The National Corvette Museum is in Bowling Green Kentucky and close enough to where we were staying in Nashville for us to zip on over to.

Welcome to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky

Even the Bathrooms are designed with Corvettes!

I have LOVED Corvettes since they first came out in 1953. Yes. I am that old. I was around 6 when they came out. But my cousin Don, who I adored and still do, was 10 and a sports car fanatic. So if Don loved the Corvette, so did I. That love has never ceased.

My 1981 Vette looked just like this one!
Photo Credit: Internet

I have been a very lucky girl to have owned two Corvettes in my life. My first was a 1981 Vette that I got about a year after we moved to Florida in 1983. It was a Special Edition, two tone Beige and Bronze with T tops. I was in heaven and drove that car every chance possible. I would have kept it forever. However in 1987, after putting in a new air conditioner, our son Brian suggested that I test drive the new ’87 Vette. OMG! All I did was turn the key. When that digital dashboard lit up I was sold.

At that point I had to decide what color I wanted. That was easy. My cousin Don had a mid 60s Corvette in Medium Metallic Blue and that was a new color for 1987. It was a no brainer. Finding one that color was not so easy. The first couple of Chevy dealers we went to had one or two Corvettes in stock.

My 1987 Corvette looked just like this one
Photo Credit: Internet

And then we went to Roger Dean. Our salesman was a true Corvette enthusiast with tons of knowledge to impart on us. When he took us to the lot he pointed to two rows of Vettes in a rainbow of colors. My Medium Metallic Blue Corvette stood out like a beacon. It was sooooooo gorgeous! Even the interior was that color. I proudly drove it off the lot and enjoyed every second behind the wheel for several years. When we opened Affairs to Remember Catering the two seater became too impractical. So sadly I had to kiss the car goodbye. But my two Corvettes will always remain my two favorite cars that I have ever owned.

1953 Corvette Cutaway using the 3rd car built.

Side view of the 1953 Corvette #003

How the Corvette was named.

And armed with that knowledge you can now understand why I was so excited to visit the National Corvette Museum and take a trip down memory lane.

The original insignia was not legal and needed to be replaced.

The 1953 Corvette insignia

Presenting the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette

Andy Pilgrim’s race helmut from 2001

On loan from Lance Miller is this beauty

The National Corvette Museum is a vast facility filled with Corvettes and more. It is everything you would expect from an national icon like the Corvette. It was also filled with history and concept cars, celebrity’s Vettes and racing Vettes.

Corvette Tragedy of 2014

What I did not expect to learn about was that there had been a huge catastrophe there in 2014. How could I have missed the fact that on February 12, 2014 at 5:39 AM the National Corvette Museum Skydome had collapsed and 8 valuable Corvettes had fallen into that sinkhole? To me that was a tragedy of epic proportions. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not silly enough to believe that it was worse than what we are experience now, with so many dying from Covid!)

Some of those demolished Corvettes that fell into the sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum

And a couple more

This is the 1 Millionth Corvette and was restored after it fell into the sinkhole in 2014

Including in the wreckage was a 1962 “Black Corvette”, 1984 PPG pace car, 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil”, the 1992 white “1 millionth Corvette”, 1993 ruby red “40th Anniversary Corvette”, 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette, 2009 white “1.5 Millionth Corvette and a 1993 ZR1 Spyder. The 20 foot deep by 40 foot wide hole was caused by the collapse of a cave roof in a breakout dome just below the museum. At the time it was project that it would cost $3.2 million to fill ing the sinkhole!

They were able to restore a couple of those Vettes but the rest remain on display in their destroyed condition.

And here she is with her top up.

Also on display at the National Corvette Museum is the Entombed Corvette. In 1954, Richard Sampson of Brunswick, Maine, bought a brand new Corvette. After 5 years of driving the car he was disappointed to learn that his wife didn’t enjoy riding in it with him. At that point he no longer wanted to drive it. At the time he was building a new building for his chain of grocery stores and decided to have the Corvette sealed in a brick tomb within the new store. His will had specified that the car was not to be removed from the tomb until 2000. But shortly before his death in 1969 he removed that stipulation from his will.

In 1982 the store was sold and the new owners asked that the Corvette be removed. In 1986 Richard’s daughter, Cynthia, too possession of the car and moved it to her living room for another 10 years! The Corvette remains in the same condition it was in when it was removed from the tomb in 1986.

A couple of 1967 sweet rides

1967 was the least adorned of the “mid-years” 1963-1967

Heavy Metal Customs create artistic cars and trucks, including Corvettes

This one is known as the Bubble Ray

This customized Corvette was used in the movie Transformers Crosshairs

Here at the National Corvette Museum are cars through the ages as well as custom designs and Corvettes used in movies.

I just love this Cherry Red beauty!

This was Roy Orbison’s little red Corvette

This stunner belonged to Country star George Jones

2020 Corvette Stingray

We Corvette lovers are a dedicated and loyal bunch!