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My wife Kate and I are from Switzerland...
...and we have owned our 69 for a couple of years now. We’ve done our fair share of road trips, among them tours through parts of France, Italy, Germany, England and Scotland, mostly in small groups of good friends, some on our own. Inspired by Jack’s Corvette Vagabond trips through the US and Europe, we started dreaming of taking the red convertible to the US one day… so…
…on a snowy day (of all days we had to choose the only one in weeks where it snowed) in November last year, we drove the Corvette to a harbor in Northern Germany, stuffed it in a ship and had it transported over the Atlantic and Pacific ocean, after which it was dropped off in L.A. A couple of things had to be done to the car to get it in decent shape, a good friend in the area is currently taking care of that.
The actual trip will start and end in the city of angels between May 28 and June 25. After that, the Corvette will return back home to Switzerland. The whole thing is planned as a round trip, taking us from L.A. to Vegas, through the Bryce Canyon area, Salt Lake City, through Yellowstone. From there we will hang a left and cross over to Seattle. After that obviously the ultimate tourist route, Highway 1 all the way back down to L.A., with a break of a whole week north of the Golden Gate to catch our breath in between.
It’s a good thing we didn’t know what we would be up against organizing the whole thing. E.g. trying to get insurance from a US company for a car registered in Switzerland and the driver/owner a non-resident. That was a PITA to arrange. We also had to make sure that we wouldn’t have to pay import taxes in the US because without the proper paperwork we would have had to deposit 50% of the cars estimated value upon entry. And lots of similar fun stuff to keep us busy for the past months. Fortunately, we got everything sorted out and we’ll be able to legally drive the car with Swiss license plates (wonder if those will catch the attention of some highway cops) through the Western States.
If you’re interested I will be posting updates and pictures of our trip as we’re moving along. And if you happen to see a couple in a red 69 convertible, frantically taking pictures all the time, that would be us.
We couldn't postpone it any longer. We needed to drop the Corvette off to get ready for our return. One last trip through Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
After almost 4500 miles, the Corvette decided it was time for one more unplanned stop only 50 miles from our final destination. What's missing in this picture?
Yep, one last nasty bump on the Freeway and the bracket holding the right muffler finally gave up. There was a bang and a huge racket. We were in the car pool lane, waved frantically, and crossed 5 lanes to catch an exit. At the bottom I investigated the damage.
The tube was badly banged up and bent out of shape. I tried for an hour to get it back on but it was useless. I finally gave up and we drove the last miles making a little more noise than usual.
Garry laughed when we parked in front of his garage. But we made it. Lucky for us, there seems to be a lot less to repair on the car than we feared. The shifter linkage really seems just to be an adjustment thing. The muffler will be put back on, the parking brake handle needs to be replaced and the the engine needs a tune up, that's about it. Even with the clutch problem we had, the Corvette held up pretty good. We never needed AAA and we were able to drive every single mile we had planned on this trip.
Would we do it again? In a heartbeat, without blinking an eye. Kate and I had the time of our life. We picked up our rental pick up, drove back to Santa Monica to spend the night, shopped till we dropped and flew back to Switzerland.
This, dear friends of the Corvette Community, was the story of a Swiss couple doing a little road trip through the West of the United States in a convertible 69 (of course red) Corvette. Thank you all for following, giving us tipps, meeting some of you in person and making new friends.
WOW, this is really awesome. My bucket list to drive my corvette in the lower 48 and as many Canadian provinces as I can hit. I am jealous and envious. Keep posting and enjoy. Really cool
Hi Martin,
INTERESTING trip!
While you're near St. Lake City you should at least consider a side trip to see the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Sadly there likely won't be anything going on because SCTA Speed Week is in August.
STILL, quite an unbelievable sight!
Regards,
Alan
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C1 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2017 Corvette of the Year Finalist
2016 C2 of Year
2015 C3 of Year Finalist
Sounds like a great trip Martin. Jack would be proud of you. We actually kicked off both of Jack's trips here at my house on Cape Cod Mass. Looking forward to the pictures of your trip. Have a great trip
Thanks for including us in your great adventure.
You are creating priceless memories, that you can fall back on for the rest of your lives.
Have a fun and safe trip.
Take Rt12 from Bryce to Torrey UT. Stay at Austins Chuck Wagon Lodge in Torrey and visit Capitol Reef National Park. I did this two years ago and it is a spectacular drive (even in a rental car....)
We took the family out in 2013 (kids at 19 and 21) - had wanted to do it for years and finally had the chance. Gorgeous country. Can't wait to get back to UT and see more.
Looks like North rim of the Grand Canyon - excellent choice. I know you've got things pretty planned out, but Canyon de Chelley is a very interesting place, and there is this tunnel in to Zion... sounded fabulous when The Plastic Pig and I went through it.
Butte, Montana? Looks like that's on your route. A very interesting place, highly recommend taking the 'underground' tour.
My daughter lives in Helena, MT; I'll pass you her contact information if you need it.
PS: If you've not been to a rodeo, it is well worth your while.
Last edited by Dirty Dalton; 03-30-2016 at 09:35 PM.
What an awesome trip you have planned! Always love the pictures from Europe. I bet you don't see to many there. You getting so close to Canada, I would encourage you cross the border! Anyway have a great time. Looking forward to pics and videos!
Sounds like a blast. I admire your sense of adventure and you picked a beautiful part of the country. So many amazing things to see.
You might consider Glacier National Park, just north of Missoula. Of course, if you made all of the dozens of 100 mile jaunts off your route (like Bonneville, as Alan suggested) that you'd never make it home. Enjoy, and post lots of pics so we can be jealous.
Thank you guys. As you guessed, lot's of details are worked out, but many are not. We're grateful for any tips along the way, even though it is already clear that we won't stand a chance to do all the things we want to do. It's a small miracle that we're able to stay away from work for so long. If we would have been able to choose freely, we would have taken 3 months. But life is full of compromises. Still, we're excited like little kids before christmas.
Small things: We didn't want to carry mundane airplane luggage in our Corvette for the trip and found these on a local flea market recently: Soft carry on bags which were popular here in Switzerland in the 60s and 70s to carry roller skates or soccer gear. Somehow fitting we think and they can be squeezed in nicely into the space behind the seats.
Pics will of course follow.
About Canada: As much as we would like to sneak accross the border, our insurance only covers the US. Plus it would mean "exporting" and "reimporting" the car. Life is complicated for us foreigners .
Bonneville, Rodeo, Glacier, etc. we'll check it out . We are taking Route 12 to Torrey, that's already planned. The first thing we're going to do ist this though: When we were in L.A. last year, we rented a C2 for a day and blasted over Mullholland and a piece of PCH. We're going to repeat that on the first day in "our Corvette" (the 64 was pretty ratty). Here's a short video we took on that day:
Very cool road trip!
I got to see the world via the Marine Corps.
No corvette ride there for sure Ha Ha.
Welcome to the USA in advance.
The mid west is amazing, I back packed through a small portion of it
in the 1970's.
It is the youngest part of America. It didn't get going till 1840's.
If you ever come to Philadelphia, PA, I can show you where it all began.
Have a safe tripp and please post as you go.
I will be checking in often
A life time experience for sure.
I was in Switzerland briefly in 1978 for a school trip.
It was beautiful in April.
I saw one silver 1978 corvette in Germany and almost died.
Marshal
03-30-2016, 12:34 PM
US West Road Trip in a 69 from Switzerland
) in November last year, we drove the Corvette to a harbor in Northern Germany, stuffed it in a ship and had it transported over the Atlantic and Pacific ocean, after which it was dropped off in L.A. A couple of things had to be done to the car to get it in decent shape, a good friend in the area is currently taking care of that.
Looking forward to the chronicle!
