An old pilot at Lompoc Airport had a mishap with his airplane. It involved a nasty crosswind that contributed to him running off the runway and into a cement barrier. He wasn’t hurt but the damage to the airplane was severe. It was a major undertaking to fix it but his passion for flying kept him going. Over the years he became unable to finish the project. He offered the airplane to anyone who wanted to finish the restoration. Everyone, including myself, refused the project because of its immensity. Well, he finally talked me into it and I took the plane and restored it. I flew it for a little over a year. During that time a young pilot kept bugging me to sell it to him. Only thing is he was a big fellow and couldn’t fit into it. So I told him when he looses some weight so he can fit into the airplane, I’ll sell it. Well, I didn’t really think he’d loose the weight. Wrong assumption. So I kept my promise. Now, Holly and I have been discussing having a roadster for weekend road trips and wine tasting fun. I was talking to the guys around the airport about selling my airplane and wondering what to do. Then one fellow said I should buy his Corvette that I have been drooling over. I didn’t believe he’d part with it. But he said he would love for me to get it because I would take good care of it. So there you go. We now have our weekend roadster. We have a small group of roadster friends who we do weekend back road tours with. We call ourselves, “The Topless Road Runners”. Great fun. Of course, along with that we are glad to share the fellowship with the great folks at Vapor Trail Vets. By the way, the guy who sold me his Corvette used the money to buy another guys airplane. I just tell people that we are playing a game of musical toys.
Update, 4/22/17. So now we have 4 cars for the two of us. We don’t need to be spending the money it takes to maintain 4 cars. But she wanted to keep her Dodge Charger, I wanted to keep my Dodge Charger and we didn’t want to sell the Corvette or the truck. Decisions, decisions. So on one lazy Saturday we decided to go out and look for a new white Corvette convertible. We agreed that if we can afford it we’ll trade the blue convertible and my Dodge for it. Of course we didn’t expect to find one, let alone be able to afford it. So we felt safe. After spending the day shopping around Buellton and Santa Maria and looking on line, we didn’t find anything. But, for chuckles, we decided to stop into Sunset Chevrolet in Lompoc. They certainly wouldn’t have one. Oops! There it was, sitting right in the showroom. It wasn’t a convertible, but it was white. So we asked them to run the numbers so we can see it’s too expensive. But with the trade-ins, factory incentives, discount, rebate and loyalty incentive it turned out we can afford it. It actually came out to where the insurance and license savings pretty much makes the payments. We weren’t actually looking for anything more than a basic model, but we had to settle with the Stingray with the Z51 package. Oh well. So that wasn’t all. GM sent us an invitation and discount to attend the basic driver training course at Spring Mountain Race Track in Pahrump Nevada. So we both went to that and I’ll tell you what, I had no idea that this car was such a beast! Anyone who buys a series 7 Corvette should take this course.
Well weeks went by and after our experience at Spring Mountain and getting involved with the club’s autocross, wouldn’t you know, Holly decided she would like a Corvette of her own. So we set our standards too high but found out we can really do something that isn’t financially beneficial and buy another one. So we traded Holly’s Dodge Charger and I got another Z51 Stingray. His and Hers. We can’t wait for the next autocross!
