Texas, Waco - Thursday, May 02, 2019 - Magnolia and Waco Tour

We were up at 1:30 a.m. this morning!  We were awakened by lots of thunder lightening, rain and wind.  Since we left Arizona almost a month ago we have been able to avoid the bad weather that has been swooping through most of the country.  We went back to bed and got a few hours of sleep before we had to get up and get moving.  We wanted to try to travel between the storm fronts.  As you can see by the flag, we were still running into strong winds.

This is wildflower season in Texas and the roadsides are beautiful.

We will be at the I-35 RV Park until Saturday morning when we will head cross country to Shreveport, LA for an overnight stay.  We will then be headed for Vicksburg, MS in order to get fried green tomatoes from Rusty’s Bar and Grill.  More on that later, trust us it is worth the trip.  This park suits us well, some might be bothered by traffic noise.

Bubba’s provides a free hot breakfast every morning for their traveling guests.  We will take advantage of that before we head out on Saturday morning.

Most of the covered sites appear to be occupied by longer term residents.

More covered sites are coming.

A couple of our neighbors.

On Thursday we left the campground by 8:00 so we could be at Magnolia Table by 8:30.  It is not near the Magnolia Market as I pictured it would be.

Evidently, that is a good time to be there, we were seated right away and the food came quickly.  Since we spend 5 or 6 months in Mesa working at the resort grill two days a week we are pretty observant when we are in restaurants as to how their staff works.  This one was spot on.  Five different people were involved in our service, the hostess who seated us, the person who brought our beverages, our waiter, the person who delivered our food and the person who was ready to clean and reset the table when we left.  Our waiter was responsible for three tables.  Where we work I am responsible for 22 tables, Greg does deliver my food orders but there is no one else involved.  I was envious.

If you do have to wait for a table they have a nice covered area.

While you are waiting you can take advantage of free water or purchase coffee and pastries.

Everything looked perfect.  The plants are real – I asked.

A carafe of ice water and two cute little glasses came with our coffee and orange juice.  All are available for purchase if you so desire.

Our breakfast orders were huge.  Greg had French toast with sausage, eggs over easy and hash browns (that is what is in the little skillet).  I had lemon blueberry pancakes with thick sliced peppered bacon and hash browns.  The hash browns had a little bit of fresh shaved parmesan cheese on top.  Everything was as good as it looked.  The only thing I found a little strange was that my pancakes had a slightly salty taste to them – not bad, just different.

Our next stop was Magnolia Market which is housed in a renovated 12,000 square foot grain barn.  At the restaurant the woman next to us told us that she and her sister were here last year and went home with a pickup truck full of purchases.

We came in the back way through the food truck area because that is where the free parking is located.  The two 120 foot tall silos were built in 1950 as part of the Brazos Valley Cotton Oil Company.  As far as we could see they aren’t used now.

We didn’t visit any of the food trucks, we were stuffed from breakfast.

Inside the store wasn’t too crowded yet so I could get some good pictures.  I have to admit that most of the things in the store don’t fit my definition of a good purchase any more – can it serve more than one purpose and can it withstand traveling down a rough road?  I also have to decide what goes out if I purchase something new.  That being said, it was pretty awesome.

We didn’t go in the Silos Baking Company, the last thing we needed was a cupcake with lots of icing. 

Across the street the Findery was another interesting place to explore.

Magnolia trees are starting to bloom.  They line the streets around the Magnolia Market.

We walked over to the Dr. Pepper Museum.

Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco at the Old Corner Drugstore in 1885 by pharmacist Charles Alderton.  It was patented by Wade Morrison, the owner of the drug store.

This property was purchased in 1905 and The Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company opened in 1906.

This building served as national headquarters until 1923 when the company moved to Dallas.  A bottling franchise for Dr. Pepper continued here.

In 1953 a section of the west wall was destroyed by an F5 tornado that destroyed a lot of Waco.

Lots of Dr. Pepper Memorabilia

This is an old bottle washer.

What is left of this old artesian well is inside the building.  It was closed in 1928 by a city order that closed all open wells in the city.  It was covered with a 4” thick slab of concrete which was used as a base for machinery sometime after WWII.

During a 1992 restoration the slab had to be removed to level the floor.  A jackhammer damaged an area of the floor thought to be over where the well used to be.  They continued to break up the floor and the well was discovered.

Remember the 10-2-4 advertisements?

The building across the parking lot is where you go to get a free Dr. Pepper.

A gift shop and snack bar.  Your soft drink is made from scratch with flavoring syrup and carbonated water, good but not as strong as the pre-packaged cans or bottles.  Blue Bell ice cream is also available.

Lots of other memorabilia was displayed in the second building.  This vault was installed in the late 1800’s and used throughout the 1900’s to hold cash for Kellum & Rotan Wholesale Grocery.  Evidently lots of cash was needed, since this was before credit cards.

During the 1953 tornado that hit Waco, the employees took shelter in the vault and escaped injury.

When we walked back to the Jeep we took a detour through the Magnolia Garden.

We repositioned the Jeep in another free parking lot and walked over to take a closer look at this amazing series of sculptures by Robert Summers on the boardwalk near the suspension bridge.  The sculptures were given to the city of Waco by Betsy and Clifton Robinson.  I think there were 25 longhorn cattle.  The detail was so life like.

We “crossed the Brazos in Waco”.  In case you are thinking that would make a good title for a country song, forget it, it’s been done.  That’s why we decided to take this walk.

The Waco Suspension Bridge was finished in 1870.  It was a key crossing across the Brazos River on the Chisholm and Shawnee cattle drive trails.  Traffic included wagons, pedestrians and over half a million cattle.

The Riverwalk is flooded today.

However, the ducks are still enjoying it.

One last look at the bridge before moving on.

Spice village contains 60 small shops.

A huge variety of crafts, clothes and collectibles are for sale.

We enjoyed the signs.

We stopped at the Ninfa Mexican Restaurant for a light lunch.  We had margaritas and split a shrimp quesadilla made with a homemade tortilla.  The quesadilla was big enough that we finished it up for supper.

We did get a couple of things from Magnolia Market.  These won’t take up too much space.