BMW

We ended up having two more snow days last week...yes five consecutive days.  We we already planning to go to Phoenix for the long weekend.  When we found out school was canceled on Friday we decided to make our trip a little longer and headed out of town Friday morning.  Our first stop was downtown Greenville, South Carolina.  Seth had taken a tour along the river walk for a class earlier in the Fall.  He gave me a private tour.  I love the open building pictured below. 

I noticed the lock below and it reminded me of my trip to Cinque Terre.  In Italy it is a custom to place a lock on the handrail over a bridge to express your devotion to your loved one.  You place the lock and then throw the key into the water showing that your heart is locked to everyone but the one your truly love. 

These waterfalls are literally right downtown.

Our next stop was the BWM factory and museum.  I put the wrong address in the GPS which was actually quite serendipitous as we came across Gilreath's Mill. 

We finally made it to the BMW factory and museum.  This is the only BMW factory in the United States.  It was placed in Spartanburg because of the amount of land available and its proximity to the port in Charleston.  They manufacture the X3, X4, and X5 models exclusively at this plant.

Prior to our factory tour we discovered the museum.

The three cars pictured below were produced after WWII.  Few people could afford more than a scooter...these cars are basically closed-in scooters.  In the model below you enter through the front of the car.

This is the family version with a back seat.

I love the mini-camper.

We enjoyed the factory tour....unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures inside the factory.  It was interesting to see all the stages of production.  Many of the stages are done completely with robots and machines. We had one BMW owner on our tour...it was a little annoying because the tour guide kept saying "this is where your transmission was put in,"  "This is where your car was painted," etc.  In addition, the BMW owner new very little about cars in general and kept asking really annoying questions.

After the tour we drove on to Charlotte.  Where we got a bite to eat at Cabo Fish Taco, went to the dollar movie, and spent the night before our early morning flight to Phoenix.