Real Brown Sheep, Family and Apes

 Monday was anniversary day, and one of the most exciting days we've encountered yet.  The major excursion in Scottsbluff was getting to visit the Brown Sheep Company.  This is a textile plant that produces the Brown Sheep line of yarns and is set out in the country with beautiful bluffs as its backdrop.  We were a little worried though, because we could not see any actual sheep in the area.  But we wandered into the plant around 9:30 and immediately met one of the owners, Peggy Jo Wells.  After some quick introductions and telling Peggy what I do for a serious past-time, she dropped everything and took us on a personal tour of the manufacturing plant.  Exactly what we were looking forward to doing!

 We learned many things, along with the fact that they do not have sheep on their property any longer.  They get their wool from ranches in northern Colorado, have it cleaned (quite a process) in one of the Carolina's and then it all ships back to them for the rest of the process.  And what a process it is!  We got to watch all the steps taken from raw (clean) wool to the finishing touches for retail stores.  They produce over 1000 colors and every weight of yarn you can imagine.  Peggy gave us one of the most informative tours we've ever experienced.

After the tour was over, she re-read our sign in name and my business card and pronounced our last name correctly!  ZING!  We found out that her aunt was a Payzant from Schuyler and obviously that made us all relatives of sorts.  Now that NEVER happens, does it?  She excused herself for awhile to let us shop.  OK, to let me shop and Bill took care of some business things on the phone.  Felt like a kid in a candy shop.

 The bluffs behind the plant look rather hazy in this photo, but they were sharp to us.  This pic was taken from their front driveway - just to prove they were out in the country - and on gravel road.  Peggy said that there are people around here that still have no idea what they do for a living.  Really?  This company is huge and growing - internationally, too.

After Brown Sheep, we stopped downtown to see if someone could fix Bill's broken watchband.  Dropped that off and went to an antique shop.  Yes, just one.  That was enough for us.  We decided that we've been out of it long enough and the prices were obnoxiously high, that we'd had enough.  So antique shops got marked off our agenda for the rest of the trip.

When his watch was fixed, we ran downtown again to pick it up and decided to actually go to a theater to see a movie.  Something we never EVER do at home.  Walked the mall the theaters were in looking for something fun to take back to the grandkids.  There was nothing that shouted 'panhandle' to us, or cowboy/Western type stuff.  But the movie?  It was one of the best ever - the new Planet of the Apes.  We both laughed, jumped in our seats, and of course I cried at some of it.  We don't get out much.  :)

Here are four bags of FUN sitting in the back of the car from Brown Sheep.  After sitting last evening, discussing our day and  playing darts on the iPad, we decided to stay one more day here in the panhandle.  There could possibly be some trout fishing available for Bill to enjoy, and I'm going back to Brown Sheep and  pick up some things I left on her shelf yesterday.  I may never get this chance again and have to snag the opportunity when I can.

Thank you for reading - enjoy this very day!