Our Crazy Road Trip: Day 20

Departure Time: 10:00 am
Odometer: 11833
Destination: Home Sweet Home
Miles Travelled Today: 448
Total Miles Travelled This Trip (including Land Rover and train miles): 4,129

I cannot believe we are going home today. It’s going to be so weird!

Of course, no trip is complete without a totally cool surprise for the kids, so when I saw that the Jelly Belly factory was just 20 minutes from the campground we stayed in last night, AND it was on the way, we of course had to make the pilgrimage to this child’s Mecca.

We didn’t tell the girls where we were going, just that we had a surprise for them. Madeline is getting to be pretty perceptive, and she tried to take a guess by piecing together some clues from our half spelled/ have vague conversation at dinner last night. She picked up my mention of machines and Pat told her it would be something she would really like. She still had no clue. When we pulled up to the factory, I opened their window shade and she started grinning and giggling and said, “We’re going to the Jelly Bean factory?!?!” At the mention of candy, Fiona’s countenance perked up and I think she even took her thumb out of her mouth for a moment. Jelly Bellys are her treat of choice. I always buy a small box when I go to Trader Joe’s. She adores them.

The line to take the factory tour was humongous (there were a lot of class field trips there today), but they take 60 people every 10 minutes or so, so the wait was not that long. They wouldn’t let us take pictures in the factory, but some of the highlights were seeing stacks and stacks of different colored Jelly Belly trays, the overwhelming smell of sweet jelly bean flavor (I think they were doing buttered popcorn and cinnamon when we went through) and giant Jelly Belly mosaics of Ronald Regan, Donald Duck, The Pope, Elvis, and the Governator. I think their favorite part was watching one of the candy makers toss 10-pound boxes of different colored Jelly Bellys onto a conveyor belt, creating a rainbow of candy to be mixed into assorted flavor bags. Fiona could hardly tear her eyes away from this miraculous sight.

Of course, the “free” tour ended in the gift shop. Since Daddo is such a cool guy, he let the girls completely fill a quart size Ziploc bag with any flavor of Jelly Bellys they wanted. They also got t-shirts. I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy another Jelly Bean again, ever.

Once we got them all sugared up, we proceeded on the middle leg of our journey, a visit to Grandma Pat in Pismo. We chatted, ate a late dinner, and the girls roughhoused like I’ve never seen them do before. They got a little drunk on the freedom of not being strapped down.

Last stop, home. I get to sleep in my own bed tonight. Hallelujah!

Tomorrow or the next day (whenever I awake from my coma and catch up on Lost), we’ll have a fun wrap up post with never seen before Bonus Features!

Don't we all look cool in our paper Jelly Belly hats?

The Daddo sponsored Jelly Belly orgy

I guess it's fine as long as they don't bow down and start praying to it.

At Grandma Pat's

I think Fiona has been studying motherhood a little too closely. Yes, that is a Hooter Hider, and she is , in fact, "nursing" Dora the Explorer.

The second pic is the better of the two, but Fi just has too much sass in her eyes for me not to post the first.

The shadowbox we made Grandma. She never got to go to Grand Canyon, so we brought a little bit to her. No, those are not illegally collected natural artifacts from a National Park!

Grandma Pat and Chachi signing off