Shuffle off to Buffalo
CORSA International Convention
Part 1: On the Road
July 24, 2006
Today was a day of travel for our family. It was kind of like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory; we managed to take a four and a half hour trip, according to Mapquest, and stretch it to about eight and a half hours.
Fortunately, nothing fell off any trailers. I think.
I got up early this morning and got the coupe loaded on the trailer. Our plan was to meet up with VV member Dave Fierek and his girlfriend, Kim, were planning on meeting us in the Flint area. Since they were starting out at St. Ignace (on the other side of the Mackinac Bridge), we weren't going to rush out of the door right away. So I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the cars before they got covered with road dust and bug juice.
I made Joy drive the Suburban. She was a real trooper about it and had no problems at all. Allison and Caitlin, my two daughters piled in with mom, while Jake and Seth rode with me in the ragtop.
As planned, we hooked up with Dave and Kim in Flint.
Dave has three Corsa convertibles. The one he was driving was a very solid southwestern car and was almost completely original. He was pulling a teardrop trailer that he built himself. If you are attending the convention and you get the chance to check out the trailer, by all means do. It's quite a nice piece of workmanship.
Here's a shot of us ready to depart from lovely Flint:
We took a steady pace of about 60 mph and got our doors blown off by everything else on the highway. The drive was long but uneventful. Going over the Blue Water Bridge at Port Huron was spectacular, and Hamilton, Ontario was absolutely beautiful. Canada is a neater, cleaner country than the good ole USA.
Maybe forty-five minutes from the New York border we were passed by a Corsa with Oregon plates. I'm not sure whose car that was, but he had a long drive!
Here's a blurry shot my youngest daughter got of us passing through customs in New York:
We arrived at the Adam's Mark at about 9:00 p.m. There were many Corvairs out front. One was Ron Tinkham's beautiful late convertible. I have seen several familiar faces already even though we haven't had much time to do anything except get settled in. It was a long day, but we arrived safe and sound, and we're looking forward to a great week.