Barbara and I decided to double the stakes in one trip. We went to DUBLIN, Texas (196 miles from Paris, TX and 87 miles from Italy, TX) to explore the town (2 points) and visit the Dr Pepper Museum (2 points for topic of study). Barbara will talk about Dr Pepper, which was a real sweet experience.
Recently the site of various UFO sightings, the town of Dublin was the topic of the History Channel’s UFO Hunters Episode 110. We didn’t see anything odd, but we did meet a suicidal dog (Barbara will report). As two sisters, we couldn’t resist entering The Three Sisters of Dublin shop (1 point), where we chatted with two of the three sisters and chuckled over some of their sister-oriented gift items. We told them a little about our “D” month activities and they were delighted with the concept and immediately suggested we visit the neighboring town of De Leon. The sisters were kindred spirits and we loved their shop. If you’re ever in Dublin, stop by and say hi to Lisa, Brenda and Mary.
The ABC Life Blog 
The sisters had a sweet time at the Dr. Pepper Museum. We learned all kinds of interesting facts: the differences between all the years’ logos (e.g. after the 40s they dropped the . after Dr.), the fact that there are 29 flavors of Dr. Pepper (no prune, by the way; that was a rumor started by Coke) and that only 7 people in the world know all 29 and aren’t allowed to be in the same room together, the fact that the soda was named after the father of a woman the creator of Dr. Pepper wanted to marry (the good doc never did allow it), etc. The plant there only makes the antique bottles which you can’t ever buy. If you happen to be lucky enough to find one somewhere you can bring it in and they will exchange it for a full bottle. That way they never lose any of the antique bottles.
We ate at Granny Clarks for lunch which was a great little restaurant named for the grandmother of the owner. When we got there, the place was filled with men in camouflage. It’s a good thing we didn’t have a “DEER in the headlights” look on our faces or we might never have made it to the museum! The cobbler there is the best.
Last but not least, we decided to make a Detour off the main road to visit a cheese shop. As we got closer a black dog came out to check us out. He came right up to the car and every time we tried to inch forward he moved in front of us. We were laughing so hard that I was sure I’d run right over that dog so we parked right where we were and walked the rest of the way to the shop. They had all there cheeses cut into little samples in paper cups so you can taste them, similar to a wine tasting. We each bought 2 or 3. The day was extremely fun! A great DO it day.