Cross the Brazos at Waco
Dude, Waco is way bigger than I imagined in my head.
I had no idea what all was in this part of Texas! Shows you how much I (don’t) know. We survived the crowds of people at Magnolia Silos yesterday and no one was lost. It wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be since we were there on a Monday but it was still enough people to make you think “man, I should totally score an HGTV show and become awesome in the eyes of the masses.” We ate from the food trucks (shoutout to Club Sandwich Waco for the ah-may-zing rice bowl and great prices), let the kids play on the grounds, shopped at the Market and enjoyed the cupcakes that were as delicious as we thought they would be. I didn’t spend all of our life savings so that’s a plus and means we don’t have to call the trip quits and head back home just yet. Evan was funny following me around with a camera like my own personal paparazzi while I “oohed” and “ahhed” over everything. My favorite finds: a Jimmy Don sign that I scored for the camper that says “wisdom begins in wonder,” a t-shirt because, as a few of my friends pointed out, were you even there if you didn’t get the t-shirt to prove it? and a wool rug that was GORGEOUS but nowhere near the Lanier budget I was sporting. My favorite design elements were the many wood and metal combinations, the western vibe decor pieces and all the shiplap and subway tile on most every surface. Ah, makes me feel cozy just thinking about it. It was HOT and WINDY but we enjoyed the experience. I haven’t become best friends with the Gaines family yet but we still have until tomorrow morning to casually run into them at the store doing normal life things. That’s probably a better plan anyway. Right?
Jenni was kind enough to act like a tourist for the day. We know from living in Panama City Beach that tourists have different activities than the locals and usually don’t want to mingle with said tourists. 10,000 points to her for having super friend status and putting up with our touristy ways for the day! We enjoyed a little pizza once we were back at their house and then both infants slept like champs so we all woke up singing the Hallelujah Chorus this morning!
On to today…The Louisiana horse gallop, I mean roads, sent a few things swinging and flying in the camper as we traveled the other day so Evan spent the better part of his morning making hardware runs and doing a little custom closet building/repairing before we hit the road again tomorrow. Camper note: even if you’ve never had a reason to be super vigilant in strapping down small things while traveling, do so before crossing Mississippi and Louisiana or you will regret it. After making the camper road ready we headed to Waco Mammoth National Monument to check out some mammoth bones because, well, bones are neat. It’s insane to think how two dudes went looking for arrow heads and found a mammoth femur instead. That discovery lead to a huge excavation that is now a national monument. Talk about an accidental upgrade!
Now we are back at the house for a little supper and down time. We are hoping Clay will come home from work (he’s a SpaceX super space nerd) with some really cool story about a rocket and have decided that our ability to clean up after messy children qualifies us to be astronauts. If this happens please note that the blog will take a hiatus while we are off planet. If that doesn’t happen I guess we’ll forgive him eventually.
We’ve got one more day traveling through Texas tomorrow because, you know, Texas is gigantic and we plan to lay our heads at Caprock Canyon State Park tomorrow night. For your Texas entertainment please enjoy the song Evan has played on repeat since we entered the Waco city limits…