And They're Off...

As we drove through Ohio on our way to Louisville, there was one place we had to stop for Grandpa Linscott: White Castle. Cody had never been there before, so we decided to give it a go. We ate our burgers as we drove from Columbus to Cincinnati. When we first drove in to Louisville, we (of course) got lost and headed west to Indiana. We finally got turned around, and found a spot to sleep for the night. The next morning we headed back in to town, where our first stop was to the Louisville Slugger Factory in downtown. The factory was really neat; out front is a huge 120 foot tall, 9 foot diameter baseball bat. In the front lobby is a huge 20 foot baseball glove. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the factory, in case we were spies sent by Rawlings. At the entrance to the tour, they have the world's largest bat mobile hanging from the ceiling (their own little joke). The tour itself is really neat. We got to see them make trees into blanks for the bats, wooden cylinders 50 inches or so long. They take these blanks and run them on the lathe, making them into the basic shape of the bat. The bats are then smoothed and hand finished by workers. The bats are then sent to be painted, where they are dipped and then hung to dry. At the end of the tour, they gave us mini bats! We then were able to tour the baseball museum, where we learned a bunch about the history of the Louisville Slugger company and their connection with Major League Baseball.

After we were done with the factory, we drove over to Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is run. We didn't go inside, because they wanted $10 a person, but we did get pictures of the outside. I was totally surprised at how huge it was. It was also really pretty. We left Louisville and headed east through Kentucky and Tennessee towards the Great Smoky Mountains.

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