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Rich and Dickens at the covered table |
Midway Park was in the middle of town, on the edge of Waco
Lake. One loop of the campground had full hookups, but was along a very busy
road. The other loop was along the lake
and looped back into an area that was forested with juniper trees, which is
where we were. It is the first campground we’ve been to that has covered picnic
tables – presumably because of the very hot summers here. We had some beautiful sunsets over the water
and for the most part, beautiful weather. The juniper made a wonderful aroma
when burned – I’m a real fan!
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After our trip through the museum, we drove along the Brazos
River (all the western books I read are coming alive here!) and I saw the
prettiest house I’ve ever seen. Of course, the setting didn’t hurt! We even
turned around and drove past it again so I could get pictures.
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Nolan, Anna, and Kevin |
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Notice the Texas-shaped sink in the wet bar? |
We were camped only about 5 minutes away from our friends,
Kevin and Anna’s home, so were lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with
them and their three beautiful children. Nolan is nearly 5 and the twin girls,
Emmy and Livy, are 3. Kevin came by camp shortly after we arrived and we slid
right back into our friendship as though it had been last week rather than more
than ten years since he was a grad student and a regular at our home. After
catching up for a while, we followed Kevin to his home and got the tour of
their newly purchased home, which is wonderful – lots of unexpected, cool
features including a wet bar with a Texas-shaped sink! We had dinner, reminisced, and caught up for
hours, then headed back to camp. The next evening we met Kevin and Anna at
their favorite Mexican restaurant for a great dinner. The next day we were planning
on having them all out to camp, but the weather was cold, windy, and rainy, and
Rich was sick, so it didn’t happen. Kevin left for Dallas for a lecture and got
back Friday evening, just in time to pack for a meeting in New Orleans. We ended up going by to spend some time with
Anna and the kids, meet Anna’s mom and brother, and have dinner. We hated to
add to the confusion the night before Kevin and Anna were to leave on their
trip, but Anna insisted and we had a great time with them. Kevin was a grad student at UF, where I
worked, and he was the first of several students Rich and I “adopted” during
their time there.
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Emmy and Dickens |
Thanks to Anna as our local fount of information, we had a
couple of breakfasts and lunch from a little family-owned Mexican restaurant
called Leal’s. Some of the best burritos we’ve ever eaten. For lunch, Rich
picked up burritos - a chicken fajita and a beef fajita – and while both were
good, the beef was fantastic. The meat had been beautifully seasoned and
braised so it was juicy and bursting with flavor. Makes me hungry just thinking
about it!
Anna also directed us to our first super HEB store – similar
to a super WalMart or our favorite Meijer store from Michigan – and we became
fans. Although the bakery isn’t as good as Publix, it is far better than other
similar stores.
Waco has a population of about 125,000 – roughly the same as
Gainesville – and at least three times the shopping venues. We liked Waco and
enjoyed our time there, in spite of our colds!
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Chef Kevin |
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