Views From Paradise

I am not sure if many of you picked up on the disaster that took place at the Corvette museum in Bowling Green Kentucky.  A sinkhole formed under the heart of the museum and 8 historic Corvettes fell into the hole.  These cars were worth $ millions.  Since then there has been a disaster recovery program costing even more $ millions to try and save these historic icons.

Pat and I watched an episode from Daily Planet last night where they were showing some of the efforts to dig out and save the cars, at least those that were only partially buried.

There is a reason why I was fascinated beyond the techie aspects of pulling out the cars.

In the late 90’s the company I was working for gained the exclusive rights to provide Automatic Transmission Fluid to every GM plant in the world.  We had a month to send people to every plant to discuss and finalize the details on the conversion to our product.  Hose connection sizes and the process for measuring, testing  etc etc.

As the manager of the group I took part in the calls but did get to pick the plants I wanted to visit.  Among others,  I chose Bowling Green Kentucky as one site although that was probably the smallest volume plant.  For some reason guys pay a fortune for a high horsepower Corvette and still pick the option of an automatic transmission because they never learned to drive a standard.  I thought it would be interesting and I was right

The Corvette plant in Bowling Green is in a wonderful setting.  Green rolling hills without any indication of heavy industry around.  I have been to the Porsche, BMW and Mercedes plants and they are nowhere near as scenic.

When you drive up to the plant for a visit (as I did) the row of parking spots nearest the gate and visitor center is preserved for Corvettes.  Apparently it is a common daily event for Corvette owners to visit the plant for a tour.

Near the plant is the Corvette museum.  A huge structure with a collection of famous Corvette models from the early days of Sting Ray to the ones owned by famous people.  Mercedes and Porsche and other manufacturers  have similar museums that I have gone through over the years, but the Corvette museum was the best.

The center of the Corvette museum has the most valuable models on display.  Some owned by the museum, some by General Motors and some by wealthy collectors.  I walked around that center court and when I watched the video on the news (from a security camera) I recognized where I stood.  Shocking even more so when you think that this is a very expensive museum.  Can you imagine a sinkhole under the main floor of ROM or the Smithsonian?