Finally Pics to brag about (NCM and HOME)

[THOR]

I finally was able to load my pictures tonight after several repeated attempts. SteveK was extremely helpful and walked me through the process. Apparently, my file sizes were way too big and we had to go through Photoshop and resize everything. Thanks again Steve. Lunch is on me when you are here in March.
As many of you know, we picked up our MR vert on Dec. 22,2006 at the NCM. We flew to Nashville and picked up a rental car from Enterprise the night before and then drove to BG. We had a wonderful stay at the Holiday Inn about 10 minute ride from the NCM.
The next morning we had a 7:45 am appointment and met with our guide Larry. He took us to the factory and we had an awesome tour of the assembly plant. What is so cool about this plant- 1) The floors are so clean you can eat off of them,2) There are no loud speakers with people talking- everything is done with music and songs-lunch breaks are noted by certain music and problems are noted by other songs playing,3) Even with 1,000,000 sq. ft. of assembly space and 1200 workers, it is still quiet enough to carry on normal conversations. You got to see it to believe it!
Then we returned to the NCM and had a tour by Larry of the Museum and then the climax of the day-finally taking delivery of our MR vert. We actually had the honor of being the last vette out the door of the NCM for 2006 that had the factory and NCM tour. The factory closed the same day we were there for the rest of 2006. After being there for almost 8 hours, we returned to our hotel and stayed an extra night. I had a few mods I wanted to do and so we found a Chevrolet dealer that was closed at 8 pm and we pulled underneath the dealers' lights and did our mods. I put on the splash guards that Ed makes from NakidParts and a C5Creation Bra. That took awhile and it was a bit cold that night but we got it done. We drove around BG that night and the next morning, I attached the invsicord and hooked up the Val1 and off we went to Memphis to visit my brother for Christmas.




After Christmas. we returned to Florida with the top up all the way. It was just too bloody cold that week to let the top down. The Val1 worked flawlessly and I would recommend it to anyone. The car (I named him THOR after my Norweigan heritage) handled like a dream. I have wanted a vette since I was 15 and 38 years later my dream came true. There were opportunites along the way to get a vette but college, then grad school, then marriage, then kids, then divorce, then remarried several years later, then broken shoulder about a month after second marriage, etc. etc. etc. Finally,last September, I decided to order a new vette with my lovely wife's blessings of course and then had to wait until December to pick it up because of work and family restraints. The original corvette and I were born the same year (1953) and so at the ripe old age of 53, I decided it was high time to ENJOY THE RIDE! It was worth the wait. I am amazed at the car's abilities and ride. I elected to get the F55 so I can cruise or get on it when I want. It does everything I want it to do. I see many awesome weekends of cruising coming up and great memories to follow. I thank each and every one of you who have followed my journey and given freely of your knowledge. I wasn't planning on such a long post but I didn't know what to leave out. I want to especially thank Ted G.,Ynkedad,SteveK, and others who I can't remember right now for their support. What a great group pf wonderful people we are blessed to know. Enjoy the rest of the pics. Mark
[img]http://www.corvetteflorida.com/photopost/data/500/Thor2.jpg[/img]