Ah! Spring at last. Here in the Madison/ Cottage Grove, WI area we had over 101 inches of snow this last Winter. I thought I liked snow but after this last winter I'm not so sure. However the warm weather has returned and it's nice to get out for a drive and see things turning green again.

Around here gas prices are just about at $4.00/ gal. so I'm sure that there are lot's of people who won't be doing the driving like we use to do and do more trip in and around our homes. This Saturday my car club, the www.madcityvettes.com/ will have there kick off picnic and the start to our summer drive season. It'll be great as we have places to go and things to see. We are planning a trip on the old Route 66 this summer which should be a lot of fun. Too bad that only a small part of Rt 66 remains but I'm sure we will still have fun.

There's also lot's of car shows coming up and one of the biggest around here would have to be the Bloomington Gold car show www.bloomingtongold.com/ coming up the end of June.

So let's all get out and enjoy what ever God has given us to enjoy in our different areas of the country.

Well I can finally say winter is almost over. Winter was great until the middle of January. We had had up to that time a very mild winter. I was still driving the Corvette and was thinking that we were going to have a really mild winter and then the cold hit. As low as -10 F and lots of snow. One weekend in Feburary we ended up with over 20 inches of snow. So what does any Corvette owner do? Well for one thing polish the car and then it had a bad slave cylinder on the clutch which I took out and fixed. Then it just sat. Now it looks like in the next week or two I'll be out driving it. Today we are going to hit 50F for the first time this year and I hope to see all the snow gone in a few days. Isn't Spring wonderful!

So now I can start to look forward to all the road trips I have been planning all winter. How nice that gas is now starting to get near $3/gal. again.

Last month I had the pleasure of going to the Volo, Ill Car Museum. Here you will find cars from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. What was your "dream car" when you were a kid? Will it is probably here or they can get you one. Yes that's right because even though they call this place a "museum" almost every car here is for sale. Was your dream a '57 Chevy convertable? They had one. Of coarse nobody could afford it, but it was here none the less. How ever they also had lots of old muscle cars that were very much affordable. Most were in the $20,000 to $35,000 range. And when you concider what you would pay for a band new car, these prices didn't seem that bad.

These cars have been gone over completely and fixed up to like new condition. They had hundreds of cars to chose from. One time when I went they had a '55 Oldsmobile just like my first car that I think I must have owned back in 1962 or '63. My best friend Fred, had a Pontiac Grand Prix in I think 1963 and they had one just a year newer then what He had had. It did have the same 421 cubic inch motor and 4 speed that his had though, and I remember all the trouble He had getting this big engine in the car. Seems like at the time Pontiac didn't think you needed this big of a engine to go to the drive in movie. He also got 3.90 or 4.10 rear end gears in it and could this baby ever move. I think it got 10 mile to the gallon but back then you could get gas easy for $0.25 or $0.30 per gal. Will then you know the next thing He did was fall in love and sold the Pontiac for a Ford Convertable. What us guy's will do for love!

They also had some very nice street rods. Read that as small cars with big engines. Now how ever when you get a car that only get's 10 MPG. you no longer have the cheap gas to put in it. My how the times have changed.

So guy's and maybe a few gal's, if you are looking for that dream car of your youth, Volo, Ill. is the place to go. Can't miss the place either because it's almost on the corner of Highway's 12 and 120 in Volo,Illinois. Then when you get your beautiful "new" car, drive a little bit North to Wisconsin and enjoy the beautiful places we have to see here in Wis.

Corvette Highways didn't go very far today to be sure. I live about 5 miles outside of Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin and the fighting Badgers football team.

Right in the middle of Madison we have this beautiful arboretum that is owned by the UW and which has been left completely undeveloped. Here you can find beautiful native WI tree's of evey kind. Deciduous tree's of many kinds that in just a few weeks well be many beautiful colors of red, yellow, and hews of gold. There is also a pine forest for something to look at in the winter time and all of this opens onto a native prairie area with the flowers and different types of grass that either are in Wisconsin or at one time were in Wisconsin.

Once into the arboretum there are many trails to follow so you can get around and see the sights. When winter gets here most of these trails are cross country ski trails. And lets face it, when winter gets here the Corvette gets parked for a few months so what else is there to do but go hiking or sking. Even us single guys can only look at so much T.V. before we go nuts. It's true we probably wax the Corvette a few time before spring gets here and go thru a bunch of Corvette catalogs, but you still got to get outside and have some fun. Wisconsin is beautiful in the winter to be sure. O.K. the cold does suck!!! but thats why we have the Corvettes to wax.

Other areas have several small ponds. There's also one small lake which you can boat on if you like. But the boats to rent are all sail or paddle, no motors allowed which makes for a very quite experience on the lake. Very peaceful, a real good family experience where you can take the kids and have a good time. And lets face it, if you've got a family you probably can't afford a Corvette so you might as well get out and do something cheap! I can still remember the first fish I ever caught when I was about 9yrs old with my Dad. WOW!! that's 53 yrs ago which is also the first year the Corvette was built. But lets not go there just now.

Well my friends get out and enjoy the good things our Lord has given to us and......

Save the wave

Tom

Sunday Aug. 20th was one of those perfect days when you know you have a outing planned and you hope for nice weather. My car club, The Mad City Vettes, had a trip to Road America planned to see the Generac 500. A road race featuring cars like the Corvette, Aston-Martin and Dodge Viper in one class with top dog cars like the Audi R-10 in another class. Also lots of other makes of race cars as well. These were the world class race cars like you see on T.V. In fact The Speed Channel televised the whole thing.

The drive from Madison to Elkhart Lake, WI is about 100 miles and we must have had about 20 or 25 cars to make the the trip. It's a pretty impressive sight to see that many Corvettes all going up the highway in a long caravan bumper to bumper. The club plans lots of trips like this which gives us members plenty of the things to do as a group.

The trip up there did go a bit faster then the usual 2 hours it's suppose to take but none of us got any tickets so all was well. When we got into the race track itself we got to park in the Corvette Corral with several hundreds of other Corvettes. Name your year and it was probably there. O.K. so the first Corvette came out in 1953 and there weren't any of those but one guy did show up in '56.

So after doing the Brat/Hamburger/Beer/Soda/Maalox thing we headed for the pits which they let you go though to see the cars up close and personal. Can you say "multi million dollar budgets". You can't believe all the equipment, tools, extra parts, electronic and radio equip. for keeping tabs on drivers as well as cars. Oh and by the way, the Perelli Tire Girls weren't too bad either. Can you say "girls old enough to be my daughters".

So after everyone had there walk though of the pits it was pushing 2:00 P.M. and time for the race to start. Most of these cars are so loud a lot of people in the stands were wearing ear protection. However the one exception to this was the Audi R-10. The most powerful car out there and the fastest in its class were diesel powered and so quite you all most could not hear them run. Needless to say that when the Corvettes or Vipers came by not only were they so loud you couldn't even talk but you could feel there rumble right up into your stomach.

Well as the day came to an end, the Corvettes won 1st and 2nd in there class of GT1, which brought the day to a pretty good end ( where did I put the Maalox)

Save the wave

Tom

Not too long ago I was 21 yrs old and got married. Next thing I knew I had a car payment, mortgage on that little dream house and two kids. So the years came and just as fast were gone. One day I woke up to find out I was 57 yrs old. The two kids were gone and I found myself all alone. What's a guy to do? Will buy a Corvette of coarse.

The fisrt Corvette I ever saw was in 1958 at Hults Chevrolet, Madison, Wis. I remember I was in about 7th grade and had to peddle my bike about 4 miles just to sit in that beautiful car. Back then we called them roadsters, now we call them convertables. But that car was for ever burned into my mind never to leave. Now here I was 57 yrs old and if I didn't get a Corvette now I knew I never would.

Since a clean and driveable 1958 Corvette would have been worth it's weight in gold I settled for a beautiful 1995 Coupe. All black with 300 H.P. and 6-speed manual transmission. It might not keep up with the 500 H.P. Corvettes of today but none the less this baby gets up and goes. I finally had my "dream car" and to say the least I wasn't disappointed.

This car has been a blast on trips like the Black Hills and Durango, CO. Then there are all the car shows you can go to and lots of places have cruse nights where lots of people just drive up to show and see cars. Last weekend I went to one of Wisconsins top race tracks, Road America, and had a blast watching race cars do there thing out on the track and then got to walk thru the pits to see the race cars "up close and personal".

So what's the point of all this rambling . Don't ever give up on a dream . Whether it's that dream car or a dream of getting the college degree you never got. Don't let life end with a "I wished I had done that". I know that my wife died too young and with too many things left undone. Don't let that happen to you. As Nike says, "just do it"!!

Save the wave!

Tom