Discovering the home of Bush's Best Baked Beans

We're big fans of places like Hershey's Chocolate World and the Turkey Hill Experience, so when we passed signs for Bush's Baked Beans, we made the quick (long) detour to check it out.

The Bush's factory, seen from the nearby visitor's center.

Pulling up, we first spotted the Bush's factory. We'd eventually find out it was a magical place, but for now, we met a friendly guard at the entrance who directed us to a visitor's center a little further down the road.

The Bush's factory is set in the beautiful, green hills of Chestnut Hill, Tennessee, and the visitor's center is an amazing museum/gift shop/restaurant combo.

Everything is immaculate, the staff is friendly, and the featured video inside taught us about the factory's lightning-fast bean canning assembly line.

This was the magical part.

The assembly line is perfectly automated, and it's a good thing since most of it moves faster than our eyes and brains can keep track of what's happening. Factory workers unload entire tractor trailers in seconds and at the touch of a button. The water used to wash the beans and cans is recycled by a sprinkler system that waters the vast rolling hills nearby where a herd of Bush's cows keep the grass neatly mowed.

It's worth the trip for a photo like this alone.

We also learned that I weigh the same as 145,154 beans. That is, I did before we sat down to lunch.

The chili dog I ordered was overloaded to such an awesome degree that I had to eat it with a fork and knife. The appetizer was the baked bean of the day, and on that day was southern bbq flavor. Bush's also provided us our first glasses of southern sweet tea.

There's more here than you'd expect from a baked bean factory.

Bush's baked bean recipe is still a secret, but there's one thing we know for sure:

If you have any passing interest at all in American grilling food, Bush's dog mascot Duke, or standing inside a seven-foot-tall can of Bush's Best Original Baked Beans, the Bush's Beans Visitors Center is worth the trip.