Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, no man hath walkt along our roads with step so active, so inquiring eye, or tongue so varied in discourse.

--- Walter Savage Landor

Wednesday we oozed on down to Belton, TX, for The Inspired Line, Selected Prints of Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn. The nice part about looking at great art in Belton, TX, is that no one down there is interested, and because no one is interested, no admission is charged and there are no lines at the front door, and there are no people getting in your way as you go right up to masterpieces and examine them closely with a magnifying glass almost as large as your steering wheel.

If you're smart, you will drive down to Belton, TX, before August 11 and see for yourself.

After that we scooted back up to Temple, TX, to check out a Czech museum, but it was being moved to another building. That was a real bummer and my travel agent will pay dearly for this lack of due diligence.

So we shook the dust off our feet and left Temple for Waco. We got into our Marriott Courtyard third-floor room overlooking the Brazos River and the first bridge ever built to cross it, the Waco Suspension Bridge. The plaque on the south end said it was—at the time it was built—the longest single span suspension bridge in the world. I have reason to doubt this, but I did take a picture of the claim just to remind Texans not to lie to a Brooklyn boy about suspension bridges.

We are very sensitive about that.

You can see the bridge on Google Earth here:  31°33′40″N 97°07′39″W.

So I and my bargain-basement travel agent got in the car and drove through the Baylor campus and over to the Armstrong Browning Library pictured below.

If you look high on the opposite wall as you walk in, you read Landor's statement. If you pass through either of the two doors through that wall you will come to The Foyer of Meditation. If you are ever in Waco, you should go to this library and get some sense of the minds, loves and worldly possessions of the Brownings. And you must go to the Foyer of Meditation. However cultic and vainglorious the name, you must see this room. I know Heaven will make that place look like a derelict outhouse, but still, until Heaven, you need to see this room. If you've ever had any noble thoughts, take them with you.

The rest of our time was spent cruising Waco for pictures of historic homes, gardens and churches. Then tragedy struck and we had to visit to the Dr. Pepper Museum.

Do not ask me why we did this. Apparently the travel agent spent a good amount of her childhood at a soda fountain with her friend, Jeanne, drinking Dr. Peppers.

You take the bad with the good.