The Best Laid Plans

Penny is a bit of a prima donna. We knew that when we bought her. She likes to be covered when it rains, prefers to have water blown off rather than toweled off, and likes frequent baths. She enjoys having her picture taken, wants (and usually gets) a front row seat at car shows, and is happiest when she is shining in the sun with a full measure of ceramic clear coat (no mere wax for this girl)! She is high tech, and has lots of gadgets, lights and alarms to communicate her needs to her human partners, and like any elite athlete, she expects to have those needs met. So, when she showed us an engine light and began to demonstrate a slow leak from a back tire after our trip to Key West, we listened. After all, we were about to embark on a nearly 12,000-mile trip across the US, coast-to-coast and north to south and we wanted her in tip top shape. Into the Chevy service garage she went to be pampered and polished and have those pesky issued addressed.

This was on Tuesday. We were to leave for our trip Thursday. But how could we have known?

As it turned out, the tire issue was a nail. Penny has very fat, low profile tires, and they love nails. This is the second tire we have bought for her. I should say the first, because we were reimbursed by the roofing company at our Association for the actual first one, since they had so much trouble keeping their roofing nails off our road. But the engine light. Now that was serious. Bob can tell you all the technical terms for this and the service department at our local Chevy dealer was on the ball. What I heard was something in the transmission—a fliberty gibbet with a rubbery gasket thingy and screws that flushing the transmission did not cure. The fix was a series of parts, at least one of which had to come from Somewhere Else and No One Could Tell Us When That Would Be. This had all the makings of a Problem!

You may not know that we have rescheduled this trip twice already. It was first planned for April 2021, to go in the opposite direction, putting us in the northern National Parks sometime in June. But, as we were helping our grandson, Truman, with the challenges of remote high school, we rescheduled the entire trip to June, after he would have completed 11th grade. As the complexities of remote school unfolded, and we came to understand the negative effect Covid was having on education, Truman and his mom, Leigh, learned that Truman only needed 2 more courses to graduate as a senior, and could complete them in summer school. They agreed that would be ideal, so we rescheduled the trip to August to be available to assist through summer classes. Our assistance consisted primarily of waking up a teenager, keeping him awake and making sure he was logged into classes, and turned in work on time—seemingly an easy task, but I defy you to try it. What I learned about the education system this year is that if you weren’t lucky enough to have a stay at home family member, you were doomed to either fight with your child daily or give up on education completely. But at the end of August, baby, we were going to be off to see America!

So now what? First, I looked at the reservations we had already made and determined what we could cancel without penalty. Most of what we think of as the first leg, which begins in Norfolk, Virginia, and ends in Seattle, Washington, was already within the 30-day cancelation window for the National Parks. That meant we could cancel the tours we had booked, but not the hotel reservations. And that added up to about $5,000! Yikes! As a practical matter, we could cancel the first several days of the trip, which was to Bob’s car show in Carlisle, as Airbnb would refund us if we canceled by 3 pm that day. So we did. We also canceled visits to Bob’s relatives in the Erie and Pittsburgh areas as they were preparing get togethers, and we wanted to prevent them from buying food.

Bob was actually taking this better than I was. But the loss of the car show was painful for him. Since I have known him, he has always wanted to have a Corvette in the Carlisle Corvette parade. Last year, it was canceled because of Covid. This year he was going to fulfil that dream! Nevertheless, he was generally calm. I toggled between resigned but frustrated acceptance, and outright fury. “What do you mean, you don’t know when the part will be available? Does the part exist? If yes, throw it in a box and ship it! If no, when will it come off the production line? How many get made in a day? How many are on reserve? When you tell me you have expedited it, what does that mean? I live near the airport. I see the FedEx plane fly in at 6:45 am every day. Why can’t the part be here by tomorrow?” Yes, I was quite put out. But finally, on Thursday evening, I realized how silly that was. Maybe I decided to give my blood pressure a break. Maybe I remembered how fortunate I am generally in this world. Maybe I was processing the death of a co-worker, the mess and loss of life in Afghanistan, the disappointing and juvenile behavior of so many politicians and the news media irrespective of affiliation, or the uselessness of being mad in this situation. In any event, I found a cheap hotel in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, told Bob we should accept Chevy’s offer of a courtesy car for the weekend, and head off to Carlisle so he could immerse himself in the joys of Corvettes, old guys, the smell of greasy car parts, and at least see the parade, even if he couldn’t be in it. In the meantime, we would keep in close touch with GM and Chevy, and try to be a respectful but squeaky wheel. After all, we’re packed!

And so off we go to Carlisle in our Equinox. Certainly not Penny, or even my Lincoln, but it’ll get you there. We stayed at the Clarion Hotel Inn and Suites in Shippensburg, about 20 miles from Carlisle, because at this point, there is either no place to stay in Carlisle, or the prices are astronomical. I tried the Airbnb I had canceled, just in case, but it had been rented, and I was glad because the owner was a very nice lady. We do like to stay in Carlisle, but you usually have to book 8-12 months in advance for this event. The hotel in Shippensburg is near the University, and we decided to eat at the Appalachian Brewing Company, which proved to be a great choice. They had a dish we had never seen before: Roasted cauliflower wings. These are actual chunks of cauliflower, roasted and doused with wing sauce and served with blue cheese dip. They were yummy, and we felt proud of our nutritious-choice selves. Then we messed that up with Orange and Pineapple Crushes and Beef on Weck and Rockfish Tacos but you can’t have everything.

On Saturday, we got up early and headed to the Carlisle Fairgrounds. My plan was to go look at Corvettes for a while, then retire to the car to read a book and work on the blog. But before we got there, we stopped at Fay’s Country Kitchen on South Hanover Street in Carlisle for breakfast. I cannot recommend this place more highly. We have eaten here almost every time we come and the breakfast is the perfect diner meal, one that other restaurants aspire to, but rarely ever reach. If you find yourself here, do yourself a favor and order ham and eggs. The ham steak they give you is thick, gristle-free, juicy, and perfectly browned. Someone clearly reveres coke products and the place is decorated with every coke product and memorabilia known to man. The waitstaff seem to be from another generation; organized, efficient, no unnecessary moves and seemingly always at your side with just the thing you were about to request. In fact, the whole place is like something from a time warp, and I may have only imagined it.

One of our first stops is the General Motors Corvette Tent, as Bob wanted to see the new colors for production. Our Zeus Bronze Metallic has been discontinued so we own a pretty rare color, but there is a new brown out called Caffeine. I’m not terribly impressed as this one does look like an UPS truck. Bob has put some hold money down on one of the new C8 Z06 Models, due in 2023. Yes, this IS an obsession. But he promises to sell this one. Penny is probably now worth about $30K more than we paid for her due to the limits in production that have occurred over the past two years, so Corvette owners are hoping this unusual condition will continue for the Z06 models. In any case, he wanted to begin to dream about the colors and options. I have never been a fan of the red color available, as I think red is just too obvious, but they do have a new one called Red Mist that is more understated and I do like that one. We also saw one dressed up as Captain America, which will be a favorite of Truman, Tanner and Brandon! While we were looking over the cars in the tent, Bob approached one of the Corvette guys and explained our problem with Penny and our rapidly vanishing trip. He, in turn, referred us to Jeff Strausser, the Corvette Brand Quality Manager, who happened to be in Carlisle for the event. Bob made a note and resolved to find him to see if he had any ideas that might help.

At that point, I made my usual excuse and headed back to our trusty Equinox. Having me around is actually a deterrent for Bob, as he greatly enjoys talking everything car to any attendee who will listen—all of whom came for the same purpose. I had books to read, the car was parked under a shady tree, and there was lots of gas and good air conditioning. I checked in with him several hours later, and learned he had indeed caught up with Jeff, who has turned out to be a really stand-up guy and truly took our problem to heart. Since it was Saturday, there was little that could be done immediately, but Jeff has made numerous phone calls on our behalf, determined that our needed part does indeed exist, could be sent to Norfolk quickly, and has kept us in the loop with every step he has taken. Customer service has been suffering in the past several years, even before Covid, but Jeff has been the epitome of good customer service, and whatever the result now, we felt heard and cared for.

That evening, we had dinner at Café Bruges in downtown Carlisle before the Corvette Parade. We have dined here almost every time we come. The food is Belgian, and the beer is superb. We had the roasted Brussel sprouts, the frites (twice fried in beef tallow so not even pretending to be healthy), a shared sirloin steak, and midnight chocolate cheesecake. Bob had some fruity Champagne cocktail and I had the Petrus Cherry Chocolate Nitro Quad beer, which was fantastic. Then on to the Corvette parade.

The parade was great as usual, and Bob didn’t seem too upset to not be a part of it. He waved at all the cars, and I’m sure he wished he was driving Penny, but he was a good sport about the whole thing. The next day we drove home uneventfully, with visions of the arrival of the missing car part dancing in our heads.

Bob was at the Chevy dealer bright and early on Monday, although no transmission valve body arrived. This was not a surprise although by now there were numerous people involved. Again, we continued to feel that everyone was doing the very best they could to get Penny back together and us on the road. Not only were we calling all our contacts, but they were calling us to keep us informed. The expectation was that the part would arrive on Tuesday. At one point, we even had a concern that the missing bolts necessary to install the part might be an issue, and Jeff got in touch with the engineer at Corvette who agreed that our original bolts could be safely used.

Tuesday came and guess what? The transmission valve body was lost in transit. This kind of thing can happen when a standard process is interrupted, and apparently the expedited part was not given a tracking number so it couldn’t be located. Once again, our mighty team of advocates rushed to our aid and had another part overnighted. It would arrive on Wednesday by 10 am.

Have you ever had that feeling that the universe was trying to tell you something? I was starting to feel like that. Maybe we weren’t supposed to go on this trip. Maybe something terrible was going to happen and my karma was sending a message. You know, like Waylon Jennings switching places on the Buddy Holly plane with The Big Bopper because Waylon got the flu. I woke up on Wednesday thinking I would accept the decree of the universe, whatever that might be. And then, at 9:56 am, we got a call from Hendricks Chevrolet that the part was in and the technician was working on it. And finally, Penny was home that evening. And we were packed and ready to go.

I would be greatly remiss if I did not thank publicly the wonderful folks who worked so hard to get us on our way. So here they are:

· Wesley McCullar, General Manager Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· Mike Letkemann, Service Director, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· Keith Frazier, Parts Director, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· Belen Bruno, Service Advisor, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· Annette Sippy, Parts Counter, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· Jimmy Daughtery, Parts Manager, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· David Warfield, Service Technician, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· Jane Larocco, Customer Service, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk

· Tyler Seller, Sales Representative, Hendricks Chevrolet, Norfolk; and finally

· Jeff Strausser, Corvette Brand Quality Manager

So, on September 2, one week later than originally planned, we woke at 3:30 am, buttoned up the house and headed into the wild blue yonder.