Sunday

Sunday morning came way too early. It was time to get packed up and get back on the road towards to Kansas. After a quick clean up around the cabin we had the cars loaded and ready to go. We said good by to Mike and Chastity and were soon on 62 headed back towards Rogers. We were in a Corvette caravan approximately 6 cars long, following the lead car which was a black C6. We were treated to an awesome spectacle when the driver of the black C6 became impatient following two drivers that were dominating both sides of a passing lane. He got on it and laid waste two these two chumps. We were half a mile behind him when he hit it...it was music to my ears - that car sounded so good. Unfortunately our Jimmy Carter era Corvette was not going to follow that line. There are certain disadvantages to driving one of the slowest production Corvettes ever made.

We stopped to get gas in Rodgers and were greeted by no less than 7 Corvettes in the gas station parking lot. This was going to be tricky sneaking in and out through the passengers side door without being noticed, but I managed to do it. I had to wash the windshield a couple of times before the guy next to me in the pretty black C4 had pulled out so that I could get back in to the car. The coast was then clear, I climbed on over, and we were on our way.

The Tulsa Roads Get Me This Time, How About The "Check Engine Light"...

The preferred method of pot hole repair in Oklahoma appears to be fill the pot hole up with a heaping pile of asphalt, and then let the cars run over it until it is smooth. We hit one of these asphalt mountains that jarred the car pretty good. It was soon after we hit Mt. Tulsa that our car's speedometer began to bounce wildly, and about 5 miles after that it quit completely. 10 minutes after the speedometer quit, the check engine light came on which was most likely being caused by the inoperable speedometer. Just another problem to add to the list of repairs after we got home. I am not trying to be critical of Oklahoma or Tulsa. I just need to be more careful the next time we drive through there.

Safe At Home, Grandma Accidentally Uses the Red Hair Spray...

The rest of the trip home was uneventful. We passed Kevin and Coni at their turnoff and made it to our house another mile on down the road. Pulling into the same driveway we left 4 days ago I felt a great sense of relief just getting the car home, but at the same time the sadness that one of my most favorite weekends of the year was over. I normally love driving this car every chance I get, but for some reason I just wanted to put her in the garage and get back into my "daily driver" Avalanche. Once inside the house we heard all of the fun stories that our kids had for us while their grandmother watched them for the weekend. The funniest of these stories would have to be the bottle of colored hair spray that my wife keeps in the bathroom (Janet is a hairdresser). Apparently grandma needed to borrow some hairspray and reached for the offending can. She didn't notice that she had red patches in her hair until she was out and about for the day. We got quite a kick out of that story. Thanks again mom for all you do!

Special Thanks to the Following People...

So as the 2005 Eureka Springs Corvette Weekend came to an end, now so does this story have to end. It took about eight days to create it, and if you read it I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully it will give you some idea about how other people approach the Corvette weekend. My purpose for creating this story was to have a lasting memory for the fun times that we all shared. I couldn't tell you what I did on the Friday of the 2003 Corvette weekend, but I feel now that I will be able to recall the 2005 story any time I set down to my computer. Special thanks to the following people for their contributions and making it all happen...

My loving wife Janet Oliphant, Kevin and Coni Honn, Mike Therrien and his friend Chastity, Rick and Jan Nuckolls, Ken and Naomi Oliphant, Braden and Sarah Oliphant, Ron and Carolyn Redford, Rick Wolf, John Love, The ESCW Board of Directors (especially Larry Johnson), Tim Poynter at Davis-Barr Chevrolet, and all the gracious people of Eureka Springs.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!