Spring breakaway, part 2.

After the sports museum, we were ready for lunch. Our original restaurant choice looked a little scary, so we opted for Buzzard Billy's, right off the interstate and next to the Brazos River.

Because of March Madness, I had to keep an eye on my Horns in their first round game with Oakland. There were TVs inside the restaurant, but we opted for a table on the deck. Thank goodness for the live games streaming via the NCAA tournament app!

We enjoyed the great weather, the ducks (who seemed to love the extra rolls our waiter gave us for duck-feeding purposes) and the fish (who liked to steal duck bread).


I had the shrimp creole, and it was fabulous! (No ducks nor fish were permitted to partake.)

Katie, who was still a few weeks from becoming a vegetarian, opted for the chicken strips. This one, however, looked less like chicken and more like a seahorse!

After lunch we ventured downtown to tour the Dr Pepper Museum.

The kids and I had been to the Dublin bottling plant, but we'd never seen the place where this sweet nectar was born.

This animatronic dude told us about the pharmacy and soda fountain where Dr Pepper was first concocted.

In different places around the museum, there were Dr Pepper "oddities" on display, like this bottle warmer.

In other places, visitors were encouraged to tweet answers to questions. (My guess for this item? Coasters.)

String art! So very 1970s.


These two photos show bottles from the original drugstore.


It was cool to see different bottles that have been used for soft drinks over the years.



I always get a kick out of seeing the old logos and bottle shapes.


Brett and I recall the days when drink cans had pull tabs that you had to pull all the way off the cans! It was funny to see all of these can incarnations again.

I never saw a rocking chair made out of a DP can, but I remember seeing a transistor radio like that one!

Mmmm... Dr Pepper gum! And it looks like the old Freshen-up gum with the liquid in the middle! I don't remember the DP gum, but seems like we all had the Bonne Bell Dr Pepper Lipsmacker.

The kids were curious about the whole "10-2-4" thing. This placard explained it.

In this case, we learned about different bottling plants and how each puts its own mark on its bottles.

Here we could watch old DP commercials, including my fave, the David Naughton "I'm a Pepper" spots.

This cap-covered horse needs a name. (Visitors were asked to submit possible names via Twitter.)

It was funny to see all the Dr Pepper knock-offs:
And of course, there were Mr Pibbs and Pibb Xtras:
One case was devoted to root beer.


And another was dedicated to Big Red, also a Waco original.

A special exhibit focused on novelty drinks, like the much-missed Crystal Pepsi.

The museum folks have done a good job of paying tribute to all kinds of soft drinks,

but the focus was most definitely on the hometown favorite.

I was sad that a fallen sign had obscured this Roger Staubach poster because Brett has had one of these Sugar-Free Dr Pepper bottles for a long time! (We still have it, by the way.)

Baylor has always had a close association with the local drink. This stadium carrier was used back in the day to sell DPs to fans in the stands.

We had plans to sample the ice cream floats at the soda counter, but the lines were really long. Instead, we just went outside, posed for a couple of pix, and then went to Sonic to quench our thirst.




So finally, we can put a big check by "Visit the Waco Dr Pepper museum"! Our little Waco daytrip was just what the Dr ordered.

P.S. - On our way home, we passed this old building.
Oh, how I miss those old Stuckey's! These days Love's or Flying J's have replaced the old roadside staples famous for their pecan logs, but I still get nostalgic when I see one of these buildings still standing.