11.16.13 Corvette Assembly Plant and National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY

Next on our field trip list was the Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, KY.  Some may know and some may not know that Roy and I owned two corvettes back at different times in our younger wilder days so this was a tour we really looked forward to.

There are signs posted all around the walkway to the plant saying that you cannot bring in a purse, bag, camera, electronic device, cell phone, etc.  So what do I discover is in my pants pocket when we get inside and are waiting for the tour – my cell phone.  Honest I didn’t mean to bring it and was so afraid someone would catch me and kick me out.  I turned it off and didn’t once take a picture. The pictures I have below were from after the tour and we were on our way back to the car.

This plant is the coolest, cleanest, most interesting place we’ve been to.  We got to walk through the plant seeing the assembly line from the beginning to the end where a completed corvette rolled off the assembly line ready fo r its new owner.  The only place we couldn’t go into was the paint shop which they do first so the cars we saw being assembled were already painted, mostly black, white, red, yellow and a few blue.  Crisp, beautiful Corvette colors!  It was amazing to watch the car go through the many steps in the process.

Especially cool was when the body gets married to the drive train and are no longer two parts but one car!  These 2014 Corvette Sting Rays are very special and it was quite a privilege to get to watch some being built.  They complete 173 cars a day and they are only built if they are already sold. If you buy one you can come to the plant in Kentucky and go through the build process with your car.  If you have the money to buy one of these fine cars you probably have the money to go there to see it made!

When the cars are complete they are wrapped up before being shipped out.  A couple of the pictures below show that.    

I would highly, highly recommend this fantastic tour to anyone interested in seeing a beautiful car being assembled!

We went next across the street to the National Corvette Museum where they have on display Corvettes as old as 1953 the first year they made them.  Several of the models are displayed in scenes depicting the era they were made in.  You’ll see this in the pictures.

Many of the Indy 500 Corvette pace cars were on display in this upside down cone shaped building that was highly ultra modern.  Every bit of the decor in the whole museum was Corvette styled.

We saw cars in the years of the ones we owned (1971 and 1976) which brought back memories!  Car seats weren’t required back then and we strapped our oldest son (he has requested that we do not use his name) and Chip together in the passenger seat when they were really little and then they sat behind the seat when they got bigger. That is an unthinkable thing to do now but it was considered normal back then.

Remember I said that walking through the Mammoth Caves made my leg muscles hurt? Well you can imagine how they felt after walking through the assembly plant and the museum the next day.  If it hasn’t been such a highlight of our travels I wouldn’t have made it.

Roy was feeling a lot better when we did all this in one day or we wouldn’t have done all this.  We’re thinking his case of shingles is a mild one and we’re very thankful for that. Enjoy the pictures and ya’ll come back now ya’ hear!