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Michelin Bash 2018
National Corvette Museum
Bowling Green KY
April 26-28

Always one of my favorite events, but this year it was a bit disappointing. Even with Shari O'Brien's help we only raised $215 for the American Cancer Society's Bowling Green office. We attribute this to the fact that we could no longer sell 50/50 tickets or draw the winning ticket at the closing banquet.

Thursday, April 26

Departing Decatur AL (early start to avoid Nashville traffic)

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Arrival at NCM

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Setup in lobby

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More outside

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Thursday Evening

Corvette Racing Banquet

NCM Conference Center

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On podium: L-R, Wes Wong, Doug Fehan, Harlan Charles, Lee Willard (Michelin racing tire engineer)

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Back at the Microtel for the night, this was in the parking lot: A Holden Ute, all the way from Australia!

(Click fmi about the Ute)

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Friday, April 27

Fellow Vets with Vettes club member DeWayne Hasencamp signs the hood for his donation to the American Cancer Society.

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GM VP for Performance Cars, Jim Campbell, stopped by for a visit. We met him at Bloomington Gold in 1998, when he had been on the job as Corvette Brand Manager for 2 weeks. 

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Saturday, April 28

A quick walk through the museum before packing up

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Roy Orbison's '67

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Extreme high mileage 2000 C5 - 773,338 miles, on the original engine!

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As always, I checked the status of Sandy's Brick.

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Time to head for home.

Tick

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The Gator!

Coming out of Nashville on I-65, I was slammed by a highway alligator (a tire tread) thrown from a vehicle ahead of me. The first few photos below are screen captures from the dashcam video of the event.

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As you can see from the video, this was not the usual flat alligator, this was still a loop. The crunch as it passed underneath did not bode well. The photos below were taken at Rocket Republic in Madison AL where I stopped for a beer and to assess the damage.

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Permanent damage: serious scuffs on the decal, and the air dam underneath: missing! The scuffs and black smudges on the paint rubbed out. The protection provided by that Stretch Bra is amazing! 

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Back home

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