May 18 - Another shortcut discovery”

It was hard to keep the car on the road as it was.  Not because of weather or traffic conditions, however.  It just seemed to want to drift toward ... it just assumed we would be stopping at ... Bucees. To its credit, we were headed in the same direction we usually go when we head to Waco.  But not this time.  Not this trip.  This time would be different.  No Bucees.  And then it really wanted to pull hard toward the highway 6 exit off of 290.  Again, the road to Waco. I’m pretty sure it was very difficult for Chris not to give in to the temptation of seeing more grandkids.  But together we persevered.  This trip was ... not that.  Our ultimate goal was a wedding in Navasota, but first ... Ah, first ... we had our sights set on seeing something we had never seen before.

I must confess, this particular destination I had heard mentioned at church in someone else’s conversations.  Can’t even remember whose.  But we ended up just outside the own of Independence, Texas, several miles outside of Brenham, at the Antique Rose Emporium.  It kind of reminded us of the Wildseed Farms place near Fredericksburg, only this one boasted just about every kind of flower you can imagine, especially roses.  Hence the name.  And all of them were in bloom.  It was quite the array of lilies and roses and other bushes that I couldn’t begin to remember the names for.  They were all displayed in creative settings, too.  One of my favorites was the flower bed.  I know.  Doesn’t sound creative at all, does it?  However, it was a literal bed frame filled with flowers.  Then there was the cemetery, the place where all cracked pots went to die.  Carefully arranged to resemble gravesites, piles of broken pottery were flanked by broken shovel heads that became gravestones with epitaphs like “Cracked up” and “Rest in Pieces.”  Of course there were also pots and pots and more pots full of the plants that were for sale.  “Sadly,” we were headed to a hotel, so Chris couldn’t buy anything.  But I found the actual gift shop, and to my great surprise, there sat Sylvester.  He immediately took to me, so there was no way I could leave him behind.  Oh, he is a mischievous little scamp - a real squirrel - but he’ll be a welcome addition to our menagerie.

When we left the flower paradise we headed north toward College Station where our hotel awaited.  But suddenly Chris slammed on the breaks.  “Take a picture of that sign,” she commanded, so I dutifully obeyed.  Something about the site of Baylor University.  But wait.  How could that be?  She turned down the side road.  That’s my girl.  She’s getting the hang of the whole random shortcut thing.  Sure enough, we found the site and took a short hike around the ruins of the first men’s dorm of Waco University, the school chartered when Texas was an independent nation.  The guy the school was named after used to be buried there, but when the school moved to Waco they moved his remains to ... nope.  Not Waco.  They now reside somewhere near the University of Mary Hardin Baylor.  Ain’t history grand?  Oh, and speaking of history, as we drove through the town of Independence we discovered that the little town appeared to be a bastion of Baptist-ness.  Historical churches, museums, and general Baptist-related “stuff’ dotted the landscape.  We may have to turn that accidental discovery into a destination on one of our future Waco trips.

Well, we couldn’t stay too long hiking and looking at oak trees with monuments to long-dead Baylor professors underneath.  A wedding awaited us in Navasota, and that entailed finding our hotel and finally having some lunch.  Onward ...

Ephesians 6:10 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”

Father, thank you for the beauty of your creation.  Those flowers were amazing.  Amen.