Sightseeing in Louisville

On Thursday before rollin' out of Louisville we went a toured the Louisville Slugger bat factory. It's the only place in the world where Louisville Slugger bats are made. We actually got to walk right through the middle of the production floor and watch the work in progress. Each professional baseball player has they own custom mold and they usually order 10-12 at a time. We also got to see some of the original bats used by certain famous players like Mickey Mantle, David Ortiz, and Babe Ruth. Very cool! We even got to handle the original bats used by some of those players. Very cool!

We then stopped by the 21C Hotel in downtown Louisville. Inside the lobby is a modern art museum with some really interesting and unique pieces. One was a white wall in which letters were projected onto it and they were falling or "raining" down the wall (similar to that speed typing game you may have played on a computer). But when a person steps in front of the wall, their image is projected onto the wall with the letters and the letters interact with the person (i.e. bounce off the body). See the pics. It was so incredible!

Stormin' in Louisville!

Hey all! Well it's now Thursday morning and we just woke up to black skies here in Louisville. A thunderstorm rolled in overnight and it's pouring outside along with some crazy lightning and thunder. The weird thing is that it is still 90 degrees out.

We were glad to roll out of St. Louis yesterday. Crossed over the mighty Mississippi into Illinois and didn't stop much through the Land of Lincoln or the Hoosier State. EXCEPT we did make a little pit stop in the random town in the middle of nowhere Indiana called Santa Claus. Really. It's a whole town of all Christmas all the time. Really. Someone shoot me. The grocery store is called Holiday Foods, the lake is Rudolph Lake, and the streets are all things like Mistletoe Lane and such. There's even a huge theme park called Holiday World with roller coasters and water rides...It's kinda cool but just so random.

Cruised into Louisville yesterday afternoon and drove down to see Churchill Downs. That place is HUGE!! Took some great pictures of that and, then, OH the University of Louisville Cardinal's massive stadium was right next door so you know Rhett was all over that photo opportunity! :)

Ate dinner at this real fun Southwestern-style restaurant right on the Ohio river called Tumbleweeds and then checked out this funky little dive bar called Starbase Q 'cause they were having Karaoke night! No we didn't sing, but dang it was some good entertainment! Those people were not afraid to tear apart a country song lol!

St. Louis Isn't Real Pretty

Thankfully, it was a relatively short 4 1/2 hour drive from Kansas City to St. Louis today, but it was hot! Around 100 in St. Louis but with the humidity it felt about 115! But no, no, it is not too hot to make Joe turn around and come back, so don't ask lol!

The countryside turned from flat cornfields to rolling tree-covered hills, although it was a little unnerving that we kept hearing banjos while driving through the rural Missouri countryside.

So the first thing we did when we got to town was go and tour the Anheuser Busch plant. Rhett figured that since we toured the Coors plant in Colorado we should at least see how the Bud tour compares :) It was a great tour. One of the first things we got to see were some of the Budweiser Clydesdales. They are the most beautiful horses, and huge!

After the tour we rode up to the top of the Gateway Arch. It is the most incredible sculpture. It's 630 feet tall, and you ride up to the top in these tiny, claustrophobic little gondolas that seat five people, barely. I mean by the time you get to the top, you're basically family. :) The view from the top is incredible. They say you can see almost 30 miles on a clear day. We certainly could see right into Busch Stadium where the Cardinals were playing the Astros today. Who needs tickets?? Just bring a pair of binoculars to the top of the arch and you're good to go!

Now, other than the aforementioned two locales, the rest of St. Louis is basically a bust. It's just not a very attractive city. We weren't impressed. It's very industrial, dirty, stinky...I mean we drove around for awhile tonight checkin' things out and finding food and such and so much of the city just looks really rundown. Maybe we were just in the wrong parts of town, but if so, then there's a lot of wrong parts of town!!

Bed, gym, then a 3-state sprint to Louisville tomorrow!!

Trip to Kansas City

Today was Denver to Kansas City and we started the day stopping by the Broncos stadium.


Ok so let's get straight to the point.... We just wasted 9hrs of our lives!! Umm yeah eastern Colorado and the ENTIRE state of Kansas was boring. No wonder they like basketball cause there is nothing else to do. Well ok there is corn,wheat and sunflowers. Rhett had the quote of the trip" what do they do with all those sunflowers?" and Joe says ummm haven't u eaten sunflowers seeds... Oh yeah there are those :)



We only had to take one picture and it's the same scene the whole day :)

We did see the hometown of Bob Dole(which was blah just like his personality). We drove on the original 8 miles of interstate in the country and according to the map were in the geographical center of the USA. We fell asleep while coming into Kansas so we missed the welcome sign so u can pretend we have that picture.

Joe also got his first real dose of the HEAT!! But he seemed to like it.

Well until tomorrow,its off to St Louis and 100 degree weather.


-J&R
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Denver Day #2

Day #2 in Denver was great! We met up with our friends Kevin and Eric and headed out to Coors field to watch the Rockies play the Cubs. We had great seats. 12th row, right down the first base line. And right under the beating sun. It was so hot! Then right around the 4th or 5th inning the clouds rolled in to give us some reprieve from the heat. We thought we'd be in good foul ball territory, and there were a couple that came close, but no luck. It was a great game though, and the Rockies held fast and ended up winning 8-7.

Afterwards we went to the beer bust at The Wrangler. Ooh, that was people-watching at its finest lol. Finally, we were starving so we found this fun little dive restaurant/bar after driving around Denver getting lost for 45 minutes with our "local" friends here hahaha.

Out in Denver Day#1

Here we are in the fresh and cool morning air in Denver trying to decide what to do. We each got to choose one thing to do so who chose what? Well Rhett thought what better way to start your day than driving a few miles to Golden, CO-yes thats right the home of Coors Brewing!!! (Surprise Rhett chose this)

We toured the brewery and sampled a few beers while learning about the brewing process. We also discovered that we should steal a rail car of beer- it would be worth a 6 pack a day for 90 years!!!! ummm wow :) We toured the town of Golden which was also awesome and quaint, complete with para-gliders jumping off the mountain and a rafting creek through the center of town.

Then it was on to Water World!! Sunny and 85 degrees was the perfect weather for a day in the sun and water. After seeing many Lycra Infractions and laughing out loud that wearing a bikini is a privilege not a right we had a GREAT TIME at the park. Joe especially liked the slide that was a straight drop to the bottom(about an 80' drop) and we wish we had pictures of his face the first time he went down. Although we got a little burnt (Mom no comments about sunscreen...we got it) we needed the sun. Ya know we were Pac Northwesterners so it was in style to be pasty white-however no more :)

We went out on the town last night with our great friends here in Denver, fun times indeed. Thats another day in the life so until tomorrow......

Salt Lake City to Denver

Hey all! Sorry we're a couple days behind getting this blog up, but we'll get you all up to speed. Well just as we figured out Utah's complicated-to-figure-out-but-easy-to-understand-once-you-do street numbering system, we left. We had a loooonnnnng drive to Denver on Friday. Left Salt Lake a little later than planned 'cause we stopped in Provo and took in the sites of the BYU campus. Once on the road we enjoyed the mostly sunny drive and the beautiful scenery. We stopped a few times in such beautiful places as Grand Junction and Vail to stretch our legs and eat. Rhett's real excited now that we're back in Chick-Fil-A country! :) Once up into the Rockies we passed through a couple major thunderstorms, but there was a double rainbow!! (LOL for those of you who have seen the video on YouTube).

We went over two mountain passes in the Rockies, the tallest of which was at about 11,600 feet. Sasha (the car) was not impressed. Once we got up over about 8,500 feet she was struggling. Joe just had to drop her down a couple gears and give her some extra gas but she made it. She did real good :)

We finally rolled into Denver about 10:30 Friday night, very tired and ready to be out of the car and very thankful that our friends Eric & Trey had a hot tub :)

After the hot tub and chocolate cake it was off to bed in the cool Rocky Mtn night air ahhhh....