The Doctor Is In

Last weekend, I went on a roadtrip of sorts to Waco, Texas to see what there was to see. One of the highlights of the trip was the Dr. Pepper museum!

There were three floors of Dr. Pepper goodness and I loved it. I am a big fan of Diet Dr. Pepper, so after the self-guided tour throughout the museum, I just had to get a Dr. Pepper float in the little cafe on the first floor. And they make them with an old fashioned soda-tap thing (ya know, that tap where they pour the syrup in the cup, then pour regular water, then shoot the carbonation in it). It was fun to watch them make it and it tasted fabulous.

Here is a picture of a recreation of the soda fountain. The guy in the cafe used the same kind of tap to make our floats!

Signs from days gone by...

Here's one of the OLD bottle washer machines:

And here is the bottle-cap-putter-onner (clearly that's the technical name of the machine):

And I'll be honest - I would love to say that I know what all of this equipment does.....but I just do not.....I'm not mechanically inclined! But it was interesting to look at while I was there...

Back in the day when they were bottling here, they decided that artesian well water was the best stuff to use, so they drilled this well right in the bottling plant and drew up water to use for the Dr. Pepper.
Looking down into the well.....

How's THIS for an old pop machine (and yes, I DID say POP)??

Or how about this one??

This one has the 10/2/4 logo on it:

OK, so who grew up on Shasta pop like I did??? I totally forgot about Dr. Diablo!!
And what's up with these Dr. Pepper containers?! It looks like hydrogen peroxide bottles or something!
Production line 'rejects' - can you find the errors? HAHA

They had big display cases full of old pop bottles and cans...

And a super cool old cash register! This made my inner math nerd happy!

Gotta love the old delivery truck...

There were a TON of old pop machines and coolers in this huge room - so much fun to look at them and recognize some of the styles that have been used in my lifetime - and marvel at the onse that were before my time. This museum was VERY well done - I definitely recommend it to anyone passing through Waco!