By Thursday, April 3, 2008, Bob and I had completely butchered our Texas itinerary – but in a good way. Somehow our wrong turn earlier in the week had forced us to redefine our plan of action and we were way ahead of schedule. Thursday had been slated for a day in Austin, which we had completed the day before. So we grabbed a quick (and small) bite from the motel’s continental breakfast and headed the short distance back into Waco, to pick up some of the places that had also been tentativly scheduled to possibly hit after Austin.
Our first stop of the day was at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco – which is exactly as it sounds, a Hall of Fame for sports stars of Texas. Although sports museums in general typically aren’t my bag of tea, this one was okay as it featured an array of interesting memorablilia. Although I had to pester an employee of the museum to get it up and running, I also enjoyed the Tom Landry theater which highlighted the career of the famous Dallas Cowboys coach.
Outside the Texas Sports Hall of Fame
With the uniform of Rogers Hornsby, whose grave we had located the night before
We had driven by the Dr. Pepper museum on Sunday when we passed through Waco and this time we had a chance to actually stop and see it. Although I rarely drink soda these days (ya’ know…kidney stones), Dr. Pepper has always been a longtime favorite. It was invented by pharmacist Charles Alderton and given to Waco, Texas soda fountain jerk Wade Morrison, who began to offer it to his customers. At first the beverage was simply referred to as a ‘Waco.’
The museum itself is located in the former Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company building, which was the first site opened specifically to bottle Dr. Pepper. It now contains various displays, memorabilia, videos, and information pertaining to the drink. There is also a well inside that was recently unearthered where employees had thrown broken bottles as early as 1906 when the builiding was finished. It closed as a bottling plant in 1960. The gift shop area also included an old-fashioned soda fountain, where I had a Dr. Pepper ice cream float. Bob doesn’t like Dr. Pepper, so he just had a milkshake. Imagine that.
Outside the Dr. Pepper Museum
Set me up with a Waco, barkeep
Enjoying our beverages at the soda fountain
After about an hour there, we left at 11am and began to head north to the top of the state. En route, we stopped in Hillsboro about 30 miles outside of Waco. There we saw the Texas Heritage Museum on the campus of Hill College. It mainly focussed on Texas and Texans during wartime – from the Civil War to Vietnam. Although a valiant effort, it was rather chintzy and it was kind of joke that they were so stringent about ‘absolutely no photographs’ inside – of which there was really nothing to take one anyway…except for Bob napping during the opening video presentation…which of course I did.
The boring sign at the Texas Heritage Museum, an indication of what was inside
With the monument to Audie Murphy outside the Texas Heritage Museum
Bob enjoys the Texas Heritage pre-show
And now a brief photo interlude to introduce you to our other two companions of the week: our rental car and navigational device, whom I dubbed Judy Garmin…
Bob, our driver for the week, with our rental Grand Marquis. Both served us well.
Judy Garmin and me
By around 2:30pm, two and a half hours after our departure from Hillsboro, we were less than two miles (as the crow flies) from the border of Oklahoma, in the small town of Denison, Texas. There could only be one reason that we were in a sleeply little town like this and that would be that a President of the United States was born here. You can read more details about the birthplace of Dwight D. Eisenhower in my Presidential posting found here.
Me and Bob at the Eisenhower birth home
About 30 miles to the east of Denison was the town of Bonham. Here was located the home, museum, and grave of Sam Rayburn. This was yet another case where I was brought along by Bob to see historical sites of a man with whom I honestly was not familiar. So this became another great learning experience to find out about the incredible Sam Rayburn.
Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1912, he went on to serve an incredible 25 consecutive terms there for a total of more than 48 years, serving as Speaker of the House from 1940-1961 with only two interruptions (1947-49 and 1953-55), when he served as House Minority Leader. In all, he served in Congress during the administration of eight Presidents, three of whom (Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Truman) along with Vice President Lyndon Johnson attended the funeral of Rayburn in 1961 in Bonham.
While in Bonham, Bob and I visited the home of Sam Rayburn which he had built for his parents in 1915, three years after entering congress. Whenever Rayburn was not in Washington D.C., he stayed here, having direct communication with the sitting President who he routinely catalogued in his address book. Whether you knew who Sam Rayburn was or not, it was very cool to see this house, still featuring all of Rayburn’s belongings from when he died in 1961. It was like walking into a time capsule of the fifties and sixties.
The Sam Rayburn house (also seen at the top of the posting)
A bit down the road was the Sam Rayburn Library which featured a multitude of displays, Presidential letters to Rayburn, a video of his life, and a real, working library of Rayburn’s collection of thousands of books. Since I never once saw a library employee, I felt free to roam behind the velvet ropes to pose for pictures with the marble rostrum which stood on the dais of the House of Representatives from 1857-1950 (which was presented to Rayburn for inclusion in the museum) and a reproduction of his office with all the original furniture. Quite a cool library and museum indeed.
Looking up to Mr. Rayburn outside the Library
There’s a new Speaker at the original rostrum
Climbing behind Mr. Rayburn’s desk in his office reproduction
Presidential portraits of the eight Presidents with whom Sam Rayburn served
One of the many books owned by Sam Rayburn. Everytime he finished a tome, he affixed his initials to page 99, as indicated here
The Sam Rayburn Library or bust!
And finally while in Bonham, we stopped at the Willow Wild Cemetery to see the final resting place of Sam Rayburn, the legendary statesman whom I had come to know in the last couple of hours. Bob and I then headed south to return to the Dallas / Fort Worth area where we were to spend the remainder of our vacation. About an hour into our travel, we stopped at Shogun to enjoy some traditional Texas Sushi and home cookin’ on the hibachi.
At the grave of Sam Rayburn
Some much needed Sushi and Japanese delicacies at Shogun
We stayed in our crummiest motel yet that evening, a boxy Motel 6 in McKinney near Dallas, where Bob had to make three trips to the lobby before they would assist us in getting inside our room – where we quickly located a condom behind the telelvsion. That night it stormed like the dickens and Bob was taken aback by our typical midwestern tornado scares.
One of the many attempts to get into our assigned room. The battery ended up being dead in the card reader and we moved to another room…
…where Bob made a startling discovery. We didn’t check to see if it was soiled or not.
Our Texas trip will continue back in Dallas…
Looks like you guys had a fun trip and you probably weren’t at ALL put off by the unknown use of the condom behind the TV! Blech!
Amber
June 2nd, 2008
Motel Six or Motel Sex?
That’s really what you want to see, when you open your room, isn’t it?!
Dave Chasteen
June 2nd, 2008
I was only resting my eyes, I wasn’t asleep at all. Glad you enjoyed getting to know speaker Rayburn. And I am glad you guys are the ones that get such lightning, thunder and rainy, rainy downpours. Give me an earthquake anytime.
Bob
June 2nd, 2008