Since we had so much fun in Michigan last summer, we decided to plan another beach vacation for this summer. Kelli had her heart set on Myrtle Beach, SC but upon researching we both found Myrtle Beach to be a bit commercialized. Sticking with the same area of the country, we settled on the southern coast of North Carolina. Kure Beach on Pleasure Island to be exact.
Siri (our iPhone) planned to take us through Louisville, KY and since we were departing at 10:00 pm and I was doing all the driving, a baseball stop at the Historic Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory was on the docket!
Minnesota Twin Hall of Famer Rod Carew!
The Great Bambino
One of my childhood heroes, Ken Griffey Jr. (A wax statue of him, not really him)
How many baseball bats (billets) come in one tree trunk?
There were so many interesting facts shared on our tour! How many bats does an MLB player go through in a season? (100-120) How many trees does it take to make a year's worth of bats? (40,000 trees) How many acres of forest does Louisville Slugger own? (8,500 acres) How many bats does Louisville Slugger make in a season? (average 1.6 million) How long does it take to cut and sand one bat? (30 seconds - Minor League and Retail; 45 seconds - MLB) Who's bat was being produced while we toured? (Derek Jeter) How much does a MLB player get paid a season to sign a contract with Louisville Slugger? ($1,000)
The Signature Wall: An entire hallway was filled with signature plates from real bats, dating back to when Louisville Slugger first started making bats in 1884.
Single tear... RIP Kirby Puckett.
Pictures were not allowed while we toured the factory, and they seemed pretty serious about it, so there were a lot of cool features of the process that we couldn't document (like burning the logo on the bats and sealing the bats). There were a lot of summer camp tours with small kids and Hayes swung his free mini-bat from the tour a little too close to a giant glass display of Babe Ruth memorabilia, so we headed outside to the World's Largest Baseball Bat!
The original factory and company name, next door.
A bit shady, but proof we were there!
Downtown Louisville, KY was a maze to navigate. I could breathe easy once we were on the road. So could the kids...
The effort is what counts, right?
The construction and city streets were a maze in Louisville, but the winding mountain roads of West Virginia were insane! After driving through the night, I was beginning to get sleepy. Nothing like West Virginia to wake you up! The entire state was wild and treacherous driving... and three toll ways! It was amazing scenery, but I was thankful when we finally reached North Carolina.
The kids were pretty excited to get out of the car too! We've never spent so much time playing at a rest stop!
We checked into our hotel in Durham/Chapel Hill, NC around 9:00 pm. It was a long day. We were ready for some beach the next day!
