This past week, I have had the extreme pleasure of visiting my grandparents in York, Pennsylvania, self-noted as the “Factory Tour Capital of the World™” (yes, they have it trademarked). There, I did go to many factory tours. Let me tell you a little bit about them:

I first went to the Harley-Davidson Factory Tour. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Harleys, they make motorcycles like this one. The plant in York is the largest Harley-Davidson plant in the world–over 230 acres with 1.5 million square feet under roof and something like 3,600 employees. The tour was extremely interesting; much more high tech than one might expect. The thing that stood out to me the most was their presses. They can turn a sheet of metal into a fender of sorts, with 300 tons of pressure to help, that is. Another interesting tidbit: they can make the parts and assemble the actual bike in under two hours, but it takes them over 12 hours to paint the parts. They are also safety-freaks, a good thing, I guess. Overall, I liked the tour, but if we had not had such an informed tour guide, it would not have been nearly as good.

The next day, I went on the Perrydell Farm Dairy tour! It was self-guided and slightly lame, but I did learn a lot about cows. Such as the cannot digest their food after one chewing; they chew it, then regurgitate it and chew it again. Then they can eat it. Did I want to know that, no, but can it help me in life? Well, actually, no. Nonetheless, it was a good waste of time.

After Perrydell, I went to the Wolfgang Candy Factory Tour. Now that was the yummiest tour by far! I thought it was interesting how they could have moved out of North York, but wanted to keep it local. The tour guide was OK… not the best. In her defense, though, it was the biggest tour group that I had been with in my days in York, so she deserves some slack. Another factoid: they have 1 million pounds of milk chocolate pumped (yes, pumped) into their factory ever year from a third-party source. They said that they would make it themselves, but for it to be cost-effective, they would have to make 3-5 MILLION pounds of milk chocolate. Woah. They don’t have dark and white chocolate pumped in because they don’t use of much as it. They either get it in bar or some other form. That’s still a lot of chocolate! A very cool tour.

The last thing I did in PA was not really a factory tour. Nor was it really in York. It was the National Watch and Clock Museum (nice favicon, by the way). However, it was worth mentioning. It was so-so… deserted, but I didn’t find it very interesting. I guess a collector might, but I am not one. Luckily, I was there on the hour (1:00), so I heard all the bells and whistles go off at once, which was pretty cool, but not really worth admission.

Well, that was my trip to York. I hope I didn’t bore you to death, but it was really a fun trip. Thanks for reading and/or listening to iRi Blogcast!