A NEW YEAR’S BUYING TRIP TO THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS & HOW WE BOUGHT A CORVETTE AT A JAIL AT 2:00 IN THE MORNING

If you’ve been reading our newsletter for the last several years, you know that we usually travel to Virginia between Christmas and New Year’s to visit family and buy Corvettes to add to our inventory.  This year, our family had some unexpected changes, so we had to change our destination.  We made a spur-of-the-moment decision to start out our trip in an area we’ve always wanted to visit- The Great Smoky Mountains.

We decided to stay in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  On our drive south, we drove straight through Tennessee to North Carolina to pick up a Corvette.  Before calling it a night, we wanted to stop to make one last purchase.  By this time it was about 2:00 a.m., but no problem- the Vette we were going to see was owned by a prison guard at a local prison.  He was working night shift and had driven the Vette to work that night, anticipating our late arrival, so we just met him at work.  And THAT’S how we ended up buying a Corvette at a jail at 2:00 in the morning.  It’s maybe not as scandalous as is sounds, but probably something we’ll never mange to pull off again!  We finally made it to our hotel around 3:00 in the morning, ready to rest and enjoy a few days relaxing in Pigeon Forge.

As is our style, we found a couple of cool car museums to visit in the area.  Each one is a stone’s throw from Pigeon Forge, and we recommend visiting both if you’re ever in the area!  The first museum was the Hollywood Star Cars Museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  This was an amazing collection of cars that have been used in famous movies or owned by famous people.  Some of our favorites were Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds, the Delorean Time Machine from Back to the Future, and cars from The Fast and The Furious.

Another museum we found was Floyd Garrett’s Muscle Car Museum in Sevierville, Tennessee.  This museum was packed with American muscle cars from the 1950’s-1970’s.  They had a great collection of Corvettes, as well as mustangs, camaros, and much more.  While we were there, we had the opportunity to chat with Floyd Garrett himself.  We learned that his museum is up for sale, as he will soon be retiring and moving.  So if you want to check this place out, you’d better do it soon!

We visited several other attractions at Pigeon Forge, and enjoyed the Christmas lights and shows throughout the whole town, and especially at Dollywood!  We LOVE Christmas and we had certainly come to the right place!  We made our way home slowly- we were able to stop and spend a day with our Virgina family, stopping first to buy a corvette, and we spent New Year’s Eve with some friends in West Virginia.  On the way home, we stopped to buy one more Vette in our own state of Pennsylvania.

When it was all said and done, we realized we had slept in 3 different states, bought 4 cars in 4 different states, and put over 1,600 miles on our truck.  It was a little exhausting, but a lot of fun!  Take a look at some of our pictures below, including the four cars we picked up on our trip.

Until next time,

RJ & Holly Sottile

 

1971 Black Black Corvette ConvertibleNumbers matching, automatic, black interior, 90K miles, power steering, power brakes, A/C, power windows, AM/FM/Cassette, and much more. This stingray spent most of its life in Florida.
1971 Dark Red 4spd Corvette ConvertibleNumbers matching, 90K original miles, black interior, four speed manual, power steering, black convertible top, hard top, rally wheels, original radio, crank windows, dual exhaust, same owner since 1992.

New parts: exhaust, front and rear shocks, oil and filter.

1981 Red Red Corvette T TopAutomatic, 40,000 miles on dash, red leather interior, power steering, power brakes, power windows, tilt and tele steering column, and much more.

 

1977 Black Black 4spd corvetteNumbers matching, 4spd manual transmission, 2 owners, North Carolina car, mostly original black leather interior, hooker header side pipes, 60K miles, power steering, power brakes, crank windows, AM/FM/CD player, Gymkhana suspension, rally wheels, original air cleaner assembly, original valve covers, original ignition shielding, and much more.

Previous owner recently had 4 calipers, master cylinder, front brake hoses, and brake pads replaced, along with belts, spark plugs, spark plug wires. We changed the oil and filter, transmission and rear end grease, checked and lubed the chassis and installed a power steering pressure hose and top radiator hose.

1973 Silver 4spd Corvette T TopThis Vette will make someone a fun chrome bumper driver to cruise around in.

4 speed manual transmission, 17,000 miles on dash, power steering, power brakes, X-A/C, AM/FM/Cassette, black interior, 1967 327/300+Hp, Chevy Bowtie angle plug performance heads, roller rockers, screw in studs with valve guides, Edelbrock carb, Accel HEI distributor, Weiand aluminum intake, Edelbrock air cleaner and valve covers, dual exhaust, and much more.

This Corvette recently had upper control arm bushings, fiberglass front bumper, and steering coupler replaced. We changed the oil and filter, transmission grease, and checked and lubed the chassis.

I drove this vette over two hours home. It runs and drives great with plenty of power.