Well today was amazing! We didn’t sleep that well because of the proximity of the freeway, but we did sleep some. Right across the parking lot from us was the National Corvette Museum. We drove over and parked in “Corvettes Only” spaces right up front. That was cool. There are very rare and beautiful cars inside. In 1983 there was only one Corvette manufactured because production of the 84 cars began mid-summer. The museum has the only 1983 Corvette in existence. They have a display of all the 3’s in a long row as you enter. They have a perfect ’53, a ’63 and so on to the present. There was a display of the ‘62 that was featured in the TV show “Route 66”. There were so many beautiful examples of every version of Corvette from the beginning in 1953. They even had the prototypes with all the history and the designers. It was all so cool! I bought a couple posters for the office. One is the technical info with pictures of all the years up to 2006. 2007, ’08 and even ‘09 are virtually the same as the ’06. The museum is where you pick up your special order car and while we were there a couple was doing just that. They bought a 2008 Indy ‘Pace Car’. It's the one in front of mine in the picture in front of the museum. They got to watch the entire car be assembled from start to finish and were the first to start the engine and drive it off the end of the line themselves. We met them and talked a bit. This one is ‘his’ because ‘hers’ is a 2003 Indy pace car they drove up from Alabama in. He also has another earlier pace car back home. I don't remember the year. The guy even got to stamp the VIN numbers on the tranny and the bell housing himself during the production process which takes about 12 hours total time. After the museum, we had lunch at Bob Evans restaurant (they are everywhere down here in the south) where we ran into the new owners again and chatted some more. After that we went to the assembly plant for our own tour. It was so cool to watch the entire process from start to finish. I don’t know who orchestrates the process, but they get all the various parts installed on the right cars as they go along. I’m sure the guide said that they produce 130 to 140 a day! Many are special order and there are many choices so getting the right parts on the right cars must take some concentration to get it right. They do many tests as it goes along and then do a dyno and squeak test and finally a seal test where they high pressure each car from all sides with water to check for leaks. It was so cool to see all these different Corvettes taking shape. They have different versions for export as well. They have to have lens washers and the side marker lights are amber in back not red like the stateside cars. We did not see any right had drive cars, but they do make them. This plant also produces the Cadillac XLR which is very similar to the Corvette in many aspects. The body is composite like the Corvette and it’s a beauty! They say that the technology in the XLR is more involved than the first Apollo space craft. The 375 horse model base price is $85K and the 435 horse base is $100K. There is more electronic stuff than you can imagine. They aim to please. They only produce 8 of those beauties a day. They sure are perdy! The whole day was so cool! We met many Corvette owners and it felt good to be in the brotherhood. There are Corvettes all over the place! After wards we headed south past Nashville and found a place here in Franklin, Tennessee. Tomorrow we hope to find “The Quilting Squares” around here somewhere, which is a store of hard to find material and sundries for the complete quilter. They have Civil War reproductions and Thea is interested to say the least, so that’s what we’ll do. After that we’ll head for Memphis and see where the day takes us. Till next time, sleep tight!