road trip -- louisville, kentucky to tulsa, oklahoma -- day 3

 

funny story -- we were so bummed about our failed "welcome to kentucky" sign that the next morning we drove across the indiana state line, turned around and drove back into kentucky. but isn't this sign so much better than the last one? totally worth it.

 

we took a pit stop for lunch in new harmony, indiana, and were pleasantly surprised by how cute of a town it was/is.

  

 

i mean, who even knew towns like this existed? how awesome.

  

 

we felt it was obligatory to hit some of the route 66 stops along the drive. when the guide book said that we could see a replica of stonehenge somewhere in missouri, we decided to stop (plus we needed gas). but this was not quite what we had in mind. still, you can't blame us for trying!

another route 66 must was driving through kansas. we could have driven on the main highway and bypassed kansas altogether, but we decided to take the long route. because neither of us had been to kansas! and now we have. success. 

 

ps. we might have done the same turn around at the state line to get a good "welcome to kansas" sign. it's very important to have good signs. 

the land of mint juleps and fast horses: churchill downs

when you think about louisville, you should think of two things: the big bat at the louisville slugger museum and churchill downs, home of the kentucky derby. unfortunately, we weren't in louisville for the kentucky derby, but we still couldn't resist driving by and snapping a few pictures of the iconic spires.

  

in front of churchill downs and the kentucky derby museum, stands a bronze statue to barbaro, the 2006 kentucky derby winner, and underneath the statue, barbaro's ashes are interred. two weeks after winning the kentucky derby, barbaro, thought to possibly be the next triple crown winner, shattered his leg while running the preakness stakes in baltimore. the statue was built to honor barbaro and give his fans a place to visit. the coolest part of the statue is the fact that all four of barbaro's legs are off the ground -- he is being held up by the large bronze rail that he runs along!

that's a big bat: the louisville slugger museum

there was really only one thing on my list of things to do in louisville: see the big bat. luckily our hotel was pretty close and we could walk to the museum. as we walked we passed tons of little bat statues that tell the history of the louisville slugger. each statue had a plaque next to it describing the model number, year of creation, and baseball player who used that model. it was pretty neat to see the differences in the louisville slugger over time or depending on players' specifications.

what's cool about this museum, is that it's a factory as well. so while we didn't have an opportunity to go through the museum itself, we did get a chance to see some of the bats get branded with the louisville slugger logo through the factory windows.

  

 

facts about "the big bat": it is a replica of model R43, the 34" wood bat that was designed to Babe Ruth's specifications in the 1920s. it's 120 feet tall, 9 feet around, and weighs 68,000 pounds.

inside the museum, they have a large wall of all of the baseball players who've signed a contract with louisville slugger throughout the years. i tried to capture the enormity of this wall by taking a picture of one square, nolan ryan, rcg's favorite player. as you can see, his one small square is just one of hundreds on a panel, and there were over 20 panels on the wall. it's pretty impressive.

 

can you find nolan ryan's square in these two pictures?

on the left: middle column, fourth up from the bottom
on the right: fourth column from the right, eleven up from the bottom.

disco balls and red penguins: downtown louisville

  

like i mentioned before, csv and i barely planned out our road trip. sure, we had an idea of where we wanted to sleep each night, but we had no hotel reservations. so each night, while i drove, csv searched our aaa books and priceline to find a hotel for that night. we struck gold in louisville; finding a fancy hotel in downtown louisville for $60!

(we got the idea to search for our hotel rooms the day of from my dad, who went on his own awesome road trip two years ago. to read about his trip, check out his blog: mischief's motorcycle ride across america.)

 

on the morning of day three, we walked from our hotel to the louisville slugger museum, and discovered how adorable downtown louisville is. there is beautiful iron work on the sewer grates, random artwork in the streets, including red penguins on top of buildings and a gold david statue, and the buildings have beautiful architecture.

another thing we discovered on our walk was the louisville science center with an awesome outdoor exhibit on disco balls and mirrors. 

 

louisville fun fact: did you know that 90% of the united states' disco balls are made in louisville?

me neither. pretty cool, huh?

  

another fun fact about louisville: the belle of louisville is the oldest mississippi style steamboat in existence. she's 99 years old this year!

who knew louisville was so cute.