Day 212

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Obfuscator writes: We left Dallas right away in the morning, and headed for Waco. Our first stop was the Branch Davidian Compound outside the city. There we observed the site of one of the greatest tragedies in modern America. There, amidst the ruins of the old compound, is a new church for the sect of Branch Davidians that own the land now. There's a grove of trees with one planted for each of the people who died in the compound, and several memorials, including one to the ATF agents who died, and one to the victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

We walked the ruins a bit, and figured out where the tornado shelter, buried school bus, and other structures were. It was a pretty sad site, even if the surrounding area was rather pretty, so we didn't really feel like spending too much time there.

We skipped the rest of Waco, since there didn't seem to be a lot to see or anything. We went to nearby Crawford, home of President Bush and site of Camp Casey. We didn't find Bush's ranch, though to be fair, we didn't search too hard. We did find Camp Casey, where Cindy Sheehan had stayed camped for so long, though it was pretty deserted when we arrived. There were some signs, some rubbish, and a lonely looking trailer. There was a friendly looking dog that we petted for a bit. Back in the town, we stopped at the General Store and had a burger and fries, which was pretty tasty and cheap. They also had lots of Bush merchandise.

We continued on to Austin, where we tried contacting an acquaintance of Onaxthiel's. We didn't succeed in that, but we did check out Texas' capitol, which is quite large. It's probably worth mentioning that everything about Texas is sort of larger than life. They're so caught up in the myth of Texas, that they seem to buy into it themselves. When you stand in the House or Senate, and look up, you can see the word “Texas” spelled out in lightbulbs on the chandelier. I kid you not. It's like being in a strip club. (Onaxthiel adds: Also, it has long walkways and poles everywhere. Sure, they call them pillars and columns, but we all know what they mean. I like Texas.)

The capitol dome is taller than the nation's, and everywhere you go in the building, you'll find stars, the word “Texas,” or the outline of the state. There are some cool statues and portraits of people from Texas history too, and the grounds are very nicely tended and pretty. You also find out how seriously Texas took its participation in the Confederacy by its big statue of Jefferson David on the capitol grounds.

We walked around the campus of UT-Austin for a while too, and saw the tower from which Charles Whitman gunned down so many people. The campus is rather pretty, if a bit cluttered with the usual anti-war and anti-Israel drivel. There's another statue of Jefferson David there too, which started to disconcert me somewhat.

Eventually we headed to McKinney Falls State Park, just south of town. We snatched up some wood that conveniently we didn't have to gather, since that was prohibited, and had dinner.

Our route so far

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