Can you think of one of those places you always wanted to visit, but never did? It's along the side of the road or maybe a few minutes out of your way. Enter Blue Bell Ice Creamery. Ken often passed it on his way to college in San Marcos or on his way back home to Houston. He remembers it being there as a kid, but never stopped. This post should encourage you to finally stop at that roadside zoo, to follow that wooded trail, learn about the cranberry bogs or whatever it is that has been calling you.

As we approached Brehnam, we kept a close eye on the time. According to our GPS we would arrive at 3:02 and the last tour started at 3. Ken's heavy foot and our running from the car got us tickets for the real last tour at 3:10! And what a tour it was! Our kids had never seen factory work like this. We saw people pouring raw ingredients into the machines, filling machines with ice cream lids and stacking cones soon to be filled with ice cream before being frozen for resale. The machines squirted out buckets of ice cream. Rectangular cubes of ice cream with cookie tops and bottoms rolled along the conveyer belt before being wrapped and boxed. At one point, we couldn't pull Tag away from the window watching all the action. He could have stayed there all day.

We learned a lot about the amount of cows required to provide Blue Bell Creameries with enough milk for a day, and the process for making ice cream. They talked about their distribution plants, and this too was interesting. Sadly, Blue Bell Ice Cream is not available in Washington State. Maybe by the time we return it will be, but I doubt it.