. . . wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?
If you recognize that advertising Jingle for Dr. Pepper, you’re a child of the 70’s. But even if you’re not as OLD as I am, the ORIGINAL Dr. Pepper bottling plant in Dublin, TX gets two thumbs up from our family.
Yes. You read that correctly. Despite the fact that we had just gone to Oklahoma the previous Saturday, we packed up and headed west on Friday night. How’s that for spontaneous?
Speaking of spontaneous, BT prefers to just head out without making hotel reservations for the night. He loves the excitement of the unknown. I, on the other hand, am a bundle of nerves the entire drive, wondering if we’re going to find a place to say, worrying that it will be clean, hoping that we don’t get ripped off because I didn’t complete the exhaustive on-line research that I am infamous for. So, I took matters into my own hands and booked us a room in the Granbury, TX La Quinta HOURS before we left. It was such a relief to know that we had clean sheets to snuggle up in for the night . . . or at least that’s what the on-line reviews promised. Upon arriving, it was a different story. It took 15 minutes to find the only employee on duty because she was hiding in a corner of the back office eating pizza. After check-in and hauling three kids and all of our stuff up to the third floor, BT pulled back the covers to lay baby Tad down. The sheets and pillowcases were covered with NASTY, BLACK DOG HAIR!!! Pizza girl (Kristina) explained that they had a dog show there a few days ago and the housekeeping staff must not have changed the sheets. AAGGH! Here I am with my 3-month old baby staying in a hotel where dogs have been allowed to snuggle up in the beds and no one bothered to CHANGE THE SHEETS???? Even after we were relocated to another room, I asked for clean sheets and then proceeded to strip down the beds and change the linens to ensure that I wasn’t sleeping in doggy slobber (or worse). So much for my vacation. I could have stayed home and done all that. Kristina tried, unsuccessfully, to reach her manager (Cyndi) to see what sort of compensation they could offer. I found out the next morning from another employee that the unresponsive manager had been home all evening because her dog was giving birth to seven puppies. Figures.
Saturday morning, after a sub-par hotel breakfast of slightly fermented apple juice, greyish greasy sausage patties, and egg-like yellow foam sponges, my sister Lisa joined us and we piled into Fern (my Honda Pilot) and headed to Dublin. Thankfully, our experience there was delightful. We went on a cool tour of the old Dr. Pepper bottling plant after which we sipped on ice cold original formula Dr. Pepper and ate a delicious, reasonably priced sandwich from the quaint soda fountain. They make their own pimiento cheese and chicken salad, and their sweet sour dough bread is SUPER good. My only regret is that I didn’t splurge (calorically speaking) on a Dr. Pepper float.
