Updated 8/12/14

Western Canada (Alberta, British Columbia)

Welcome to the Western Canada Caravan web page. If you have not yet visited the National Corvette Museum then you will not want to miss out on the 2014 National Corvette Caravan and the National Corvette Museum's 20th Anniversary event August 28-30, 2014. Many are calling this Caravan a must do 'bucket list' thing for not only because it is very interesting but your Captains have also planned a very scenic return trip through the historic Heartland of America.

Graham Borley is the Caravan Captain for the Western Canada Caravan and along with Gary Stephen, Co-Captain - we both look forward to leading you to the National Corvette Museum and return for this fourteen day event - including 3 days in Bowling Green KY and the scenic return trip. August 22 to September 5 2014. Please email either Graham at , or Gary at if you would like to join our Caravan or if you have any questions.

Local Leader for the Edmonton Group is
Darwin Mulligan

Local Leader for the Calgary Group is
Rick Hanson

Local Leader for the Vancouver Island BC Group is
Craig Reavley

Lots of thanks to these folks who will assist in helping the Captains organize the Caravan from behind the scenes until August 2014, then they will be on the front lines leading the Caravan on Day 1 - Glad to have you all on board, it is much appreciated.

A complete itinerary with information on our routes was distributed by Gary in a pdf electronic version recently - the hard copy Route Book will be distributed to all participants at the Lethbridge kickoff party Friday August 22nd. We have hotel rooms blocked and will inform all of the participants who have registered with the NCM Caravan of these hotels to allow each individual to make their own reservations but be warned, the block booking expires at most hotels in July and early August. Sign up as soon as possible! We have had a few people cancel their trip with us due to medical or unforeseen circumstances so we certainly have room for more - to date we have 34 cars and 70 people registered in our Caravan for the trip to Bowling Green and about 28 for the return scenic tour.

National Corvette Museum Caravan Update
July 2014

The Western Canada Caravan is pleased to have two major sponsors that have supported our Caravan with banners. Marshall Automotive (PR) Peace River AB sent a picture showing the banner in their showroom - wow - 3 C7's and a ZR1 in the showroom!

I presented the banner to Shaganappi GM of Calgary to Wayne Ivan, Sales Mgr, Shaganappi GM and with Doug Campbell President of Corvettes Unlimited Club of Calgary.

A big thank you to Michelin one more time for the gift pack that we raffled off on August 1, raising $315 for our Caravan. Here is a shot of yours truly presenting the winner Mike Jeffery with the gift pack in front of his blue C5 convertible that he will be driving to Bowling Green. Thanks for your support - it is much appreciated!

Registration
Registration is now closed, so if you still wish to come on the Caravan you will have to register upon our arrival in Bowling Green on site on Wed 27 or Thursday 28th. Please let me know if you wish to come along and contact me at so that I can provide you with hotels that still may have availability - also check the NCM website for hotel availability.

Route Book - the Bible
The remaining Route Books will be given out along with our name tags, decals, flags, promotional decals and your goodie bags at the kick-off BBQ in Lethbridge AB August 22. For those that don’t yet have their Route Books, I suggest that you print off the first day instructions (2 days in the case of Vancouver Island and BC Caravaners) from the pdf document I sent you.

Caravan Route and Activities Planned - 6800 km
Our Western Canada will begin from three different locations in Western Canada with the earliest start proposed for Thursday from the ferry terminal - Sydney, Vancouver Island whereas the Saskatchewan group, Edmonton and Calgary groups will start at various times on Friday, August 22, 2014 with the following Schedule (all of course this will be subject to change):

Vancouver Island Group Day 0 Thursday August 21 - will travel early departing the BC Ferry terminal Sydney at 800 Thursday August 21 and travel via scenic Hwy 3 to Grand Forks, BC where they will stay for the night. The group meets up with Kelowna participants following the Hwy 3 arriving in Lethbridge AB at 6 pm where they will join the Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatchewan groups.

Saskatchewan (Eastern Alberta) Group Day 1, Friday, August 22 - this group (now only consisting of Eastern Alberta Caravaners departing near Oyen and travel south on Hwy 41 to Hwy 1 then heading east on Hwy 3 arriving in Lethbridge at 6 pm.

Edmonton Group Day 1 Friday August 22 - this group will depart at the oil derrick information centre at 11 am at the south entrance to Edmonton on Hwy 2 and meet up with the Calgary group at 230 pm at the Aldersyde PetroCanada/weigh station.

Calgary Group Day 1 Friday, August 22 - Departure at 3pm at the Aldersyde PetroCanada/weigh station joining up with the Edmonton Group and travel south on Hwy 2 to Hwy 4 into Lethbridge. Corvettes Unlimited Club Calgary members will be accompanying the Caravan to Lethbridge and will be sponsoring a 'sendoff dinner & reception'. Bubba Que will be catering the dinner of Smoked Brisket on a bun, mashed potatoes, Bubba's Legendary Stampede beans, Caesar salad and refreshments - mmmmh - can hardly wait - presented by our sponsors and Corvettes Unlimited.

Day 2, Saturday, August 23)
Our Caravan leaves Lethbridge AB early crossing the US border then stopping for lunch in Great Falls MT - some local Corvette club members will join us and travel to Bozeman and then Billings with us. The Western Canada Caravan will be joining up with the Pacific North West Caravan including Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska in Bozeman, MT. From there along with route every day additional Caravans will join us - from Northern CA, NV, UT, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansa and Missouri. As we get closer to Bowling Green, the Caravan will grow just like the excitement!

In Bozeman, we have an invitation from Ressler Chevrolet at his private ranch to view the #3 Corvette, and a large private collection of Corvettes and other collectible vehicles. We want to respect the owner of the collection so we will give the directions on the caravan to the ranch location near our caravan departure time. From Bozeman after a BBQ we travel onto Billings, MT.

Day 3, Sunday, August 24)
Billings to Casper for lunch with the WY Captain, Lynn McBride's Wyoming Caravan (cost of lunch is $9), and a visit if you want to the local Pioneer Museum (Fort Casper), then to Cheyenne with more of the Wyoming Caravan and the Northern California / Nevada and Utah Caravan join, led by their Captain, Don Herzer are scheduled to join in. The Wyoming Captain also has arranged for us to visit the Cheyenne Depot Museum from 5:00 - 8:00pm. There is a small entry charge for this, but try to plan on being there - meeting new and like minded Corvette people is also what this Caravan is about.

Day 4, Monday, August 25)
Cheyenne to North Platte, NE for lunch, or if you chose, onto Kearney, at the Great Platte River Arch Museum for a trip through our past history of the Prairie crossings, and onto Lincoln, NE. The Nebraska Caravan and Colorado Caravan join us here.

Day 5, Tuesday, August 26)
Our Caravan will tour the Museum of American Speed (thanks to Bruce Younglove, and Bill Zuspan, the Nebraska Captains) in Lincoln, NE at 9am. Plans are in the works for our lunch stop. The caravan will then travel to Columbia, MO, to join the Kansas / Missouri Caravan. The Mid Missouri Corvette club and Joe Moncado are planning a BBQ sponsored by Bob McCosh GM at the Missouri Auto Auction just east of town on I-70 (cost of dinner is $10), so should be fun.

Day 6, Wednesday, August 27)
We are planning our launch point at 7:30 am from the Missouri Auto Auction-Columbia, MO, led by the KS/MO Captain, Joe Moncado. We will travel to Mount Vernon, IL where we will stop for lunch. There is anticipation we will regroup, joining with other caravans, once again, near Bowling Green just prior to making our grand entrance. We will provide more information about staging sites etc as we plan for our arrival time slot at Bowling Green

It is VERY important that the Caravan stays together as much as possible during the trip, but it is especially important during our last 3-4 days of travel. The areas surrounding our stops are expecting us at certain times of the days and to help accommodate all, please follow the directions and roads that are given by the Local Leaders. Our Western Canada Caravan may be upwards of 50 cars, but when you add hundreds of other Caravan sections we will need to pay attention to directions and instructions in the Route Book and of course the Local Leader's instructions for the day. Another fun aspect of this trip is traveling down a road filled with Corvettes (yes also some Chevy or GMC support vehicles and trailers with Corvettes inside them!) - hundreds if not a thousand of them! That is also another reason why you need flags and decals on your cars while we travel through these places - the locals will love it too!

OUR Arrival at the NCM in Bowling Green, KY:
Our plan is to arrive in Bowling Green, on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 an enter the compound for our scheduled 4:30 pm time slot. This means that we have 3 days and 4 evenings in Bowling Green, making it a real treat to see and participate in the local areas festivities, events, tours, and landmarks.

Corvette Assembly Plant Tour
Registration for the Assembly Plant opened October 2, 2013 and I was one of the lucky ones to secure 75 spots for the Western Canada Caravan participants for Thursday August 28. Due to cancellations and as of July 7, 2014 we have 12 tickets left so you can still sign up with our Caravan and get these tickets!

Museum Tours and Seminars/activities
Your Registration fee includes self guided tours of the National Corvette Museum that can be taken anytime during the Museums posted hours during our visit Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The seminar schedule and separate road trip tours will be self-guided and directions will be available at the Museum. We have tried to be flexible and not plan any activities while in Bowling Green so that you can do your own thing. NCM Seminars will be repeated as much as possible, Thursday, Friday and some Saturday also.

I am enclosing a couple of pages from our Route Book to show you the activities you can take part in while in Bowling Green. I have had quite a few requests to have a Friday or Saturday tour of 'Tail of the Dragon' or 'Devils Triangle tour' so I will organize that so people can sign up as they see fit - note it is about 3.5 hours each way to get there then an hour or so to drive the 318 curves through 11 miles - we can also come back via the longer Cherohala skyway - so about 12 hour day!

Also Nashville has some great venues - Grand Ole Opry, the Tennessee civil war museum and the music museum as top tourist sites that some have expressed interest and we may plan a side tour or afternoon/evening trip. It is up to you to pick and choose what and when you want to do things so even plan your own - we are trying to be flexible here!

I have included two pages from our Route Book!

Friday August 29, 2014
Bowling Green, KY

Friday August 29, 2014
Bowling Green, KY

Graham and Gary's Scenic Return Trip
Graham and I are also planning a very scenic return trip for those who want to come along for this unforgettable experience, so let us know if you want to come along! Here is what we have tentatively planned:

Sunday August 31, 2014
Drive from Bowling Green, KY to Effingham, Illinois taking back roads crossing from Kentucky into Illinois via bridge at Old Shawneetown now to eliminate congestion on the ferry across the Ohio River where we will stop for lunch and fuel. Once we arrive in Effingham late afternoon we will be guests at Mid America Motorworks for a BBQ and we get to visit the "My Garage Museum".

Monday September 1, 2014
Drive from Effingham, Illinois to Hannibal, MO. (Home of Mark Twain's tales about Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn) From Effingham we will go to Litchfield, Illinois to get on the Old Route 66 (a couple of original gas stations are on this route, great for photo opportunities) down to Mt. Olive then go across the Mississippi River at St. Louis. From there we take the scenic route on the west bank of the Mississippi River up to Hannibal, MO going through Louisiana, MO. The plan is to visit the museum then take a Paddle wheeler dinner cruise on the Mississippi that evening.

Tuesday September 2, 2014
Drive from Hannibal, MO. to Dakota Dunes SD. With a noon hour stop in Winterset, IA. Winterset is the hometown of John Wayne and the John Wayne Museum is located there. It is also in the heart of Madison County and the remaining 6 covered bridges are all within a few miles of the town.(no we won't travel any gravel roads to visit any bridges) The movie, Bridges of Madison County, was filmed here.

Wednesday September 3, 2014
Drive from Dakota Dunes SD to Deadwood, SD so mostly a Freeway run to clear the carbon out of our engines and test radar detectors? NOT! Stop for a photo shoot at Mount Rushmore in the afternoon then through the Black Hills to Deadwood SD.

Thursday September 4, 2014
A scenic drive from Deadwood, SD. via Hwy 14A to Spearfish to Devils Tower stopping at the divey biker bar the 'infamous' Stoneville Saloon for some lousy food in Alzada MT, then follow US 212 the Little Bighorn Battlefield at Crow Agency. After a tour of the Battlefield monument we continue on to Billings MT.

Friday September 5, 2014
Departing Billings MT we will take the scenic trip via Hwy 3 into Great Falls where we will stop for lunch, crossing the border in mid afternoon and heading home.

Sponsorship?
Yes you can make our Caravan successful by sponsoring an Ad in the Route Book or just s plain old donation. If you are interested in a Sponsorship donation, or if you know a business or individual, who would like to provide a Sponsorship donation, please contact me at or . But do it quickly!

We are pleased to have the following sponsors who have provided services/ donations /committed to date:
Corvettes Unlimited Club Calgary AB
Canadian Council of Corvette Clubs - Western Region
Shaganappi GM - Calgary AB
Blaskin and Lane Tire Centre Calgary AB
Canmark Print Ltd - Calgary AB
C&G Energy Associates Inc - Calgary AB
Tim The Magnet Guy - Calgary AB
VS Truck Works - Oyen AB
Western Corvette Services - Calgary AB
Keith & Sally Sadler - Calgary AB
Classic and Performance Cars Ltd - Delta BC
PartSource - Winnipeg MB
Auto Glym
Mobil 1 Canada
Davenport Motorsports - Calgary AB
Petro Canada Ultra 94
Michelin USA
Ressler Chevrolet, Bozeman MT
Mid America Motorworks - Effingham, IL
Marshall Automotive (PR) LTD - Peace River AB
Imagewear a division of Mark's - Calgary AB
Grey Eagle Casino - T'suu Tina Nation, Calgary AB
Stoney Nakoda Casino & Resort, Kananaskis AB
Knoxville Investments Inc Lloyd Knox, Cochrane AB
Chinook Credit Union - Tom Mossing, Brooks AB
Classic Car Connection, Dave Solomon, Edmonton AB

Please visit and support our sponsors as often as you can if you are in need of their products and services. We thank them for their generous donations to make this Caravan possible. Their ads will be in the Route Book. Great job!

Name Tags
Each participant will get a plastic name tag with Corvette info and city/town/Province including magnet to secure on your shirts courtesy of Lyall Carter of Canmark Print - great for ice breaking!

Travel Documents - Passports
VERY IMPORTANT to check the expiry date of your passport because it must be minimum 6 months beyond the departure date OR ELSE YOU WILL NOT BE GRANTED ENTRY INTO THE US AT THE BORDER CROSSING AT COUTTS. This means that if your passport expires March 5 2015 or earlier - GET IT RENEWED NOW OR YOU WON'T BE COMING WITH US!!

Communications while on Caravan
We are recommending that each Corvette have a 2 way radio to listen to what is going on/communicate etc. I will provide more information in the coming weeks about type as most FRS/GMRS Cobra/Motorola radios set to a certain channel should suffice. I do know that at least a dozen Corvettes Unlimited members have Motorola type radios which will work if set to the correct frequency as the standard Cobra type radios. Of course a cell phone (ask your Canadian provider to get a US plan to reduce 'stupid' expensive roaming charges when using it) will likely be a standard for each of us as will a Garmin type device (interestingly I have found that the route I have chosen via Bing maps or MapQuest shown in the Route is not necessarily the one Garmin shows...but with all that info surely we won't get lost!). I also plan on bringing my laptop to use for skype and to check emails at night (free wifi at almost all hotels we have booked) just in case issues arise during the trip (again to eliminate huge roaming and data charges to my iphone).

Hope you can join us but don't delay in registering and contacting either me or Graham to confirm you want to come along!

On behalf of Graham Borley Captain and all Western Canada Caravaner's - thanks!

Gary Stephen
Co Captain

Graham Borley & Gary Stephen
Western Canada Captains

Please make sure you are signed up to keep current on National Corvette Caravan news:
    

Graham Borley

Gary Stephen