Although I didn’t feel guilty about being away on Veronica’s 10th b’day, I thought I should do something unique to celebrate her special day. I came up with the idea of touring Toyota’s first manufacturing plant in the US in nearby Fremont. NUMMI is a joint venture with GMC that opened in 1984 in an abandoned GMC factory. Ashlynn couldn’t go since visitors had to be 10, but my dad joined us. I had mentioned that we were celebrating Veronica’s b’day and the tour guide surprised her with a few pins and we all sang to her. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photos, but it was totally awesome going on a tram through the 5.3 million square foot factory and watching a combination of people and robots making Toyota Corollas, Toyota Tacoma trucks and Pontiac Vibes. This factory stamps out the bodies for 1,000 vehicles out of 1 million pounds of steel each day, then adds motors, glass, seats, tires and various other parts made around the country and Japan, Canada and Mexico. Now Ashlynn’s looking forward to turning 10 so she can go, too.
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