Kentucky...horsepower and horses

On Sunday, October 14th, after pulling out of the campground in the Land Between the Lakes, we headed eastward and found ourselves at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Our tour began with an embarrassing computer quiz about our collective Corvette knowledge (which is minimal). We both failed. In order to not continue the embarrassment, we headed into the exhibits.

1953 Corvette Roadster

We discovered that the Corvette was first produced in 1953. That year 300 of them were produced, all with a white exterior and a red interior. The fiberglass body was constructed almost entirely by hand in a makeshift factory. Offering a 2-speed transmission and a black canvas top, the only optional items available were a signal-searching AM radio and a heater. These first Corvettes cost only $3498 and were very underpowered, by sports car standards! In short time, though, they came into their own (with a new engine) and rose to the top of the sports car world.

1958 Corvette

As we continued through the museum, we saw Corvettes whose dedicated owners had lovingly restored them to their former glory. This 1958 250HP with F1 Corvette, despite its iconic look, is actually a very rare combination for that year with its red body and snowcrest white side coves. Only 458 were produced that year and this one is number 262.

Further into the museum, we wandered into a round showroom with lots of mint condition cars. As we walked past each one, a plaque described their provenance and life story. The most interesting one, I thought, brought our cross-continent RV trip back into focus. Next to a red Corvette, implausibly outfitted with a roof rack, 2 cans of gasoline and windshield guards, we read about its trip from Dawson City, Yukon, up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, right on the Arctic Ocean. For those brave souls willing to 'do the Dempster', common advice is to bring at least two spare tires and lots of extra gasoline for the 986 miles of gravel, mud and potholes (roundtrip).

Corvette C6 that drove the Dempster

Amazingly, this Corvette C6 made the trip with no flats, and though it suffered a cracked windshield and some nasty chips in the paint, it survived the take-no-prisoners Dempster Highway. When we drove to Dawson City from Tok, Alaska, the trip took us over the Top of the World Highway, whose advertised paved sections felt and looked a lot more like gravel and whose gravel sections felt and looked a lot more like slippery mud. A trip that should have taken us about an hour and a half on good roads took us over 4 hours each way on the Top of the World. With that experience (and the poor Versa not equipped for such abuse), we didn't dare tackle the Dempster. Another day and another car, perhaps. But we give serious kudos to John Phillips, who tamed the Dempster in 1997 with this 'Vette and then drove it 4000 miles back to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Nicely done, sir.

We headed out of Bowling Green toward Lexington, Kentucky, and past an astounding number of giant horse farms. Huge spreads of green grass with miles of fencing surrounding them, each farm sported a regal sounding name with precious few horses actually visible from the road. We pulled into the Kentucky Horse Park to set up camp. The Kentucky Horse Park is a 1229-acre state-owned park offering a large campground, two museums, competition facilities and the offices of 30 equine-related associations, in addition to lots of pastureland for the actual horses. We settled in, walked The Ed around the campground, ate some dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Lexington History Center

In the morning, we ventured into downtown Lexington to see the sights of this great city. Oddly, the road signs for the visitor center led us on a wild goose chase. After asking three different folks where the visitor center was located, we finally found it. Armed with several brochures, we began with the walking tour of the historic district, where many of the homes fall under the purview of the local historical preservation society, the Bluegrass Trust (BGT).

As we strolled around, we learned about the different homes and about how Lexington became the center of horse racing. Early millionaires who earned their fortunes in the sport built their homes in what is now the historic district of the city, near Transylvania University. Founded in 1780, Transylvania University was the first college established west of the Allegheny Mountains and chartered while Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia (which included what is now Kentucky).

Thoroughbred Park in Lexington, Kentucky

Just a few blocks away, we found Thoroughbred Park where the city's signature statue displays a horse race frozen in bronze as they run down the track. The whole park seemed alive with the excitement of the race's conclusion. A fountain mimicked the noise of the crowd, with the streams of water shooting highest closest to the finish line. A path of rough paving stones ran from one end of the park to the other, symbolizing the pock marked track after the horses had run over it. There were even bronze horses grazing in the grass and laying in the sunshine. What a beautiful park.

Ken beat 'em by a nose!

After admiring the city for the better part of a few hours, we headed back to the RV and spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening enjoying the beautiful fall weather and soft warm sunshine filtering through the trees around us. With all the work at Grandma's house, my useless shoulders were still smarting from all the painting, so I took a nap. Ken, meanwhile, entertained The Ed and made another awesome dinner for us. What a fun fall day!