Louisville, KY

First of all, Cecily and Rochelle must fish because they knew the pink on the alligator snapping turtle’s tongue represented a worm.  He just sits back and waits for the fish to “bite” and snaps them up.

We were in Louisville for a RV Caravan a few years ago.  We had a great time but not enough time to see some of the attractions.  We have a list and intend to see all we can in the couple of days we are here.

We started with the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. 

The Hillerich Family first started making butter churns in the mid 1800s.  Bud, the owner’s son, went to a baseball game and the star hitter broke his bat.  Bud asked him to come to the shop and he would make him a new bat.  Though they made the bat, Bud’s dad saw no future in bats, just butter churns.  One hundred thirty-two years later we know who was right.

The tour is led by a practiced but entertaining docent who generally knows when to quit the joke. 
It is amazing how fast a professional bat is made, about thirty seconds.  The company is proud of the customized bats they make for professional hitters. 

 Today they are made on computerized lathes. Making a bat by hand as they did in the old days took about a half hour.  It also required a lot of skill to get the bat right.  Jerry was allowed to take a picture of this hand turning process.

Some players want the wood plain and others want it stained or painted in approved tones.  Fear of “spying” by competitors limits photography in the plant.

For the general public, they will make a personalized bat for about $100. 

The museum has a section on Ripley Believe It or Not baseball trivia.  Here Yankee Stadium is made of 125,000 toothpicks.

In the front of the building leans a scale replica of Babe Ruth’s bat.  It is 125 feet tall, 9 feet in diameter.  The carbon steel bat weighs 68,000 pounds.   

Around town are metal bats representing famous players. 

This baseball appears to fly through the window on the wall of a glass company next to the museum.

The Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts was on our list but it is being remodeled and not yet open.  But we made quite a find at the Museum/Hotel.  A gilded David greets guests and visitors.  Note the red penguins that watch over the street from the roof line.

This upscale hotel has rooms and halls filled with unusual and excellent art.  The first display was disquieting, houses of worship made with weapons and ammunition.  Obviously, it is a protest of violence committed in the name of one’s deity. 

The mosque is damaged by fighting between Sunni and Shia.

 The churches and synagogue have relics or bibles inside them.

The Burnt Church represents the Battle of Verdun and is made of weapons found on the battlefield.

We interacted with this installation of falling letters settling into comments.

These vents were blowing smoke rings.

This red limo awaits guest of the hotel.

We bought tickets for Squirrel Lake at a small theater.  (For those of you who go to the B Street Theater, the Busfields went to university here.)  The ticket seller recommended Dish on Market known for its Big Brown, turkey, bacon and cheese on bread and covered with sauce, a Louisville specialty. 

Jerry enjoyed it, Anna Lee passed, but shared the bread pudding.

Squirrel Lake is a satirical, squirrely production of death, family, crime, inheritance, insanity and love, all blended together with heavy doses of amusement.