Working the RV Show - Well, Sort Of...

Harold was getting ready to go on a ship ride. With covid quarantining and restrictions, he was going to be gone about a month. I wanted to be sure I was near someone who could help me out if the need arose.  We left our campground at Ft. Knox and continued north to Nappanee, Indiana. My cousin, Steve, and his wife, Junelle, have an RV dealership there. We turn to them whenever we need service and advice. 

Showalter RV was scheduled to be one of the dealers at a local RV show the first weekend we were there. We offered our help. I thought it might be kind of fun to see an RV show from a different perspective. Our help consisted primarily of making sure they had food in the break area and any last minute errands that might arise. We helped distribute a few brochures and directed a few people to the RVs that they wanted to see. We'd point a sales person their way if they had further questions.

Wow, are the hours long. We weren't there as long as the others were, but our feet hurt, our back ached, and I was quite thankful for ibuprofen. 

The people are interesting. Some don't want to talk to a sales representative at all. Yet, they'll come to the table and pick up brochure after brochure. Others are "just looking." Hmm...I've used that phrase myself. 

Then there's the excitement of the folks purchasing a camper. My favorite was the lady who made sure she was there at the opening of the last day to purchase the camper their family had looked at the day before. Her barely contained excitement made us all smile. That's what makes your day. 

Showalter RV sold over 30 units at the show compared to 13 last year. There's definitely demand out there. Wow!

The horse auction next door drew a lot of people

Mezzanine level view

Tired

A great show and multiple future orders

Where Are We Going Next?

Grand, Gloomy, and Peculiar

We left Nashville and headed a couple of hours north. Our goal was Mammoth Cave National Park. We stayed at Camp Carlson, the famcamp at Ft. Knox. Most campgrounds in the area weren't open yet. While we did see the building for the gold reserve, there are no tours, no photos allowed, and absolutely no free samples. We liked the campground, but hated the lack of cell phone reception. As the lady said when we checked in, "You're camping here!"

We had booked our tour for Mammoth Cave online. Tours were limited because of covid and reservations were highly recommended. I had checked a couple of weeks prior and was able to get us booked on the Broadway Tour.

The tour lasted around two hours. The caverns were indeed huge. Harold assures me that Carlsbad is even bigger. However, I was used to caverns that were more like passages that would open into larger rooms. I was also used to "wet" caverns full of stalactites and stalagmites. Mammoth was nothing like that. In a way, other than the size, I didn't find it as visually interesting as others, with the exception of the Star Chamber, of which we didn't get a photo. 

"Grand, gloomy, and peculiar" is how Stephen Bishop, an early guide described the cave. It's certainly an attention getting description. As for us, it was our first national park of 2021. Yeah!

Trust Harold to find a railroad

Our only quasi decent photo

One of 14 entrances

Where Are We Going Next?

Trains on Main

When we saw the photo in the Kentucky visitor guide, we immediately decided that we should have to see that sometime. After our tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum and factory, we decided to head another 20 minutes northeast to see the spectacle of trains running down the main street of La Grange, KY. We'd still be within about an hour and half of our centrally located Camp Carlson campground.

We arrived in early afternoon. Our plan was to grab a quick bite to eat, see a train, visit the local train museum, and head back. A stop at the tourism office gave us recommendations for food and the news that we were visiting in the slack time of day in regards to trains. The trains tended to run in the mornings, slack off in the afternoon, then pick up again around 4:00 p.m. So, we waited. We weren't about to leave until we saw a train. And yes, the train was freakishly close to our parked car. 

Train at the La Grange Museum

Steam model at the museum

Track view

Yep, right down Main St.

Get out of the way

Stay parked

Where Are We Going Next?

Louisville Slugger

When we had the opportunity to tour the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, we did. We ordered our timed tickets online and found parking directly behind the museum. Just look for the giant baseball bat in downtown Louisville. It's kind of hard to miss, though Harold did get a bit distracted noting all the distilleries in the area. 

World's largest baseball bat

The thing that surprised me was that most of the wood for the bats comes from forests in Pennsylvania and New York. The family that started the company had an established wood turning business in Louisville, and a teenager who played amateur baseball and made his own bats. They used hickory, which is prevalent in Kentucky, to make the bats. Eventually, they turned to ash, maple, and birch, which grow better up north. Hickory was too heavy.

Most pros use birch or maple

The tour of the factory takes you through the stages of making a bat. We found the tour very visually appealing with its symmetrical stacks of wood and bats and machines in action. The company makes around 3000 bats a day, 5000 during spring training. Pro players order 100 to 120 bats per season. The team pays for the bats. Each bat is somewhere in the $80 to $120 range, depending primarily on the type of wood used. At the end of the tour, they give you a mini bat as a souvenir. Cool!

The bat vault

Ready to be turned

Machine precision turning

Billets of wood for bats

Turning non professional bats

Ready for the next phase

Drying after staining

The Louisville Slugger was the nickname of Pete Browning, who played for the Louisville Eclipse. You can guess who made the bat he used. : ) The Louisville Slugger, soon a registered trademark for the bats made by Hillerich, was the first athletic item to be endorsed by a professional athlete.

The Louisville Slugger

Endorsement

While arguably football could be considered the USA's sport, there's something about the crack of the bat as it connects with the baseball. Maybe we'll go to a baseball game this year. 

 Where Are We Going Next?