Waco, Texas - April 7th, 2024
For the Total Solar Eclipse in 2024, we took a one week trip to Texas to view it. We were camping at Lofers Bend West Campground on Lake Whitney, near Waco. The day before the eclipse, we met up with a couple of our friends.
Our friends, Dave and Sandy, were staying at their family’s farm in McGregor, about an hour and a half from where we were staying at Whitney Lake. We decided to meet about half way, in Waco, and spend the day together.
We met in the parking lot of Northern Gateway Park, part of Cameron Park. From there, we rode our bikes to downtown Waco. Cameron Park has a maze of mountain biking trails. Sandy and Dave are experienced mountain bikers, but we are not. As we were studying the trail map, trying to find an easy route down to the trail that follows alongside the river, a local gentleman stopped and helped us out. There were two intermediate trails that would get us down to the easy River Trail. We picked the Hale Bopp Trail, knowing that we’d probably be walking our bikes through the tricky sections.
We didn’t get very far down the trail before we hit a steep, bumpy, and rocky section. Ann tried to stop and get off her e-bike, but lost her balance as she was stopping and fell down. It was a slow fall, so she didn’t get hurt, but she was extra careful the rest of the way down. We were able to ride on about half the trail, walking our bikes for the other half. When we were almost all the way down to the River Trail, Dave road back up to the top, so he could ride down the trail the whole way. Way to go, Dave!
The River Trail was still dirt, with some roots and rocks in places, but it was flat. Once we emerged from Cameron Park, the trail turned into a paved path.
Just before leaving Cameron Park, we passed the entrance to the Cameron Park Zoo. There were statues of animals outside the entrance and lining the River Walk Trail for about a mile. Some of the animal sculptures were pretty impressive.
We continued on the River Walk Trail all the way to downtown, just a few miles from Cameron Park. There is a ramp from the River Walk Trail up to the downtown area, near the Waco Suspension Bridge. However, the ramp was fenced off. We continued along the river to find another ramp. Ann didn’t feel like carrying her heavy e-bike up the stairs. The trail after the suspension bridge got a little rough, like it wasn’t completely constructed and/or it was damaged due to flooding. The next ramp was down near the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.
From there we took city streets back to downtown, to Ninfa’s Mexican Restaurant for lunch. The food was very good, but very filling. Keith got the BBQ brisket enchiladas, while Ann got the carnitas. Ann couldn’t even finish her meal, but she tried. She didn’t want the great food to go to waste.
We rolled away from the restaurant and worked our way over to the Magnolia Market. Being a Sunday, it was closed, but we at least wanted to take a peak at the Silos. To our disappointment, the whole block is locked up when they are closed. We had to be satisfied with peering through the fence.
Magnolia Market at the Silos is a two block shopping complex owned by Chip and Joanna Gaines, best known from the HGTV’s Fixer Upper TV series. The two silos that sit on the property were built in 1950. The complex includes a garden store, bakery, and lawn area along with a food truck park with picnic tables.
We made our way back to the Suspension Bridge, hoping to ride out on it, since it is now just a pedestrian bridge. However, the whole area around the bridge and the Branding the Brazos statue was fenced off. We could see that people were getting out on the bridge somehow, so we rode across the river on the Franklin Avenue bridge and approached the Suspension Bridge from the other side. The east side of the bridge was open. Yay!
When we reached the other side of the bridge, we learned why the area was fenced off. There was a Solar Eclipse celebration event starting at 4 pm. It was free admission. So why is the area fenced off? We didn’t understand that. We also didn’t plan on staying in Waco that long.
The historic Waco Suspension Bridge was built in 1870 serving the Chisholm Trail for crossing the Brazos River. At the time it was built, it was the longest, single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi.
After checking out the bridge, we stayed on the east side of the Brazos River for a while. The path on the east side was also called the River Walk Trail. At Herring Avenue, we crossed back over the river to Cameron Park. We headed up the River Trail inside Cameron Park, but this time we took a different route up to where we had parked. The Twin Bridges Trail was another intermediate mountain bike trail. But Cameron Road was a short distance from the west end of the Twin Bridges Trail, so it was pretty easy to walk our bikes up the trail to the road. Then we took Cameron Road up the rest of the hill to the parking lot. We felt a little guilty as we turned on our pedal assist and left Sandy and Dave behind. OK, we didn’t feel that guilty.
As we were approaching the parking lot, Ann initially started riding towards Dave and Sandy’s van. Then she realized that it wasn’t our van any more. They bought our VanDOit camper van (Red Tail Lodge One) from us when we purchased our EKKO (Red Tail Lodge Two). Old habits die hard.
We had a wonderful day with our friends. Our bike ride was only about ten miles in total, but we had a great, relaxing time checking out the town. We said our good-byes. Dave and Sandy are at the beginning of a long trip and we’ll be gone on our Season Six travels when they return to Colorado. See you next fall, Sandy and Dave. Happy trails and safe travels!
Check out our related video: Waco, Texas
(Ann)