Corvette Museum

The last time we drove through Kentucky we noticed the Corvette Museum.  Maybe a little interesting, but we decided not to stop.

However, this place got quite a bit more exciting since the last time we came through.  Because - sinkhole!

When we heard that the museum had embraced the tragedy as something to showcase, now this is a destination.  Not a car buff?  No problem, because - sinkhole!

We started the tour looking at a bunch of pretty Corvettes, as would be expected:

A guy handmade this car, quite impressive:

Corvettes through the years:

Zora, the man with the vision on how to make Corvette into an American sportscar brand that could actually compete on the performance side as well:

After a while, the beauty of these babies starts to make an impact (and I'm normally pretty far from caring much about cars):

Futuristic model:

The only remaining 1983 Corvette:

The Corvette "from the future":

The main attraction that brought us here:

After seeing all the pretty cars, watching the security monitor video of the cave-in and seeing the crushed cars being lifted out of the hole was kind of a shock.  But neat that it's on display:

They show the history of the 8 cars that fell in the hole, including at least one that had been donated to the museum.

The sinkhole made the news around the world:

Time to see where it happened!  The floor has been repaired and filled in below with concrete.  We're starting to understand just how many limestone caves might possibly exist in this area, and this room might now be the safest place in that part of Kentucky.

The showroom with a giant red tower in the middle (I didn't get a picture, but they taped the floor to show you the location of the hole, to the right of the tower):

The 8 cars back on display in the same approximate position as before.  The black one on top is one of 3 that were restored:

The one - not so lucky:

But not as bad as this one!

The Mallett Hammer Z06 from the previous picture:

One of those disasters you can't look away from - just incredible.  They had to dig around to even locate a couple of the cars at the bottom of the pile.

It's amazing no one was there when it happened (early a.m.) so it was just the cars in the hole, no people, thank goodness.

Another of the restored cars:

Yep, this museum is totally worth it!

Car Part Art exhibit:

Fun sculptures:

Cute little bugger:

Captain Duck of America?

Eiffel Tires:

"Lovely" ballerina:

The race/test track across the road, where we got to see a bunch of cars zooming around:

And one final sinkhole commemoration - a giant rock that caved in and fell on the cars.  It was removed from the hole and placed in the front of the building with a plaque.  Gotta love it:

Tennessee wanderings

After removing most of our Warrior Dash mud, we hoofed it over to nearby Lewisburg to see the Fainting Goat festival.  Well, they renamed the event "Goats Music & More," perhaps to deemphasize the Myotonic breed of goats also known as the Tennessee fainting goats.  When these goats get frightened they tend to lock up their legs, fall over, and lie still for a few seconds.  Maybe the festival organizers got tired of people running around trying to scare the goats...

In any case, we saw a bunch of adorable animals that like to chew on anything within reach.  Memories of the goat we had when we were kids.  None of the ones we saw fainted, just wanted to report that.

We missed the Myotonic showing but did see the Boers in the afternoon:

"You got anything I can chew on?"  (I think that was the goat talking)

Inquisitive creatures:

Celebrating surviving the Warrior Dash at our favorite muffin place (just outside Nashville):

The next day we finally got over to the Hermitage for a tour:

Andrew Jackson's swords:

My favorite part of AJ's history is the Battle of New Orleans:

A carriage he rode in:

Beautiful garden:

The tomb for Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel (I keep promising John that I'm not actually actively looking for dead presidents, we just keep happening upon them.  No new quests (yet)!):

Well now, this came out quite nicely with the point-and-shoot - not even cropped:

The lovely Jackson mansion:

Demonstrating that I don't know my left from my right:

And now, a few shots courtesy of Roadside America and all the marvelous, strange things you might find while traveling around the country.

Starting with a pink elephant holding a martini.  Because, why not?

On the theme of large animal statues:

Seems like a normal roadside plaque, except the part about the UFO investigation by the military...

Nice mural in Franklin, KY (just barely in KY, for those who noticed we have wandered outside the blog post title):

Excellent horseshoe art:

On the subject of "odd and unusual" we are next headed up the road to a museum.  What's so unusual about that?  Stayed tuned for the next blog post to find out!

Warrior Dash champs

Continuing our trip east, we reached a farm in the middle of rural Tennessee where the championship Warrior Dash races were held this year.  John qualified for the finals in a race near LA earlier in the year, and it sounded like enough fun that I grabbed a slot in a noncompetitive wave as well.  Something a little different!

Heading in Friday afternoon for a course walk-through - Welcome Warriors!:

A fuzzy shot of us "hanging around" at the race site:

The first obstacle, a little warm-up to climb over:

The high wall was a mental challenge for me, just climb and don't look down...

I missed taking photos of the interesting cargo net obstacles during the walk-through, but we were racing an incoming rainstorm (just made it back to the truck before it hit).  Too bad, because most of the course wasn't visible to spectators on race day.

Getting ready for the start of the men's championship wave.  I think John is this close to climbing up the scaffolding to help fix the timer system:

I'm starting to think this is a great place to hang out and document (i.e. gawk at) the event...

And...........

GO!

John passed plenty of people on the running sections, lost some time on the obstacles (but had fun), and had a good run going on the way to the mud pit:

One last dirt pile climb:

Then... stuck in the mud.  Go John, get up out of that mess!  OK, how about now?

Free of one mud suck, slopping into the next one, stuck again:

Finally moving again:

Hanging on for 40th place (out of 200+)- and first place in the imaginary "over 50" age category, nicely done!

That's a soaked and muddy man right there.  Also missing a shoe, although I didn't get a good shot of his feet at the finish:

Found it!  Guess where it was:

Warrior John:

The top men, quite the competition:

Helpful outdoor showers to get the first layer of grime off:

Time for my wave!

Complete with flames above the starting line, too funny:

Heading up the first hill, that's a doozy.

It turns out that I felt like actually racing that day, although I was signed up for a noncompetitive wave (as most of the waves are, after the initial competition in the morning).  Pretty quickly I caught up to the wave ahead of me, spending most of my running time passing as many people as I could, running with a couple other guys doing the same thing.  At the obstacles I was mostly at the same speed as everyone else, everyone helping and encouraging each other, that was fun.  Then I'd take off to see how fast I could get to the next one.

By the last couple obstacles there were fairly long lines, no matter.  The big slide into the water pool was particularly notable for being high and fast - yikes, I mean, whee!  The final pre-mudpit obstacle was a slackline, using an overhead cargo net to keep from falling off (which I could barely reach):

Preparing for a leap into/across the muddy water.  It had helped to watch people here so by this point we knew where the best spot was for not getting stuck (or losing a shoe):

Muddy waters:

And down the slippery path to the finish:

It was a showcase of muddy people, lots of fun to watch:

Entertainment at the mud pit:

Muddy zombies, and this guy apparently did the whole course in the Warrior Dash helmet?  Impressive!

Well, that was something else!  I can't say we're hooked on obstacle racing, but it sure was a fun and muddy way to spend a day.  Thank you Red Frog for the chance to try it!