The weekend was perfect for a drive through the NC Mountains. The Foothills Corvette Club organizes this caravan every October and invites Corvette Clubs from NC, SC, TN and VA to participate to see the fall colors. This year over 100 Corvettes made the trip.

RTP Club Members, Todd and Tena Crook organized additional events exclusively for RTP Corvette club members and turned it into a full weekend event. Approximately 30 club members and around 15 club cars participated in either some or all of the weekend events. About 11 club cars met at Cracker Barrel for breakfast Saturday morning and rode together to the Call Family Distillery for a tour of their moonshine operation and to see the cars their family used when running moonshine back in the day. Those cars still run today and have been clocked at 195 mph. An interesting tidbit – the moonshine recipe goes back several generations to a Reverand in their family tree who taught the moonshine business to Jacob (aka Jack). The townsfolk gave the Reverand an ultimatum – either walk a straight line as our spiritual leader or make moonshine. The Reverand chose the spiritual path and Jack took up the Moonshine handle. He went on to found Jack Daniels. That was an extra surprise! The distillery tour was given by the one of the owners – Laura, and she was happy to let us sample several of their varieties – either by the shot or as a mixed drink. Now, we were responsible and the shots were VERY small – just a sip really and we were mindful that no-one over-imbibed (yes, that’s the official club disclaimer). That didn’t stop some club members from purchasing the moonshine and then partaking at the host hotel later that night. We’ll keep the names secret to protect the not so innocent!

Dinner at Dodge City Steakhouse was fantastic! Too bad the waiter dropped all the bills and credit cards on his way to the register which resulted in a fiasco of figuring out how to fix the mistakes – Sorry Bob and Dawn! But, all worked out in the end and these little snafu’s are just part of the greater adventure!

The actual Run to the Colors on Sunday was exceedingly well coordinated. The only EEEK moment was when a car ran right through the police blockade at an intersection and forced his way into the Corvette caravan – and he wasn’t even in a Corvette! Thank goodness Fred was on the ball! Most club members came back to Raleigh after the lunch at Shatley Springs. Fred and Miriam went on all the way to Virginia and didn’t make it back home till about 7:30 Sunday night. But as Miriam said, they detoured a bit on the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped for sandwiches on the way home.

All in all, this was a unique weekend and it was great to see so many of our newer club members attend. We had a wonderful time getting to know everyone a little bit better.