Tuesday, March 20, 2018 - Morning Walk; Laundry; Day Trip to Waco; Meet Up With Friends; More Laundry

Tuesday, March 20, 2018 - Morning Walk; Laundry; Day Trip to Waco; Meet Up With Friends; More Laundry

We walked the loop here in the campground this morning but nothing more since we are going to take another shot at sightseeing in Waco today.  I'm sure it's going to be fine because Dean feels great this morning!!!!!!  I took the time to wash sheets so I could change them out when we get back this afternoon/evening.  I hung them up to dry - one in the living room area with the new clothesline and the fitted one in the shower.  They will be dry by the time we get back.  Have I told you lately how much I love my new washer/dryer combo?  I'm in love!!!

Pictures from our walk this morning.  

We left for Waco around 10:15.  Our plan is to drive downtown and visit Spice Village, a collection of shops under one roof along with a few restaurants.  We arrived shortly after 11:00, parking a few blocks away.  There are several free parking areas and when we found one we took it, not knowing how busy it might be.  Since we didn't walk much this morning I hope we can make up for it while we seeing the sights.  We happened to park very near the Alico Building you see in most of the "Fixer Upper" shows as they span the Waco area.

Warning:  From this point on be prepared for an overload of pictures!

Alico building - that's our truck, Maxx, in the lower left corner!

We headed straight to Spice Village in search of restrooms.  This sign was in the restroom stall and I had to share it.

Inside the bathroom stall, on the door was this little sign!

Bathroom sink area was nicely designed.

We decided we would go ahead and eat first, then return to the shops before moving on to other places on our list to see today.  We walked back down the stairs (Spice Village is all on the upper level, however, there is an elevator), so don't be afraid to check this place out.  It has some really amazing merchandise for sale.

In the lower level of Spice Village there was Ninfa's Mexican Restaurant and The Olive Branch that served sandwiches, soups and salads  We walked on down to the end of the block to see what else might be available, but we didn't find any other restaurants in this building.  I decided to check Google to see what else was nearby when a young lady walked out of a shop and asked if she could help us.  We told her we were looking for somewhere to eat and she gave us a rundown of what was in the area.  She was very helpful.  We thanked her and walked on discussing what to try and finally decided on Ninfa's.  It was a good choice!  

They brought warm salsa and an avocado cream dip to the table with tortilla chips.  Both were quite good.  Dean ordered a burrito and I ordered enchiladas.  We both enjoyed our meals.   

Chips and salsa!  I forgot to get pics of our lunch meal!!!

Once we finished with lunch, we headed back to Spice Village.  We both enjoyed looking around for about an hour.  We didn't buy anything but enjoyed just looking.  Well, I did find one thing that I considered buying for my daughter Misti - who absolutely LOVES tacos!  They had these cute socks - the only problem they were men's and would have been too big.  If I ever find a pair of women's taco socks Misti - they will be yours!!!  There are numerous cubicles that make each "store", but the only walls, are used to hold merchandise for one side or the other.  There are no doors from one shop to another - it is all open.  It was quite unique.  Here is some information on how Spice Village came about.

From here we headed to "the Silos".  I imagine most everyone knows what this is - but in case you so not watch HGTV's Fixer Upper, it is Chip and Joanna Gaines' brainstorm for the marketing portion of their business, "Magnolia".  There are two large rooms filled with merchandise items for your home.  It was fun to look, but living in an RV there is just little space available, and what I do have must be used mostly for things we need, so my decorating is very limited.  Right now I have no desire to change anything out, but maybe someday!  

Beautifully landscaped grounds

Entrance to the store

Lots of rooms for kids (young and old) to play and enjoy themselves.  Great for mom's who want to spend time in the shops!!

It was interesting for us to see what they have done with the area.  We visited here a few years ago, shortly after they had purchased the property.  There were crews working on it at that time, so we enjoyed seeing the final outcome.  They really did an amazing job with wonderful ideas of how to utilize the space, to provide "something for everyone" who visits.  We thought we might try out some of the sweets at their bakery, but when we walked around the corner and saw how long the line was, we decided not to wait.  

Lots of neat street vendors on site with food, desserts, drinks.  We might have eaten here if we realized they had such a variety available.

Lots of seating if you wanted to eat, or just rest for awhile.

We could not have wished for a more beautiful day to be outside.  I'm glad it worked out for us to be here today as yesterday was about 8-10 degrees warmer.  I had a lightweight flannel shirt on over a t-shirt and it was perfect.  

Seed & Supply Store above.
Some of their gardens below.

One of the games they have available for young and old alike to play is Corn Hole.  My son makes and sells beautiful Corn Hole Games.  When I saw the ones they have here, my first thought was, they need Marc's boards!  Sounds like a mama doesn't it?  I'm sure these get lots of daily use and abuse!  

Loved these swings!

After we left, the thought of those sweets kept tugging at us, so I googled "desserts in Waco" and this is what we found.  

Lula Jane's is a bakery centered restaurant in East Waco specializing in farm to table and freshly in-house made food. Our concentration is baked items & breakfast with an additional lunch option daily.

So guess where we headed next.  Yes, we did!  We are so glad we made the decision to stop here.  What a neat little place and the food was delicious!  The entrance was a large opening into an indoor/outdoor area with a bar and tables outside.  Come to find out the door on the backside was a large garage door.  How cool and convenient to just raise the door and immediately the outside is almost part of the inside.  

Crossing the river to reach Lula Jane's.

Lula Jane's.  The front opening has a large garage door that closes up the outdoor area of the shop.  On the side there is an outdoor sitting area.  Aren't the redbud trees beautiful?  They were out in full bloom everywhere in the area.

Inside was a huge work area with a similar sized seating area.  As we perused the chalkboard menu on the wall my eyes fell on bread pudding and I was in heaven!  While looking on line I saw they had "Pearl White Cake" - white cake with white icing which is Dean's favorite!  We were both happy with our selections and that we found this little bakery tucked away on Elm Street, across the Brazos River in an older section of town.  It was so worth it!

Dean's "Pearl White Cake"

My bread pudding!

Menu

Closeup of the indoor/outdoor seating area.

So we had one more thing we wanted to do here in Waco on this trip.  That was to walk across the suspension bridge, that spans the Brazos River.  We were fortunate enough to find a great parking spot along the road just a short distance from the bridge.  We had read there were some statues here but we were not prepared for the beautiful cattle and riders that were placed here to give the impression of a true cattle drive crossing the bridge.  It was quite impressive!  The bridge is a wonder in itself and we enjoyed the leisurely walk across it to the other side and back.  Waco has done an amazing job of making the river area a treat for residents and visitors alike who enjoy the out of doors!

Look close to see the "W" brand on it's side. 

 

The green area of the park was beautifully manicured and very welcoming.

 

Going over!

Coming back!

Beautiful walking  areas along the water.

We thoroughly enjoyed the river area.  If we had been in the area longer we would have gone back again to just enjoying a leisure walk down along the water.  We'll save it for our next trip.  I'm sure we'll be back again.

Several days ago Patty, a friend of mine that follows our blog, also a former City Clerk from Kansas, had contacted us about meeting up in Waco.  They have been traveling in Texas as well and plan to arrive in Waco sometime today.  I sent a text to see if they had arrived yet and they were about an hour out.  We still had a few places we wanted to go yet so we let them know that and we moved on to our next stop.  

Most of you know Dean enjoys woodworking, and he was interested in stopping at "Harp Design Co."  Clint Harp designs many of the wood products Joanna Gaines uses on "Fixer Upper".  It was fun to walk through and look at the things on display in the store.  Again, we did not find anything we could use in Bentley.  Next door to his shop is the house that Chip and Joanna renovated for them.  We were told they no longer live there, but understand it is available for rent to those visiting the area. 

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture.  

The house that was renovated for them by Chip and Joanna.

On our way to Harp Design Co. I snapped a few pictures I'll share here:

McLennan County Courthouse.  Very beautiful and looked as stately as many State Capitol Buildings.

Just found this interesting!  It seemed to be a working garage.

Beautiful older homes on the way to Harp Design.  We would love to drive through this area of town on a return trip.

Our last stop was at HEB to pick up a few things.  Our cupboards are getting bare and I wanted to stock up for the days after we leave Waco, in hopes we do not have to grocery shop again until we reach Oklahoma.  

While we were sitting in the HEB parking lot, we received a message from my friend Patty that they had arrived at their hotel - perfect timing!  It took just a little while to find the right hotel - since Google would not pull theirs up and kept sending us to one around the corner from us.  We figured theirs must be fairly new.  Fortunately Patty provided me with the Exit #, and I was able to look it up in my new book, "Next Exit" where I found their hotel listed at the exit # she gave me.  Pulling up Google Maps, I googled the exit number on I-35 and it marked it on my map.  Then I selected our location in the truck and we drove toward the mark.  It worked!  

Once we arrived, we headed on up to their room to visit and it was a delight to see them both again.  Larry often attended the various City Clerk meetings with Patty so I've known him almost as long as I've known Patty.  After hugs and introducing Dean we had a great time visiting about each others trips.  In no time an hour flew by.  We needed to get back to Bentley and they had things to do as well.  We parted, with the idea we might try to get together again, once we get to Wichita.  They live in nearby Mulvane so hopefully it will work out.  

After the drive back to our campground, Dean grilled hot dogs.  We had some potato salad to go with it.  A nice simple meal.  I did another load of laundry since we will be without sewer hookups for the next 5 days.  I wanted to be sure everything was clean before we moved on.  We planned our route for tomorrow and I started the blog.  I was just too tired to finish it.  I headed to bed.  

Our drive tomorrow will be about 3 hours, on some new roads and some familiar ones.  We noticed Mother Neff Park was full when we returned this evening.  It is so nicely spaced though you don't even know you have neighbors when we are inside.  

After we leave Mother Neff State Park, we will be staying at a campground outside of Fort Worth near Benbrook Lake for three nights.  It is close enough to Ft. Worth that we can drive in to see some of the sights but far enough away we don't have to deal with the heavy traffic while pulling Bentley.  Check back to see what we find to do in Ft. Worth.

My favorite verse!  He's strengthened me so many times and I am so thankful!