Corvettes occupy a special place in my heart. My sister dated a nice young man in her senior year that drove a brand new little red 1969 corvette. Boy, I wanted her to marry him. He worked in Las Vegas at the Sands Hotel as a blackjack dealer.  My first corvette was a shiny bright red 1972 with the 454ci engine. Driving a corvette can really enhance your image with women when your height is 5ft. 8in. and you weigh 130lb. Life, marriage, and children took me out of the sports car arena for many years. In the meantime we drove mostly European cars i.e. BMW, Audi, Volvo, Land Rover, and Fiats, due to our living in Europe for 11 years with the military. When I retired from the Army in 2005, my first job was with Lockheed Martin where I met Bob Beyerlein. Listening to Bob brought out all the old memories of corvettes and sports cars of my past. The story ends with the words, “never drink Jack Daniels and get on EBay’. Truth is stranger than fiction, but nonetheless I now own a 2001 Torch Red Convertible which we really love. My wife and I cruised to the east coast for a week and visited several friends along the eastern seaboard. We ventured to the Lake of the Ozarks for a reunion last summer and continue to take short trips whenever we feel the need for speed or compliments.