Lone Star State-Day Three

 We took off this morning from Dallas (really Plano, suburb of Dallas) to head south to Houston. After we figured out the several complicated interchanges, we made it out of town to the open road. Goodness, this part of Texas is flat. Our first stop was Waco, a couple of hours down the road. Below are some pictures from there.

First stop was a place where they found several fossils for the now extinct Colombian mammoth. The original 13 complete mammoths they found were given to Baylor university.

Everything else has been left in place and is part of an active dig. If you study the picture you can make out the parts of the mammoth that died in place. At the very least, the tusks are easy to see. I was very excited to see the actual bones/fossils because in museums you usually see only models or plaster replicas. We also saw remains of an ancient camel, giant tortoise, and a saber-tooth tiger.

 

We also hiked a short trail that was part of an Eagle Scout Project. Wally and Theo are both Eagle Scouts and I've been around quite a few projects. However, this is the fanciest project sign I've ever seen.

Next up was the Brazos River Riverwalk in downtown Waco.

Ward wanted to see the historic Waco suspension bridge there.

I was happy to see the full-size bronze sculptures of a cattle drive.

The heat was building so we decided it was time to move inside with a visit to the Dr. Pepper museum. Dr. Pepper was invented by a young pharmacist, Charles Alderton, who mixed 26 flavors for the winning combination.

The museum was very well done and at the site of the former bottling plant.

At the end, we got a coupon for a free Dr. Pepper. Too bad that I can't stand the stuff, but Ward was happy.

And if you watch much HGTV, no visit to Waco would be complete without a visit to Chip and Joanna Gaines' Silos.

However, they are closed on Sunday.

Then we got on the road for a few more hours to Houston. We took the back roads looking for the famous Texas bluebonnets that are in bloom now. We saw many along the way. BTW, I think the camera did a pretty good job capturing these flowers at 60 mph.

It was another good, but tiring day.

Until next time...