Austin

I left Plano around 9 o'clock which was about an hour after I had planned to leave. We had breakfast at Taco Cabana's which is a 10-15 minute drive from where I was staying and then as I was heading out to Waco I noticed I had forgotten the pictures Uncle Bob gave me! Needless to say I hurried back and had to go meet up with Lyndel to get his house key so I could get in. All of the running around pushed me back to around 9 but the drive still wasn't bad and I made it to Waco in good time.

Uncle Bob had recommended I stop off in Waco to see this old toll bridge which was a scale model precursor of the Brooklyn Bridge. There were actually 2 or 3 neat bridges right together so I stopped and took some pictures.



As I was heading back to the freeway I saw some signs for a Dr. Pepper museum. I'm a long time fan of Dr. Pepper since I was 4 or 5 so I was sort of excited to go to a museum about the drink. After a little bit of driving I found it in an older part of town. It looked like they had converted the old warehouse/factory into a little museum. I went in to look around but the exhibit they had was a 'pay' sort of thing and I was already behind so I just glanced around and went into the gift shop to see what I could find. They had little 8 oz bottles of the original version of Dr. Pepper made with REAL sugar so I picked up a 6 pack since I knew Melanie would want to get in on some of that too. Most interesting tidbit I picked up there was that Dr Pepper was started in Waco in the 1800's. Who would've thunk it? Btw, that original flavor is quite pruney so I wouldn't recommend it to people who don't care for prunes.



Once I hopped back on the highway I made good time down to Austin, ne Hutto. Because I had taken so long in Waco I decided to forget about trying to get to the BBQ place in Lexington and figured I'd try it again the next time I'm in town. Since I'm so brilliant I ignored Betty's instructions on how to get there and just shot for the route I used to know. Well, turns out that route isn't quite the same as it was and Betty's maps weren't up to date so getting to Wade's was a little sketchy. Used to be you would drive up Priam to Rowe Ln and then take that in. Well somebody went and built a huge tollway in between them and the frontage roads are one way so I had to drive around a bit to get back to Rowe. Of course Betty started freaking out and every second would say 'recalculating...make a u-turn'. That got old pretty fast so I shut her up. Once I was on Rowe it was like I remembered except that there are now a number of housing developments out there. I remember when Wade moved there and it was really BFE. Not so much anymore but at least his side of the road has retained the original small farm flavor.

Wade has built a couple of additions to his property that I hadn't seen before. The most prominent of these is a barn/clubhouse that I've decided is really just a big-boy fort :) It's shaped like a barn but doesn't have doors on the bottom and isn't enclosed. The main run is a cement slab and the 'wings' are grass/dirt. Upstairs is a long room which is intended to turn into a 'hunting' lodge of sorts and is called the Dawg House but right now it's just used for storage and man was it hot in there. When you got out of there it made the 100 degree weather feel cool. This reminded me of the story Danny told me about how Rob had locked his door and rolled up the windows and turned on the heat in the middle of summer. Turns out Danny had been complaining about how hot it was so Rob told him that after he got out of the car he would think it was quite cool. Hilarious! Ahh, brotherly love.



I ended up staying at Wade's longer than I had intended because I was hoping to get everyone to goto Schlitterbahn which is supposed to be the best water park in the world! Unfortunately we didn't get to go there but I did get to fix and ride a 4 wheeler, go creeking, play with the kiddos Maggie (13) and Emma (6), eat home-grown steak and crawdads, and visit Barton Springs pool with Marianne and the girls. My creeking experience was vastly better than it had been in Plano. I went down there with Maggie, Emma, Christian, and Tanner. The two boys being friends of the family and similar in age to Maggie and Emma. We had a good bit of fun just exploring the creek and sitting in the relatively cool water. Near the end we found a place where you could jump in (maybe 3-4 ft deep) and had some more fun down there. Maggie didn't want to get in so various people 'helped' her into the water :) Emma was a big jumper and swimmer and I was pretty impressed with how daring she was for having never had formal lessons. I also got to help feed Maggie's 2 new show cows, Chrome and Ekkita. All in all it was a very relaxing and enjoyable time. Much like Michael and Deeanna's place I wished I had more time to spend there and that I was closer so I could get down there more often but as Danny says, wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first :)

Austin Pictures