Central Texas

Donovan and I have lived in the Dallas area for more than 10 years, and it’s hard to believe sometimes that we haven’t really traveled out of our “bubble.” Sure, we’ve been to the “hot spots” like Austin, Houston, Waco, and Ft Worth, but we haven’t really explored the small towns surrounding these areas.

In January 2018, we decided on a whim to drive to Waco for the Magnolia Market scratch-and-dent sale. Honestly, we had no plans other than to get to the sale as soon as it opened — we just wanted to beat the crowds. Since Waco is about 2 hours away, and the sale started at 7am, that meant we had to wake up at 4am to get on the road by 5am. I am not a morning person at all, so I’m sure you can imagine how much of a struggle that was!

We filled up our coffee cups about 4:30am and started heading south towards Waco. Little did we know that our day was about to become full of exploration!

Our first stop of the day was in West, Texas – just about 1.5 hours from Dallas. West is a small, rural town that was founded in the 1850s and has a strong German and Czech presence. If you’re driving down I-35E, you’ve probably blinked and missed it, unless you’ve heard about the baked goods. We can never drive past West and not order some kolaches from the Czech Stop! My mouth is watering as I think about it now!

We armed ourselves with more coffee and a few Kolaches and hit the road towards the Extraco Events Center. When we drove into Waco, the McLane Stadium was lit up with Baylor colors, giving the sky a really creepy, alien-like glow.

Eventually, we made it to the Extraco Events Center for the Magnolia Market sale, and let me just say that we were completely overwhelmed with the amount of items they were selling! There were rows upon rows upon rows of items marked $5, $10, $15, $20, $25, and $50+. Some things were broken or missing pieces…I mean, it was a scratch-and-dent sale…but there were a lot of things in perfect condition.

If you’ve ever been shopping with me, you know it doesn’t take long so we browsed pretty quickly, and then got in line to check out. I picked up a few candles, some Magnolia t-shirts, and kitchen towels. Thrilling, I know. Most of the larger decor items and furniture were still pretty expensive, in my opinion. Regardless, we had a fun time checking it all out. I’m pretty sure every woman left the sale with at least one strand of fake decor cotton!

Funny story: Donovan brought his GoPro into the sale to film some things for our Youtube channel, and one of the police officers came up to him and gave him a hard time about not wearing a lanyard identifying himself as the Press. After he explained what he was doing, the officer told him he couldn’t film in there anymore. Whoops!

Overall, I would definitely recommend going to the Magnolia scratch-and-dent sale if you’re ever in the area when they have one. Get there early, wear tennis shoes, and don’t bring your GoPros! If you like the type of decor Magnolia sells, then you’ll be in for a treat!

By the time we checked out, we looked down at our watch and realized it was only 8:15am. HA! What to do with ourselves for the rest of the day? We decided to drive around for a bit and see what we could stumble upon.

We did do a “drive-by” of all the Magnolia locations in town. There are so many now! Magnolia Market, the Silos, Magnolia Press, Silos Baking Company, and Magnolia Table. We have yet to eat at Table or Press, but I’ve heard great reviews. I’ve also heard to arrive early at these places otherwise be subjected to a 3+ hour wait! In previous trips, we’ve driven by the Magnolia homes that have been renovated, and gosh, they are gorgeous. Some of them do show up as AirB&Bs, so we may need to stay there sometime!

I had been to Waco several times, but had never seen the Branch Davidian compound. I had read about the Branch Davidians in college during some religion classes, but I wanted to see for myself what was out there. The location really wasn’t too far from Waco at all – may be about a 20 minute drive. If you want to check it out yourself, the address is: 1781 Double EE Ranch Road, Waco, Texas 76705. If anything, it’s at least a beautiful drive out into the country.

We pulled into the compound, and I was really interested in walking around to check it out. Donovan wasn’t. With the fog and mist, it was kind of a creepy experience, but I’d definitely go back if more people were with us.

From there, we decided to head to the Waco Mammoth National Monument. I had never heard of this monument before, but it was a “must do” activity in the Waco area. The park was quite a bit away from the Branch Davidian Complex, but still not terribly far.

We arrived at the park just as a tour was starting. The tour was only $5 per adult, so we were all in! The ranger walked us around the park and pointed out some neat landscape features. Then, he brought us into this massive building where they had uncovered mammoth fossils.

Donovan was really intrigued and asked a lot of questions. We were the youngest people on the tour by far, but it was still interesting to see. I had no idea this was so close to where we lived!

While in Waco, we also had to hit up a few of our favorite spots:

Health Camp – this place looks really shady on the outside, but I promise the food is absolutely delicious!

Junque in the Trunk – awesome antique store near Baylor campus

Shades of Shabby – another awesome antique store very close to Junque in the Trunk (I don’t think this place is open anymore)

LaSalle Shoppes – more antiques!

The Junky Monkey – more antiques!

With Waco being such a short drive from Dallas, and with the economy improvements there due to Chip & Joanna Gaines, we’ve found more and more things to explore — we’ll definitely be back!