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One of the benefits of my job is that when I’m not delivering training classes in front of my clients, I can work anywhere that I can get my laptop connected to a quality high-speed internet connection. Last week, I took advantage of that flexibility and went back to Waco to spend a little time with my mother in the evenings after work. While I had a great time visiting mom, this post is focused on all the other “extra” things I got to see and do while there.

First up, I had to get out to Texas. Waco is only about 100 miles south of DFW airport, but it seems the route from ATL to DFW had a little detour to Africa for some reason.

That glitch was there the whole flight and I was talking to some of the crew afterwards and none of them said they have ever seen anything like that before. Good news is the folks on the flight deck knew what they were doing and we got there is great time.

I like to take pictures of Airport Ceilings, but DFW is pretty lame on this theme. Fortunately, the car rental center had some eye candy!

I’m a big fan of National’s pick-any-car model for rentals and when I saw this cool Lone Star edition of a RAM pickup with a Hemi engine, I had to pick this vehicle from the lineup.

I got into Waco way past midnight, but my older sister who offered up her guest bedroom to me for the week was waiting up for me. In the morning, the truck was still looking awesome and the daylight helped remind me that I was jealous of the property sizes in her neighborhood – as well as her husband’s HUGE workshop!

A found a cool coshare office space to work for the week, www.wacowork.com, but I had to get through downtown Waco before I could arrive. Maybe you don’t know who Joanna & Chip Gaines are, but they are continuing to bring focus to Waco, Texas. To my surprise, even first thing on Monday morning the lines are already forming at the Silos!!!

I got to see a bit more of downtown, too.

I finally made it down to WacoWork and parked in the dirt parking lot and soaked in the view of the REAL downtown Waco as seen below.

I’m not picking on Waco, it simply isn’t some large metropolis like Dallas / Fort Worth to the north on I-35 or Austin and San Antonio to the south. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some unique architecture. This huge Masonic Temple was just across the street from where I parked.

Yes, I figured I’d better finally go on in to work and I received a super awesome welcome at WacoWork.

A great workspace to spread out, put your headphones on, turn up the Rage Against the Machine, and get some work done with a smile on your face.

The Dr Pepper Museum is only a few blocks away. I visited it years ago, but for this trip I settled on taking a few external photo of the home of my most favorite soda.

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Speaking of Joanna & Chip, the local news reported they purchased the Waco Castle and it is expected they will renovate it and open it back up as a B&B.

I know… that doesn’t look all that much like Texas, so these next two are to get you back in the right mood!!

I never grew up in Waco. I spent much of my youth in Ft Worth, but my family was living down in Waco when the David Koresh and the Branch Davidian raid at the Mount Carmel Center was underway. Most of us remember how that turned out. 😞 In all the years I’ve visited Waco I have never once visited the site. This trip it was made abundantly clear to me by a friend that I needed to go. Probably not know by many, but there is a practicing religious group there today and they are very open to discussing their religion and the leading up to and the aftermath of the ATF raid.

As the sign on the gate says, if it is open then come on in!!

Just inside the gates and behind the welcome sign is the memorial to those who lost their lives that fateful day back in April 19, 1993.

The names of the children who died are highlighted in white.

A short drive takes to you to the church building that has been build at the center of where the compound that was burned down used to stand.

This is the group’s actual chapel, but they have lined the walls with information about the event and staff an information booth with a knowledgeable person. I overheard the gentleman that was manning the booth say, “when I first met David…” as part of a conversation. I described the event and the gentleman and my sister stated he was the person in charge of the church before Koresh.

You can see where the current chapel is by the callout in the picture above. Today, there is not much remaining of the original compound except for the eerie swimming pool half full with rainwater.

Off in the distance you can see the homes where the current church members live as well in the picture below at the edge of the ranch where No Trespassing signs are placed.

For the most part, you just see a peaceful and beautiful piece of Central Texas which makes it hard to visualize the events that unfolded so many years ago.

In many ways, this whole experience reminds me of how grateful I am to be an American. Our Constitution heavily emphasizes separation of church and state which coupled with so many freedoms allows a group like this to just keep on being who they want to be and to practice whatever religion that choose to. Let me be clear that I am not endorsing them as I simply do not now enough of their history and beliefs, but that I am happy they have religious freedom. I also believe all groups do need to operate within the laws and to some part, norms, of the society they live in.

Speaking of these good old United States I am a proud veteran and citizen of, I have noticed a Confederate flag on the side of I-35 as you are heading southbound into Waco. This trip I decided I’d better check it out.

As before, please do not take this as an endorsement of anything in particular, but it is clearly a mark of the freedoms we have for a group to raise this. As you’ll notice it is surrounded by a tall fence and you might not see the two video cameras inside. Clearly, this is something put in place due to the vandalizations and call for many Confederate momuments to be removed that have been in the news for several years now. I personally am not suggesting we take down the moments of the past, but I am also aware of the pain many of these cause for many in the black community.

Furthermore, I call BS on most of the “Heritage, Not Hate” crowd. Yes, there are many well thought out articles out there, but while I’m not a big gambler I would sure not hesitate to wager a large sum that the majority of folks out there regularly waving their Confederate flags don’t know jack shit about the history of the Civil War. Furthermore, if they took a few minutes to truly be empathetic about how that symbol is received by so many… they might actually be ashamed for making such a big deal about it. Again, it is our history and we should NOT throw it out and forget about it. But, there is that age old adage about learning from your past mistakes so you don’t repeat them again.

I know… not everyone agrees with me… Good News – this is America and we can PEACEFULLY disagree with each other AND we actually don’t even have to hate each other; just agree to respectively disagree.

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