Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Today started out cold, well, at least for Montgomery. Our plan was to hit some of the highlights of Montgomery and also try to squeeze in a tour of the Hyundai factory just south of town. Unfortunately, after a call to see if there is room on the morning tour, we find out that most tours are booked two months in advance! Two months in advance for a tour of the Hyundai factory? Are you kidding me? I explained that we were only in town today and asked if they could somehow get us on a tour today. They said the best bet would be to arrive prior to the 12:30 tour and sign-up on the stand-by list since there are typically some no-shows. That sounded more promising so we decided to head to downtown Montgomery and check out the MLK history first. We got downtown very quickly and easily. I must say that this is one very quite city. We first checked out the church where Dr. Martin L. King was pastor up until 1960. This was the same church where he organized the Selma to Montgomery protest march. When we got there the church was closed. After a brief photo-op we moved on to the Civil Rights Memorial Center just down the block. This museum is a small but powerful reminder to all of what the Civil Rights movement is all about. It chronicles the lives of the people who played pivotal roles in the struggle for equality for all men. The museum is extremely well done with both written as well as audio and visual presentations. They also had some very cool computer kiosks that were awesomely envisioned and beautifully executed. Kids immediately gravitated to them and knew instinctively how to use them. The next thing you knew they were learning about the Civil Rights movement almost without realizing it. They started things off with an extremely well done video and finished things off with something they call the wall of tolerance. To see more about this check my latest video. After our visit there we dropped by the state capital building for a mini look around. Yes, Montgomery is the capital of Alabama. We found the building to be very nice, as usual. And although it seemed more modest in its execution it was definitely rich in its history. The steps of this building saw Jefferson Davis sworn in as the President of the Confederacy, and these same steps also hosted a 26-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he addressed a crowd of over 25,000 civil rights activists almost 100 years later. We then jumped in the car and headed to Hyundai land. We arrived only to find out we were not even the first ones on the stand-by list. We ended up just missing out as there were four no-shows but three of those spots we taken by other stand-bys. However, after giving the tour people the whole “we came all the way from Canada” sob story, they did guarantee us a spot on the final tour of the day at 2:00. That ended up working out well since it gave us time to check out the information and items on display in the waiting area, and there were lots of them. The most interesting part had to be the scale model showing the entire assembly plant and the workings of the entire line, complete with lights and little arrows indicating exactly what goes on where. Of course, there were no photos allowed so I can’t show you the best stuff. The tour itself was quite impressive as they build almost the entire car on-site. The have a stamping plant that is 100 % automated where they create doors, fenders, hoods and roofs out of thin sheet metal. It is truly amazing to see a flat piece of metal thinner than a dime being pressed into a rear tailgate in one single motion. Then you see all the robots flipping all the pieces around and into place and then welding it all together with sparks flying everywhere. They also have an ancillary engine plant on the premises in addition to the assembly plant, paint plant, and even a test track. I was surprised to hear that every single car gets driven on the 2.3 mile (3.5 km) test track as part of the post-assembly inspection process. And perhaps one of the more amazing facts about this plant is that they build two different vehicles, the Sonata and the Santa Fe, on the same assembly line. This is even more impressive considering that one is a car and the other is an SUV. The tour went by way too quickly so we must have enjoyed it. Then we stopped by Barnes and Noble to buy some books and then we retired back to the MoHo for some R&R. It was an action-packed day and it was so satisfying to hear both Morgan and A-P say that they found the Civil Rights museum awesome and that they were expecting it to be boring but found it really cool. It looks like the creators of this place did a great job. I’m glad we came to Alabama.

Today’s word:

ancillary \AN-suh-lair-ee\, adjective:
1. Subordinate; subsidiary.
2. Auxiliary; helping.
3. Something that is subordinate to something else.