We weren't ready for it, but our alarm woke us up just after 6am, as the parking meter kicked in at 7am at the spot where we'd parked. But when we left around 6.30am or so, downtown Dallas was already coming to life, with cars whizzing past us, people stepping out of the Aloft Hotel across the street, and folks walking along looking like they were heading into work. It was actually pleasant to be up early, with the air outside pleasant and the sun not so scorching hot!
Dallas Photo Op Stops
Randomly, Dallas has a giant British Bowler Hat sculpture, angled as if it were hanging off an equally gigantic coat rack. It was created for a British furniture store, but we couldn't get near enough to it as there was construction all around it, blocking our access.
We were, however, able to see two of the three Traveling Man sculptures, which are stainless steel structures joined by rivets. They're of robot men, rather than human men, though! The two that we saw were the second of the series, "Waiting on a Train", which shows the robot strumming a guitar, as well as the last of the trio, "Walking Tall", which has the robot jauntily mid-stride. If it were easier to get around, it would be fun to treat this as a treasure hunt and walk to each of the sculptures (which we suppose many people do as an outing)!
A mural we stumbled upon and had to stop for is on the side of Sandaga 813, a jazz club. It's of a beautiful woman with a full afro, and the words "She Ill" next to. Her face and hair take up the entire side wall, making it a very striking piece of art.
The Texas Woofus sculpture is striking in a different way, because it is almost Frankenstein-like in how it cobbles different animal's body parts together into one sculpture. It has a sheep's head, a horse neck and mane, a pig's body, a duck's wings, turkey tail feathers, and Texas longhorns! It was originally sculpted in 1936 for the Texas Centennial Exposition, and the current version was crafted in 2002, after the original mysteriously disappeared.
Art Deco Dallas
Dallas, it turns out, has a strong connection to Art Deco, particularly at Fair Park, which has one of the largest concentrations of Art Deco buildings in the country. Many of these buildings were constructed for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, and continue to be preserved today.
We love the Art Deco style for its bold design, unapologetic opulence, and sharp geometric shapes, and were instantly wowed by the cool buildings and structures at Fair Park. For example, we loved Contralto and Tenor, two strong, aerodynamic bronze figures, painted with aluminum that are recreations of the sculptures made back in 1926. They guard over a long blue/purple pool, watching over it with authority, one arm stretching out each.
On the other side of these sculptures, there's another fantastic building, with stairs leading up to a tall white building that has four pillars holding it up. In the middle, above the golden doors with intricate designs that include pine cones, oil rigs and saw blades, is a golden figure of a Tejas warrior, a member of the Native American tribe for which Texas is named. His arms are raised up as he holds a warrior's bow, looking upwards towards the sky. There's a lot of symbolism in Art Deco style too, which makes it even more fascinating.
Our final stop in Dallas with the Texas Theatre, a movie theater that is famous because it's where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested after assassinating President JFK. It's still a functioning cinema, and on the anniversary of JFK's assassination it plays "War is Hell", the movie that was being screened when Oswald was arrested, as well as the movie planned to screen immediately after.
Little Czech Bakery
We've been to Little Norway, Little Sweden, and Little Bavaria on this trip, but so far we haven't been to Little Czechoslovakia! The town of West, south of Dallas, has a rich Czech heritage that continues to celebrate it with music, food, and traditional events. One of the most popular stops in West is the Czech Stop and the Little Czech Bakery, a huge deli, bakery and convenience store. What most people go there for is the pastries, particularly the kolaches, a type of sweet pastry made of puffy yeast dough, with fruit in the middle such as cherries, apricots, and prunes. There's also savory pastries with fillings like sausage, jalapeno/sausage/cheese, as well as cookies, fruit pies and very dense breads (like doughy bricks).
We got the pecan roll, a blueberry turnover and of course one apple kolach. The dough around the kolach tasted like a soft white bread, and the apples were caramelized. We're not sure it was something we'd order again, but it was good to try it! The pecan roll and turnover were perhaps more our cup of tea, although they're all very sweet so it's definitely more of an occasional treat!
The Davidians
Waco was put on the global map back in the 1990s, when there was a 51-day siege between the US government/Texas law enforcement and the Branch Davidians, a religious cult led by David Koresh. The siege led to the the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians, including 20–28 children, and Lisette and Michael remember seeing the siege on Australian news back in 1993.
We learned more about the details over the years (including how the siege was the main reason for the Oklahoma City bombing, which happened exactly two years later; we were just at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum a few days ago). There are still members of the Branch Davidians today, and they manage Mt. Carmel Center, near Waco, Texas, the site of the siege that now has a church, and a memorial that lists the names of those who died.
We drove up to the gate, and there was nobody at the church at the front. There's a donation box for $10 outside the church, and right by the entrance sits the memorial. We noticed that further down the road, there were a few cars and people looking at what we guess are the remains of the compound (it's no longer there) where the siege happened. We didn't drive up further, but the place has an eerie feeling to it, lingering in the air.
Dr. Pepper Museum
Did you know that Dr. Pepper, the soft drink, originated in Waco? We had no idea until this trip! In Waco there's the Dr. Pepper Museum, built on the first building dedicated to the manufacturing of the America's oldest major soda, from 1906. It cost $12 per adult and the museum has 3 floors of exhibits, including the history of mineral spring water and its purported health benefits, and how this led to pharmacists creating sodas like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper.
The exhibits also detail the history of the soft drink (including other brands like 7-Up), how Dr. Pepper was originally manufactured (including all the vintage bottling equipment), a room screening a few retro commercials, and other memorabilia. It costs extra and we were already there at the end of the day, but one of the cool experiences that we saw was "Make-A-Soda", where people can book in advance to have the experience of creating and bottling their own soda concoctions. It looked so fun! As part of the ticket price visitors also get either a free drink or $1 off a soda float. Since Lisette doesn't drink soft drink but used to have soda floats as a kid, we both ordered floats. There's a brand called "Big Red" which is like an Australian creaming soda that's also originally from Waco, so Lisette ordered this with a cherry vanilla ice cream and it definitely was reminiscent of her childhood! Michael ordered one with Dr. Pepper and vanilla ice cream; also perfect for a hot summer's day.
Too Hot Waco
In the evening, it was still so hot that Lisette was ready to throw in the towel and check into a motel. Despite having air conditioning in the RV, it doesn't seem to blow cold enough to cool things down inside. We tried a few things, like turning on the generator for the first time, which seemed to help somewhat rather than relying on our solar panels (which can also heat things up as the batteries are inside). This seemed to help somewhat, but we also kept all the windows open to encourage whatever breeze was outside in the evening to come in.
The downside of the heat as well is that it welcomes mosquitos, and one bugger demolished Lisette's feet, by giving her some rather decent welts in several places. Gah--such a burning and itching sensation! So irritating.
We went to bed without a top sheet, and at some point in the wee hours of the morning the temperature did become much cooler. Although we slept close to train tracks and at one point, a train blasted its horn, and sounded so close, that in our half-awake stupor we both wondered if we were actually parked ON the railway, as the train sounded like it was going to run over us! Fortunately that was definitely not the case, but the two trains were both deafening loud and intimidating, breaking up everyone's sleep for the night.
Route Map
