2016 Road Trip from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Arlington, Virginia

Bob Gray

September 2016

When my friend Brad called to ask if I would help him drive his Corvette back to Arlington, Virginia from Colorado Springs, Colorado, I, of course said yes. As you can see from the picture below, he has a red 2015 Stingray with a seven speed manual transmission. The picture below was taken by another fiend who lives in the Monument area of Colorado Springs. I set off at about 6:30 AM on a very foggy and wet morning to meet Brad and his son-in-law Mike at Sandy’s restaurant which is near the entrance to Peterson Air Force Base. The weather never improved much during the trip as will be noticed in many of the pictures from the trip. I have augmented the ones Brad and I took with Google street views of a couple places.

In all, it took us three days to travel the 1,800 miles from Colorado Springs to Arlington. Each day was planned to be about eight hours of driving but it typically was more like nine or ten. It seemed like the extra time occurred during my shift behind the wheel. Brad very much enjoys the first derivative of distance (speed) while I am a life long lover of the second derivative (acceleration baby!). The first two days started in one time zone and ended in another which I found to be a bit difficult as we lost an hour each day.

Me with Brad’s bright red Corvette at the beginning of the three day trip to Arlington.

Sandy’s Restaurant is very old school with an established clientele.

Day 1 included a stop for lunch at Wilson Lake, KS and dinner at B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ.

Wilson Lake was a nice place for lunch but unfortunately we didn’t see many birds. We brought club sandwiches from Sandy’s and they were very good.

Halfway through Kansas, we met a group of three other Corvette drivers on their way to a car event in Illinois. We tagged along behind until they ditched us at a toll booth. The next day, somebody at a rest stop asked Brad if he had seen the two blue and one yellow Corvettes, which we had.

The beer was better than the bar-b-que at B.B.’s but we had a good time listening to blues, blues, blues.

Day 2 was pretty much a forced march as it took a long time to get through St. Louis. Our planned stop in Hoosier National Forest for a hike had to be eliminated. Maybe next time.

A new bridge over the Mississippi River as we left St. Louis was pretty impressive.

On our way through Louisville, Kentucky, we saw a giant Louisville Slugger sticking out of one of the tall buildings. Look above the black SUV and the highest bridge.

Kentucky is all about bourbon, so we ended day 2 with dinner at JDI Tavern in downtown Lexington Kentucky. Brad wanted to go there for the bourbon but had to have the chicken and waffles when he saw it on their menu.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Corner Liquor Store so Brad could look for a certain kind of bourbon (Weller 12 year) that is hard to find. One of the store’s customers, brown bagged beer in hand, greeted us in the parking lot and commented that they didn’t see many cars like Brad’s Corvette there. I decided to stay with his car and chat with the customer while Brad went looking for his bourbon.

Day 3 was again all driving but that was the plan from the beginning. We went by way of the Shenandoah Valley instead of the either of the northern routes.

Needless to say, the Corner Liquor Store in Lexington didn’t have the special bourbon Brad was looking for, so we tried the Tri-County Liquor store in Morehead, Kentucky. They didn’t have the bourbon either and said they had sold only three bottles of it in the last five years.

We had our lunch in Academy Park, Lewisburg, West Virginia. Then it was on to Arlington.

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