HEAVY METAL ROAD TRIP, DAY 3: LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE

This was the day the real road trip began.

Scion Rock Fest was cool and all, but we were really all excited to get to road-trippin on the bus and away from all the craziness that enveloped the festival. First order of business was a quick stop in Indianapolis to pick up our friend and bus driver Jeremy and some supplies, and then it was off to Louisville. We got a bit too late of a start to visit the bourbon distilleries in Bardsville as we’d planned, so instead we stopped in Louisville proper and took a tour of the famous Louisville Slugger factory. For this baseball nerd it was a real treat to visit the place where most of the baseball bats used in Major League Baseball are manufactured. My inner (and outer) dork was really stoked.

Your motley crew posing in front of the giant bat outside the factory.

After the jump, Louisville Slugger shenanigans, Makers Mark, honky-tonkin’ in Nashville and more.

The main attraction was the tour of the factory itself. While waiting for the tour to start we perused the exhibits of baseball memorabilia and browsed the informative displays about the bat manufacturing process. And… played with a giant bat.

I’m not really sure what the purpose of this giant bat was… but it made for a fun time.

Onwards, into the factory…

These are called billets. They’re just rods of wood (huh-huh, he said “wood”) before they’ve been shaved down into bats.

METAL METS!

Batting cages! Rich Hallford takes a cut.

In lieu of the Bardstown distilleries we decided to hit up the Maker’s Mark Lounge…

…only to find out they were out of Maker’s Mark. The Maker’s Mark Lounge was out of Maker’s Mark. Unbelievable. I tried to work out a deal with the bartender but he wasn’t having it.

Time to the hit road to Nashville. With the dinner hour fast approaching we searched for BBQ spots along the route but they all ended up being closed on account of it being Sunday. Bible Belt. What’s more important than BBQ? Jesus, apparently. Crazy!

CLOSED. How good does that sign make this place look? So disappointed.

The Batman building in Nashville.

World Famous Tootsie’s on the Nashville Broadway strip.

All of these bars on the strip had live country bands playing. It was kind of like a frat party… for 30-somethings… with country music instead of hip-hop. Most of the bands we saw were surprisingly pretty good.

From there we cabbed it over to East Nashville, a hip area of town that was more our speed: people wearing black clothes, drinking cheap beer and listening to good music. Our cab driver regaled us with stories of performing mind-blowing cunnilingus to 17 year-olds in his home land of Jordan; “They go to heaven!” We randomly encountered the singer from Swervedriver at 3 Crow Bar.

We called up the same cab driver to pick us up and take us back to the bus. He promised to stop by with a joint in 10 minutes but never showed up. Still, a damn fine night.

Tomorrow: The pride and joy of two cities: BBQ in Memphis and the Walmart parking lot in Little Rock, AR.

-VN

The Story So Far:

Day 2: Scion Rock Fest
Day 1: The Calm Before the Storm

Thanks to Anton OyVey for the majority of these pictures!