waco

last monday i headed south on i-35 from colleyville towards waco, a drive i must have made dozens of times before. first off, much of texas looks like the above picture: scraggly farms and pastureland with wood and barbed wire fences. not terribly pretty, but also not without their charm. my first stop was about 9 miles to the northwest of waco at the old (or so i thought) branch dividian compound. now, this place is not very easy to find in the first place--it's one numbered county road after another, and there isn't a sign from the road. eventually, i did find it though. in case you haven't heard, here is the one thing waco, tx is most famous for in brief. in 1993, a christian sect calling themselves the branch dividians, headed by david caresh, set up a compound in the middle of texas, complete with women, children, and a whole lot of guns. in february of that year the atf went to go serve a warrant--the dividians protested, and a 50 days siege ensued, involving not only the atf but the fbi and national guard. in the end, the feds stormed the compound, killing 67 people in total. and this is what little waco is known for. today, apparently, the branch dividians still own the land, because they are building a new society on the land, calling themselves 'the branch.' there isn't much there, not that i wandered that far, considering these people's past. there is a memorial wall and monument at the front of the complex, and its pretty clear that they welcome civilians, considering the gate was open, but not feds, considering this sign next to the gate. other than that, there was a small church and a few mid-line trailer homes, and a dog that chased my car. but as i said, i really didn't spend all that much time there. for your information, they are making a movie about this particular occurrence called, you guessed it, waco, and starring adrian brody, sharon stone, and kurt russell.


from the middle of nowhere, texas, i headed back to baylor to say hi to the few people i knew would still be there--namely, the office where i worked. it was good to see them and tell them a little about the rest of my trip (i sent them a postcard from montana). i also wandered around campus a little bit, but not too much, since it was still pretty hot. the picture up above is of the main quad a baylor--that's burleson, one of the early presidents of the university, and the building behind also carries his namesake. in case you didn't know, i just graduated from baylor, which is the oldest and largest baptist university in the world. now, don't hold this against it: it really is a great university making strides in the world of academia. i certainly enjoyed my time there, and learned a lot.

after wandering around campus a little i caught up with one of my best friends, noelle. together we went to the two masonic buildings in waco: the lodge, which is actually where the masons in texas have their big meetings, and the scottish rite building. we had a hoot wandering around the small museums in both buildings, going places we probably shouldn't. of course, the fact that these were the places belonging to one of the oldest secret societies in the world only made this more fun. there were lots of gavels, aprons, and other decorative/functional? things, as well as some pretty neat history, like confederate bills with the only woman ever to be printed on american currency. (of course being confederate, do they really count as belonging to the u.s?) anyway, that's a statue outside the scottish rite building noelle is leaning against there, and the library inside the building. that evening we went to one of our standard waco restaurants, the clay pot, a great little asian place near campus. after that we picked up another friend, and went to see inception, followed by a drink about our favorite local pub, the dancing bear. it was so much fun to see some more of my friends, and to see waco one last time, even if it was as a tourist. and i learned just enough about the masons to be impressed, jealous, and creeped out, all at the same time. and of course baylor was practically founded by masons. below is a picture of one of waco's most iconic images: the suspensions bridge, which dates back to the mid 19th century. back in the day it was one of the few places to cross the brazos and made waco a hub of trading activity. ahhh, the good old days.