On our way, we decided to stop in Glen Rose at Hammond's BBQ (story from menu pictured below). The kids were fairly well behaved especially for having been strapped down in the car for a while. Andrew ate grilled cheese and Alexis ate chicken strips and Grant and I enjoyed BBQ. Both kids had their pic taken with a life size cardboard cut out of John Wayne. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go to the Glen Rose square so that will have to happen on another trip.
After leaving Glen Rose, we headed the rest of the way to Dublin through the northern section of an area known as the Texas Hill Country. It was a beautiful drive! (unfortunately, no pics of that). We arrived at Dublin Bottling Works shortly after the kids fell asleep in the car (of course) and about 15 minutes before a tour. So we took a few pictures of the Sand Sculpture, the traditional sign, and the Bronze sculpture. In doing this, I had my first true encounter with a Texas-sized grasshopper as he leapt at my face and landed on a plant on the window. The thing was huge and looked exactly like Hopper from A Bug's Life
The tour began with a taste of a couple of their sodas. Andrew kept begging for it but was riding on Daddy's shoulders so he wasn't trusted with too many sips. Pictures were only allowed at the very beginning. We saw how they judge a "perfect root beer". It used to be done by candle light but now they have a little lit up box they sit them in. I missed a little of the next part because children need to go to the bathroom at the most inopportune times as a general rule. But we essentially saw the bottling line, how the syrup gets mixed with the carbonation to keep the bottles from cracking and then mixing for the perfect consistency. After this we got a bit more history on the family and those that have run Dublin Bottling Works as well as Peggy Pepper and the marketing of DP as an energy drink. Andrew wanted to take home every piece of memorobilia that was a car or truck with an old logo.
After that we got our treats. They make Frosties which are kind of like an ice cream float but a lot more ice cream and it's just the syrup used to mix their sodas. Andrew was only allowed ice cream since we have learned that he is a hyped up crazy monkey when he has sugar (I'll get to that in a post about Father's Day), Grant had the "Dublin Original Soda Frostie" i.e. Part of the last of the Dublin DP syrup with his ice cream and Alexis and I had our Blue Bell Original Ice Cream mixed with the Orange Cream Soda syrup. They were delicious to say the least.
We picked up a few souvenirs and left happy to have taken another 1 day excursion to a place we had never been. On the way back, we stopped and met some friends that we had not seen in a few years just to catch up and let the kids run off some energy.
Monday night, while making a quick run to Target, my car was attacked by one of Hopper's relatives. Seriously, these grasshoppers are probably as big as my index finger and are not afraid of anything. Sheesh!
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