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The trip from Redmond to Bowling Green was fairly uneventful. I was tired as I'd been working around the clock (little other than work, < 6 hours sleep per night) for some time. As a result I didn't really pack until the day I left. Packing went well, if slow. Unfortunately I left my Windows CE Handheld PC ( HP 620 LX ) at home; I realized it shortly after arriving at the airport but it wasn't worth it to track down someone to swing by my house to pick it up and bring it to the airport. Oh well, I was going to use it to quickly take notes for my trip. My laptop works great but it's not as quick and easy as the H/PC. The weekend before I'd been home to Maryland and picked up some scrapple. I also forgot to give the scrapple to my brothers Brady and Dave (scrapple seems to be only available in the mid-Atlantic region; the only place I've seen it in Seattle is a Philly cheese steak shop that fed-ex's in meat, rolls, TastyKakes and other stuff (including scrapple ) from Philly. Unfortunately I don't like that particular scrapple (much like sausage scrapple changes a lot from place to place).)  I also forgot to give my brothers the hot milk cake that our grandmother made.

Oh well, Dave could get it when he swung by my house to grab my mail and newspapers.

While packing I had been looking for a collapsible bag to carry my newspapers in. (I've been told I'm strange; I read 2 papers every day, currently The Seattle Times and The Eastside Journal ). Unfortunately I didn't find any that I would feel good about putting through the baggage handling machinery. So I brought a large suitcase that my mother lent me the weekend before.  Before I left I made sure the smaller suitcase would fit in the larger suitcase.

The first leg of the flight was from SeaTac to Atlanta on a 727. I normally get to the airport fairly early so I have a shot at an exit row seat. Unfortunately I wasn't quite early enough; when I got there the only exit row seats were center seats; I stayed with the window seat I had. Unfortunately as it happened my seat was right between the 2 exit rows and wouldn't recline. When the fellow in front of me reclined I had very little space between me and the back of his seat. I was able to nap but not very much. The next flight (from Atlanta to Nashville) was on a 757 and I was able to get a window seat on an exit row (actually it was not just an exit row; I also faced the bulkhead so I had no seats in front of me). As it happened that flight was nearly empty. When they boarded they allowed first class customers first and then they allowed all rows. I don't remember the last time I was on a flight that was so empty that they could do that.

It was only a 40 minute flight so again I didn't nap. The arrival was fairly quick. I headed over to the National Car Rental counter to pick up my rental car (National Car Rental has a deal with the National Corvette Museum (NCM) where they will allow cars to be dropped off there with the only charge being the one-way fee from the airport to Bowling Green. (Bowling Green's airport only has business and chartered flights). I left Nashville at around 12:30. A little over an hour later I was pulling off of I65 onto Exit 28 in Kentucky (the exit for the NCM and the factory). I saw the NCM from the highway and picked a nearby hotel (Best Western). Due to the NCRS meet ( National Corvette Restorers Society ) that weekend they could not commit to a room for two nights at that late hour. I'd need to check again in the morning. I asked for a 7 AM wakeup call and retired to my room. In the room I set the alarm clock for 6:30. I didn't trust just one alarm; I slept through my alarm at home that morning (I set my alarm for 6:30 but slept till 9:30). The NCM opened at 8 AM, the first tour at the factory was at 9 AM (the other is at 1 PM). I wanted to be at the NCM at 8 AM.

Next (Day 2)

Next (Day 2)