Day 4: Corvettes and Trains ~ Riding Vintage

After a good nights sleep in Russell Springs, we headed west across southern Kentucky. Two hours later we reached Bowling Springs, needing gas and a bite to eat. As we rolled into town we passed a sign for the National Corvette Museum and after some frantic hand gesturing, the decision was made to pull in for a tour.

You may remember that the National Corvette Museum was in the news last year after a sink hole opened under the museum and sucked in eight classic cars. Just imagine showing up for work on a Monday morning and finding a massive hole in the middle of your building, filled with priceless automobiles. Sounds like the stuff of motorhead nightmares, but it made for a great exhibit! Obviously the hole as since been filled, but they did mark the location of the hole, so you could see just how big it was. All the cars were recovered and put back on display, most of which were left in their crushed state.

After spending an hour looking at cars I could never afford, we rode across the street to Art's Corvettes to look at his showroom of collector cars. Art's was filled with classic muscle cars as well as Corvettes and the prices seemed fairly reasonable for fully restored machines. Luckily I squandered all my money on motorcycles, so there was no chance that I was getting talked into buying new car.

From Art's we headed to downtown Bowling Green to check out the L&N Depot and Railpark. The museum was a little lackluster, but the tour of the rail cars more than made up for the ticket price. We showed up at just the right time to get a personal tour followed by a short photo session with the train. That engine looked pretty massive compared to a couple old Harleys...

After spending most of the afternoon at museums, there wasn't much time left to lay down a lot of miles before dark and we still needed to eat dinner. We grabbed a bite at a famous burger joint called Ferrell's Hamburgers in Hopkinsville which proudly displayed pictures of former President Bush eating at their lunch counter. Ironically, the Democratic headquarters were set up in the adjoining building.

For the second night in a row, we camped at a KOA campground. This one was located on Lake Barkley and was quite impressive. Along with all the usual KOA amenities, they also had a full service marina with 150 covered boat slips, two pools, rental boats, rental golf carts and a tons of family friendly activities. Camping wasn't quite on the lake, but we could make out the water through the trees.