Day 8: Things Get Really Interesting In Nashville and Bowling Green

What a great day with the resilient and energetic Drive Home III team, and today’s drive from Nashville to Cincinnati proves once again that our country is replete with passionate stewards of the automobile who are determined both the cars and the heritage and spirit that make them so special.  

Our first morning stop was the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville where owner Jeff Lane and his Marketing Director Vicki Garrison gave us a tour of the incredibly diverse array of Lane vehicles. Housed in a massive old Sunbeam Bakery building, the eclectic 500-vehicle collection features an extensive variety of wheeled vehicles. Examples of the genres include micro-cars (defined as cars with motors under 400cc), cars from different countries, flying cars, bicycles, and various oddities.

 

One of the most unique was a 1959 200-ton (yes, 200-ton) LARC LX-8 military vehicle powered by four Detroit Diesel engines. Jeff explained this behemoth helped move supplies off Navy ships in places where the ships couldn’t pull into port.

Heading north another 60 miles or so we rolled into Bowling Green, KY, and the National Corvette Museum that gained widespread attention when a sinkhole underneath the museum swallowed nine Corvettes Feb. 12, 2014. Curator Derek Moore treated us to lunch in the Corvette Café (great milkshakes there, BTW), and then we were given an insider’s tour of the facility.

Beyond salivating over dozens and dozens (and dozens) of gorgeous Corvettes, we learned about the history and development of the model over the last 65 years.

 

Three additional highlights:

1. Visiting where the sinkhole (now repaired) swallowed the cars into a 30-foot crater, and seeing some of the Corvettes that had been retrieved.

 

 

 

2. In the main hallway, we got to see new Corvettes delivered to their new owners. After a thorough orientation by a staff Corvette expert, we saw two couples get to drive their awesome cars out of the building amidst roaring applause from the museum-goers and staff.

 

3. Heather Rogers of Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College heard we were coming and brought out a group of her students and the Camaro they had restored. David had a good time chatting with them about the restoration field and the importance of auto preservation.

Last leg to Detroit tomorrow, and I’m already getting the same bittersweet emotions I experienced at the end of Drive Home II last year. Yes, my back is sore from the Camaro and El Camino seats and it will be nice to fully unpack at home, but the experience, fun, and relationships will long outlast our upcoming drive down Woodward Avenue. And the best part is that all of this effort is centered on a noble cause: Preserving our American automobile heritage.

PS: The power of social media strikes again. An old acquaintance from State Farm, Jamie Fike, had seen our journey on FB and came out to our Cincinnati hotel to wish us well. Great to see you, Jamie!!

#DriveHome,  #AATDriveHome