July 8 – “The Scourge of Blue Bell”

We made a stop on the way home from Austin yesterday.  Neither of us had ever been to the Blue Bell factory in Brenham, so when we drove through there Wednesday and saw the sign advertising tours, we decided we would try to stop on the way home.  It was east enough to find, just off US290.  There was a ton of construction, though, so what should have been a simple left turn took at least twenty minutes.  We finally got through, though, and the entrance to the plant wasn't far up the road.  The one thing that struck me as odd about that road of approach?  I don't remember seeing a single cow.  Seems like that would have been appropriate.    The building looks like, well, like a small manufacturing plant.  The visitor center is a quaint little room that is being transformed into some kind of museum of ice cream-dom.  The tour cost us three dollars apiece.  That's because we played the senior discount card.  Regular price was five dollars.  WooHoo for being old.    We had a very nice young girl as a guide.  She had a really loud voice for such a small person.  Even I heard most of what she said.  She held us enthralled with her facts a figures as we hiked through the facility.  "How many cows do you think it takes per day to operate the Blue Bell facility?"  That was the first question she asked in her best tour guide voice.  I loved the first guess.  Seven.  She handled it well.  "More than seven."  Every guess was met by a "More than …"  Finally she said, "Multiply that 10,000 by five and you get the 50,000 cows it takes every single day to operate the facility."  Sounded like a lot of cows running around pushing buttons and operating machinery and loading trucks.  I though all they had to do was make milk.  But then what do I know?   At one of the windows we saw them making strawberry ice cream on one end and ice cream bars in a corner and some kind of chocolate goop on the other end.  And right next to the vat of chocolate we saw a guy open up a big box of chocolate covered peanuts and dump it into a machine.  That's when Chris's interest was piqued.  The little tour guide was roaming around answering questions, so Chris stopped her and asked about peanut allergies.  After all, we have to watch out for Jachin, right?  He has some pretty severe allergies to tree nuts.  The girl answered by assuring here that there were sign in the areas warning all the workers that there were nuts around.  Chris paused a moment before saying, "That's fine for the workers, but what about the consumers?"  The girl was obviously stumped, so she called over her partner, but she was not really any more help.  We did thank them, but you could still see the wheels turning in Chris' eyes.  She was not at all satisfied.   After the tour we were led into a big snack room / gift shop and treated to a few scoops of ice cream.  You could choose from sixteen different flavors, but my favorite wasn't offered – caramel sundae crunch.  In fact it wasn't listed on any of the promo sheets either.  Figures.  It's probably been retired or something.  I should have asked, but I didn't want to upset them anymore.   Speaking of that, while we were eating our triple chocolate (me) and banana nut (Chris), a lady came up to us and said, "I understand you had some questions about nuts in our operation?"  I have to admit, by this time, I thought that question was one of the funniest things I had heard all day.  Nuts in the operation.  Processed by nuts.  People tell me I'm nuts all the time.  I wasn't sure if we were at the Blue Bell factory or an insane ward.  I guess it was impressive that they sought us out to make sure we got a satisfactory answer.  She brought us a sheet of paper with all the flavors they offer that are not contaminated by nuts.  Chris never did get totally convinced, though.  I'm married to the Scourge of Blue Bell.  But we did come away with some cool free souvenir hats.   Proverbs 18:12 says, "Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor."   Father, it's just good to be home.  Amen.