The Saga Continues....

Friday, we spent a large portion of our day with our friends Toby and Missy. We had a great time. Friday night, we went to Cici's pizza with our other friends, Guy and Susie and their boys. Their oldest also has AS like our oldest. Friday night, it rained.... and rained.... and rained.... get the idea? I thought we were going to float home! And, our camper (a hybrid... hard sides with pop-out tents on the ends) leaked. The big tent (where Bugman and I sleep) leaked. We were soaked. It was awful. We decided then to NOT sleep in the camper another night, as rain was predicted again the next night.

Saturday, we proceeded to meet our friends Guy and Susie and their boys at the oldest Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in the world! Yes, the world! Built in 1891 (I believe... is that 116 years ago?), the Dublin Dr. Pepper plant still makes Dr. Pepper with the orginal recipe using REAL SUGAR instead of nasty high fructose corn syrup. Gag! Anyway, it was tons of fun.

Bugman and boys posing before the biggest DP can you've ever seen! LOL!

Legoboy posing with an old DP bottle, sorry it's sideways. I'll fix it later!

The clock over the door of the soda shop.

Then we toured the plant. They only make DP once a month, anywhere from 4 to 7 pallets of DP at a time. This is because the equipment is so old.

This is the bottle washer. They will take any glass DP bottle, sterilize it in the bottle washer, and reuse it (just like the olden days! Remember returnables?). They also use new bottles (which are the ones you can buy there by the case).

This is the finished product... They still also produce Nu Grape and Big Red.

Sorry the pic is blurry... this is a light box. Each and every bottle is placed on here. Can you tell which bottle is the "right" DP? The one on the far left has too little syrup. The one on the far right has too much syrup. The second from the left has too little product in the bottle. The second from the right is the right blend of syrup to soda, and has the right level in the bottle. Each one, hand inspected.

This is the guy who gave us the tour. Can't remember what this machine does... LOL.

This is where the soda and syrup come together into the bottles, and then the caps are put on.

This was a great tour. Dublin is about an hour SW of Ft. Worth if you have the gumption to go. It is definitely worth it.