Rather than spend the day making ourselves crazy watching election coverage, we decided to go to Waco and see the sights. There are three things on our list and we decided to do two of them during the day.
Neither of us knew that Waco is the birthplace of Dr. Pepper soda and there is a museum in Waco. Although Dr. Pepper looks like a cola, it is really a combination of fruit flavors that was invented by a druggist at his soda fountain in 1885. Back then, the soda fountains had multiple fruit flavors to put on ice cream and make fruit flavored fountain drinks. Shortly after its creation, the syrup was bottled and sold to other drug stores and eventually it was bottled and sold to the consumers to take home. During the first few years of this last stage, there were all kinds of caps invented and used, but the invention of the painters cap we are all accustomed to seeing was what made the bottling industry so successful. On the same day, the patents for the painter cap, the bottle opener and the machine to fill and cap the bottles were all filed by one man.
Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, TX
After lunch, our next stop was the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. Boy, that was interesting.
Texas Ranger Museum, Waco, TX
I had no idea that in the early days, these men were surveyors and had to be able to defend themselves from native american tribes who realized the white man was moving into their land. There are fascinating exhibits of their equipment including guns and surveying equipment, clothing including chaps and spurs, badges and authorization papers, and stories of their famous cases. The Bonnie and Clyde story is highlighted since it was a Texas Ranger who finally tracked them down and killed them. The stories of kidnappings with happy endings, and the story of Cynthia Ann Parker from the Park Fort which was not such a happy ending. If you ever get to Waco, go see the Texas Ranger Museum.
It was 3 o’clock and my coffee break time, so we took our coffee to the Cameron Park and walked across the swinging bridge build back in 1894 as a toll road and is still passable by foot and bicycle, without the toll
Swinging Bridge in Waco Texas
. After relaxing and enjoying the view we headed home to take in the election. Take out chinese food was the perfect solution for this long night.
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