Chapter 9 #4
By the end of their time at the museum, Kelly was actually surprised how much she enjoyed it.
It wasn’t just walking around looking at a bunch of nearly identical cars on display.
There was the Skydome Sinkhole exhibit, which had a very interesting history.
In February 2014, a massive sinkhole opened beneath the museum floor and swallowed eight historic Corvettes.
But rather than fill the sinkhole, the museum made the decision to keep it as a permanent exhibit.
They restored some of the cars while others were left as recovered wreckage on display.
Kelly found the exhibit fascinating from a historical aspect. The museum had turned a freak geological event into a goldmine attraction that even a car philistine like her could find intriguing.
It even opened the door to Kelly’s interest in the other exhibits and cars.
But what she found held her interest the most was Grumpy’s vast knowledge.
Without even looking at the information plaques posted he knew the production history—three hundred—of the original Corvette from 1953.
The one displayed was the first ever made, and unlike cars today, it was hand-built.
Even the fact that he specified the paint color as “Polo White” instead of just “white” captivated her.
This coming from the same man who once claimed that there were only two types of shoes in the world: practical and stupid.
By the time they reached the 1963 Split Window Coupe display, Kelly was glad Grumpy had caved and agreed to the wheelchair rental.
The motorized ones were more expensive, but it had a basket on the front that a standard wheelchair lacked.
So Jackson followed them around, driving the scooter at a snail’s pace behind them while carrying any supplies Kelly thought they might need.
With all the talking Grumpy was doing, she actually had to send Jackson to refill their water bottles.
Maybe the most enjoyable part for her was when she was the one waiting for Grumpy to exit the bathroom instead of the other way around. She knew it wasn’t his fault, and she was glad he was taking his time, but she still got a kick out of it.
As promised, Kelly took a picture of Grumpy with his tiara for the club.
It was a tough call between the ZR1 “King of the Hill” model and the Coupe, but since Grumpy was only allowing one picture, she chose the Coupe.
Grumpy’s obvious interest in the historical conflict between the designer and the engineer basically made the decision for her.
She tried to smile and look like she was fascinated by the fact that some guy named Bill Mitchell split a rear window, which was deemed a safety hazard by some other guy whose name Kelly couldn’t remember but was the engineer known as the father of the Corvette.
To her, it seemed like a silly thing to break a partnership up over, but Grumpy was more animated than usual as he talked.
They took several breaks. Grumpy even sat in the motorized wheelchair at the displays and walked with her between. That made her happy.
Her interest and attention span were waning by the time they made it to the C8 mid-engine Corvette.
She absently wondered if this was how men felt when women take them clothes shopping.
Grumpy, the man whose auditory language consisted of grunts, groans, and growls, actually talked for twenty minutes straight about the first time in Corvette history that the company moved the engine to the middle and how this single engineering decision sparked a massive debate that divided the purists.
Kelly was just grateful she knew which pedal was the gas and which was the brake.
It was incredible to watch this side of the man she loved.
And though she knew it held no interest to her, she knew they would be coming back to this museum.
Or maybe finding others out there like it.
She could see the difference between Jackson’s and Grumpy’s opinions of the cars and history.
Jackson was intrigued by the flash and the speed, especially when they reached the race car section.
For him, it was all about the thrill, the adrenaline rush.
But Grumpy saw the engineering decisions, the compromises between design and function.
Like that argument between a designer and an engineer, when a single moment in history could be defined by one person’s artistic vision conflicting with another person’s practicality.
Neither Kelly nor Grumpy had a college degree.
She didn’t know if he chose not to because he didn’t think it was needed or if the Army gave him all the real-life experience he needed, but she thought he would make an incredible engineer.
It was the way he spoke of the mechanical ingenuity, of how he saw cars as puzzles of a thousand pieces that fit together just right.
The trip exhausted him, and while he kept to the four-hour time limit they had set, Kelly thought he could have easily stayed double that.
But the thought of sending him with one of his brothers next time didn’t even cross her mind.
Regardless of her boredom, she wouldn’t have missed seeing this side of Grumpy for anything.