Hog Heaven--TRIP 3 (2012)

Rough Riding Andy
poses in the lobby of the Harley-Davidson Plant.

At 8:50 a.m. we were already in the parking lot of the Harley-Davidson factory on the outskirts of Kansas City. Bikes, probably at least 40 of them, arched around the front entryway. They were all Harley's and all different models.
"Look," said Andy. "The sign says not to touch because these are all employee bikes. If you own a Harley, you park right outside the front door of the plant."
Inside we were greeted by Curt at exactly 9:00 a.m. He held the door for us.  "Our first tour is 9:30 a.m.," he explained, "but you can try out the four bikes and shop in our store."

Perched on a touring Sportster,
Sue rides into Hog Heaven.

I hurried back to the car for the camera to get foyer pictures. No cameras, bags or pocket books were allowed on the tour.  Another sign said, Firearms prohibited.  "I guess Missouri is an open carry firearms state," said Andy.
Meghan started our tour with a ten-minute movie about the history of Harley-Davidson and an overview of the manufacturing plant.  Then she gave us the safety pointers and rules.
"Talk about private factory tour," I told Andy. Only one businessman joined us for a one-hour fifteen-minute-long walk through the facility.
From the film we learned that four young men built the first motorcycle in the early 1900's in a Wisconsin shed no bigger than a closet: Mr. Harley and Mr. Davidson and his two brothers.  Within a few years the start-up company built more than 10,000 bikes in one year. Within 16 years, they were making more than 25,000 bikes a year and had become the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world.
Our safety measures and rules included wear goggles, pin on the visitor ID button, stay between the yellow lines at all times, touch nothing, and adjust the headset and earpiece as necessary to hear Meghan. We complied for the fascinating story of how a motorcycle is built.
Interesting facts from Meghan's tour and our own observations included the following:
1.  To get a job on the line, an applicant is given an aptitude test: 600 pieces spread in front of the individual and 45 minutes with a blueprint to assemble the handlebars. "If they pass the assembly in the time limit, they might be hired," said Meghan. "If they come close, they can still be tour guides," she joked.  Then she added, "No, I didn't have to take that aptitude test."
2.  This plant manufactures three kinds of bikes, including Sportster line bikes, Dyna line bikes and V-Rods. Everything is incredibly automated and spotlessly clean. Most workers even had on gloves.
3.  Quality is paramount. Every part is hand checked. Final smoothing and polishing is all done by hand. Each bike is roll tested for one and a half miles with a company gas line fed directly into the engine so no gas is put into the fuel tank, and during assembly each fuel tank is dropped into a water bath to check for leaks.  Two bikes out of every 100 are randomly chosen and road tested for 32 miles over a varied course and then cleaned before delivery.
4.  All bikes made in this plant have been pre-ordered by Harley dealers, and they are produced in the order in which they were ordered, one bike at a time on the horseshoe-shaped assembly lines.
5.  A single Sportster or Dyna comes off the assembly line in 55 minutes. The V-Rod, with exterior frame and water-cooled engine designed in conjunction with Porsche automotive, takes about two hours to complete a bike.

Kansas City serves as one of the 12 national sites
of the Federal Reserve Bank.

6.  Robot arms and automated hands move mechanically in every direction. Andy said, "This requires an incredible number of skilled and trained computer programmers, and most high schools don't teach that today."
We addressed postcards at Harley-Davidson's expense and said good-bye and thank you to Meghan for her highly educational and interesting tour.
Our next stop was the Federal Reserve Bank, Kansas City Branch, one of 12 regional branch Federal Reserves in the United States. The security was tight, but the tour, all self-guided, allowed guests to watch money being counted and bundled, read about the history of banking in the U.S., and watch a 20-minute movie about how Kansas City was chosen in 1913 as one of the 12 Reserve bank sites.
Especially interesting was the counterfeit display and the 27-pound gold bar cast in 1959 that was worth $759,456.00.  We tested our strength to lift it.  Andy pointed out a chart that illustrated the economic value of education.  In 2006, a high school dropout earned an average salary of $419 a week, while a person with a bachelor's degree made an average of $962 a week and a master's, $1140 a week.

We ate snack lunch in the park
that adjoined the Liberty Memorial.

Interesting facts from the museum included the following:
1.  The vault doors weighed nine tons each.
2.  All paper bills of larger than $100 were removed from circulation in 1969.
3.  A full pallet of $1.00 notes would be worth $640,000; a full pallet of $100 notes, $64 million.
4.  The major job of the Federal Reserve Bank is to keep banks supplied with currency and coins. Bills come to the Fed from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; coins come from the U.S. Mint.
5.  About $4,000,000 in currency is destroyed in an average day.  I didn't think fast enough to ask whether that was in the whole country or just the Kansas City Branch of the Federal Reserve.
Before we left, the security guard invited us each to help ourselves to a souvenir: a bag of shredded money, about $165 worth. Good luck putting anything back together again!

Diana's Fountain celebrated the goddess, daughter of Jupiter.

"Today is our last day in Kansas City," said Andy, as he headed back downtown for a walking tour of more fountains: Diana's Fountain on Ward Parkway (the nude Diana was the daughter of Jupiter); the Board of Trade Fountain on 48th Street; adjoining river fountains; the Pomona Fountain (the nude Pomona was the goddess of vineyards and orchards); the Children's Mercy Hospital Fountain (Those girls were naked too.); and the matching Country Club Plaza mosaic fountains. "They don't count," said Andy. Dry, they were being cleaned for winter.

Outside The Star newspaper building,
another fountain highlights the grounds.

Finally, we headed for Hallmark Square, home of Hallmark Card Company, founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall and his wife Elizabeth Hall.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, we
found our last fountain in front of the
Kansas City government building.

Maxine, Hallmark's poster girl,
shows "attitude" in the Hallmark Museum.

The architect of the greeting card was affectionately known as Mr. J.C. The complex, a redevelopment project to help the city, includes beautiful fountains, but the tour was disappointing. Totally self-guiding through a museum maze of posted cards, it offered no working views of how cards were designed or created.  We DID meet Maxine, the Hallmark poster girl, and we benjoyed the International display with its birthday card in 12 languages. Hallmark, when you care enough to send the very best, prints cards in 30 languages and sells in more than 100 countries.
We headed out to see two more fountains: Grand and 18th at the corner of The Star newspaper building and Oak and 11th near the Kansas City Hall government building in Ilus W. Davis Park.
Andy followed the Cliff Drive Scenic Byway along the bluffs of the Missouri as we meandered some of the back streets.
"Get me to Route 35 or 29," he said, and I did.