We're on the road again this morning. We didn't intent to have an early start because we have a tour at noon in Chelsea of the Jiffy Mix plant, which was a good thing because Collins had to make a quick trip to Camping World. As he was hooking his car up to the motorhome, he realized he had lost one of the pins that holds them two pieces together. Fortunately, Camping World was just down the road so that was a quick trip and we were on the move, right at 10:00 a.m.
We got to Chelsea about 10:45, so we had some time to kill. Dave and Joe took a little walk up the street (looking for Joe's diet coke), and then we all congregated in the lobby of the plant. No pictures allowed once the tour began, but I did snap a photo of us in the room where we watched a couple quick videos. Since we are going into a food processing plant, it's back to the hair coverings, just like the Sweets Candy Factory in Salt Lake City on our Alaska adventure.
We didn't get to see a whole lot. The only line running today was yellow cake mix, and we got to see boxes go through the line going from a flat cardboard to a box ready to fill, and we saw them filling big bags (Joe thinks 50 lb.) of the yellow cake mix. But the best part was when we first started the tour and went into the auditorium to watch the two videos, we were given a treat -- today's was brownies, and a drink. We could order cases (24 boxes) or half cases (12 boxes) for 50 cents per box. The corn bread mix was even cheaper, $10 for a case, $5 for a half-case. We could order an assorted box, or a half-case, or case, of one specific flavor. We put in our order and paid for it before the tour, and they handed it to us as we finished the tour, along with a goodie bag of 2 boxes of their brownie mix, a cookbook, a sticker and a little fluffy thing. Too bad Ford didn't give us a goody bag of a little ole Ford!
We left there and drove on to Battle Creek. My mother had worked in some plant here during World War II. Joe thinks it might have been a parachute plant. But it's one of those towns I grew up hearing about, so I was glad to get to stop here even though I have no idea what to look for.
We arrived here at the campground about 3:00, and after we got set up, Joe, Mazie and I drove back into town to find the Visitor Center. We picked up several brochures, then drove out to the Kellogg Discovery Center/Adventist Village. We thought it closed at 4:00 but I ran up to the door and it was still open, until 5:00, so we got a quick tour of the Center. We will have to come back tomorrow to see the outbuildings. And I forgot to take pictures. Inside the Center was mostly contraptions Kellogg had invented for exercise for his sanitarium. He and his brother accidentally discovered the cereal flake, after one of his guests at the sanitarium broke her teeth on something he had suggested they eat. His brother went on to market the cereal.
We we came into town, we drove past a park that had what looked like totem poles in it. So on the way back, Joe pulled in so we could take pictures. It was actually an arboretum, and the park was called a Fantasy Forest. Very cute.
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| Notice Draw Bridge on this one |
That was a nice little surprise here, and the arboretum looked like it had lots of biking and walking trails. We didn't go through it, but maybe we will tomorrow.
We got back to camp and threw some dinner together, then had a restful evening. Tomorrow is supposed to bring nice weather again so we hope we get to see a little of what Battle Creek is about.
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