green through southern Missouri. We drive that route nearly every year when we go to the NCM. When we started planning for Caravan 2014, we decided to take this route again. The SoCal/SoNev and AZ/NM Caravan Captains (Hib Halverson, Holt Davis and Sherry Maples) decided to come along our our route. {in the past, the Caravans stayed on I-40 mostly and merged with Arkansas Caravan for the drive to Bowling Green}

By adding in these two southwest Caravans to ours, we bumped up the Corvette count from about 150 to over 400.

We took over the lead of the combined Caravans in Amarillo Monday morning and drove to El Reno, OK for a lunch stop at Frontier Chevrolet. Frontier Chevy cleaned out there parking lot, except for C7 Corvettes and put up a dining tent with air conditioning, a BBQ sandwich lunch was provided by Swadley's BBQ for everyone in the Caravan and anyone else that attended the Caravan's arrival there. El Reno provided police escort through town on Historic Route 66 for the Caravan. El Reno and Frontier Chevy really did a great job to make our lunch stop there memorable.

From there, we drove to Catoosaa, OK and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino using Historic Route 66 between Edmond and Sapulpa, OK. We had the Sky Room on the 18th floor as our hospitality room that evening plus everything you can do in a large hotel and casino available to our participants.

Tuesday, we drove to Cape Girardeau, MO with a short lunch stop in Springfield. US-60 across southern Missouri is a beautiful drive and the "Corvettes in Cape" event Tuesday evening was wonderful - see the Cape Girardeau thread posted in this forum.

Wednesday, we drove across western Kentucky staying on mostly Kentucky and US highways. Another great driving day.

After doing a drive through of the NCM Wednesday afternoon late, we were done with Caravan duties.

Thursday, Susan and I rode with other people on parade laps around the new Motorsports Park there at the NCM and then watch Corvette Racing put up a few fast laps on the west track.

Friday morning, we drove the track, behind a pace car, as part of the NCM's Captain's appreciation plan. With a lot fewer cars on the track and all Corvettes, the pace car allowed us to get up to speeds in the 80 MPH range on the esses on the outer loop. Then they slowed down on the front straight (4000-ft long straight) and bunched everyone up so we could not air out the 427's horse power. Oh well.

We drove back to Oklahoma on Saturday and Sunday all by our selves - not a single Corvette behind us.

Caravan 2019 is already in the planning stages and the NCM is looking for a few good people to take on Captain duties as some of this years Captains may not be back for 2019. Interested?

Let us or the NCM know (Karen).

Now to clean up the house, the yard and the Corette.

 

[Toms007]

Sounds like a neat trip. Maybe we can join in sometime after I really retire.

 

[Yoda]

Sorry I missed you Tuna, and the West Coast group. Due to health issues I did was not there to see ya all. I hope the local Amarilllo Corvette Club greeted everyone. Larry Teagues is a great guy and I hope you got to me him..

Glad to hear everyone enjoyed their trip and ventures around the NCM..

Bud

 

[Tuna]

Sorry I missed you Tuna, and the West Coast group. Due to health issues I did was not there to see ya all. I hope the local Amarilllo Corvette Club greeted everyone. Larry Teagues is a great guy and I hope you got to me him..

Glad to hear everyone enjoyed their trip and ventures around the NCM..

Bud

The Amarillo Club and Larry Teague were great. We worked with Larry on Caravan back in 2009 also. This time Larry primarily worked with the AZ/NM Captains to set up the Sunday evening reception.

Get better and get ready for 2019 - it's only 5 years away!

 

[jrose7004]

Sounds like a great group! I've seen a bunch of pictures and it looked like the turnout was great!

 

[6 Shooter]

Cool - Did any of you get on the track...

NCM Motorsports Park - Bowling Green, Kentucky

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[Red Vette]

The Amarillo Club and Larry Teague were great. We worked with Larry on Caravan back in 2009 also. This time Larry primarily worked with the AZ/NM Captains to set up the Sunday evening reception.

Get better and get ready for 2019 - it's only 5 years away!

Glad you had a great caravan and a good time. I skipped my Colorado caravan and went in a day early as the NCM needed more volunteers. I had volunteered for Thur - Saturday parking duties. As it turned out, my brother and I spent 11 hours in the hot sun on Wednesday parking cars in the grass at gate D (next to the tan building and up from the FOP lot) and another 7 on Thursday. But it was worth it as most people had a good time and were very appreciative of the volunteer effort. I believe the NCM was over-whelmed by the number of Corvettes arriving and there were many problems on Wednesday, but we got them parked so participants could go in and register. Never did get the time to drive on the track nor attend many seminars, maybe next year. Did get to have lunch with Cooksey and McClellan on two different days and also with the assistant assembly plant manager, Nora Roper. Also got to spend some quality time with our C4C5specialist (PK). So everything was good! Karen Renfo, event chairwoman, told me they had more than 5,000 Corvettes and about 10,000 registrants.
Barrett

 

[Tuna]

Hey "6 Shooter" - yea, a lot of us got to drive the track.

All the One-Acre Club members were invited out for parade laps on Thursday. My wife rode with Dana Forrester in his red van and I got to ride with Randall Shinn in his Vette as part of the NCM Fighter Squadron pair of cars. Way too many cars on the track at one time as the lead/pace car was back on the main straight long before the tail of the One-Acre cars left.

On Friday, the Caravan Captains got to drive the track behind a pace car. We did the "Corvette Loop" but each time we got to the main straight, the pace car slowed way down to keep everyone lined up. Still managed to hit 80 in a few places on the back side of the track.

We did not get back out there for any of the other driving events that used the "west" or "east" tracks - some people got to ride in their car with a pro driver showing them around one end.

Take a look at the track facts on the MSP web site and it will rotate through the different track layouts that can be used - there are 5 different sets up for the MSP.

 

[Tuna]

Glad you had a great caravan and a good time. I skipped my Colorado caravan and went in a day early as the NCM needed more volunteers. I had volunteered for Thur - Saturday parking duties. As it turned out, my brother and I spent 11 hours in the hot sun on Wednesday parking cars in the grass at gate D (next to the tan building and up from the FOP lot) and another 7 on Thursday. But it was worth it as most people had a good time and were very appreciative of the volunteer effort. I believe the NCM was over-whelmed by the number of Corvettes arriving and there were many problems on Wednesday, but we got them parked so participants could go in and register. Never did get the time to drive on the track nor attend many seminars, maybe next year. Did get to have lunch with Cooksey and McClellan on two different days and also with the assistant assembly plant manager, Nora Roper. Also got to spend some quality time with our C4C5specialist (PK). So everything was good! Karen Renfo, event chairwoman, told me they had more than 5,000 Corvettes and about 10,000 registrants.
Barrett

Thanks for you volunteer support! We appreciate all you did to support the NCM. Working the parking lots was hot work. They had tent tops to get you out of the sun but it was still hot and humid.

There over 4000 Vettes registered for the Caravan and a lot more showed up that were not in the Caravans. So, 5000+ Vettes and 10,000 people is about right. When we lead our Caravan through the parking lot on Wednesday afternoon (4:30ish), we didn't even try to find a parking space and we have one of the reserved spots. Didn't want to get into the crowd and decided to head to the hotel and get a drink.

We had dinner with Wil Cooksey and his wife once, a while back, and they are great people to visit with. He's got a book out that is a good read also - "No Time To Cry"