17 May - Louisville Slugger, Glass Factory and Lunch with CMSgt (ret) Jim Smith

17 May

Today we visited the Louisville Slugger factory.  They manufacture some of the best wooden baseball bats available.  They also make aluminum bats used by youth baseball nowadays all the way up to college, and they make ball gloves among other things.  This factory just makes wooden bats, though.

 They have a great, children-friendly area with many displays of bats and various baseball history, plus they have a nice gift shop too.  So we got signed up for the tour and then walked around looking at the displays.

It was a very informative walking tour and we saw the entire process.  They weave in videos along the way and the tour guide did a great job. 

-          They showed us the “billets”, or the round blanks cut from either maple or ash, that the bats are made from. 

-          We saw the old manual process where bats were turned on a wood lathe, the production process where they are made using a template blade, and then the computerized process for custom order major league bats where the profiles are stored in memory and can be pulled up at the touch of a button.

-          They showed the process of trimming off the nub, the end piece used to hold the bat in the machine, and they gave use each a nub to take home

-          Then they demonstrated the process of blazing on the “trademark” and the players signature if they have a contract

-          Finally we saw where they apply the finish(es), depending on the preference of the player – pink for Mother’s Day; clear lacquer finish,  two-tone, etc

We were not permitted to take any pictures during the tour so as to preserve their production processes secrets, but much of the process is viewable through the large windows that face the sidewalk, so we snapped a few on the way back to the truck.

The Glass Factory:

After leaving the bat factory, we discovered the Flame Run glass factory was just behind where we parked our truck, so we headed there.  

We watched the process of heating the glass and “blowing” it at the end of a tube.  As we were watching by ourselves from a window, we did not know exactly what they were making but it looked to be a large vase of some kind.  

They repeatedly inserted the glass into a kiln to heat it up, and then brought it out, blowing on the tube and using various tools and processes to shape it.  (Video inserted here.  Let's see if it works!)

They had a large display area where you could purchase glass items they had created, but they were all very expensive - hundreds to thousands of dollars, and would likely not survive our road trip so we “took and rain check on that, Clark”!

Leaving the glass factory we had made plans to join the retired Kentucky State Command Chief, CMSgt (ret) Jim Smith.  Jim and I were both Command Chiefs at the same time, and go to know each other on the Air National Guard Enlisted Field Advisory Council.  Jim served as the Region 6 (upper Midwest) Primary and I was the Alternate.  We both attended the same national-level meetings and got to know each other very well. 

We met Jim in Jeffersonville IN near Clarksville, across the river from Louisville KY.  OK, hold that thought - “Louis”ville and “Clarks”ville.  Get it?  Louis (Lewis) and Clark as in the Trail.  Anyway, the area we met was like the Des Moines Court Avenue district.  An older area that has been revitalized and has a lot of eating establishments.  So we walked the “Big Four” bridge, an old railroad bridge that had been converted into a pedestrian bridge in 2014.  This gave us a great view of the Ohio River and both the Kentucky and Indiana sides.  

Lines down the middle represent the railroad tracks

Old houses seen from the bridge

A new bridge over the Ohio river

We then headed to a local Italian eating establishment for lunch.  We had a great time getting caught up with Jim since his retirement.  We also made plans to visit the Kentucky Derby for a race Thursday night with Jim and his wife. 

The weather continues to be rainy.  We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the RV planning future days events.  Tomorrow Doreen wants to stop at a local fruit/vegetable stand and we will visit Fort Knox and restock supplies.  Maybe we can grab a few gold bars while we are there Ha Ha!!  Back in the dark ages I guess you used to be able to visit the gold depository, but now you cannot get any where’s close to it let alone tour it.  Sad, isn’t it?

Actually we need to find an Internet hotspot as Verizon coverage is nearly non-existent here in the campgrounds, and their campground Wi-Fi is totally inoperative right now and when it works it reminds me of a 300 baud modem I once had….  I am finishing this post from a Bob Evans restaurant where I have managed to eat enough for four people I think.  

Change of subject.  So here are some trip stats:

Fuel purchases:  9

Average cost/gal:  $2.09

Total fuel purchased:  176.06 gals

Total cost:  $376.90

Total campground to campground miles:  1238

Total vicinity miles:  1672

Total miles driven:  2910

Average towing MPG:  11.0

Average overall MPG (includes vicinity driving):  16.52

Total campgrounds to campgrounds travel time:  27 hrs 11 min

Number of campgrounds visited:  6

Number of states visited (includes Iowa):  6

I had planned 5000 trip miles not including vicinity miles.  I am surprised so far our vicinity miles are exceeding our trip miles.  Well, that's it for today from rainy and overcast Louisville KY.  Be safe, everyone!