Waco: Bike Ride, flooding rivers and Family Dinner

We have spent 4 nights at The Homestead at 3218, a guest house near Crawford, TX. In addition to the interior rooms, there are 10 or so RV camp sites. They have a nice pool and rec room room with a large steam room. But, there is not a lot to do around Crawford, but Waco is only 20 or so miles away.

I thought it might be nice to do a bike ride along the Brazos River bike trail. Bill elected to remain at camp, and I drove to Waco, with my bike in the truck bed. I parked on the Campus of Baylor University (Go Bears!) and headed out.

I had planned to ride North, along the west bank of the Brazos River. Not 1/2 north, here is what I encountered.

I knew there were several times along the river trail that the path went under street bridges, so I decided to ride back to the Umpfrey Pedestrian Bride, which connects the main campus to the sport facilities on the East-bank and trip my luck there.

I road north on the east-bank trail, past McLain Stadium, where the Baylor Bears play, to here,

Not even a barricade! So, I sat down, checked google maps and planned a route that did not involve riding the river trail.

Originally I had planned to ride the river trail up, cut over to the Waco Lake Dam Trail and come back down the river trail on the other bank. You can see that I made a wide detour, away from the river, but made it to Waco Lake.

The nice thing, is the spillway is several feet below the trail, so no water on the trail.

Before heading back to Baylor, I spoke to a another rider and he told me there were several places that the trail was underwater, but the parallel street was clear and had marked bike lanes. So that is how I made it back to the truck, completing almost 26 miles on a sunny, warm and humid day. Did I mention humid? This desert rat is not used to that.

Last night, Bill and I drove to my Uncle Leland and Aunt Barbara’s home near Lorena, TX for dinner. We were joined by my Uncle Loren Vance and Aunt Maxine, who were spending the night there. It was nice to spend some time with my family.

Today, we leave for Oklahoma, where we are planning to spend a couple of nights at Lake Texoma, on the OK/TX borfer, before heading to Tulsa. They have already moved us due to hifh water, so we don’t know what we will find, once we are there.

Stay tuned! Well that shows my age.