Updated 7/30/14

Arizona & New Mexico

Corvettes and Route 66!
What can be better than driving your Corvette along sections of Route 66 in the 2014 Caravan to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the 20th Anniversary of the National Corvette Museum? This event is scheduled once every five years and is the Event of the Year for Corvette owners. This event is scheduled once every five years for Corvette owners!

Maybe you are new to the Corvette world, or maybe you do not know of the 2014 Caravan, so what is the 2014 Caravan? It is a gathering of Corvette enthusiasts from around the United States, Canada and several other countries. We form caravans of Corvettes from locations around the Country to make a great road trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky. This will be an event beginning in late August which will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the National Corvette Museum on Labor Day weekend of 2014. Caravans will form from locations close to your home for this event so you can participate with thousands of other Corvette owners. Participants can join at various locations along the way.

Are you ready?
Now is the time to have your car serviced, tires inspected and for you to figure out just what you want to carry on the Caravan. Don't forget to leave some room for the extras you will certainly find along the way.

Changes for this revision
1. Updates for Caravan events; 2. Route and reforming information; 3. General information for web site; 4. Sponsors

Our Route 66
What could be better than travelling along the Mother Road in your Corvette? We will caravan along scenic sections of old Route 66. We will join with the Southern California, Southern Nevada and Southwestern Utah Caravan at Williams, AZ. Departing Williams we will be following some of the "new" Route 66 along I-40 to Albuquerque, then a scenic mountain drive between the "new" Route 66 to I-25 and the original Route 66 along US 84 to Santa Ross, NM and on to Amarillo, TX. In Amarillo we will join the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandle Caravan. We will be the Southwest Caravan Group traveling along Route 66…here are some photos taken by Buzz, Jackie, Chaz and Gael during their trip along Route 66 in 2004 kicksonroute66.com. Imagine the sight of hundreds of Corvettes in these combined Caravans traveling to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green!

Caravan Route, Schedule and Hotels
I have driven our caravan route from Williams, AZ to Bowling Green. What a great scenic trip! I believe that all participants will find our "Route 66" Caravan to be fun and interesting…We will enjoy a lot of scenic roads instead of just the Interstate highways.

• Friday - August 22: Meet and Greet Phoenix area and Tucson participants at Midway Chevrolet in Phoenix, AZ for donuts and coffee at 10:00 AM. Afterward we will caravan to Williams, AZ to join the S. Cal/ S. Nevada/ SW Utah Caravan. A Meet & Greet and a Show and Shine car show are planned at the host hotel. Plaza Travel will book reservations in Williams if needed.
• Saturday - August 23: I will take the lead for our merged Caravans departing Williams, AZ along I-40. Some of the Phoenix participants will join the Caravan as we pass through Flagstaff, AZ. We will stop for lunch and Indian souvenir shopping in Gallup, NM. After lunch and a few souvenirs, we will reform the Caravan at the Rio West Mall in Gallup near I-40 exit 20 for the caravan to Albuquerque. The Southern Arizona, Tucson and Las Cruces group who elect a Southern Route will be led by local leader Connie O'Malley to our host hotel in Albuquerque. We will have a Meet & Greet and possible host activities at the Crowne Plaza Hotel located at 1901 University, Albuquerque. The Fairfield Inn next to the Crowne Plaza is our secondary hotel for Albuquerque. We plan to caravan from the Crowne Plaza to Reliable Chevrolet where we will display our cars, listen to a DJ "spin some music" and we can purchase a light meal from concessionaires before returning to the Crowne Plaza. I encourage you to make your reservations at the Crowne Plaza Hotel or the adjacent Fairfield Inn as the host hotels. They are planning to welcome us and provide increased security for our cars.
• Sunday - August 24: We will form along Menaul Road next to the Crowne Plaza to depart east along I-40 to exit 170 toward Carnuel. We will follow the post 1937 Route 66 to NM 14 and turn north along scenic NM 14 to Santa Fe. We will merge onto I-25 which follows the pre-1937 Route 66 alignment to US-84. We will turn south on US-84 near Las Vegas, NM to Santa Rosa, NM traveling along the Pecos Trail, the pre-1937 original Route 66. We will not have a designated lunch; therefore, participants can stop at Santa Rosa or Tucumcari, NM. We will reform the Caravan in Tucumcari for the short trip to Amarillo, TX. Activities are being planned by the Amarillo Corvette Club. We will celebrate the merging of three Caravans at the host hotel, the Holiday Inn - Medical Center located at 8231 W Amarillo Blvd. Our evening dinner will be at the Holiday Inn host hotel. Due to the number of participants, we will use several additional hotels reserved by Plaza Travel in the immediate area.
• Monday - August 25: Captains Tuna and Susan Dobbins will lead the combined Caravans from the NW corner of the Westgate Mall parking lot (near Hooter's - sorry they will be closed at this hour). Our lunch is in El Reno at Frontier Chevy. Frontier Chevy is picking up the cost of lunch for you here. Please be sure to tell them thanks. We will travel through Oklahoma City along I-35 north to Edmond where we will exit onto the original Route 66 to Sapulpa. There we will transition to the Turner Turnpike and I-44. You will need 50 cents, EXACT Change Required, for the automated entrance to the I-44 turnpike. We will exit the turnpike in Tulsa to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which is the host hotel for our evening activities. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is completely booked for August 25th; however, the Caravan still has over 100 rooms available. Please make your reservations soon as these rooms will be released prior to the Caravan arrival. Use this link for reservations Hard Rock Hotel " Casino Tulsa and enter "Corvette2014" in the Attendee Code box. Please contact me if you need hotel reservation information.
• Tuesday - August 26: We will depart Tulsa for lunch in Springfield, MO. The Oklahoma Caravan has made arraignments for the $4.00 for toll on I-44. We'll have a quick stop in Springfield for lunch and gas as we really need to push on to Cape Girardeau. Please take advantage of the catered lunch at Remington's as it will be much quicker than finding a restaurant. Lunch will be catered at Remington's. We don't know the cost per person yet. We will take US-60 from Springfield to Cape Girardeau for the night. The Cape Girardeau Visitors Bureau is planning to close 3 blocks of Main Street for a "Corvette In Cape" event where we can display our cars one short block from the Mississippi River. There will be dinner available from Popeye's for $5.00 per person. The Visitor's Bureau and the town of Cape Girardeau are sponsoring most of this event. There will be shuttle service to the Isle of Man Casino and there are a few "watering holes" along Main Street for your adult beverages. www.semissourian.com/story/2103762.html
• Wednesday - August 27: We will depart from the North side of the Westpark Mall parking lot in Cape Girardeau. We will travel along the beautiful highways Between the Lakes in Western Kentucky. There are no planned lunch stops or fuel stops on Wednesday…stop as you like. We will have a reform area at 3:00 pm at the Hillvue Heights Church on the West side of Bowling Green so that we can enter the NCM "en masse". We'll depart Hillvue at 3:30 PM under police escort to the National Corvette Museum with a planned drive through of the NCM parking lot at 4 PM. After that, you are on your own to go to your hotels and get ready for the 20th Anniversary Celebration at the NCM.

Hotels
Plaza Travel Agency of Encino, CA has been selected as the official travel agency for our combined Caravans. They will make reservations for participants for every night in all of the cities along our route except for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa. Plaza Travel has reserved blocks of rooms for our combined Caravan in Nashville. During the 2009 Caravan, I reserved a room in Nashville, TN along the Briley Parkway corridor. This parkway connects with I-65 on the north side of Nashville making the travel time to the NCM approximately an hour. 2014 AZ/ NM Caravan registered participants should make your reservations through http://www.plazatravel.com/promo/?id=271 or call Patty directly at . Contact Captain Holt Davis at for Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Plaza Travel reservation information if you have problems.

20th Anniversary Agenda
The NCM has finalized the agenda of events for the 20th Anniversary Celebration. Check out the list of events and activities for this event here: http://www.corvettemuseum.org/registration/celebration/agenda.shtml. Then log in to your event registration page and add events to your Caravan and 20th Anniversary Celebration registration.

Pre-Registration for the Caravan is closed. You can still join the Caravan by contacting me. You will then be able to complete registration at the NCM. The NCM will collect the $5.00 Caravan fee and the registration fee for the 20th Anniversary Celebration event. The 20th Anniversary Celebration is an additional $15.00 (member) or $25.00 for non-members of the NCM.

Rigid Schedule?
We are planning for your enjoyment and have completed several trial runs along this route. We encourage you to research sites along the way. Plan scenic stops that you, your friends, or your club like. You do not need to run "nose to tail" since we have relaxed schedules with plenty of Caravan reform locations along the way. During past Caravans, some participants complained that the rigid schedule did not let them see the sites along the way. Some of the days will not have selected stops…be your own judge for fuel and lunch stops. This is a vacation and a fun event!

Who is in charge?
Captain Holt Davis is the Arizona & New Mexico Captain for the 2014 Caravan. I live in Southeastern New Mexico and participated in the 2009 15th Anniversary Caravan. I fell in love with the '63 Corvette Stingray fastback the first time I saw one and dreamed of owning one. Well that did not happen but I have owned 13 Corvettes through the years including a '67 Roadster. My '71 was displayed on the turntable at the front of the NCM.

Captain Sherry Maples lives in Albuquerque, NM. She drives a Jet Stream metallic blue 2010 coupe. She is a member of the Rio Grande Corvette Club which is affiliated with the Road Runner NCCC region.

Local Leader Bernie Babcock has arraigned for us to meet at Midway Chevrolet in Phoenix for coffee and donuts before caravanning to Williams, AZ on Friday, August 22nd.

Local Leader Connie O'Malley is a member of the Green Valley Corvette Club. She resides in Green Valley, AZ. Connie will lead the Southern Arizona, Las Cruces, NM and Tucson participants who choose to travel a Southern route to Albuquerque on Saturday - August 23rd.

Local Leader Larry Teague is the President of the Amarillo Corvette Club. He and the Amarillo Corvette Club are handling the organization and evening activities in Amarillo, TX. Many thanks for their assistance!

Caravan Merchandise
Flags and Static Clings are available for your purchase. These are priced at $15 for each flag and $10 for each static cling. Shipping cost is $6 for a flag and $2 for clings. Corvette Clubs or groups of participants are advised to make one order to save shipping costs. Contact Captain Holt Davis or Local Leader Connie O'Malley for orders.

Request orders by contacting me at . Sorry I cannot accept credit cards or PayPal.

Sponsors

Captain Holt Davis escorting Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) member at an air show honoring WASP.
Thank you to these wonderful ladies who piloted military aircraft during WWII.

Holt Davis
Arizona & New Mexico Captain

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Holt Davis