Horsefeathers
Toyota
So, we decided horses are passe anyway, and it was time to look into automobiles--Toyotas, in particular, at the Camry Factory Tour here in Georgetown, just a few miles from our hotel. It turned out a lot more interesting and a lot cheaper than going to the track where you can't do lunch for less than fifty bucks. A one-hour guided tour of TMMK (Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky) is free and fascinating. It's the second largest Toyota plant in the world at 173 acres. They make Camrys, Camry Hybrids, Avalons and Venzas, all for domestic consumption. We think of them as Japanese, but the Camry has more American content than any vehicle made in this country. All cars made there have already been sold, and vehicles ordered are manufactured with the colors and options packages required in about 20 hours, about half of that in the painting process. No inventory of parts or supplies is kept; rather everything is received using J-I-T (Just In Time) delivery. Each place in the assembly line is manned by a team of four, who trade places every couple of hours during the day. In the twenty-three years of this plant's existence, there has never been a layoff, even during the recent accelerator scares. Most of the movement of partly-assembled vehicles is on overhead conveyors, dropping down to working height at various stations. Timing is everything: doors are removed from the bodies after painting, and ride on their own conveyors for a couple of hours while the bodies receive dashboards, seats and cushions, carpeting and electricals, and just at the right moment, the doors drop down from their overhead conveyors in just the right spot to be returned to their vehicles. Perhaps the most lasting impressions we had were how friendly the factory employees seemed to be in the huge, airy shop. The employees pedaling large tricycles with reworked items to where they were needed. And of course, the little musical robot carts toddling alongside us, delivering parts and tools to just the right places, at just the right times.
Entry to the Toyota Plant Tour at Gate 2 - No cameras after this.
Time for lunch
Our last time in Lexington, a year and a half ago, we accidentally found some great steaks and appropriate beverages at a little bistro called the Columbia Steakhouse in downtown Lexington, so we decided to stop there for lunch on the way to our next attraction. Unfortunately, we found it closed from 2:00 to 4:30, and it was nearly 2:00, so we walked a way toward downtown and discovered the Sidebar Grill, literally a hole in the wall with a few tables inside and quite a nice lunch menu. The moral: Never get mad when your plans don't work exactly; that's the best time to discover new things.
That's just Mary's place
From the Sidebar, it's about a quarter mile to the Mary Todd Lincoln House as the crow flies, and we managed to arrive just in time for the last tour of the day at three o'clock. Mary Todd's father bought the house, which had been a tavern, when she was eight, and she lived in it until she was twenty-one. She also managed a visit there some years later with her husband when he was a Congressman from Illinois. It was sold upon Robert Todd's death in 1849, served in many capacities, even a brothel, until it was purchased and restored in the 1980's as the first historic site dedicated solely to a First Lady. The tour itself was interesting if a bit hard on the feet. Very few of the artifacts on hand were actually the property of Mrs. Lincoln, but a good job was done in restoring the house to its era.
The Mary Todd Lincoln House, Lexington, Kentucky
By now, it was time to return to the hotel and find out if something edible remained in the cooler—it didn't—and to find some beer because there's a lot of dust in Kentucky and a powerful thirst was building. So we stopped at Wal-Mart for a couple of nuclear dinners and went looking for a liquor store for an icy six-pack, only to learn that Lafayette is one of the three dry counties in Kentucky!
Tomorrow, we're heading for Mark Twain country.
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