FLORIDA’S NATURAL GROWERS VISITOR CENTER, LAKE WALES FL

Learning how things are grown, manufactured and delivered is interesting to us.  When we learned that the Florida’s Natural Juice Company had a visitor center that covered these topics we were more than ready to go see this free exhibit.

From Winter Garden it was a little bit of a drive, but not too bad.  It let us see an area of Florida we hadn’t really visited before and gave us an outing.

The brochure had said we could see a citrus grove and learn various things.  There were of course free samples as well.

So when we pulled up and saw that the “grove” was just a few trees near the citrus center with big signs telling us to leave the fruit for the workers to harvest we were a little disappointed.  Not to mention the fruit didn’t look all that good that was on them.  Definitely not what you purchased in the grocery and definitely not what they show as the “grove” on their television commercials. But then “home grown” produce is never that pretty anyway.

The tour starts in the gift shop with the free samples of their juices to drink.  From there you go through a doorway where there are several exhibits, videos and narratives to view.  It was interesting to us, but a much smaller set up than the similar one we had seen on Bush Beans.  The movie that was shown in a small separate theater was interesting.  Seeing how commercial citrus growers planted and cared for their trees was educational.

One of the things I learned is citrus does not continue to ripen once it has left the tree.  It simple gets old.  The flavor does not get better or sweeter like it does on so many fruits.

I also learned it takes over a year to produce a single crop of citrus fruit from pollination to ripe.  That might explain part of the cost of citrus fruit.  It definitely explains why one really bad frost or freeze can ruin crops for more than a year.

There were displays on canning and equipment that make you realize how far we have came in food preservation and samples of War World II rations that included Donald Duck orange juice.

All in all the drive was well worth the effort.

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DOUGLAS DAM HEADWATER CAMPGROUND, SEVIERVILLE, TN-CAMP 22

We were lucky that the town we were directed to after our throwing a wheel not only had a trailer building business, but it was open on a Saturday.  While they didn’t have an exactly matching to our other trailer wheel rim they had one that was so close you had to look twice to realize it was a different rim.  Even better they had a trailer tire the right size AND a brass valve stem.  It took them no time at all to take off the temporary fix lug bolts and put new properly fitting ones on all the way around.

We were soon on our way and arrived at the Douglas Dam Campground near Sevierville, TN in the late afternoon of that same day. However, it was late enough that since we did not have a reservation we were put in a campsite that was just slightly too small unless we left the truck hooked up.

Which we did because they said they would have several available the proper size the next day. 

This is a pleasant campground ran by some very nice folks who work very hard to keep it clean, even keeping the leaves blown off the pads every day in the fall. 

Since the camp hosts had decorated the campground for the impending autumn holidays we decided that Malecifient Dragon should make her campground debut, along with Snoopy and the gang, and Jack Skellington, once we were in our campsite #31 for the duration of our stay.

The neighbors all enjoyed the huge dragon stopping by to see where we had purchased it and just to chat in general.

The “camp cat” was just more or less bored by it.  He did come over periodically to check out the inflatables, but never offered to be “naughty” around them.

That first full evening and a few others we walked around the campground to take a few photos of this laid back campground.

Of course being that close to Dollywood, we had to spend some time there as well as visit the Bush Bean Visitor Center. 

We did spend time just driving around Gatlinburg and through the Great Smokey Mountains National Forest too. 

There are numerous shows, restaurants, and shops we could have been tempted by, but our time there was limited and there were certain things we really wanted to do.

One, for me, was visit the Scrapbook Superstore in Gatlinburg, not once but twice.  

That place is HUGE.  It is a good thing I had just reassessed my crafting budget before going in there or I could have done some various serious damage to that sinking fund for certain. 

 They had just about everything you can imagine for paper crafting.  Next door to it is also their clearance center, although by the time I went in there I was tired enough I just sort of just did a quick look thru and then decide to come back another time when I had more time.  After all Gary was aging greatly out in the truck in the heat as I drooled all over the die cuts, stickers, stamps and papers of this huge shop. 

We would definitely recommend this campground to others.  If we were to have a complaint at all it is a minor one.  Their public restrooms are so well lit the outside light on them can temporarily blind you at certain angles if you are coming in after dark.  That is such a tiny thing we feel this campground deserves a very good rating.

BUSH BEANS VISITOR CENTER, CHESTNUT, TN

In case you haven’t figured out already Gary and I are weird people.  We consider amusement parks fun, but not the be all, end all of vacationing and traveling.  Nor are we big on casinos.  We are easy to entertain and enjoy simple pleasures.  We also like to learn things in our travels.

So when we realized we were in the area of Bush Beans and they had a visitor center that told how the manufacturing of our favorite canned baked beans was done we wanted to go.  Especially when we learned our educational visit would be free.  Free works well with our shoestring travel budget. 

Even better is when the free is well done, and this location was well done.

The drive took a little longer to get there than we expected, but the countryside we drove through was beautiful, so we had no complaints.  As we rounded the curve going into to Chestnut we smelled, then saw the huge canning plant on the left side of the road and the visitor center on the right side.

We already knew we would not be allowed into the actual plant, that our “tour”  would be in the visitor center.  Following the road around to the guest parking lot we were pleased to see they were all decked out for fall with harvest decorations.

The visitor center has actually three sections, a restaurant, a gift shop and the “tour” area.

We were told by various people in the area that the restaurant is good, but alas we were too late for service that day.  We have got to quit being so slow in the mornings getting around. Perhaps another time.

The gift shop was interesting with a variety of items, but wonders of wonders I did refrain from buying a “Bush Beans” brag rag.  I was already feeling the need to thin out my travel wardrobe and we weren’t scheduled to be back at the ranch for nearly six weeks. 

From the very beginning we enjoyed the self-guided tour through the museum.  At the very beginning there is a display for “children of all ages”  to pick up a game of sorts to help you learn as you go through the displays.  A treasure hunt so to speak, you watch for questions and answers and then fill those in on a your playing page with a provided pencil.  The answers have numbers and letters associated with them.  You match the letters with the numbers on your playing page and put the appropriate letter in that spot to spell out a phrase.

Being a child at heart, I played the game.  Don’t worry I won’t spill the beans on the answer and spoil your fun.

Instead we followed the route through the tour starting at a spilled can of beans, sort of.

As you walk through the large can display you not only gather a clue, but you can watch a series of videos that tells you something on the history of the company, how the beans are grown, processed and delivered to you.  The videos are short and well done.

From this and other displays I learned that while Bush only cans beans at this time at one time they canned a large variety of vegetables.

I also learned that Showboat Pork n Beans were canned by Bush Beans.  Something I previously did not know.

There are interactive displays throughout the large display area that help you load delivery trucks, learn the history of food canning, the part played by Bush Beans during the war via videos, and a plethora of other interesting things.

At the end you turn in your completed game page and win a reward.  Of course I won’t tell you what the reward was, but here’s a hint.

The fun continued outside where you can view the Bush Bean truck from some of the commercials and take a photo with you “in” the truck via a mock-up of it.

I know the burning question is “Did we get the secret recipe from Duke”.  The answer is….