Waco. 31st October 2025.
After walking past the Dr Pepper Museum yesterday we decided that we should visit it today. The fizzy drink was invented in Waco in 1885 making it the oldest of the soda drinks beating both Coca-Cola (1886) and Pepsi-Cola (1893). The museum is located in the original bottling plant and is spread over three floors. The ground floor concentrates on the history of soda water and its supposed health benefits leading to soda fountains being set up in pharmacies. Charles Alderton mixed together 23 flavours to create a unique taste and Dr Peppers was born. Interestingly the displays also noted that the first bottled fizzy water was by a Swiss bottler called Jacob Schweppe, I wonder what happened to that business. Elsewhere on the floor was an exhibition of the evolution of the different types of bottles and some of the equipment used in the bottling process.
This was particularly interesting to me as it reminded me of some of the plant used in the dairy industry.
Moving up a floor the focus was on advertising through the ages on all types of media, some of the early TV commercials were very amusing.
Another part featured the growth of the convenience store and filling stations as a popular place to buy the drink. This section also showed how segregation was prevalent even in this market sector.
The third floor showed the corporate history of the company and also an exhibition of the use of cartoon animals in advertising. The museum continued over the yard where a bottling plant was shown in operation, also here were plenty of memorabilia featuring Dr Pepper or 7-Up branding.
Finally a free drink was provided before a visit to the souvenir shop. All in all a very nice way to spend an hour or two.
A short walk away was the Spice Village a large shopping area featuring some 60 clothing and decor boutiques that we had been recommended to visit by locals yesterday. It was interesting to look around but the merchandise was probably aimed at a slightly younger audience than us.
Lunchtime was looming so we popped into a small teriyaki and sushi restaurant next door to the shopping arcade. I went for chicken teriyaki with steamed rice whilst Sylvia chose shrimp with fried rice.
Again very nice food bu the portions were huge.
After lunch I made my way to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and museum as Sylvia returned to the hotel. This museum is located about a mile away along a walk by the river opposite the university’s McLane stadium.
The museum told the history of the Rangers from their early days as a militia protecting the early settlers from Mexicans and Native Indians through to the modern times of law enforcement.
Various exhibits showed memorabilia of the times and there were lots of guns on show, pistols, revolvers, rifles and machine guns. In fact every type of gun you could think of.
In the final room, after passing lots of Texas Rangers I had never heard of, ……
came a tribute to the most famous, John Reid, better known as the Lone Ranger.
There were details of how he originated in radio broadcasts and plenty of merchandise associated with the TV series which I grew up with.
A very interesting museum well worth the long walk there and back.
Tomorrow the last long drive back to Austin.