I’ll be the first to admit that Waco, Texas wasn’t high on my list of places to visit in my life. It’s kind of like Norman, Oklahoma or Topeka, Kansas – you know they exist, but you likely don’t have a strong desire to see them in person (although I’ve never seen either one, so maybe I’m missing out). Aside from the sensational news events and tragedies that came out of Waco over the past decades, I really didn’t know much else about the town in the middle of Texas. And I certainly wasn’t aware of all the attention the television couple Chip and Joanna Gaines recently drew to Waco, thanks to the success of their home renovation show “Fixer Upper” and subsequent Magnolia-themed restaurants and shops.

So it’s fair to say that we probably would’ve skipped Waco in our travels if not for my aunt who just happens to live in town, giving us an excellent reason to include this stop on our journey. When we decided to start our full-time RV adventure last year, we always planned to stop in Waco at some point as we headed west for the very specific reason of visiting my aunt. We just didn’t know exactly when. As Waco grew closer in our travels, I was looking forward to a long overdue visit with my aunt while having no real expectations of the city itself.

And wouldn’t you know it – Waco became another surprise hit. From the subdued yet lively downtown scene, to the ample opportunities for outdoor activities, Waco offers a satisfying mix of small city life and simple country living. You certainly won’t find the bustling urban atmosphere of Dallas, but you can easily bike or walk around Waco’s city blocks without constantly fighting a crowd. Feel like spending the morning outdoors hiking – or even kayaking – but don’t want to travel far from town? Fear not! You could hike or bike the various trails in Cameron Park, squeeze in a round of disc golf, and then paddle the Brazos right into town to grab lunch or an afternoon drink (depending how fast you paddle).

When we had our date of arrival planned, my parents decided to fly down from Pennsylvania and join us in our exploration of the city. For a brief few days, we wandered the trails of Cameron Park, visited the farmers market, strolled the trail over the Waco Dam, sampled a couple of restaurants, and enjoyed the time together catching up over the events of the previous months. We accompanied them on the trip to Dallas to catch their flight back home, stopping in the town of West along the way for some delicious kolaches and cinnamon rolls. If you’re traveling between Waco and Dallas, add some extra time to your schedule and calories to your diet for a sampling of the baked goods at Gerik’s.

Back in Waco – if you like to start your morning with a nice cup of coffee, Dichotomy Coffee and Spirits is sure to provide whatever you might desire. We splurged on fancy coffee shop espresso while in town to fuel our explorations. As if you need an excuse to head downtown on a weekend, Waco features a robust farmers market on Saturday mornings. The Waco Downtown Farmers Market is overflowing with a wide array of locally grown or produced goods, including fresh produce, honey, meats, soap, teas, and much more – not to mention an excellent variety of food trucks and prepared food vendors. We were in town for about ten days, including two Saturdays, and attended the market both mornings. If we were locals, we’d likely be there every Saturday for vegetables and eggs, and maybe a treat or two like quesadillas with freshly made tortillas, or a hot puffle – like a waffle, but instead of little squares to hold the toppings, it’s a bunch of ball-shaped pieces you can break off individually. You’ll have to ask Ashley about the puffle – the tiny bite she reluctantly shared with me was barely enough to taste.

Two craft breweries are currently located in Waco – Bare Arms Brewing and Brotherwell Brewing. Brotherwell is fairly new and hasn’t opened a taproom yet, but their beers are available on draft at various locations around town. I sampled a couple during our explorations and would very much like to visit the brewery in the future. Bare Arms has a laid-back, no-frills taproom (and the occasional food truck in the parking lot), and was a great place to warm up after a chilly morning at the farmers market. The brewery features a variety of standard styles with a handful of more unique options thrown in for the more adventurous craft beer drinker. Definitely worth a stop if you’re looking for a locally-brewed craft beer in Waco. We also enjoyed a visit to the Dancing Bear Pub early on a Friday afternoon, which is a great small bar tucked away from the main downtown area. Reasonable prices, especially during happy hour, not to mention a freshly tapped firkin filled with Texas-brewed beer sitting on the bar. We were there to witness the tapping, and the bartender recommended taking a few steps back to avoid the splash zone. His expert tapping skills prevented any precious beer from escaping onto us or the floor. If you’re a fan of whiskey, you definitely shouldn’t miss Balcones Distilling while in town. The distillery offers tours, tastings, flights, and cocktails made with a variety of their whiskey. The tasting room is a cozy place to relax and maybe escape the tourist crowd waiting for lunch at the Magnolia Table.

If you’re looking for a good burger while in Waco, you can’t go wrong with Dubl-R Burgers or the Twisted Root. Both offer significantly different experiences, but equally delicious burgers. Twisted Root is a local chain featuring half-pound burgers with inventive toppings and the option to swap the beef burger for more exotic game, based on availability. The Waco location has an energetic warehouse vibe, with a rectangular bar in the middle surrounded by tables and booths lining the perimeter and projectors shooting images on the walls. Dubl-R is quite the opposite, offering classic burgers with the usual toppings served in a tiny restaurant with a handful of tables and a few counter seats. The Dubl-R burgers are perfect, and looking back I wish I had eaten more than one. Next time!

Waco also hosts a monthly concert series along the river in Indian Spring Park beside the historic suspension bridge. The Brazos Nights events feature live music, food trucks, and a beer stand pouring brews from Brotherwell. The events are free to enter (with the exception of the Pints in the Park craft beer festival held at Brazos Park East) and people bring lawn chairs and blankets to spend an evening by the bandstand. Our time in Waco luckily coincided with the first Brazos Nights concert of the year and we planned to attend as soon as I saw the sign at the farmers market advertising the band line-up for that evening. I certainly wasn’t going to miss a free concert with The California Honeydrops and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Even if you aren’t a fan of modern swing or instrument-driven blues and funk (but really, why wouldn’t you be!?), this was a great community event and it was awesome to see so many people gathered to enjoy the music, mild weather, and beautiful downtown setting by the Brazos River. If you happen to be in Waco on one of the Friday evenings for Brazos Nights, I highly recommend making a visit downtown for the event.

In between trips into the city, we managed to squeeze in a couple of kayak voyages on the Bosque courtesy of my aunt and some of her friends. As regular readers already know, we certainly enjoyed time on the water in the Keys, especially when kayaking – or in Ashley’s case, paddle boarding. The calm, lazy flow of the Bosque is quite different from the occasionally windy, often strong current of the salt water in the Keys. The scenery along the river is just as picturesque as the Florida mangroves, and we’re looking forward to a return trip with more paddling on the rivers around Waco (and hopefully a bit of fishing), assuming the weather cooperates.

For any RVers wishing to visit Waco, the Army Corps of Engineers offers a few campgrounds located around Lake Waco within convenient driving distance of the city. I biked around the Airport Park campground and snapped a few photos, but we didn’t park the RV there so I can’t really report on the facilities in detail. We’ve only visited a couple of COE campgrounds so far in our travels, and the Airport Park location seemed similar to what you might expect from any other COE location. Although this spot had a creepy abandoned building which isn’t a feature shared among other COE parks we’ve seen…

Another option for RVers is the city-owned and operated Tonkawa Falls RV Park located in Crawford, Texas, about half an hour outside of Waco. We didn’t visit the RV park itself, but we did make the short drive to Tonkawa Falls. This is apparently a popular swimming destination, but the weather was still a bit cool for swimming during our visit. Nevertheless, you can wander around the falls, relax by the water, and visit the public park nearby.

The recent increase in tourism to Waco has been attributed to the Magnolia properties as I mentioned earlier. We didn’t visit any of these attractions, with the exception of walking by the Markets at the Silos and taking a peek at the garden. It was certainly beautiful, with raised beds growing a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. We also gazed in wonder at the line of people on the sidewalk waiting to get into the bakery to buy cupcakes. Just because we tend to shy away from these types of tourist attractions certainly doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them. You might like to include some of these stops on your visit, I just don’t have any first-hand info to share. What Chip and Joanna Gaines have done to revitalize Waco is certainly admirable – the city is a small gem along the banks of the Brazos and far exceeded my expectations.

While we were drawn to Waco specifically to spend time with family, including the added bonus visit with my parents, we thoroughly enjoyed the area in general. With the vast array of outdoor activities available not far from and even within the city itself, Waco offers something for just about anyone. While we saw much of the city, there are obviously many more activities and locations we missed on this visit. We never made it to the infamous Melody Ranch for Friday night dancing (mostly because Ashley doesn’t dance), we went to the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University but missed the exhibit (poor timing on our part), we didn’t go to the Dr. Pepper Museum, we skipped the Mammoth National Monument this time, and with the exception of the Brazos Nights concert, we didn’t really engage in the nightlife of Waco. But we’re certain to return in the future, mainly to nurture family ties but also to revisit the vibrant small city in the heart of Texas.