My father (Slim - nickname I gave him in 1978) and I flew out early on Veterans Day 2015 to pick up my new 2016 long beach metallic red Corvette Stingray at the National Corvette Musuem (NCM). It was the perfect day and half. We did this back in February 2011 when we picked up my 2011 Corvette Grand Sport and took the museum delivery when I called the blog post - Three Perfect Days With Slim.
Thanks to Bill, President of the Old Dominion Corvette Club, for sending me this photo the day I was taking delivery.
Above is me and Slim in front of my Stingray holding my NCM sign.
What was absolutely amazing was running into long time friend and former Sun Microsystems employee - Steve B. Steve was there with his brother-in-law and just happened to be at the NCM when my father and I were there. Steve and I were at Corvettes At Carlisle together this past August where both of us were looking at purchasing a new Stingray.
Above is the front side view and below is the rear view of the Stingray where you can see that the NCM can easily deliver nine new Corvettes on a given day.
We got a great tour of the Corvette Assembly Plant by Larry of the NCM staff. What was SUPER COOL was the 20 assembly plant employees who stopped what they were doing to run over and thank my father, Lt. Col. John K. Edstrom, for his service to his country. He was very thankful and it showed the absolute class of these employees. My father did two tours of duty in Vietnam and is the USAF record holder for CLL (39 years).
One of the very cool things they did for my father is they pulled him off the tour (we had a private tour) and he "birthed" or started for the first time a $105,000 Corvette Z06. As Slim pointed out, "how many veterans get to birth a Z06 ON Veterans Day?"
One of the things we wanted to find was our 2011 brick when I purchased my Grand Sport.
Above is Larry showing me the many different features of the 2016 Stingray. Bill also sent me this photo.
Above is the new brick at the NCM for my 2016 Stingray trip with my father.
What Slim and I wanted to see before we left was the Sinkhole Exhibit. Above are three photos of the Corvettes that could not be restored and below is the glass covering of the 56' hole where the sinkhole bottomed out.
We met Wendell Strode, also a former Vietnam Veteran and the person who runs the NCM, when my father rode out of the NCM in the Stingray.
Below is my father and I leaving the NCM. We drove 400 miles that night and stopped at about 1am and were on the road again by 6:20am the next day. I followed the NCM's advice by keeping the tach between 2 and 3 grand and changing the speed as well as keeping the Stingray out of economy mode as well as keeping rev matching off.
Above the Stingray is safely home next to my 2011 Grand Sport :-)
Above is me on November 11th, 2016 pointing out my and my father's Stingray brick when I was with John Meyer for his delivery of his 2017 Grand Sport.
