Hello from Columbus, Ohio

Up and at 'em early this morning...lots to do today if we want to get to Maine for our turn around point. First stop, the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum.  You are greeted by

 the biggest bat you've ever seen. You couldn't possibly miss this location!

 No photos are allowed inside the factory so I don't have any to share. It was a fascinating tour. We were able to see how they used to make each bat by hand. They still do that on special request but the computer aided machines are so accurate  and fast that they can produce so many more in much less time.

The displays in the museum were a lot of fun.  This replica of Wrigley Field is made out of Legos! It was so nice to visit an All-American company producing an All-American product.

 Only 10 minutes away we find Churchill Downs. What an incredible opportunity to be able to tour this wonderful place! The Kentucky Derby is the longest consecutive sporting event in the country. They haven't missed a race since the 1870's.

After a short film we were taken out to the track.  It's hard to believe they get over 150,000 people the for Derby Day! Made me rethink wanting to go to the Kentucky Derby some day. I don't know if I could handle being there with that many people.

It was wonderful to see the track and the grandstands. This is the paddock where all of the horses  prepare for the race. There are 20 stalls to have a place for all 20 horses that run in the race. That's the only race that run more than 14 horses at the same time.

 This is Perfect Drift, who is a resident right now at Churchill Downs.  If you look closely you can see a miniature horse inside the building right below Perfect Drift's neck. He also resides here.

This sculpture of Eight Belles was very cool! I don't know too much about horse racing but we always watch the Kentucky Derby. It was a thrill to see it and the museum.  Of course there are tributes to Secretariat that bring back all of the excitement we felt when we watched him run in the 70's. Made me want to watch that movie again!


 We still have some driving to do
so we decided to see how far we could get today. This picture on the right is coming in to Cincinnati.  The farms are beautiful in Ohio, we loved driving through this area.

We made it all the way to Columbus, Ohio. We decided to stop early so we could watch the US Open and get some laundry done, then off to dinner at the Pub around the corner.What a treat! This was one of the most beautiful bars I have ever seen.  It is called Elevators. The bar won the title of Best of Show at the 1894 Chicago World's Fair. It was moved to Columbus in 1897 and has been open since. The building used to be a brothel but now the upstairs rooms are Law Offices. What great history! It was a beautiful building and the food was great! We didn't have any reason to stop in Columbus except that we were tired. How fun that we fell into this beautiful spot!