We got up a little early (7:30am on holidays is early isn’t
it??), packed up and made our way to the NCM Motorsports park for Steve’s Corvette
drive experience. There were a couple of
other groups running cars (Mustangs) on the track so we waited and
watched.
Steve was then taken to his Corvette
for the Touring experience, a silver 2017 base model Stingray with a plentiful
460 Kentucky ponies under the hood. He
was given 4 laps in a follow-the-pace-car scenario (so he couldn’t get too
carried away) around the racetrack. He reported
that it was a great experience and that the pace car driver allowed him to give
the car a pretty good workout as he was the only one on the track with the pace
car. He managed to get it to a little over
120mph (about 200kph) down the straight.
As soon as that was over, he was up for his hot laps in a 2007 model
Stingray, riding shotgun with an experienced driver. This car had a bountiful 505 Kentucky stallions
under the hood. These 2x laps were
completed in a much quicker time and we couldn’t seem to get the smile off Steve’s
face. He reported that the driver
basically said ”you ok to go”….reply was “yes” and the car then launched at the
first corner and proceeded to roar around the track wheels screeching the whole
way. He clocked a bit over 140mph down
the straight before entering the first corner for the second lap. There was an obvious difference between touring
laps and the hotlaps. It was a great experience and 50th birthday
present for Steve.
After Steve had settled down and Ros felt that he wasn’t going
to try and drive the RV like the Corvette, we dove on to the Shaker Settlement
Museum a little to the east of Bowling Green.
The Shakers were an innovative, hard-working religious group, dedicated
to communal living and celibacy, and this community was established in 1807 and
closed in 1922. The community was built to house, occupy and
support hundreds of people, with 4 communal living houses each with space for 200
occupants. Despite the celibacy, the movement attracted people, with their innovation,
and comfort (indoor plumbing, heating, ample food) during times when those
things were a luxury for all but the very wealthy. Eventually though, celibacy
proved to be their undoing, as without children, they relied on new members for
growth. There is one community remaining in the US, with an 80-year-old woman
and a man in his 60’s. The last of the Shakers.
The Shakers were governed by a man and a woman, known as the
Ministry, so they were ahead of their time in equality of gender and (to a
certain degree) race. Families joined the Shakers with slaves, and subsequently
freed the slaves into the community, but when the family moved on, the slaves
went too.
The self guided village tour was a pleasant way to spend a
couple of hours. There was plenty to see. They even had a weighbridge in the
barn.
Driving to Land Between the Lakes, we passed an Amish
family, taking a spin with the top down. The kid on the back gave us a wave.
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