Blue Bell Tour Redux (Sort of) - Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Today was our day to drive back to San Antonio, but we had time to try for the Blue Bell Creameries Factory Tour. After all, yesterday at the Ticket Info Desk told us the tour would resume today.

Made it to the Blue Bell Creameries when they opened at 9 am, parked the truck, walked up to the Tour Entrance and were greeted with the "No Tours Today" sign again. Thinking they had forgotten to take the sign down from yesterday, we went in and asked. We were told they were notified at 5 pm the evening before that the factory was being shut down and everything taken off line. This is so they could sterilize and clean to get rid of the Listeria. What?? We just ate the ice cream yesterday at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Parlor, and the day before at R Place restaurant. Weeks ago, we had heard about the Listeria and mistakenly assumed it had been taken care of. Not so.

After all these weeks, Blue Bell Creameries finally recalled all their products off the shelves, and cleaned out their factory. Now hundreds of people are without jobs and there is no Blue Bell Ice Cream to be found anywhere. It apparently will take months for Blue Bell to completely rid the bacteria from their equipment and factories. All vendors who sold the ice cream also have to sterilize (with bleach solution) their freezers. Sigh.

We headed back to the 5th wheel, hooked up, and headed back to San Antonio. We had a wonderful, educational weekend. Found out there's lots more to see and do in that area, so we'll be going back at some point in the future.

All for today.

B is for... - Monday, April 20, 2015, Part 2

Monday, April 20, 2015 continued...

One thing "b" is for is BBQ. That's what Bob wanted for dinner tonight. We found Nathan's BBQ in the Brenham brochure.

We should have known not to trust it when we drove up...it was in a gas station building. {{{frowny face}}} My brisket was very dry like it had been sitting there all day. The corn muffins were dry and lukewarm. We would not eat there again. They had only one kind of BBQ sauce, and it was good.

With all the rain, the cacti are plump and full of new growth!

A wayward photo from earlier in the day to share...

A beautiful anole lizard blending into the tree

After our unsatisfying dinner, we looked around historic downtown Brenham. That was fun. We discovered some good stuff, like "The B's of Brenham" mural by Alan Gerson.

"The B's of Brenham" mural by Alan Gerson.

Baseball Capital of Texas

Birthplace of Texas

Blinn College

and, of course, bluebonnets! Bob sat in the truck while I photographed the mural. On my walk back to the truck, the following sign directed me down an alley...I HAD to explore.

Toubin Park is a little pocket park nestled between two buildings that is chock full of history markers providing an education on cisterns that the citizens and city used to collect water from the rooftops. I was completely fascinated to find so much history packed into this little park. I trotted back to the truck, woke Bob up from his nap, and told him he needed to come with me. He was glad he did.

Toubin Park: In the foreground is the underground cistern.

Columbine and larkspur

Worth enlarging to read...we need these today!

Cistern construction, side view

Info on the Silsby Fire Truck
(on display at the Brenham Fire Museum)

Besides information on the cisterns, about ten history markers told the story about arson fires set around the town and how the cistern water and the new Silsby fire truck helped to put them out. It was a fascinating display. Of course next we had to find the Brenham Fire Museum.

It was getting late and the Brenham Fire Museum was closed, but there was a button to push outside and a loudspeaker told the history of the Silsby fire truck.

Brenham Fire Museum - closed for the day

Silsby Fire Truck with outdoor history speaker

Silsby Fire Truck

That's it. Darkness descended. We headed back to the Artesian RV Park and called it a day.

We saw and learned so much today. Thanks for sticking around to the end of this two-part day.

Travel Bug out.

Blue Bell, Southern Flyer, Star Museum and Barrington Farm - Monday, April, 20, 2015, Part 1

Our first stop of the day was the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory because we wanted to do a tour. After we hopped out of the truck, we walked over to the tour entrance and a sign on the door said, "No tours today." Well, that was a bummer. Instead we went to see what the baseball museum on the premises was about.

Really a baseball lobby.

Seems Brenham High School has a lot of baseball stars.

Cool elevator door art

Ice cream parlor still selling Blue Bell Ice Cream

With all the talk about Listeria, we couldn't believe they were still selling ice cream. We figured it must be safe. Hah! Little did we know. We took our ice cream and sat to watch an abbreviated video of the plant tour.

Second floor ice cream parlor.

Blue Bell in Brenham, Texas

After the video and ice cream break, we went into the museum. Beautiful watercolor art adorns the walls showing Blue Bell history.

I love their slogan.

In addition to the historical art, there were timelines on the walls with the history of the company going back to the early 1900s.

Here's a poster that would have been from my early teen years. If we had lived in south Texas at the time, I would have entered this sweepstakes!

Early delivery vehicle

Blue Bell Creameries sculpture

Because we weren't able to get into the Southern Flyer restaurant at Brenham Airport yesterday, we arrived as soon as they opened today so we'd be sure to get a seat! Turns out they're not near as busy when they open on a weekday so we had our choice of inside or outside table. It was cold and windy outside so we chose to eat inside.

The main attraction of the Southern Flyer is the 50s theme. All the waitresses wear poodle skirts. You don't see poodle skirts much anymore! Our waitress was kind enough to pose for a photo. The food was good.

Southern Flyer 50s decor

Our waitress with our order

View of the pond if you sit outside

Brenham Airport

Yesterday, we had limited time at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park. Still to see were the Star of the Republic Museum and Barrington Farm, both worth the time.

Bob "sightseeing." (He's checking his smart phone.) LOL.

The Star of the Republic Museum is two floors of exhibits encompassing the arrival of the Spaniards, the first U.S. settlers (the "Old 300"), war for independence from Mexico, to Texas becoming a Republic, Texas's annexation to the United States, another war with Mexico which, when we won it, granted large amounts of land to the United States: Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California (adding 1,193,061 square miles to the U.S.).

Beautiful back-lit art

There was no shortage of quilts in the museum. The first two photos are of a Pine-Burr Quilt, a detailed, three-dimensional pattern popular among African-American quilters since the mid-19th century.

Pine-Burr Quilt

Pine-Burr Quilt

A beautiful mural that takes up a whole wall

Cotton was very important early in American history. It was traded with Mexico for weapons and ammunition. Washington-on-the-Brazos had a port for shipping cotton to the Gulf on steamboats.

Great depiction of all the cotton bales that could be
loaded on a steamboat for shipping.

Another beautiful quilt using star decor

An old spinning wheel for the cotton

 
The following instrument is a melodeon. These foot-pumped reed organs (keyboard wind instruments) were less expensive than a piano, easier to transport, and less likely to get out of tune.

Melodeon circa 1850

Another quilt

Washington-on-the-Brazos is a
"Birthplace of Texas" historic site

Winecups

From Star of the Republic Museum it was a very short drive to Barrington Living History Farm, an example of Texas farm living in the mid-1800s, and home to the last president of the Republic of Texas, Dr. Anson Jones. Dr. Jones arrived in Texas in 1833 in Brazoria where he set up a medical practice. Soon thereafter, he became involved in Texas politics. Dr. Jones served the Republic of Texas as a congressman, minister to the United States, senator and secretary of state. In 1844, he became president of the Republic and served one year until Texas became the 28th state in 1845.

Entrance to Barrington Farm Living History Museum

Bob with the costumed interpreters on the dogtrot.

Can't get away from doing chores.
This building is the kitchen, built separate from
the house due to heat and fire concerns.

Gorgeous Cochin chickens

The main house is a frame structure commonly called a "dog-trot" or "dog run." The home faces southeast, bringing the wind through the dogtrot. During the hot summers, this air movement allowed the family to remain comfortable outside on their patio.

Main house in the "dog-trot" style

The barn

Non-bearded, buff-laced Polish chicken rooster

Ossabaw Island hogs - descendants of
Spanish pigs

Ossabaw Island hog

That ended our Washington-on-the-Brazos portion of the day. We drove back roads on our way back to Brenham and saw some exotic animals along the way.

Fallow deer fawn

Fallow deer

Not sure what these are??

We checked out a couple of Corps of Engineer campgrounds on the south side of Somerville Lake on our exploration. We didn't care for Yegua Creek Park, a little too stark. Rocky Creek Park was more to our liking. We didn't camp at them...just drove through checking out the sites.

Our day was not over yet. This blog to be continued in Part 2.