Mars Factory Tour

Derek has been working each week in Cleveland, TN and it's been kinda rough on us. We don't like being apart so last week I flew down to spend a long weekend with Derek. It was so nice to be together and it was fun to see where he lives and works all the time. Yesterday, Derek took me on a tour of the factory and it was awesome.



We started out at the Twix line. It was just so neat to see it go from cookie dough all the way to wrapped and boxed. My favorite thing to see was how they put the caramel on the cookie. There was a huge cooled rotating drum with caramel on it. Then the caramel was scraped off with a blade and went in to a funnel looking thing that heated the caramel to just the right amount and then that split into little teat looking things that laid the caramel perfectly on the passing cookies. Derek took one of the Twix bars off the line for me to try without the chocolate coating put on yet and it was delicious. Then we tried a Twix with the chocolate on it. Soooo good.

The most fascinating thing to see was the M&Ms. We tasted M&Ms from each stage of the process from the roasted peanut all the way to the finished product. We loved the freshly roasted peanuts. The huge tumblers that coat and polish the peanuts were mesmerizing to watch; tens of thousands of M&Ms just rolling around in a slow washing machine type barrel.



The packaging is also incredible to watch. Conveyor belts running all over the factory and sorting bins and huge rolls of wrappers that package faster than I can watch. Pure Awesomeness!

And then Derek showed me the project he's working on and that was really neat to see. After seeing all the wires and the huge, complex control panels I completely understand why he feels overwhelmed. Derek's background in in mechanical and manufacturing engineering and he was just thrown into this electrical position. I'm so proud of the work he's doing and how perserverant he is. Derek never gives up and always gives 110%. I couldn't be a prouder wife!