2025.03 Whirlwind to Kentucky

2025.03 Weekend in Kentucky

The opportunity came up to visit the National Corvette Museum in March.  With vacation already booked for the year, it would be a long weekend trip.  We’d cover over 2,300km in just over two days.  Who’s ready for a road trip?

Drive to Kentucky

There were two snowstorms within a week in February, and between shoveling the snow, having the potential to escape winter for a few days was an aspirational goal for me.  The day of our trip in early March started with another batch of wet flurries, fortunately they stopped within an hour, and by the time we past London, Ontario the sun started to make its appearance through the clouds.  Crossing into the US was a breeze being able to use Nexus.  During the crossing on Ambassador bridge, you cannot miss the next new crossing under construction, the Gordie Howe International Bridge.  I can’t wait until we get to use it to avoid driving through the middle of Windsor before getting on a highway.  We easily navigated rush hour traffic out of Detroit, and found a place to grab dinner before either of us were extremely hungry.  For us, it was comfort food, Bob Evans.  Below are some pictures from the initial start of the drive:

The event at the National Corvette Museum was Friday morning.  Even though an hour time zone was helpful, we’d have a lot of driving to arrive on time the following morning.  The drive down I-75 was fine, and our goal for the evening was Louisville, Kentucky.  There were several sections with major construction — the most memorable was near Cincinnati where one lane was shifted onto the other side of the highway.  Unlike contraflow in Europe where a small barrier would be placed between the lanes, Ohio state took it as a chance to place massive concrete barriers and fencing.  Being in a sedan it felt like a tunnel as the sun had set by then.  Both of us joked that it felt like a video game, as it had poor sightlines, the lights of opposing traffic would deflect off the fencing without seeing any of those vehicles.  After it ended, it felt odd for a moment to not be within a meter for concrete barriers.  Crossing the Ohio river into Kentucky was well after rush hour, and without delay we were quickly on I-79 heading to Louisville.  The weather was excellent, consistently getting warmer as we drove south.  It gave me hope that spring might return to us after a very snow filled February.

We were successful in getting to our hotel in Louisville.  It was the best example of I got what I paid for.  It was a chain hotel, however the hotel was in need of some help.  To me, I think a wrecking ball would have vastly improved the feel.  In fairness the hotel was clean, but the owners were certainly not interested in reinvesting in the property.  A representative example was the bathroom door in our room.  It had generations of fixes and modifications to make it still function like a door, however I think the hinges had been relocated three times, and the dimensions were one-of-a-kind as a portion was cut-out so that the door didn’t smash against a bulkhead above the bathtub.  The following day’s plan was a 9am target arrival time but required a few hours of driving to get to Bowling Green.  We were up early to have breakfast where the only other hotel guests were all in high-visibility apparel.  This now explained the high quantity of work trucks and pick-up trucks in the parking lot.  With no hint of sand, salt, or snow on the roads or in the rolling hills it was a pleasant drive south to Bowling Green.  We arrived with plenty of time to ensure she was sufficiently caffeinated via a large cup of tea. 

During the event a few other attendees came up to talk to us, and they were all surprised that we made the drive down for the event.  Once I found a picture of the piles of snow they quickly understood that 16C was worth the long drive.

Speed Captured

The National Corvette Museum was hosting an opening event for members (yes, I’m one of them).  The event was to open the temporary exhibit to celebrate the photography of Richard Prince.

Richard Prince had significant Corvette, and publication experience by the time he managed to become the official photographer for Corvette Racing.  He provided the group with some background on the story of how he got the ‘job’ as well as some of insights after being an automotive photographer for over 20 years.

After remarks by the museum staff and Richard we were led into the gallery.  An interesting part is that some race track photography might be become formulaic and repetitive.   For him, he is always looking for an opportunity to take a picture from a new location, or angle to help differentiate his work.  From the slideshow examples of the variety are the annual team pictures ahead of the 24 hours of Le Mans, as well as photographing in the gaps of the armco barriers on the race track.

I was glad we got the chance to see his work.  Afterwards we made a few stops before beginning our return trip home.  No time to hang around and stay for a few days!

Now, we didn’t get as far home as I wanted, however this ended up working out extremely well as the hotel we stayed at was practically brand new.

Drury Plaza Hotel – Florence, KY

Staying just south of Cincinnati, and near the airport (that is a massive logistics hub for cargo companies Amazon Air, DHL, and Atlas) was this Drury Plaza hotel.

Immediately upon entering it was obvious that the place was new.  High ceilings, everything was shiny and worked.  But the most telling was that the edges of walls weren’t crunched, smashed, rubbed by endless suitcases.  With our mutual lack of energy we took advantage of their complimentary snacks and then supplemented it with some food from their bar located on the main floor.  When we asked, the staff confirmed that the official opening was less than a month ago.

In the morning the breakfast area was filled with people — spring break was starting, continuing, or ending for everybody else in the hotel and it was packed.  Overall, breakfast was fine for us and gave us the energy we needed to get moving for the day.

Below is a short slideshow of pictures of the room we were assigned.  Even on the guest room floors had high ceilings.  Sound proofing was good as it was difficult to hear either the aircraft coming into the land, or kids and families running up and down the hallway.

American Sign Museum

Even though we started our day having to drive a little more than I had planned, I found something for us to visit before spending the rest of the day on the highway returning home.  A perk of being a National Corvette Museum member is that the museum has reciprocal privileges with other select museums, including this one.  It was not far from the I-75 in northern Cincinnati, and the timing worked — I think we arrived shortly after they opened.  Outside was definitely not an indication of the signs that awaited us inside: 

The easiest way to sum up the museum, was that a sign company happily adopted signs as the old ones were being replaced.  Eventually, the company realized that the old signs were valuable to show the evolution of design, lighting, and uniqueness of them.  There are signs everywhere!  Although the most eye-catching were neon signs from the 1950s and newer, the older signs definitely earned their place.  The setup was well done enabling each sign to have their space.  This space challenge grew as some signs were quite large.  Here’s a slideshow of pictures from the museum:

From there we returned to the highway and continued our long drive home.  From the pit stops we made, the only one of note was at the Michigan welcome center.  I found their slogan to be cute, even though Ontario can claim the same quantity.

We crossed into Canada at the Ambassador bridge, and proceeded to complete our trip home.  In all, it was just around 2,300km covered in 53 hours.  It was great to get away for a few days, and in fairness, spring did eventually show up at home after the trip.  But getting a chance to enjoy 16C weather and sun during the first week of March was excellent.

Our next trip is another road trip, but involves a flight to get to the rental car first!