Buying My Dream
Marshall Neumann
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9/6/2024
I wrote this in 2021 on the 15th Anniversary of buying my car
Fifteen years ago today, I got off of a Greyhound bus to start one of the greatest adventures of my life. I had taken the bus to Atlanta where I was greeted by the salesman from the Corvette Dealership. I was buying my dream.
I had wanted a Corvette my whole life but never dreamed of all the wonderful people I would meet or the amazing places I would go because of it! My "non-Corvette friends," probably won't "get it," but as much as my wife said early on that it was "just a car," it has been so much more and I know even she would agree. It has become a huge part of our lives.
When I picked up my 1974 convertible on that March day in 2006, it fired up on the first turn of the key. Last weekend, it did that again, firing up on the first try of the year for the fifteenth year in a row. The car had less than 9,000 miles on it when I bought it and today has over 50,000 miles. It's taken us down Rt. 66 (well, 2/3 of the way); we've driven it in downtown Manhattan (I don't recommend it!); through the battlefields of Gettysburg; overall, it's travelled to at least 25 states with me behind the wheel.
I don't think I ever really believed I'd be lucky enough to own one of these cars and all these years later, I have two! But if I had to cut back to just one, I would keep the 74. I plan on having that car until the end unless my timing allows me to choose the next caretaker on my way out.
On that first day 15 years ago, I got my first Corvette wave from a yellow C6 convertible and I still get just as giddy today when I wave and get one back. As I pulled in to the garage that first night, having driven from Georgia to Indiana with no issues (I remember that I had to get out the aftermarket owner's manual I had bought so I could see how to put the top up when it started to sprinkle rain just north of Nashville), my wife met me in the garage with champagne, not even knowing what we had gotten ourselves in for.
I can hardly wait for the next fifteen years.