Category Archives: Local towns

Plano Balloon Festival

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The 35th Annual Plano Balloon Festival begins Friday evening September 19 and runs through Sunday, September 21. Bands, bounce houses, climbing wall, food North Texas Ramblings Plano Balloon Festivalconcessions and exhibitors’ booths are all part of the fun, but the highlight is the balloons. The event features balloon races, balloon glows (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.), and balloon tethered rides.

Lift off. If you’ve never been, I urge you to go to a balloon launch. There are five launches scheduled during the Plano Balloon Festival. Evening balloon launches are at 6 pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

But my favorite balloon launches are in the morning. You can catch these on either Saturday or Sunday at 7 am. Our family likes to bring a picnic breakfast, lawn chairs, and a sense of wonder as the hot air balloons take to the skies at sunrise. It’s an incredible sight.

Viewing tips. While it’s a little more costly, I recommend the Collin County Community College Spring Creek Campus prime parking. The cost is $10 but it gets you near the hill that affords the best viewing. There is an additional fee for festival entrance. Concessions are available for sale at the festival. Also, don’t forget to bring chairs or picnic blanket.

Balloon Run. If you are a runner, Plano Balloon Festival sponsors a half marathon, 5k, and family-friendly 1k race on Sunday, September 21. The races start just after the morning balloon launch. Race participants receive balloon festival tickets as well as t-shirts. Advance registration is required

Details. The Plano Balloon Festival is held at Oak Point Park (2801 E Spring Creek, Plano). For more information check out the Festival’s web site at planoballoonfest.org

Marble Falls

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Marble Falls, an often overlooked area of Texas Hill Country, offers visitors gorgeous natural scenery, unique wineries and relaxed shopping. Located just 50 miles from Austin and 200 miles from Dallas, Marble Falls is an ideal weekend getaway.

Marble Falls – a town with the wrong name. Don’t go looking for the falls. The falls disappeared in 1951 with the damming of the Colorado River and the creation of Lake Marble Falls.

And the town sits on an 866-foot granite (not marble) mountain. Marble Falls gained recognition for its Texas pink granite, some of which was used to build the Texas State Capital. Granite is still quarried just west of town.

Despite the name misnomer, Marble Falls is in one of the most picturesque areas of Texas Hill Country. The town’s Main Street houses a wonderful assortment of gift and antiques shops. La Ti Da sells items made by Texas artists and is well worth a visit. Sculptures on Main gives Marble Falls a festive atmosphere with its quirky large-scale sculptures decorating the old town area.

Pie Happy Hour. No stay in Marble Falls is complete without a visit to the famed Blue Bonnet Café. Opened in 1929, the Blue Bonnet Café boasts ‘mile-high’ meringue pie. north texas ramblings blue bonnet cafeThe no frills diner serves some of the best pie around – buy it by the slice or a whole pie to take home. Southern Living magazine recognized the Blue Bonnet Café’s German chocolate pie as one of the South’s best pies.

Take advantage of Blue Bonnet Café’s Pie Happy Hour from 3 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Along with pie, Blue Bonnet Café is a great spot for breakfast. Blue Bonnet Cafe is at 211 US Highway 281, Marble Falls.

Flat Creek Estate. Vineyards dot Texas Hill Country like spots on a leopard. Flat Creek Estate stands out from the rest by coupling good wine with incredible food. The Bistro at Flat Creek Estate uses a wood fired oven to serve delicious entrees like ribeye steaks and lime cilantro chicken – those wanting a lighter meal can choose from a selection of wood fired pizzas. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. On the first Saturday of each month, the Bistro hosts an internationally inspired, multi-course, wine-paired dinner. For weekend visitors, the Bistro serves a three-course, wine-paired lunch. The weekend our family dined at the Bistro, the lunch menu included seared scallop and radish salad to start; New England shellfish roast as entrée; and finished with wood fired Texas peaches.

And did I mention their wines? A beautifully appointed tasting room is open to sample Flat Creek Estate wines. Flat Creek Estates is located at 24912 Singleton Bend East, Marble Falls. The estate is out in the country and can be difficult to find. The winery suggests taking Highway 1431 to Singleton Bent, going about 2.5 miles and then left onto Singleton Bent East.

Waco Day Trip

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If you are looking for a local adventure, how about a Waco Day Trip?  Waco, located about 100 miles south of Dallas, has fun and unique museums to explore.  Two of my family’s favorites are the Dr. Pepper Museum and Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Museum.

Dr. Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute

“I’m a pepper. He’s a pepper…Wouldn’t you’d like to be a pepper, too?” 

North Texas Ramblings Dr Pepper Museum WacoRemember that jingle from the 1970s Dr. Pepper commercial?  That and even more Dr. Pepper advertising are displayed at Waco’s Dr. Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute.  The first two floors are devoted to Dr. Pepper, its founders, how it was made, and how it was sold.  The museum is a must for Dr. Pepper fans.

Dr. Charles Alderton created the beverage back in 1885 at a drugstore in Waco by experimenting with different fruit syrups and carbonated water.  Who knew his concoction would be around 125 years later?

Once the Artesian and Manufacturing Bottling Company, the museum is located right where Dr Pepper was bottled at the turn of the twentieth century.  A portion of the first floor recreates both Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store where Alderton served the drink.

Dr. Pepper is now marketed and sold by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, so it’s not surprising that the museum also has memorabilia from other soda brands like Orange Crush and 7 UP.

The museum’s third floor is dubbed the Free Enterprise Institute.  Aside from a few sayings by Adam Smith, visitors will not find the history of capitalism here.  Rather, the bulk of the exhibits are about W. W. “Foots” Clements.  Clements rose up through the Dr. Pepper ranks from delivery man to CEO.

Be sure to get your Dr. Pepper at the soda fountain before you leave.  Served hot (yes, hot) or cold, the drink is mixed from syrup and carbonated water, much like it would have been served by Dr. Alderton in 1885.

The Dr. Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute (300 South Fifth Street, Waco) is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 4:15 p.m.  Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for children.

Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Museum

Formed in 1823 by Stephen Austin as a defense force to protect settlers, the Texas Rangers loom larger than life in our imaginations.  The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Museum is dedicated to the finest of these lawmen.  The first Texas Rangers were farmers committed to frontier defense.  It was after the Civil War that Texas Rangers shifted to law enforcement and tracking down “bad” guys.

The Texas Rangers Hall of Fame recounts the tales of many of its most famous rangers, like Captain William McDonald whose reputation made him known as the “man who would charge hell with a bucket of water.”  The museum tells the tales of these men with factual accounts, artifacts and anecdotal tales.

It’s the tales that are the most fun, like the one about McDonald  – A frontier town hosting a prize fight sent a plea to the Rangers for help keeping the peace.  The town fathers were appalled when one single Ranger, McDonald, arrived.  McDonald is purported to have responded, “You only got one prize fight.  You only need one Ranger.”

While few in number, these western lawmen figured prominently in keeping the peace including resolving border issues with Mexico from 1870s through early 1900s, and it’s the Rangers Texas turned to hunt down bootleggers and gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s.  It was a Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer, who tracked down and shot the famed gangsters Bonnie and Clyde in 1934.

Most of the museum focuses on real Texas Rangers, but one section is dedicated to our fictional heroes.  An exhibit, complete with biography, tells the tale of the Lone Ranger who captured the imagination of many young boys from 1933 and onward.  Dozens of movies have been about the Texas Rangers not to mention several TV series like Walker Texas Ranger whose reruns entertain us today.

A 45-minute film about the Texas Rangers’ history is well worth the time, and runs throughout the day in the museum theater.

The Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Museum (100 Texas Range Trail – I-35 exit 335B, Waco) is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.  Admission is $7 for adults and $3 for children.

 

 

Waco Mammoth Site

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Visit Waco Mammoth site and travel back in time 68,000 years. It’s the Ice Age but without the ice. Instead grassy plains cover Central Texas and ice age animals like the Columbian North Texas Ramblings Waco Mammoth Sitemammoth, camel and saber-tooth cat roam the grasslands.  A nursery herd of mammoth (cows and calves) peacefully graze along a creek bed until a flash flood buries the entire herd. Fast forward to 1978 when two teenage boys, looking for arrowheads, spot a bone embedded in the dry creek bed. That’s the story behind Waco Mammoth Site. The boys’ find became the largest nursery herd of Columbian mammoth (19 mammoths and a camel) to be discovered.

Baylor University paleontologists worked the site for years, uncovering mammoth from not just one flood event but a total of three separate floods that trapped these prehistoric animals over thousands of years. In total 28 mammoth, camels and a young saber-tooth cat have been found.

In 2009, Baylor University and the City of Waco opened the Waco Mammoth Site to the public. Docent-led tours give visitors fascinating facts about Ice Age Texas and its inhabitants. You also gain insights into a paleontologists’ world. While most bones have been jacketed and transported for further study, many have been left in place.A climate-controlled building surrounds the dig site and a boardwalk pathway winds through the building allowing visitors to see mammoth bones as they were found. Tiered excavations stair step the dig site displaying finds from the three major flood events. Wall murals illustrate the Colombian mammoths’ size and appearance.

The visitors center and dig site are located within a scenic parkland along the banks of the Bosque River. The Waco Mammoth Site (6220 Steinbeck Bend Road, Waco) is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for children.

 

Interurban Railway Museum

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People know Plano Texas as the headquarters for companies like Dell Services, Cinemark, J.C. Penney, and many more. Prior to the big corporations, Plano, like many other Texas towns, depended upon the railroads and railways.

The Interurban Railway Museum located on the edge of the old Plano downtown, tells the story of Dallas’ early mass transit system. Over 100 years ago, an electric railway linked towns from Denison in the north to Waco in the south.

Electric Trains. The Interurban Railway Museum is housed in the Plano depot for the Texas Electric Railway. Not only did passengers and mail pass through the depot, it also North Texas Ramblings Interurban Railway Museumserved as a transformer station, stepping down electric voltage so that it could be used by the railway. Hands-on exhibits in the museum give visitors, young and old, a chance to learn about the mechanics behind powering an electric train. Who knew physics could be so much fun!

Post Office on Wheels. Located outside the museum, you’ll find a fully restored rail car. Many interurban railways served as rolling post offices. Look at letters before 1948, and you may find the RPO cancellation stamp. That indicates the letter was sorted and processed in a railway post office. While not unique, the Texas Electric Railway did more than just sort mail. Its cars served as fully functioning post offices. You can explore the postal section at the rear of the rail car. Forward from the mail room, you’ll find the passenger section. The railway was a product of its time with segregated seating. The white section of the car was the smoking section, and the colored section was designated non-smoking. Ironic.

Sample Plano History. The Interurban Railway Museum also tells the story of early Plano. First settled in the 1840s, the city fathers named the town, using what they thought was the Spanish word for plains. As it turns out, the city founders needed a language refresher course as Plano, in Spanish, translates to flat. Corn was the region’s primary crop until the Houston and Texas Central Railroad came to town in the 1870s. Cotton became king with the railroad providing the means to transport the crop. By the 1930s, share croppers, growing mostly cotton, operated over 70 percent of the area farmland.

End of an Era. The share croppers and the Texas Electric Railway both struggled during the Great Depression. In fact, the company went through bankruptcy and reorganization in 1935 World War II saw a resurgence in the railway, but the end of the war also heralded the end of the railway. With steel and rubber no longer needed for wartime products, people could afford to buy automobiles. The railway, offering its mass-transit product, couldn’t compete with the auto. The last run of the Texas Electric Railway was in 1948.

When You Visit. The Interurban Railway Museum (901 E. 15th Street, Plano) is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and from 1 – 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free (donations are appreciated). If you visit on the weekdays, the museum docent will likely be a member of the Plano Conservancy for Historic Preservation. Conservancy volunteers are a wealth of information not only on the Texas Electric Railway, but also the history of this corner of Texas.