Driving the Florida Keys in a Chevy Corvette (and SS)

Nothing says relaxing quite like a drive through the Florida Keys with the top down. Admittedly, I have been missing a convertible since my VW Cabrio ended in flames (through no fault of mine) nearly eleven years ago. Of course, when the folks at Chevy asked if I wanted to participate in a blogger event, and that event involved Corvette convertibles, it took me all of three seconds to respond  “I’m in!“

Even though I am not really a car person, I was interested to hear about these vehicles. Of course, once I heard “460 foot pounds of torque,” and the other

people oohing and aahing, I knew I was out of my league. I have no idea what torque does, or what a foot pound of anything is. Whatever, the cars look super cool, and although I am clueless about the specs, I was looking forward to driving.

We started in Miami, and I paired up with Alexis of The Exhausted Mom, we hopped into the new Chevy SS (the Corvette comes later), and headed south. Our first pit stop was at Harriette’s in Key Largo for muffins and  a restroom stop. First of all, I was snickering out loud when I saw that we had pulled in  ahead of all the folks driving the Corvettes. The SS looks like a family car. Honestly, it is a 4 door sedan, and from the outside looks like, well, a four door sedan. But it is awesome. The 415 horsepower engine makes the car peppy, and the generous size makes it incredibly comfortable.

One of the features I love in both of these cars is the “Heads Up” display. This gizmo projects your speedometer onto the windshield directly in your field of vision. No more looking down to check how fast you are going, as the information is right in front of your eyes. Admittedly, I found it a little creepy when I first got behind the wheel, but after about five minutes I was already used to it. (I was pissed when I got back into my car and actually had to look down to check the speed.)

Our turn around – and car switching – point was at Hawk’s Cay Resort, where we also enjoyed a lovely lunch overlooking the pool and the beach. Yes, I did stop to think about my friends up north, enduring the snow, but immediately returned to enjoying the fact that I would be driving back in the warm sunshine with the top down.

After a yummy lunch, it was time to head north again. As I jumped behind the wheel of the Corvette, the Chevy people started telling me some things I might need to know – like how to put the top up in case of rain. I will tell you that I was so excited to be going top-down, there was very little chance (read: zero) that I would be putting the top up before pulling back into the dealership. So during these instructions, all I heard was “blah, blah, blah… you can put the top up at up to 30 MPH.” Good to know if you are driving this on a daily basis, but for my two hour jaunt? No way.

The drive north was as smooth and easy as the drive south, and although I am not really a car person, made me love this

Corvette. Chevy is doing some truly great things with their new cars, and have added all sorts of safety features, as well as things to make your driving more comfortable. I know OnStar has been available for quite some time, but I had never used it before so my knowledge was limited to what I have seen on television commercials. In reality, it is so much better.

Since we had OnStar, I thought I’d call and see how traffic was looking on the northbound turnpike. The very nice voice from above told me she didn’t have that information, but I could get it using the automated system right from my touch screen. We tried, but no luck. So we called back. The lovely voice in the sky had no traffic report but she was going to transfer me to

customer service to get my issue with the automated system resolved. I hung up at that point, as (a) I would only have the car for another 45 minutes and (b) I’d rather enjoy the car than try to fix the OnStar issue.

Not thirty seconds later, the phone in the car rings. Incidentally, my phone also rang at that very moment leaving me utterly confused. Alexis said “that must be OnStar calling us back. Don’t hang up on them again.” In fact, it was the voice from the sky, letting us know that she was sorry we got disconnected but would get this straightened out. Kudos for good customer service, and apologies for hanging up on you, Ms. Very Nice OnStar Woman.