We drove to Lebanon and didn't have to wait long before Steve and Trish drove up and we transferred their luggage into our trunk. The first order of business would be coffee and breakfast at Flapjacks. :-)
After breakfast we hopped on I-65 south and made the 2 1/2 drive to Louisville. The truck show was being held at the Kentucky Expo Center which is on the near southside of Louisville right off I-65. The complex is large and the show was taking up the large Expo room as well as 2 other wings. We found a parking spot and made our way into the closest building. On our way in we passed several nice trucks that were being displayed out in the parking lot. These were all "working" trucks that the owners keep highly polished for these type of shows. There were also some "show trucks" inside.
We took our time walking through the vendor booths as well as the manufacturer displays. We took a break for a hot dog lunch and to rest our aching feet at a concession stand. Here is Steve and Trish resting.
We also found some celebrities in attendance. Here is Alex from the "Ice Road Truckers" show. He was doing a radio interview for Sirrus Sattelite Radio.
We spent a few hours seeing everything and picking up "freebies" at some of the booths. Once we made it back out to the car we were all pretty tired and our backs were all sore. I guess none of us are as young as we used to be. :-) I for one have trouble walking for an extended time on cement. It really plays havoc with my back.
Leaving the show we drove over to Churchill Downs which is the home of the Kentucky Derby. They have a nice museum there that Rudee and I went through several years ago but alas it was closed for remodeling. We then headed downtown to see the sights there.
I remembered that the Louisville Slugger Factory was downtown and I was able to find it along with a parking space right in front. Sweet :-). The factory gives regular tours ($10 per adult) and they also have a nice museum area with displays. We purchased our tour tickets and while waiting for the tour to start, looked through the displays. For those that don't know what a Louisville Slugger is, they are baseball bats! They have some pretty famous bats on display, like one of the bats used by Joe Demagio to set the longest hitting streak in major league baseball at 56 games. We also saw Babe Ruths autograph and bat. They have a pitching machine set up and you can "stare down" a 100 mile per hour fast ball. Wow, that thing was moving. I would hate to get hit by that pitch!
We took the tour which was interesting. I expected a much larger factory and was surprised at how small the actual production area is. They sure do make a lot of baseball bats in this small factory. They don't allow photography during the tour but here are some photos of the outside and of the museum area.
We checked into the Holiday Inn in Clarksville Indiana and dropped off our luggage. We then went back across the Ohio River into Kentucky looking for a nice supper place. We stopped first at Joe's Crab Shack and were a little shocked they charged $3.00 for parking. We were even more shocked when they said we had to wait 20 minutes before they would let us even in the parking area. I told them no thanks and we left.
Thank goodness for our GPS. I looked for a seafood restaurant and it led us to the Kingfish which sits right on the Ohio River. The place was not extremely busy and we got a table that overlooked the river. The food was good and we were able to watch a few boats travel by.
Sunday we packed back up and checked out. We headed for the Horseshoe Casino to try our luck. We signed up for their players card and ended up getting two free buffet' meals. Rudee was the lucky one this trip and after covering my losses we carried out a few $$ more than what we came in with plus had a nice meal in their buffet :-).
We were not done yet though, we headed to the French Lick Casino in Larry Bird's hometown of French Lick Indiana. We played here for an hour or two but neither one of us did much good :-(.
We made it back to Lebanon and dropped Steve and Trish back at their car and headed home. A quick stop for a carry out pizza and we ended the evening relaxing in our recliners eating pizza and watching a movie. Ahhhhhhhh.
The weather is really, really nice for this time of year. They are predicting temps in the 70's and sunny skies. Sounds more like summer weather than spring but I'm not going to complain :-). I see some motorcycle rides in our future. I'll keep you posted.
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