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10,000 miles in road trips this season; A Tribute to the C5
CAUTION: LONG POST!
As a small intro to this tale, were able to take the C3 CE last year out to Estes Park, CO, with numerous day drives through the mountains, up to Wausau, WI to see Carlos Mencia, down to Champaign, IL twice to see the group America and then Frank Caliendo, and a final trip up the lower peninsula of MI. The car was completely comfortable for me, even on the 1,000 mile straight drive to Estes from Tinley Park, IL. For that drive, my Wife flew to Denver and then took the shuttle to Estes. She did do a 700 mile day on the way home. She told me she would like a little more room, but other than that, the car was cool.
On a whim, at my dealer / shop, I took a C5 for a test drive. I did not think I would really like it, I’ve never been all that fond of the C5 body. However… Boy, did I LIKE that car on the test drive!!!!! It was as roomy inside as my BMW 540i, the seats just as comfortable as the Bimmer’s, and the noise level almost as quiet.
I had to have one! My shop looked for about a month for a really primo, low mileage, completely loaded with every option C5 for me, and a week before my birthday, sent me a photo of the car you see here, a gorgeous 2002 coupe in pewter. The car had just 23,300 miles on it, came with every option possible, one prior owner, and was maintained very well with records.
I rushed to the shop, took a test drive, and was immediately hooked. We negotiated what was to me a very fair price, considering that they threw in two new idler pulleys, a new harmonic balancer, and an allowance for 4 new tires, which came in handy when I bought TSW Nurburbring wheels a month later. They also changed every fluid from front to rear. They delivered the C5 to me ON my Birthday, March 30th. What a birthday present.
I immediately took my Wife for a ride, she was impressed with how much more room she had, a seat that could recline, and the fantastic adjustable lumbar support. She had one telling comment… She said “I could really travel in this car”
I took that as a suggestion, so, a mere month later, we took off in the Pewter C5 for Niagara Falls, taking the north border crossing through Port Huron to avoid the Detroit area. Canadian roads are nicely paved, with not that much traffic all the way to Niagara. Canadian drivers are polite, and most of them go about 15 KM over the ridiculously low speed limit of 100 KPH in the province of Ontario. I had read that the Ontario Provincial Police were sticklers about that, especially with Americans, so I kept my speed at just 9 KPH over the posted limit. I did not have any trouble with the OPP, even when I drove past a couple radar cars. I actually never saw the OPP with a vehicle pulled over.
We stayed at the very nicely appointed Embassy Suites Niagara Fallsview, with our tenth story L-shaped room overlooking both the Canadian and American falls. The view was stunning, and with the windows open, we could hear the crashing rumble all night long. They also light up the falls every night with colored spotlights for several hours.
Niagara Falls is magnificent in every way. It is powerful, majestic, and awe inspiring. We spent many hours on several occasions, just sitting next to the falls, FEELING the thunder and roar of the 700,000 Gallons Per SECOND that go over the combined American and Canadian falls. That is one fifth of the entire world’s fresh water supply!
Being that the falls are the main, and pretty much only attraction, the town of Niagara Falls is not that special. There are some great restaurants though, and we ate 2 times at the Copacabana Brazilian steakhouse right across from our hotel. We didn’t intend on doing that, but the food and service was so exceptional in every way on our first visit, that we changed our dinner plans for our last of 6 nights there and ate there again.
Here is one photo on a somewhat gloomy and overcast day of the the Canadian Falls from our hotel room:
We also took 2 day trips to Toronto, where we encountered the only real traffic while in Ontario. Getting into the heart of Toronto was pretty much like rush hour getting into Chicago. Once we got off the highway though, traffic settled down.
While in Toronto, we did something we have never done before, as I always considered it a little, well, “pedestrian”, that being a two-decker bus tour. It actually turned out to be very interesting, educational, informative and fun. Our tour company’s plan was a 2 hour tour of old Toronto (if you stayed on the bus just for the motor tour), but, it made about 20 stops where you could get off and explore some of the features and locations presented by the tour guide. We did that at several of the stops, including exploring a castle that was once inhabited by the owner of the entire city of Toronto’s electric supply company, sadly stolen from him directly by the city at one point.
The tour company actually runs about 10 buses continuously along the route, so when you are done exploring, you simply wait at the tour bus stop until the next bus pulls in, and get back on to continue the tour. Doing this several times, we spent a pleasant 7 hours total seeing different locations and historic buildings. I would highly recommend something like this if you have a limited time to visit a new big city.
Upon leaving Niagara, we returned to the US by way of Buffalo, then, instead of heading west on I-90 back towards Chicago, we went east, as I wanted to drive the C5 through the Allegheny and Appalachian mountains. We did just that, taking the interstate part of the time, and US and State routes the other part of the time.
The C5 performed flawlessly, easily swallowing both the long swooping curves and tighter one-eighties that abounded as we wended our way SW encountering magnificent scenery and mountain views. Numerous elevation changes took us up and down from one sweeping vista to another and another and yet again, on and on is if to infinity.
We eventually veered west to stay a night in Charleston, WV. From there we turned the C5 west, to rendezvous with Route 52 in Ohio, which parallels the mighty Ohio River. It is a great driving road, paved well, little traffic, with long sweeping curves, quite often with a view of the Ohio River. This took us up to the bypass around Cincinnati, and on to Hamilton, Ohio, to visit my Wife’s brother, a senior professor at Miami University.
From there, a quick drive home ended the C5’s first road trip.
During the summer months of June and July, we contented ourselves with numerous day trips with the C5, and then a week up in Lake Geneva, WI. My family owned a house there on the lake for about 45 years, but when my mother passed away, my two brothers and I, after seeing that the place needed about $75,000.00 in repairs, siding, windows, and upgrades, decided that we would sadly have to sell the beloved cottage. It worked out in the end though, as the new owner is very amenable to us renting the house when he is not using it, for next to nothing, and he has begun some of the upgrades it was begging for. The money we saved and made on the sale would pay for numerous big vacation elsewhere, pretty much for the rest of our lives. It was good to be back there, with years and years of memories for all of us.
The next adventure with the C5 was to head out to Estes Park again, to base there in August, in order to have easy and quick access to southern Wyoming for the total solar eclipse. We did the 1,000 miles straight through together, with Suzi Q sleeping for about 9 hours of the 14 hour drive. That’s how comfortable the C5 was for her! The only way this drive works is for me to back up my sleep so that I get up at midnight on Saturday night, take a cold shower, drink a couple of diet Mountain Dews, and hit the road at 1:00 on Sunday morning. As you get deeper into the night, there is no traffic, no construction, and no traffic cops. You can literally go sometimes 10-15 minutes without seeing another vehicle in either direction.
We arrived in Estes, checked into our hotel, then spent a few days enjoying Rocky Mountain National Park, and all the great mountain roads in the area. Dinners at some of our favorite restaurants were universally perfect, and the sunset over the mountains is always beautiful. Now for the eclipse!
We had already rented a room 6 months ahead in Casper, WY, for two nights, the night before the eclipse, and then again to stay the day of the eclipse. This proved to be a well chosen plan, as we heard and saw on the news the night of the eclipse that the drive back down to the Estes or Denver area was more than 16 hours, with all the Coloradans who drove up to Wyoming the day of the eclipse trying to make their way back home.
The eclipse itself is mesmerizing, phenomenal, awe-inspiring, and a little spooky in an ethereal sort of way. It is like the sun going down, but in super accelerated time. It takes about an hour for the sun’s disk to be completely occluded by the moon from the time you see the first shadow crossing the radius of the sun. It gets so dark, you can perfectly see all the stars and planets, and it helped that we were outside of town a ways to avoid light pollution. At total occlusion, there is the tiniest of the suns corona all the way around the moon, a bright ring that shimmers a bit in a ghostly fashion.
It is weird to have complete midnight blackness in the middle of the day. The animals all get fooled into thinking it is night time, and start going to sleep. Where we were, there were about 100 other people parked randomly in the park we were in. It became so quiet you could literally hear a pin drop. If people spoke at all, it was in low whispers, so as not to disturb the magnificent circumstances of three heavenly bodies lining up perfectly to create this wonderfully beautiful apparition. We were all a little sad when it was completely over, and felt a little bit like the wind was taken from our sails. One of my coolest trips to the mountains.
Here is the car on one of the pullouts on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park:
To continue the 2017 road trip year, we headed down to Cherokee, NC for two reasons: One, the Doobie Brothers were playing at the casino there, and two: We would plan our path home to include Bowling Green, KY for what else other than the National Corvette Museum. I have never been there, and eagerly looked forward to both segments of this trip.
Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina are beautiful states to drive through. At this time of year, the fall colors are just starting, but most of the foliage is still thick, rich and verdant. Driving through Great Smoky National Park, Nantahala National Forest, and the Cherokee National forest all offer mile upon mile of vistas of beauty that are hard to describe without falling victim to overuse of adjectives. The Blue Ridge Parkway offers up its own version, with the lower speed limit making you slow down and enjoy the scenery, and I got a feeling of John Lennon “Instant Karma” in this place where God really exists with the care he took to put this lovely area together.
The Doobie Brothers are always great, and my Wife actually won a solid $245.00 take-home from the casino. I have her on a new plan when she plays the one-armed bandits: Whenever she is up about $35.00, I have her cash out, hand me her winnings which I keep in a special spot, and she is then free to re-use the original $20.00 she started with. When she is up again, she does the same thing, and I amass her winnings and hand them to her at the end of the night. If she loses $20.00 two times, she quits for the night.
Heading towards home, we deviated a little bit from the shortest route to Chicago, and holed up in Bowling Green, KY to visit the NCM. It is an impressive sight even from the outside as you arrive, the skydome visible from a good distance. Not at all crowded (we went early on a Monday morning), we were able to take our time and soak in the cars and the information and the memorabilia and… the heartbreaking video and other presentations of the horrible cave-in. To gaze down into the remainder of the sinkhole, and see how deep that really is, makes you stop and appreciate the fact that the whole structure didn’t come down. What are the real life odds that the NATIONAL CORVETTE MUSEUM was built DIRECTLY over the karst landscape that caused this horrendous event in Corvette history?
All-in-all, a very educational and entertaining 5 hours for us. We will go back the next time we have reason to be traveling through the area.
Our last big trip for 2017 involved a scoot down to the Kansas Star Casino and Theater south of Wichita, KS, to see one of our favorite comedians, Larry the Cable Guy. Although this drive is pretty flat and not scenic at all, I still enjoyed the super competence of the C5 Corvette as a touring car. The trunk area is enormous compared to the C3, taking almost as much luggage as the BMW 540i, it is comfortable, quiet, handles like a dream, and really is a handsome, cool, and sexy looking vehicle. I think the style is eternal and still elegant, even for a 15 year old car.
From Wichita we took a small diversion down to Tulsa, OK, to visit my “adoptive” sister. When I attended Spartan Flight School in Tulsa way back in 1976-1978, I actually lived in the home of one of my fellow students, a divorced mom who was also studying the commercial pilot course. She needed some additional income after her divorce, and thus my flight school partner and I rented a bedroom from her. We actually became members of the family, and her daughter, Kathy, became my “Little Sister”. Her own older brother was estranged from the family, and I became her confidant and “Big Brother” during her dating years. We became quite close, and when I called her to let her know we would be stopping in to see her and her husband, she was ecstatic. I had never been able to get back down to Tulsa to see her in all those years, had been talking to Suzi, my Wife, about Kathy, her mom Dot, and her two brothers for years, so I got to see my sister and have her and my wife finally meet.
When we arrived, Kathy and I hugged for probably 2 minutes straight with tears in our eyes, introductions were made all around, and from that moment, it seemed like we had never been apart. We all talked like old friends for hours and hours, had pizza, some wine, and I have never been so glad I planned a trip in my life. Suzi and I left Tulsa, now lifelong friends with my sister and her husband.
So, those were our travels in the C5 for 2017, each rewarding in its own way, each showcasing a different area of our beautiful United States of America, and, on each, my C5 Corvette performed flawlessly, even attaining 24.0 MPG exactly during the Wichita / Tulsa trip, that including numerous miles driven stop-and-go around Wichita and Tulsa. I consider that to be fantastic considering that this wonderful car is America’s premier sports car.
Next year, we plan on going all out with the C5, with a long trip up to Maine and portions of the east coast, then all the way opposite, to the west coast and up into Oregon and Washington. I can’t wait for those trips! I picture in my head the C5 taking those beautiful forested Maine roads, and then all the magnificence of the mountains, deserts, and coastal roads out west.
We put a little over 10,000 miles on the C5 from March 30th, the day I picked it up, until a few days ago when I put the Sta-Bil in the tank and filled her up, put her cover on, and hooked up the charger. If we get clear weather with no snow and thus no nasty salt on the roads, I will drive it throughout the winter, as I have done with the C3 and my Harleys.
After this driving season with the 10,000 miles plus under my belt, I have come to the awesome conclusion that this is actually my favorite automobile of all time. That is saying a lot, as I have owned BMW M3’s, several Cadillacs, the C3, and my daily driver, a BMW 540i. The C5 is a SUPERB touring vehicle in every way. I am glad I took that
test drive... And, I must say, I LOVE MY C5!
Last edited by GRAND SPORT GUY; 11-21-2017 at 03:58 PM.
Great tribute to the C5. We enjoy our C5 coupe also and have taken several long trips in it. At 105k miles it has been very reliable. Recently bought a C7 [kept the C5 too] and with a few days of driving C7 still like some things better in the C5. Enjoy that car!
I bought my C5 a week before Thanksgiving 4 years ago. Drove it 1800 miles in 4 days going to see family. Took 101 down the coast from Astoria, OR to San Francisco and took I5 all the way back to Portland.
Averaged 26.8mpg and flogged the hell out of it down the coast and through the redwoods.
Wow! Your birthday is the day after mine. And, I bought my Silver 03 C5 Coupe that day and brought it home after selling my 95 C4.
Still trying to get my head into doing some travels next year in mine as I've just been local so far with the biggest trip to get my son in New Orleans 180 miles from me. My problem is many many years and miles of touring all over North America on Adventure and Sport Touring bikes and the difference in visibility. But, we getting there.
Yeah, I've toured 44 of the lower 48 also on a BMW R100RS, K100RS, K1100RS, and several Harley's. I gotta' say that it pleases me to no end that with the C5, I DON'T have to pull over under an overpass when it starts to rain and put on the rainsuit, gloves, boots, etc!
Just plan a trip and go! It's good for the soul, just as good as it is on two wheels...
11-21-2017, 03:55 PM
10,000 miles in road trips this season; A Tribute to the C5
