Celestial Seasonings

Brighton. Colorado            High 82 Low 47

Today started out overcast and cool, but by mid-morning the clouds went away and it ended up warm. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler.

Today we drove to Boulder to see a tea factory called Celestial Seasonings. The hour tour was free and they had lots of different herbal teas to try. We got there after the first tour had started and had to wait for the second one.

Our tickets were samples of blueberry tea. I think every tour gets a different flavor.

We had time to check out the gift shop and read all the signs about the company and how it got started.

Before the tour we watched a 15 minute video about the company and where the tea comes from.

This dress is made from Tea Bags and is on display by the video screen.

We were told that the herbal teas are really not tea and I don’t remember the correct name. The actual tea comes in white, green and black. They all come from the same plant, but what they become depends on when they are picked. The white is picked with white flowers and tender leaves early in the season. Green tea is picked next and the leaves are immediately processed. Black tea is the last picked and the leaves are allowed to dry completely with some other processing before it becomes tea. Also, the amount of caffeine varies between the three varieties: Black being the most, white next, and green the least. The white tea is by far the most expensive.

We got to see the storage facilities along with the boxing and packaging. One room has the peppermint and spearmint stored. We took a smell, but couldn't stay in the room because the mint smell was so strong. We were told that the dried tea will take on the flavor of the other ingredients, so they have to be stored separately.

We weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the manufacturing process. The herbal teas are made from many different fruits for instance, blue berry, raspberry, peach and mango were some that I saw. 

It was an interesting tour which lasted an hour. we found out that there are 105 different varieties of tea and they box enough tea to make 1.6 billion cups per year. In 2005 they welcomed their first 1 million visitors, now they have had 2.1 million. The company has been in business for 48 years. Their most popular tea is Sleepytime which is an herbal tea and not really tea.

On the way back to our RV we went by a large sub-division with lots of metal buffalo. I managed to get one picture.

Thanks for visiting.    

Fun Facts.

Brighton, Colorado           High 76 Low 47

Today the weather was a lot more pleasant than yesterday. It was almost 10 degrees cooler and we sure could tell. Right now it is raining lightly.

We didn’t do much today other than lounge around. We are going to Linda’s (Motor home) for dinner tonight.  It will be a long walk for us (50 feet). lol

I didn’t know yesterday when I posted, but the picture Cindy took yesterday was one of the unique buildings around. It is the Wells Fargo Center.

Some fun facts about it are:

The building was originally designed for a downtown area in Texas.

The Wells Fargo Center has a heated roof that is necessary to prevent snow from accumulating and sliding dangerously off the curved crown.

The building has its own unique zip code, 80274.

The Father’s Day Bank Massacre was a bank robbery and shooting that took place on Sunday, June 16, 1991 at the United Bank Tower (now known as the Wells Fargo Bank Building.) The perpetrator killed four bank guards as well as holding up six tellers in the bank’s cash vault. An estimated $200,000 was stolen from the bank. The crime remains unsolved and is considered a cold case.

The building is known by the locals as the Cash Register Building or the cash register in the sky because of its unique architecture.

The building was designed by architect Philip Johnson and was completed in 1983. In 1961, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1963.

We had no idea when Cindy took the picture. We just thought it looked kind of different.

Tomorrow we are doing a little more sightseeing.

Thanks for visiting.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Brighton, Colorado             High 85 Low 48

We left Cheyenne and drove to Brighton, Colorado where we are book docking for a few days. We got to Brighton at about noon.

Cindy wanted to see the Molly Brown Museum and we drove into Denver to see it. Along the way Cindy got some pictures of some of the buildings.

We found the Museum, which is in downtown Denver. When we got tickets for the next available tour, we had an hour to wait, so we watch a DVD in the gift shop about the life of Margaret Tobin Brown. The facts of her life are almost nothing like the way Hollywood has portrayed her. She never went by Molly but rather by Margaret or Maggie.

She was actually pretty well educated and fought for women’s rights. After she and her family moved to the US from Ireland, at age 18, she relocated to Leadville, Colorado, where she met James Joseph Brown. She had wanted to find a rich husband, but she fell in love with JJ, or as she called him, Jim Brown.

I don’t remember the year, but the US government stopped using silver for currency backing which caused a financial disaster for Colorado. Jim was a mining engineer and through his efforts in 1893 a substantial gold vein was found for his employers. They gave him stock in the company and a seat on the board of directors which made him a millionaire.

In 1894 they bought the Victorian mansion which now houses the museum in /Denver for $30,000. The following pictures are from inside the house.

 This looked like gold leaf but was actually wallpaper painted gold color.

Her daughters bedroom.

Her bedroom.

Extra bed room used by her parents until their deaths.

The bathroom was the only room in the home that hadn't been refurnished.

This was her son's bedroom.

The kitchen stove with some of the utensils.

Molly and Jim had two children and as she got older, she traveled extensively. While in Europe in 1912 she received word that her oldest grands0n was seriously ill so she booked passage on the first available ship to the US, which happened to be the Titanic.  She received the name Unsinkable Molly Brown from her efforts to help fellow passengers when the Titanic hit the iceberg.

 From Wikipedia: Brown had spent the first months of 1912 travelling in Egypt as part of the John Jacob Astor IV party, until she received word from Denver that her eldest grandchild Lawrence Palmer Brown Jr. was seriously ill. She immediately booked passage on the first available liner leaving for New York, the Titanic. Originally her daughter Helen was supposed to accompany her, but she decided to stay on in Paris, where she was studying at the Sorbonne. Brown was conveyed to the passenger liner RMS Titanic as a first class passenger on the evening of April 10th, aboard the tender SS Nomadic at Cherbourg, France.

The Titanic sank early on April 15, 1912, at around 2:20 a.m., after striking an iceberg at around 11:40 p.m.. Brown helped others board the lifeboats but was finally persuaded to leave the ship in Lifeboat No. 6.^[1] Brown was later called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" by authors because she helped in the ship's evacuation, taking an oar herself in her lifeboat and urging that the lifeboat go back and save more people. Her urgings were met with opposition from Quartermaster Robert Hichens, the crewman in charge of Lifeboat 6. Hichens was fearful that if they went back, the lifeboat would either be pulled down due to suction or the people in the water would swamp the boat in an effort to get inside. After several attempts to urge Hichens to turn back, Brown threatened to throw the crewman overboard.^[1] Sources vary as to whether the boat went back and if they found anyone alive but Brown's efforts sealed her place in history, regardless.

We were told that she put on 12 sets of clothing before the ship sunk, which she shared with some of the ill prepared passengers on the life boat. 

She submitted the following claim to the ship-line after the sinking for her lost items, but they went bankrupt so she didn't get anything.

We found the tour very informative and enjoyed the mansion.

One the way back to our fiver, we got to see the first apartment building built in Denver (1890). It is now Condos. Cindy also got pictures of several other buildings and sculptures along the way.

 This was a pretty ornate apartment building for 1890.

This is the Denver Public Library.

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Thanks for visiting.

We Are Almost To Colorado

We had another good driving day, but drove a lot further than we’d planned. High winds were forecast in Rawlins this afternoon and tomorrow, so since we were in Rawlins by noon, we decided to drive to Cheyenne and stay in an RV Park with Passport America. This will make for a short driving day tomorrow.

Cindy got some pictures while we were leaving Dutch John before we got to Interstate 80. We drove 329 miles today, a lot of it on 2 lane roads.

We got to see a herd of Mule Deer last night where we were boon docked.

We also got to see some Pronghorns and so we didn’t miss anything in Wyoming, we also got to go through some of the perpetual road construction on Interstate 80. I don’t believe I’ve ever driven through Wyoming without some road construction on the freeway.

We are at the Terry Bison Ranch RV Park. There is a herd of Bison here and they have a train that will take you around the herd. We won’t do it because we are only here tonight and leave in the morning for somewhere near Denver. The sites are nice and long but are a little close together, but it is a nice enough Park. The people checking us in were nice and friendly and we had no problem getting into our sites. The lady in the office told us that all the sites are pull-through which made it easier.

After we got here I had to try some contact cement on some double edged tape on one of Linda's fenders. I had noticed it flapping a little bit when I passed her a couple of times. Hopefully the contact cement will correct the problem, if not she will have to replace the tape.

Thanks for visiting.

On Our Way

Dutch John, Utah           High 72 Low 47

We got to Orem and stopped at Cindy’s Mom’s where Linda had her motorhome. It took us about a half hour for them to get ready and left at about 9:15.

We are parked way in front.

Linda helping their Mom into the motor home.

We went up Provo Canyon and turned right on US 40 toward Vernal. We had an uneventful drive with several stops to stretch and made it to Roosevelt at about 1:00. The drive from Roosevelt to Vernal reminded me a lot of Interstate 80 through Wyoming. The only thing missing were the Pronghorns and the road construction.

Interesting rocks.

We were so high that the Quaking Aspen weren't in leaf.

More interesting scenery.

It was a fairly good drive to Vernal, where we turned on highway 191 toward Flaming Gorge. The road had lots of uphill with several 20 MPH switchbacks. It seemed like a long uphill drive and the truck got a little warm, but we finally got to the top (8440 foot elevation). Then there were several miles of 8% down grades.

We stopped for pictures about a mile from the Flaming Gorge Dam and Visitor’s Center for pictures.

Part of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Bridge over the following Arm of the Lake.

Cindy found some flowers in bloom.
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We then stopped at the Visitor’s Center for more pictures and we watched a video about the Dam. It was interesting how much water can be let out of the Lake if necessary. We also found out that the power generated pays for the operation of the Dam and Visitors Center.

The Back of Flaming Gorge Dam. The Water is 420 feet deep at the Dam.

Cindy, Linda, and their Mom.

We are boon docking in Dutch John tonight and will leave fairly early in the morning for another boon docking spot in Rawlins, Wyoming.

Thanks for visiting.

Still Working on Getting Ready to Go

Riverton, Utah        High 68 Low 50

Last week it got up to 88 degrees one day, which was a new record for the day. That almost sounds like Yuma except it has been over 100 there. Fortunately it cooled down again.

We had Penny's hair cut last week and she has been cold ever since.

On our last trip out with the fifth wheel, I had several tire monitors that needed to be replaced. They were the brand that the battery was not accessible. So I decided to get another brand that the batteries could be changed by me. I paid about the same amount for the whole system as it would have cost to replace the sensors. Anyway, I finally got around to air the tires and installing the new tire pressure system.

I also got the fifth wheel lubed and ready to roll.

Last week  they had the annual Salt Lake Quilt show, which we attended. Since a year ago, the name of the show has changed and I don't know if different people are running it, but I didn't like the show as well as in the past. I also don't think they had quite as many entries as they have had before. (Only my opinion.)

We got our sprinkler system going for the summer, and we have had lots of broken pipes and bad sprinkler heads.

In between all of this, I got quite a few of Cindy's quilts quilted. I'm still behind, but the pile is definitely smaller. She thinks she is going to have lots of time to sew during the next 4 months and is taking lots of material for more projects. So I guess when we get back I will be behind even more again.

We are set to leave on Thursday for our 4 month adventure. I hope to write more again, as we travel.

Thanks for visiting.