by laura beth

Just kidding! I couldn't help myself. Well, to wrap up our Texas visit, we came to Ft Worth to see my cousin Rob Willey. I haven't seen Rob in years, and in that time he has grown up a lot. We had a wonderful 4 day visit, just catching up, watching movies, swimming, and eating. He made a fantastic spaghetti dinner by himself! He has recently become a Christian, and we enjoyed going to church with him, and seeing the passion in his life for things of God. We also went to Chik-Fil-A for the first time! We had planned to go to Dallas to not only see the spot where JFK was shot, but to find out who killed JR. We decided to forgo Dallas, however, and do a quick backtrack to Tehuacana (near Waco).

by kenny

We left Nick and Sammy Jo's house around 6 in the morning so we could be Lexington in time for Snow's BBQ. Throughout Texas we have been sampling BBQ at every opportunity. We have tried random joints, franchise places, and a two of the top five BBQ pits in all of Texas according to Texas Monthly.

Snow's was the last place on our list of BBQ to try in Texas and according to Texas Monthly was #1. Snow's is only open on Saturdays and starts serving at 8 in the morning. They stop serving when the meat runs out and that has been awfully quick since they have been deemed number 1.

So we took our fill of a pound of brisket and a half pound of ribs. And it was great. Really good all around. But not my favorite. Floores Country Store holds the top place in my heart. I will let Snow's hold the number 2 spot with no qualms, but the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the top of the top belongs to Floores. I told Laura that if we came back to Texas I would not go out of my way for Snow's, but at the time I said it, and as I write this now, still have an unwavering hankering for more of Floores BBQ. I would come back for Floores.

Best atmosphere goes to Luling City Market. When you place your order you go in the pit room with all the wood, smoke, and meat tickling your tongue. There are two or three pit guys asking for your order by the pound. They slice it up for you right in the pit and send you on your way. Loved it! Here are the BBQs we had, shown in chronological order, but rated by goodness:






After Snow's we headed to Waco for the Dr Pepper Museum. This one was a lot bigger than Dublin's and better displayed. It starts off with a replica of the soda shop Dr Pepper was invented in. At that time it was named a Waco after the town as in, "Shoot me a Waco". There is an animatronic Charles Alderton (he created Dr Pepper) talking about how Dr Pepper came about. The next room has various Dr Pepper cans and bottles from the 1900's on and videos and exhibits of the bottling process.

The second floor with original flooring was where they made the syrup and has the many different style of vending machines. Vending machines with a water drinking fountain on the side in case you didn't have money for a soda. Vending machines that poured Dr Pepper into cups. There is a section of Dr Pepper knockoffs. Skipper, Dr Schnee (Laura's favorite just because of the name), Dr Becker by Bly Sky Soda Co. (Laura actually likes this one), Dr Nut, and one that I actually liked better than Dr Pepper (I know...), Doc Holliday.

The third floor, yep, there was three floors, was dedicated to Woodrow Wilson "Foots" Clements and his Free Enterprise Institute, who may be the man responsible for Dr Pepper being latched on to by the masses. He went from town to town, visiting public parks or anywhere people were and putting cups of Dr Pepper in their hands. After we had our fill of the museum, I went down stairs and enjoyed a Dr Pepper float made the original way soda jerks did in the soda shop that started it all. Dr Pepper syrup, carbonated water, and vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

by laura beth

Nick and Sammi Jo took us on a Texas history excursion to the Battleship TEXAS and the San Jacinto Monument. It was super hot and humid (as it has been during our entire visit in Willis), but we loaded up with slushees from Sonic and piled into the zebra mobile (without ac) and headed south to the Houston Ship Channel. We hit the ship first, which is pretty impressive, but obviously not air conditioned. We kind of melted a little on our self-guided tour. It was quite interesting, though. As we walked through the ship I thought more and more about what it must have been like to live on it. I think I would have rather not. It's not so much the cramped quarters and lack of luxury (duh! I live in a 27-year-old 28-foot motorhome), but the lack of day light and the swishy washyness of being on open sea. Oh, and war. That would suck. But the sailors had everything they needed on the little floating city.

Next we headed over the San Jacinto monument and museum. We were overjoyed to have cool air conditioning and cold drinkign water. We didn't have time to go through the musuem, but we watched a fun little movie about the pivotal Battle of San Jacinto which was where Texas finally won its independence from Mexico. Were then rode an elevator to the top of the tower, which is the world's tallest monument tower, and which freaked me out just a little. As we left, we stopped at the far side of the reflecting pool and had a lot of fun taking silly photos with the monument in the background. All in all it was a great history-filled day.

by laura beth

Since Willis is only about an hour from where James and Kim live, we invited them to come visit us. James' daughter Ashley is spending a month with him for the summer, so they brought all 4 kids up.

After they pulled into town, we headed to Huntsville and the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church...and BBQ. This is sooooo great. I mean, the BBQ was just good, but the whole idea of it is absolutely hilarious. Right next to the church is a smoked stained shack serving up ribs, brisket, sausage and chicken (along with the fixin's and homemade pies). You pass the smoker as you walk into the tiny place, there are several picnic tables crammed in, and the kitchen is very much a run-of-the-mill small church kitchen, serving the BBQ out of stainless steel buffet pans and sweet tea out of cooler jugs. It was an experience to say the least.

After filling our bellies, we took the Tavs to visit all of the animals. Jason's camel, Butter, really likes kids a lot, so he and Ephram got along great. Later, Sammi Jo took us on cart drives with Charlie. Apparently Ashley loves zebras, so she was thrilled to be able to hang out with them. Nick is really into genealogy, which fascinated Cal and DJ. Also, it was Kim's birthday, and I had saved some cupcakes in anticipation of their visit. I think everyone had a really great time, and it was so good to see the Tavs again.

by laura beth

Today Kenny turned 30. I'm not the best at creative birthday ideas, but I made his favorite cake, actually cupcakes, from scratch: yellow butter cake with semi-sweet chocolate ganache, and Nick and I made a feast for dinner: steak, shrimp, salad, yams, and baked potatoes. Sammi Jo is a big prankster, so she provided the after dinner entertainment. She threatened to put horse crap down Nick shirt, went out side, came back in with her hand closed and had him squealing like a girl. He hand was actually empty, but apparently it's not below her to do something like that, and he wasn't going to assume she was kidding.

Also, we decided to stay another week here...