Road Trip
Finally! We get to the dealership and there she is… showroom condition on the showroom floor. Awesome. I have goosebumps.
Checking out the inside… ooooh, that new car smell. Gotta love it.
After all the paperwork is done, we hit the road! Taking the back roads home from Birmingham is definitely the way to go, especially since you have to be mellow during the break-in period. Here is a shot from the “Welcome to Mississippi” rest stop… a rest stop for us and the car.
Love the lines of this car, from any angle.
We drove from Birmingham, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi for the first day. There we stayed with a friend overnight. I took him for a ride along the lake with the coupe top down and Boston blaring from the stereo… what an awesome ride. That night we had seafood at a place called, and I’m not making this up… “Wholly Mackarel”. Yup.
The next day we picked up the Natchez Trace just outside of Jackson. During the first 500 miles you are not supposed to exceed 55 mph, which normally would not be very difficult. But in a Corvette? Trust me, it wasn’t fun getting passed by everyone. But it was even worse getting passed by a semi hauling someone’s new doublewide oversized load trailer. Grrr.
Anyway, no trucks are allowed on the Natchez Trace, plus the speed limit (strictly enforced, according to the paperwork we read) is 50 mph. So I figured it was a safe road to take. It actually was very scenic, with lots of nice winding roads (Corvettes are made for curves) and the occasional open field (Corvettes are made for straight-aways). We were there early enough in the morning that we saw several deer, including two does with fawns. Beautiful.
We dropped off of the Trace and headed south to Baton Rouge where we met another friend for lunch. I gave him a ride around the University Lakes. (Corvettes were made for the road around university lakes.) At this point the car has actually been broken in; we rolled over 500 miles somewhere just outside of Baton Rouge.
We spent that afternoon showing off the car to some of my wife’s relatives in the area, then met up with the Oakdale High School football team and band. (My wife’s alma mater.) We watched them destroy a team in New Roads (I think the final score was 48 – 8, or something like that) and then followed the school bus with the band and our two nieces back to Oakdale.
The Sunset Vette got her first bath there; time to wash off several days worth of road grime, and more importantly, several hours worth of “love bugs”. If you have seen them, you know what I mean. They have to be the most acidic bugs on the face of the earth. Gross, plus they eat away at the paint on your car.
Two days later and it’s home to Dallas, Texas. Would you believe that a car of this caliber can get over 30 miles per gallon on the highway? It’s almost too good to be true! I got the six speed manual transmission in her, and in sixth gear at 70 miles per hour it runs between 1200 and 1500 RPM. Trust me, it’s an incredible experience. Want to pass someone? Drop it down into fifth and goose it a few seconds, then back to sixth and into “cruise mode”. (Corvettes were made for “cruise mode”.)
For the entire trip from Birmingham, Alabama to Dallas, Texas, we averaged about 25 miles per gallon. Of course holding the speed under 55 did help during the break-in period, but the best mileage came on the cruise back home in sixth gear.
Ready to run now!
Read the specs or find out why she’s called the Sunset Vette.