Tea Time

Another weekend, another tour.  Yesterday, the folks took a tour of Celestial Seasonings.  Mom has really been trying to cut back on her drinking of Diet Pepsi and she has been trying out some iced brew teas, but hasn't been able to find anything that she really liked yet.  She decided it might be fun to tour the Celestial Seasonings.  It is where they make tea!  They have 75 teas that you can sample and she figured if she didn't find one that she liked there, she wasn't going to find it anywhere. 

All the tea that Celestial Seasonings makes is here in Boulder, CO.  It is their only location. The company started in 1969 by a small group of young people.

Outside of Celestial Seasonings

The tour begins with a short video showing the history of the company.  It is then time to tour the factory.  If you take the tour Monday - Friday, you actually get to see people working.  Tours are offered on Saturday and Sunday and while you are still allowed to tour the factory, the only people you see are maintenance workers.  Even though nothing is going on in the factory, the folks still had to wear hairnets. 

Everyone walking to the factory.
 

The first thing you notice when you enter the factory is the smell of tea.  It is quite strong.  The tour begins in a room with large tubs of herbs.  Next, visitors are taken to the tea room. The tea room has a door on it that remains closed so that the tea does not pick up other odors.  There are three types of tea; green, black and white.  The next stop is the peppermint room and this room also has a door that remains closed.  When you walk into this room, the smell will about knock you over.  Visitors were told not to wipe their eyes.  Mom said they were told that it will feel like their eyes had dried out and they should just blink a few times.  She said the peppermint smell was really strong.  Dad said it was like having a lot of Hall cough drops in your mouth.  Mom said they sell a magnet in the gift shop that says "I survived the Peppermint Room".  :::snicker:::   The next stop is the packaging area.  They just looked at the machinery and used their imagination.  :::snicker:::  Mom said even without seeing production taking place, it was still a lot of fun and educational.  The tours ends in the gift shop.

The folks decided to go back to the tea tasting room and try out some teas.  Mom found several that she liked. The people working there were very nice and more than happy to talk about tea.  Mom asked if she could turn just about any hot tea into a iced tea and the employee said "some of our hot teas are actually much better cold".  Mom admitted that she had never tried their tea before.  They told her it was okay, she was there now.  LOL

Sleepytime Bear

The folks were given free samples of tea to take home, but Mom wanted to visit the gift shop and purchase a few of the ones that she sampled and liked.

The gift shop is quite large.  That is tea all along the back walls and even some in the middle.

The gift shop sold lots of things besides just tea. 

This is everything that Mom brought home.  She bought more than she expected, but she is pretty excited about it. 

On the way home, the folks stopped at a restaurant called The Sink.  It was on Diners, Drive-In and Dives. Robert Redford worked there as a janitor in 1955 while he attending the university. They were seated at the Presidential table. They didn't understand at first, but were told that President Obama sat there when he visited.  I asked Mom what she thought and she said we don't discuss politics on our blog and the food was good. 

Their table was covered with photos of the President.



Fried Mac & Cheese - good but not worth $8

Guests are allowed to write on the ceilings.  It is a college town.

 

Mom's burger and onion rings.  She said it was good. She would have preferred a bun over sour dough bread. She ordered wrong.
 

Outside of The Sink.

 The folks then did a "drive-by" of Mork and Mindy's house.  Remember that show?  They didn't film there, they just showed the outside of the house.  It has become a tourist attraction.

Told you it was a drive-by.  The house is the one with a person with a blue shirt standing in the yard.  It is a private residence, so the folks didn't want to stop. They thought the person in the yard might be a tourist because she seemed to be taking photos.  Rude to go through the fence, don't you think?

One more try from Mom's side.  That person is still there.

The folks said the drive to Boulder was beautiful!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Having A Fun Sunday With His Folks

Still Learning The New Rig

Electric Issues

We have only had our new rig less than two months, so we are still learning things about it.  Monday night, Mom was fixing dinner.  She had the fireplace, induction cooktop and convection oven on.  Everything went off, so she thought she had tripped a breaker.  She checked and everything was okay. She reset the kitchen breaker anyway and things started working again.  Then, everything went off.  She thinks she has run all of those items at one time in the past, but maybe not. She didn't turn the induction cooktop back on this time, but the convention oven quit working again. She was confused.  She checked outside and the electric was still on.  She came back in and noticed that the meter said that the batteries were low.  She knew we were in trouble then.  You see, when our electric is not on, things continue to run because of our inverter. The TV, fridge and convection oven were running on the inverter. We don't know for how long, but it drained our batteries.  Mom called Dad and he was on his way home.  He got home and re-checked everything Mom had checked.  Mom started checking the Internet for answers. Dad started reading the manual. Dad placed a call to Entergra's emergency line.  Mom was hoping they would call back because we needed heat.  Finally, the man called back at 8 p.m. our time.  He troubleshooted everything with Dad.  It turns out it was a breaker, but it was a breaker in the basement....way in the back of the basement.  The folks didn't even know that one existed.  Dad reset it and we had power again.  We found out that our fireplace always runs off the inverter.  It shouldn't do that, so we need to get that changed. 

Snakes and Neighbors

Yesterday, we walked up the "mountain" and saw a snake.  It wasn't a rattlesnake. We are not sure what kind it was, so we waited for it to clear the path and we kept going.   On the way down the "mountain" we met a lady from Missouri.  Actually, it turns out that she lives in the same subdivision that the folks used to live when they lived in Eureka, MO.  How cool is that?  Scout and I just laid in the grass while they talked because it was a long conversation.

We had a week here where we didn't have a view.  Mom hated that.  The guy who pulled in next to us totally blocked us.

 

Nice view....Not!

 Today, the rent goes up here so a lot of people have left. 

We have a view again.

Lots of empty spaces now.

Tiny House

The lady who owns the "tiny house" had planned on staying, but the park owner said he didn't like the look of her home.  He told her she needed to leave.  She was unable to find a park nearby that had openings, so she headed back home to work.  She is a traveling nurse.  Her house will be here until next week as she does not have a truck.  She had to hire a driver to move it. She needs to buy a truck so that she can move on her own.

She told us that she will be on HGTV in June.  We are not sure of the name of the program but it has to do with tiny houses.  We are anxious to see her on TV.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Relaxing After A Morning Of Cleaning

 

Three Years Ago Today!

Three years ago today we left our stick and brick home and headed out for a life on the road.  Can you believe it has been three years?

Here I am getting ready for take-off.  Look how young I look!  :::snicker:::

Scout is ready. Wow, now she really looks young. 

This was our first night on the road.  We stayed at a park in Alabama.

Our first rig.  It used gas and was 36' long.

We had a decal in the back window that said "Love My Greyhounds".  This is in Florida at the "fanciest" park that we have stayed.  It was near Marco Island.

This was how we had to sleep.

Wow, we really lived in this small of a place?

After our house sold, we decided to buy a different motor home.  Actually, I think we might have a problem because we have been on the road for three years and have had three different rigs.

Our second rig.  It ran on diesel and it was 40' long.

The new rig had a place for our big bed.  We started out with two and then there was one and now they are the outside beds.

 

We took the divider down and our bed was bigger.

This year, we moved into our new rig.

This one is a diesel and 45' long.

We sure have seen a lot in our travels.

Here we are at Cadillac Ranch.  That was fun!

We have seen the mountains a few times.  This is Lookout Mountain in Colorado.  We can see it from our current campground.

Here I am outside of Graceland.  I loved bouncing to the music here.

We saw this naked lady in the woods.  That was in at a campground in South Memphis.

Badlands

Mount Rainier

Twin Peaks

Baltimore

Gettysburg

We have seen the ocean a few times.

Indiana Sand Dunes, not the ocean.



Gulf Shores, AL

Gulf Shores

Shells at Marco Beach, FL

Fireworks in Anaheim.

Yep, we sure have seen a lot in the past three years.  Dad always tries to find us places to stay that are interesting and different.

Stone Mountain, GA

Alpacas at campground in Sanger, TX.

Relaxing at our site in Arlington, TX.  We loved this park because the employees gave out treats.

 



We have attended events.

At pet parade at Escapade - RV rally.

Greyhound event in Abilene, KS



We enjoy traveling!

We have been asked many times "What has been favorite or least favorite place you have visited?"  Well, that is hard to answer.  We seem to find something good in every place. There is always something to see and do.  Sometimes the best places to visit are the ones that are not well known.  

Yep, we love living on the road.  How long will we do it?  We have no idea. We are not ready to quit yet.


Home is wherever we are parked.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves Having The Whole Country As His Backyard