October 30-31, 2009 Louisville (LOO-avil), Kentucky
Friday we left Lexington and headed west to Louisville, Kentucky. Pronounced “Loo-avil” by the locals. We completed our Bourbon Trail by going to the Jim Beam Distillery. We were happy to have completed our goal of visiting all of the distilleries. What a great adventure it has been. Our next stop was the famous Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. We took a short tour of this amazing horse racing venue, seeing the track up close. The seating area can hold upwards of 50,000 race fans. On Derby Day there is close to 90,000 with 40,000 or so standing in the infield. Mike wants to come back for a race sometime, think that this would quite an experience.
Saturday morning we went back into town and visited the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. This was a very interesting tour. We watched how they used make bats with lathe operators hand trimming the bats to the pre-described size. This method took about 30 minutes per bat; the new mechanized lathes can kick out a bat every 30 seconds or so, quite a process. We also watched them dip the bats into stain, and burn/brand the name into the wood. It was interesting to see the famous baseball players that use and have used the “Slugger” bats. This company produces about 80% of the bats used by professional ball players. Next we went to the American Publishing House for the Blind. There was a very interesting exhibit starting in the early 1800s to the present covering the growth of the education and materials for people who are blind or vision impaired. This company supplies Braille books, recorded books, and materials for the blind all over the world. The APH was a big facility, but being that it was Saturday, the place was pretty quiet. This was another great visitation on our trip.