K. D. Lunneborg - The Travel Times – IV; Texas Part One: Waco

July 25, 2025

“Go big or go home.” This saying is known as Texas’ unofficial tagline, and is accomplished by many Americans throughout the U.S. With so few stops already made, and so many stops left, we were not going to go home. Instead, we went big on the big state of big adventures: Texas. We made three major stops, the first of which was Waco, TX.

As an eleven year old, I was still slightly obsessed with the TV. And there was a particular show on the HGTV channel that I liked: Fixer Upper. The show’s hosts, Chip and Joanna Gain, eventually started their own channel, but even before that, they already had a downtown market named the Silos. This is most certainly a tourist trap. Expensive, low quality, and busy. But I loved it back then.

My favourite attraction in Waco, however, was a museum. A museum of highly-carbonated-overly-sugary liquid. The ‘King of Beverages,’ Dr. Pepper. Back when that liquid which I call pop was created, ‘jerks’ would work the soda station, jerking the valves open and closed to pour syrup into the carbonated water. Charles Alderton, a young pharmacist at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, enjoyed the smell of the drug store as all the different fruity syrup smells, which came from their soda machine, mixed in the air. Eventually, he decided to try and make a soda that tasted like that smell.
He began keeping a journal, and came upon a combination of 23 unique flavours which he liked the best. Dr. Pepper production first began in 1885, making the drink one hundred and forty years old this year. How the flavour combination got named Dr. Pepper is largely unknown, but it has become one of the most popular pops in America. The museum is full of history on the drink, listing over a dozen stories on how it got its name, and also various slogans. One of the slogans which Dr. Pepper advertised with was the following: “Drink a bite to eat, at 10, 2, and 4.”

The final destination in Waco, Texas, was Waco Mammoth National Monument. This National Park Service facility holds the bones of Columbian Mammoths. The interesting thing about these bones is that they are exactly that – bones! Most times, things like these will show up as fossils. However, these bones survived all this time without being fossilized. Perhaps, just perhaps, they didn’t die millions of years ago… Huh. ; ) The bones themselves are contained within a building, so that they do not decay with moisture or weathering, however, there are a good handful of wonderful hiking trails around the park, which I would definitely recommend walking around if you’re in the area.

The travels to Waco have now added roughly another four hundred miles, getting us that much closer to the end. But don’t worry, there are plenty of stops to go. Our travel milage now totals one thousand eight hundred and eleven miles. The next article will continue our adventures in Texas, with a stop in Fort Worth. I hope you’re enjoying this trip, and I’ll see ya on the other side.