Whelan's Wheels (go round and round, round and round): Take me out to the factory ...

Friday, October 30, 2009

Take me out to the factory ...

Well we aren't in the Louisville area now (yup, my bad for being so lax in my posting of late) but this post is about our Louisville time ~ which by the way was terrific.

I have to assume (shame on me ~ my Daddy taught me the true meaning of assuming! ~ wise man that Winfield was) ~ anyway, with assumptions being made I suspect the number one and two must do's (not sure which is one and which would be two) in Louisville would be the Louisville Slugger tour and the Churchill Downs tour (of which there are several choices).

We did the Slugger tour on Wednesday (I think) ~ what a great take it was. Unfortunately, but understandably, no cameras were allowed during the tour so these photos are from outside the factory/museum or from inside the museum, but NOT the factory.

The top photo is from across the street from the factory - only because that bat is so HUGE I couldn't get the entire thing into a photo without some distance between it and the camera!

The second photo is a shot of a shirt that Honus Wagner wore.

In the museum section of the the property was wax (I guess they are wax) figures of Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Ken Griffey Jr.. The one to the right is Ted Williams and the one above is the Babe (unfortunately he is wearing pinstripes here). I swear these figures were so life like I stood there for about a minute and a half looking at Babe because I thought his eyes moved (NO I had not had anything other than coffee before we got there).

Here is a shot of yours truly with a David Ortiz bat. Louisville Slugger makes bats for the majority of major league players and those players go through many dozen bats in a season - this was the Big Papi's bat ...

Here is Mickey Mantle's bat - only because Rick thought I should hold a Yankee bat for Joshua (who for some reason ... well I know the reason - Wade Boggs UGH) my oldest son - Joshua - became a Yankees fan - I spent copious amounts of dollars taking both boys to Red Sox games - one son one week, the other son the next week and some weeks the three of us would go and darned if that Gunny Lovett didn't become a Yankees fan .... So Josh (although I'm fairly certain he or his wife don't check out our blog ;-( ... ) this one's

for you.

Here are photos of bats from the 2008 World Series..

The Phillies .. YEAH go go go in 2009 Phillies

And Tampa Bay Rays (were they the Rays in 2008 or the Devil Rays? What was the year that Devil Rays became NOT pc?

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This is our story ~ and we're sticking to it.

Our attempt at a blog - quite scary isn't it?

We left MA in early October, 2007 after I (Tracey) retired September 5 as an executive assistant for a software developer and Rick retired from his job on October 1. We passed papers on our house September 28th and off we went. We traveled down the east coast to the Florida Keys ~ where we planned to spend three nights but 17 nights later had to leave our site because someone had reserved it a year prior! We then stayed in northern FL for another month and headed off to meet our Marine returning to the San Diego area after his second tour "over there". We spent several wonderful weeks realizing why grandparents get tired easily! After the San Diego area we headed to the "low desert" (certainly a new phrase for us) of CA and into western AZ .. and decided it was finally time to start the blog we'd talked about since August or so!!

So many wonderful things we saw along the way. And the people, oh the people. I have said so many times to Rick the best part of this journey has been the people. So, so many people with so many interesting stories. Think about it - think about the stories YOU have and multiply that by the many many people we must have met along the way ~ particularly a social person like Rick .. we met a rattlesnake milker in Sweetwater, TX, we met the camp hosts in the Keys who summer back in NH ~ talk about the best of both worlds! We met the female police Sgt. at the Sweetwater Elks whose son was also in Iraq at the same base as my son. We met people in Slidell, LA who survived Katrina and had a great attitude and a smile on their faces and were proud to share their local cuisine with us. We saw the Blue Angels, purely by chance, in El Centro, CA. Or the "campground" where within an hour of arriving our house had been hit three times by golf balls! Or the Elks lodge in Indio ~ the sweetest, bike riding, bartender ~ I just wanted to pack her up and bring her along on our adventure. Not to mention the aerial tram while we were there, the warplane museum for Rick who does NOT do aerial trams! The Salton Sea ~ WOW just WOW. We stayed in the lovely little town of Wilcox, AZ - there was just something about that town. How about Pensacola, FL where the Elks Lodge on the beach is now built high, very high, off the ground! Or what about Huntington Beach State Park in Murrels Inlet, SC - talk about beautiful. What a great place that was to spend our first Thanksgiving on the road with good friends - that was something to be thankful for, for sure. Our first Christmas and New Years in the Keys!! WOW. The love and support of a dear friend in FL while Rick had to fly back to Boston and we dealt with all that entailed with unexpected follow ups back in FL .. how fortunate were we through all of that. Not to mention having the new trailer outfitted in Myrtle Beach and staying at what a week or two a year is the Broken Spoke? Or the kind and soft spoken LA Police Detective who is on the gang unit? So many people, so many stories. And there is so much ahead. The people .. did I mention how wonderful the people have been - all different walks of life .. so many personalities, so many stories! I have said many times ~ I need to pinch myself every morning to be certain it REALLY is happening to US! We are so grateful.

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