Texas Bucket List

Texas Bucket List

Simmons Bank

The Texas Bucket List – Monahans Sandhills State Park in Monahans

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Monahans  -West Texas has always been known for being a bit dry, but there’s one sandy spot that seriously seems out of place, even for these parts, the Monahans Sandhills State Park. Park Superintendent Michael Smith understands what it takes to work here.

“My house is covered in sand,” Michael said. “So it’s always sand in everything. Sweep the bed out in the evenings so you can go to bed, ’cause it’s full of sand. To be honest when I drew Monahan Sandhills State Park, I had never seen past the office up there. I was pleasantly surprised, it is a beautiful and unique park. It’s the only place in Texas where this particular type of ecosystem is preserved. And so I’ve been pleasantly surprised ever since.”

This place is literally like a Texas-sized sandbox that provides all sorts of recreation, but playing in it is most popular.

“This is where most families come to play, to dune, what they call duneing, or sliding down the dunes on anything they think might slide,” Michael said. “Children of all ages. There actually used to be a gentleman that lived in Odessa, that came out here regularly, way up into his 70’s, was coming out here and surfing the sand dunes pretty regularly.”

Watching these 60-70 lbs. kids have a hard time going down the hill makes one think what it would be like for grown men to go down.

“I’ve gone down on discs and on boards,” Michael said.“Have not tried the toboggans yet. A long disc.”.

A park since 1957, the sand dunes have been sitting here for very long time.

“So the theory goes that this sand was underneath the last ice age, located in the northern New Mexico, Colorado area, and it was ground under the weight of the ice until it’s much smaller and much closer to perfectly round than most sand is,” Michael said. “And so when the ice melted away, the wind and water was able to blow it this direction, wash it and blow it this direction, until it blew it down into the Permian Basin. So now we’re in a big bowl, and the wind and water can’t have the same effect on it that it had before up on the top. And so it stays down in here, now it blows around a little bit, but doesn’t blow out, and so it moves enough that the vegetation has a very difficult time encroaching on the sand, because it’s moving.”

This sand isn’t your average sand.

“This is the only place in all of Texas where this resource is protected,” Michael said. “So you can go to the beach, you can have your water, but this sand is very unique, it’s different material. It’s quartz, about 97% quartz. It’s almost perfectly round, it’s smaller, and is the only place in all of Texas where this resource is protected. So if you wanna see this type of resource, this is the place to do it. Up is hard, so because of its physical characteristics, the same thing that prevents plants from growing on it, makes it move around quite a bit easier than most other sand. It blows in the wind more, makes it harder to walk on. So I tell people, ‘Down is the easy part. Then you gotta go back up.’”

When you get it in your hands, it just doesn’t feel like going down to the beach.

“That is true,” Michael said. “When visitors are talking to us, one of the most common comments is how good it feels on their feet. Most visitors choose to go barefoot. It’s like getting a pedicure from God. It’s amazing to walk, it feels good on your feet. I’ve never made a reference like that before, that was a first.”

If you want to get the special foot treatment and maybe attempt to sled, summer is usually not the best time.

“When it’s very, very hot, it doesn’t slide as well,” Michael said. “So not only is it just a really, really hot place to be the sun reflects off the sand as well as the direct sunlight, it’s very, very hot in the middle of the summer. Best time to come is gonna be spring or fall. Easter is actually our single busiest day of the year.”

The Monahans Sandhills State park is a great place to see and experience a very unique part of Texas, making it a great stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“…you’re guaranteed to get sand in your stuff,” Michael said.

The Texas Bucket List – Far Flung Outdoor Center in Terlingua

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Terlingua – The majesty and beauty of Big Bend is truly hard to behold. Covering over 800,000 acres and an elevation of over 6,000 feet, the features of this fine place are far and wide.  Hiking is how most folks see the sights in the national park, so if you want a bit more adventure you’ll have to head a wee bit west in Terlingua to take a ride at Far Flung Outdoor Center.

“Well the people ask my why we moved out here,” Greg Henington said. “It’s like well the car broke down, we’re still waiting for parts to get delivered.”

Greg Henington and Mark Evans got this business venture dedicated to adventure started back in the mid 70’s.

“Well, we knew folks wanted to see the Big Bend and we wanted to provide a way to do that,” Greg said.

They did just that…with four wheelers.

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve enjoyed sitting on mechanical machine and riding it out to some country that’s pretty spectacular,” Greg said.

We suited up to the sights with our tour guy Randy Carnes.

“I first came here in 1972 and fell in love it,” Randy said.

Randy took us to the hot spots accessible by ATV in the area, and if you’ve never ridden around one a 4 wheeler before, it is awesome.

“We require our guides to have a real good knowledge of the area,” Greg said. “It’s not just a ride around on the ATV. It’s all about sort of teaching folks about, this is our backyard, so we want people to respect our backyard and understand it and learn a little bit about it and have some fun in it.”

Our next stop, Indian Head mountain.

“Between 20 and 40 million years ago this whole region became volcanic,” Randy said. “Some of these mountains were actual volcanoes, other were volcanic intrusions. As this magma came to the surface it cooled into rocks and it’s very unstable.”

If you’re up for a ride through the scenery of West Texas that provides a good look at the beauty of the Big Bend, finding your way to Far Flung in Terlingua is a fine stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“It looks sort of like a barren, nothing’s out here, you know, wasteland,” Greg said. “Well, when you really start getting into the backcountry and look around, there’s just some amazing plants and geology, animals, insects, all kinds of things. I think people are sort of like surprised sometimes that there’s this much beauty out here when you start really looking. Right up there with the Alamo in my opinion. It’s one of our big treasures here in Texas.”

The Texas Bucket List – Veldhuizen Cheese Farm in Dublin

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Dublin – The cattle industry in the Lone Star State is big business.  From the plains to the valley, we’ve seen all sorts of livestock is all sorts of settings and when we pulled into the Veldhuizen Farm in Dublin, it’s safe to say we found some of the happiest cows we have ever come across. Stuart Veldhuizen takes good care of his cattle because they provide him and his family with lots of cheese.

“We really disturb them very little,” Stuart said. “The only time we really mess with them is milking, which is twice a day, so we really don’t mess with them a lot, they’re just curious as ever it’s like, what are you doing out here today? And so they just come up.”

Stuart isn’t exactly from around here.

“I say I got delivered out in Minnesota, brought to Texas, it’s where I’m supposed to be,” Stuart said.

His journey to the Lone Star State started in the early 90’s when the former diary farmer’s father found a magazine article about making milk in the most beautiful place in the whole world.

“My dad actually read an article about a Texas dairy and he showed me pictures and there was cows on green grass in December,” Stuart said. “And when you live in that world you think, how can that be? A dairy where there’s green grass in December?”

Their venture only lasted until 1996 when Stuart decided that making milk wasn’t for him, but after working off the farm for a few years he started to yearn for another adventure in agriculture. This time, he wanted to be the big cheese.

“Doing some research and found that raw milk cheeses looked like the up and coming thing, ended up deciding to do it,” Stuart said.

With the help of his wife, Connie, his daughters, Chelsea and Rachel, and Stuart’s dad, Veldhuizen cheese got off the ground.  To make the artisan cheese different from the rest, his daughter Chelsea had the bright idea of adding sheep to the mix.

“This is the only dairy in Texas that has sheep,” Stuart said. “I’m sure there’s a little bit around, more in Europe where there’s maybe some blends. There’s maybe a little in the U.S. but nothing in Texas.”

Stuart and four generations of his family got to milking and making all sorts of raw milk cheese.

“It’s just a beautiful … flavors of the cow side, and amazing flavors of the sheep side,” Stuart said.

One of the biggest differences with this cheese is the fact it’s raw milk which means it’s not processed.  In other words, you won’t find any yellow cheese here.

“Raw cheese means that it never gets warmer than the temperature of the cow during the whole cheese making process,” Stuart said. “So with most cheese that people are used to, they first pasteurize the milk at 181 degrees for 30 seconds, cool it back down to 89 to 90 degrees, do the cheese making process. What we do is we start with our milk at 89 degrees with our cheese making and it’ll only get up to 100 to 102. We never get it above that mark, so it’s raw milk cheese. So we don’t change the structure of the cheese, we keep all this natural flora that’s in our milk that gets passed on into the cheese. And so this’ll be run through the Cheddar mill and we will add salt to it and some beer today and we’ll mix all this in and then we’ll be running it or putting it into the molds.”

The cheese is aged in rooms that would surely be on any rodent’s bucket list. With 20 varieties on hand, you’ll find all kinds of queso.

“We make sheep Gouda and then we thought well, let’s marry the two and so now we have a blend, which is gorgeous,” Stuart said. “Now you’re just making everything Gouda. “Yeah. That’s a cheese joke, everything Gouda.”

Connie gave us a crash course on this culinary delight.

“We’re gonna go over here next to our sheep cheese, this is called Wooly Texas,” Connie said. “This is all sheep. We have a couple of all sheep cheeses, and a couple that are cow and sheep blend. So it’s gonna have a little bit different flavor to it, ’cause it’s a different type of milk. It’s really not saltier, it’s just how it hits your pallet. What happens is that cheese ages, they’re all aged at different amounts of time, flavors will concentrate, so you’ll taste them more but actually, so it doesn’t actually have more salt.”

It’s all comes down to happy cows and sheep making the most of their milk. With cheese this good, the Veldhuizen farm in Dublin is a can’t miss stop on the Texas Bucket List.

“I really feel that I’m really living more than the American Dream, because I get to have all these people at home at a place where we work and live life, it’s beautiful,” Stuart said.

The Texas Bucket – Cattleman’s Steakhouse in Fabens

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Fabens – Way out the outskirts of the West Texas town of El Paso is a desolate destination known as Fabens. There’s not a whole lot to find in Fabens, but a unique canyon facade known as Indian Cliffs has made this place a destination. That, and the massive restaurant on a hill called Cattleman’s Steakhouse.

“We’ve got some of the best beef in the world, and it’s just a great Texan experience,” Marc Gerzymisch said.

Marc runs the restaurant that was started by his father, Dieter, in the mid 70’s.  This one of a kind food find was an afterthought to the family’s original business venture back then: Horse-riding through the west Texas desert. Dieter is originally from Germany, and he moved the German Air Force School and it’s soldiers to Fort Bliss back in 1966. From then on, Deutschland was a distant memory. Dieter established the Indian Cliffs Ranch, a 57-square mile piece of property, all those years ago. A young man from Mexico named Joe R. Vega used to paint around the place until he got a shot at taking the horses for a ride.

“Anybody who wants to come and help us on the weekend, because this guy didn’t show up, and I loved horses from day one, and I said … I raised my hand right away, said, ‘Hey, me,’” Joe said.

Joe went from helping out to being the ranch foreman, and he’s be working here since 1972.

“I think we have the best steaks in the country,” Benjamin Sanchez said.

Benjamin has been here a long time too.  Since 1986, he’s been keep up with the cooks at Cattleman’s.

“These guys take pride in their work, and they’re proud to be a part of it,” Marc said. “They’re the guys who built this. These guys just don’t have quit in their vocabulary. They work hard. They do an amazing job, and we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them, so these guys, they’re like family. They’re like my uncles.”

While these massive steaks bring in beef eating Texans, there is another attraction here that’s almost as popular: A zoo.

“We’ve got an ostrich, buffalo, cattle, longhorn, horses, goats, sheep, rams, and a rattlesnake pit,” Marc said. “It is lovely.”

If all that’s not enough to bring you out here, there is the movie history that’s a part of this place.  Turns out, there have been several Hollywood movies filmed here including the incredible Lone Wolf McQuade starring the one and only Chuck Norris.  Joe got to be in that movie!

“I was riding this horse,” Joe said. “It was kind of not quite broken, and I ran into the camera guy.”

Well, let’s get to the steak because that’s a really big thing here.

“We age everything on premises, “ Benjamin said. “We buy directly from the packer. They pick out the size and the specs that we want, and we test every week, constantly testing, and we’ve been doing this for a long time. So, I think we got this down pretty good.”

Benjamin got things started on some blissful beef.

“This is our rib eye,” Benjamin said. “As you can see, it’s got the marbling in the middle. That’s what distinguishes it from a rib eye. It’s a nice thick cut, maybe about an inch-and-a-quarter to an inch-and-a-half. We’re gonna go ahead and season that. We’ll season it pretty vigorously on both sides.”

This seasoning is one of their trade secrets.

“We have 150 employees here, of which maybe three or four are the only ones that know this recipe,” Benjamin said.

While our steak sizzled, I couldn’t help but notice how well seasoned the staff was.

“These cooks have been here 10, 15 years,” Benjamin said. “For me to get a cook trained, it will take me about two years for him just to become average, not good, but average. So, we take good care of them because it would be hard to replace one if we lose one.”

After a few minutes, a few flips, and a few licking lips it was almost time.

“You can’t rush it,” Benjamin said. “You’ll just ruin it. So, you just gotta let the grill do what it’s gonna do.”

If you’re going to do something, do it well. That’s exactly what they do out here at the Cattleman’s since the 1970s, and it is well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List.

“You get the full cowboy experience out here, and great steak to go with it,” Marc said.

The Texas Bucket List – Basecamp Terlingua in Terlingua

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Terlingua – The Big Bend is one of the most remote and remarkable regions of the Lone Star State.  Natural, God-given beauty surrounds this desolate destination that draws in people from all over the globe.  When you arrive to this part of the world, it’s good to set up a basecamp and a good place to do that……Basecamp Terlingua.

“Not your average tee pee, and a pretty cool place to hang out, I think” Tony Drewry said.

Tony Drewry is in charge of this 40 acre refuge with all sorts of strange structures. He is the gatekeeper to one of the most picturesque places to stay in these parts.

“This is a lot more work than it probably looks like,” Tony said. “You know, here we are, sitting in the desert by tee pees drinking beer.”

A slower pace of life is what they live by here because there’s really no need to rush.  Enjoying your surroundings and solitude is the main reason to trek to Terlingua. At Basecamp, the accommodations seem native and rustic, but they’re really nice.

“Everything you need,” Tony said. “A king size bed, we’ve got some really heavy comforters for the winter months, we’ve got an electric blanket, we’ve got some supplemental heat. This skirt around the side actually keeps the dust from blowing in and things like that, because it is raised up at the bottom. Then this is also pulls out into a queen size bed, so you can sleep four in here. We get a lot of families that come through. Got a little nook for the books, got a coffee station, fridge. I mean, running water.”

Now if this view still isn’t up close and in your face enough, Basecamp has another option that’ll make you feel like you’re living in a bubble.

“I don’t know, bubble rooms, bubble house,” Tony said. “I don’t know what you want to call it.”

These unique bubble rooms are the only ones of their kind in the country, and they couldn’t be in a better setting.

“Pretty cool to be able to do a tour from the outside in,” Tony said. “Yeah, and it’s marine grade plastic. I mean, it’s tough. You can kind of punch on it.”

Made in France, Basecamp has two of the structures for rent that give you an eye-opening way to experience the outdoors.

“You lay there, you look at the stars, you watch the sunrise right over the mountains,” Tony said. “That’s the Chisos, you know, over in Big Bend National Park, and you can see it. Watch the sunrise in the morning. Man, it’s … You don’t even have to get out of bed. It’s pretty cool.”

Getting into the air bubble is sort of like getting into a spaceship.

“Step in here,” Tony said. “This is the airlock. We’ve got a little mini fridge, got some local books.”

Just like any other hotel room, you’ll find it all here.  

“Then we’ve got a full bathroom in here,” Tony said. “A toilet, a shower, and the sink. I’ve taken a shower in here. It’s actually quite an experience. You got a nice little skylight there. Kind of your own little slice of the mountains there, and a really great place to wake up.”

As the sun sets on Terlingua and the night sky takes over the majestic beauty of the Chisos mountains, Basecamp lights up. However, it only lights up enough to see where you’re staying because the stars are the stars here.

“I’ve had a lot of friends come out here and stargazing, you know, hanging out for the weekend, and he’s like, ‘Man, it sure is cloudy tonight,’” Tony said. “And I’m like, ‘No, that’s the Milky Way, man.’”

A stay at Basecamp Terlingua is well worth getting a good night sleep on The Texas Bucket List.

“I mean, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” Tony said. “I really … It’s almost … You know, you wake up every day and you’re just like, ‘Man, we’re so lucky.’”

The Texas Bucket List – Galleywinter Gallery in Fort Worth

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Fort Worth – On the southwest side of Fort Worth just a few miles from the famous stockyards, you’ll find an gallery dedicated to the incredibly diverse world of art. These pretty paintings and stunning sculptures are part of the story to a particular Texas musician who simply produces pieces that come to him wave on wave. For nearly three decades, Pat Green’s music has been a part of Texas culture. Now, he’s expanding his signature to include a few works of art that have to be enjoyed with the eyes rather than the ears.

“It’s my passion and it’s also just the way I release everything that’s crazy inside of me,” Pat Green said. “Much safer. Better on my liver.”

Pat Green is used to painting the town from the comfort of the concert stage, but when he’s not playing on the stage he likes to get creative on the canvas.

“I get to spend my whole day here, every day making stuff up, and then on weekends I go to work,” Pat said. “This is a guitar that is cut aluminum as well that I painted with resin over the aluminum and then set it in a white aluminum to kind of give it a contrast, but you can really see the cubism side of it.”

Pat named his showroom Galleywinter Gallery after the ranch he grew up on near Waco, as well as one of his most popular songs.

”I think, in a way, Galleywinter is a fictional place,” Pat said. “It’s a … Galleywinter is a … My brother said that’s where … He was on a back of an Easy Rider rocking horse and my mom asked him where he was going, and he said, ‘I’m going to Galleywinter.’ So the name stuck.”

Alongside artists Ginger Walker and Cheryl Hodge, Pat surrounds himself with the best of the best when it comes to whatever craft he’s working on.

“I’m outmatched by these people,” Pat said. “They’re much better artists than I am. If you play golf with better golfers than you, you become better. That’s really kind of what I look around and say, okay, I’m in with some good guys and I’ll figure this out. I really enjoy it. I mean, it’s a challenge like anything else in this world, but when I started playing guitar, I wasn’t dreaming of singing at the coffee shop, you know. I was dreaming of playing in the stadium. Houston Astrodome. That’s where I was in my heart, and that’s where I am with art. I’m not going to say I’ll ever be Picasso or anything like that, but I mean, my dreams aren’t anything short of that.”

The medium that resonates most with the singer songwriter: Sculpting.


 “Where I fell in love with art was when I started into sculpture and started creating things that were three dimensional that you could put your hands on,” Pat said.

Matisse once said that “creativity takes courage.” Pat has got the creativity part down, well, pat.  So much so that even his commissioned pieces are no problem.

“I’m kind of used to that kind of pressure. I’ve been … you know, I’ve been on a stage, I’ve been in front of people, I handle expectation pretty well,” Pat said.

Pat doesn’t have to ponder when it comes to his passions.  His heart is wholly into his work whether it’s on stage or in the studio, making a visit to his gallery well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List.

“If you want to see me, you know, really enjoy this part of my life and work hard and smile on my face, and usually the music’s blaring and the … you know, there’s always free drinks for anybody that wants to come by,” Pat said. “You know, that’s the same thing I say about my music. The more you drink, the better we sound. Well, a couple beers, my art looks pretty good too.”

The Texas Bucket List – Washington’s Birthday Celebration in Laredo

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Laredo – Festive, fun, and full of life.  Celebrating is easy to come by in Laredo, Texas. From January to February, Laredo throws a bash fit for a king, though fortunately he rejected the offer. George Washington was the first President of the United States and down in the border town the George Washington Birthday Celebration is a fitting party for a politician that never affiliated with one.

“We know how to have a really good time,” Veronica Castillon, Lifetime Director of Washington’s Birthday Celebration, said. “We have a great time, but tomorrow morning we gotta get up and do it again, so space yourself, space some energy.”

Veronica plays a huge role in this presidential party that’s been a part of Laredo since 1898.  

“Here in Laredo we’re very good about celebrating El Cinco de Mayo and Diez y Seis de Septiembre,” Veronica said. “We do that very well, so now let’s do something that’s American. Why not George Washington’s birthday?”

The celebration started back in February of 1898 when a fraternal organization called the Improved Order of the Red Men captured city hall in a mock battle. The key to the city was presented to the chief of the tribe, who handed it to Princess Pocahontas.  It’s been said that the Sons of Liberty of the American Revolution held the same sort of ritual, and George Washington posed as the Chief. For some reason, this really resonated with Laredo in the 1800’s, and over 100 years later the party has grown.

“We have the nation’s largest and longest celebration of George Washington,” Veronica said. “Freedom and democracy. We celebrate everything he stood for.”

The majority of the celebration takes place in February.  Parties, parades, pageants and plenty of particulars go into this massive celebration put on by the Washington’s Birthday Celebration Association, which offices out of a building built to look like Mount Vernon.

“We’ve got to celebrate something in Laredo that’s truly American,” Veronica said. “If you look inside my closet right now, it looks like Uncle Sam threw up. Everything is red, white, and blue.”

The Martha Washington Pageant is a popular part of celebration as young girls from all over the state showcase fashion that is no longer in style but still incredible to see.

“The dresses, those are works of art,” Veronica said. “You know, if it’s velvet and it’s beaded, if those dresses, and the petticoat. Those things weigh anywhere from 50 to 65 pounds. So you have to learn how to walk and move in it. The first time I put my dress on I go, oh how pretty. And then I tried to move forward, and I couldn’t.”

On the final Saturday of the month, hundreds gather on the square in Laredo and march towards Mexico because a celebration of this size just isn’t the same unless you invite your neighbors. The international bridge is closed off to traffic and grandiose displays of patriotism from both sides of the border can be seen. Slowly, delegations from Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo in Mexico make their way to the middle of the bridge. After all the spectacles have subsided, four children emerge.  A boy and girl from Mexico and another pair from the U.S.A. meet in the middle. The future of the two countries aren’t here to debate or to get a look at what life is like on the other side of the border, they’re here to hug.

“To me the bridge ceremony is the heart of our celebration,” Veronica said. “It’s just the way of us every year, announcing to the world, or demonstrating to the world, our friendship. The river that runs through here, it’s not a divider, it’s actually a connector. We drink the same water, we ride the same bridges on a daily basis.”

The children make way for adults, city, state, and even national leaders to exchange flags and do something this world so desperately needs: Take a moment to show a little love for one another.

“We have so much in common with our friends and families in Nuevo Laredo,” Veronica said. “We’re human, we all bleed the same, I like to say. We like to party together. And we like to build relationships. We like to build strong, safe communities for our children and grandchildren.”

The George Washington Birthday Celebration in Laredo is one of kind. It’s a border town with a big place in its’ heart for a man who never even knew what the state of Texas would become.  Somehow, he still brings people together, and being a part of this month long celebration truly is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“I really don’t believe that we’re the only community that has a sister city that maintains a long lasting ties that go back hundreds of years,” Veronica said. “But, we’re probably the only one that demonstrates it so festively as we do here in Laredo during Washington’s birthday.”

The Texas Bucket List – Fort Chadbourne in Coke County

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Coke County-This week, we take you to a fort in Coke County, Texas that is filled to the brim with artifacts from another time.  It’s the grounds of this old fort and a man’s passion for telling this story that makes Fort Chadbourne well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

We’re in Coke County at Fort Chadbourne.

“If you’re transferred to Fort Chadbourne in 1852 as a soldier, you’re sitting in the middle of Comanche territory,” Garland Richards said.

Garland knows this old post inside and out because he’s been exploring it since he was boy.

“I assumed that everyone had a fort in their backyard,” Garland said. “Seriously, I did not know any different.No one has enjoyed Fort Chadbourne more than me.”

Garland’s great-great-great grandfather Thomas Odem established a 150,000-acre ranch here in 1876.

“It stretched from Fort Chadbourne almost to San Angelo, encompassed a portion of Ballinger,”  Garland Richards said. “Got to realize that in 1876, there were no fences and it was all open range and this is where he chose to bring his family and raise 13 kids and utilize as the ranching headquarters for his cattle operation.”

Passed down through eight generations, Garland is now the caretaker of his own parcel that happens to feature this old fortification. A few years ago, he couldn’t bare to watch it continue to fade from memory.  He decided to rebuild and reinforce Fort Chadbourne.

“This is not the brightest thing that I’ve ever done financially,” Garland said.

In 1999, he founded the Fort Chadbourne foundation and funded this entire project privately.

“They told us that you can’t raise the funds needed to complete this project without governmental funding and we did it,” Garland said.

Each building on the property was painstakingly brought back to life.

“This is the ranch headquarters building,” Garland said. “This was a double officer’s quarters. This is where my great-great-great-grandfather comes in and he chooses these two structures that are joined together and he raises 13 kids. The archaeological excavation of this building told us how it was actually constructed. That’s the way we did it. Tried to keep everything as authentic as we could keep it. I’ve been working on this for about 20 years.”

During the renovations, artifacts were constantly being found. Even today, you can find things laying around all over the fort among the red velvet mites.

Now, we’re in the Butterfield Stage Stop,” Garland said. “You’ve got pieces of hinges, you’ve got the … this is a green beer bottle. You’ve got square nails. You are literally picking up artifacts off the ground. You’ve got a piece of glass, there’s the maker. You could actually find the … There’s a BDK on the bottom of it, you could actually find who made that bottle and when. That’s all you need is three letters to figure out that all that history.”

All the military and personal items Garland and his team have found can be see just a few feet from where they originated in the Fort Chadbourne visitors center.  

“There are about a million artifacts that have come from Fort Chadbourne,” Garland said. “This is one of the most historically significant, pristine, unmolested sites of any of the frontier forts in the United States.“

Since the fort has been privately owned all these years, Garland has been able to painstakingly catalog and display everything they’ve come across. I do mean everything.

“ A lot of the artifacts from Fort Chadbourne are located in some of the drawers,” Garland said. “All of these drawers are filled with artifacts. Anything from cannonballs to musket balls to surgical instruments. These came out of the cannonball shrapnel field. This is where they actually blew up. Anything from shotgun shells, to gun parts, to coffee grinders.”

Perusing the preposterous amount of pieces that were actually found on the property is impressive.

“Anything that was dropped from 1852 to 1876 there’s one of in here,” Garland said.

Coins, wedding rings, glasses and all sorts of military memorabilia have been found here.

“The buttons that you see in this case, you’ve got artillery, you’ve got the dragoons, you’ve got the cavalry, you’ve got mounted riflemen, infantry,” Garland said. “There’s Texas Military buttons. All found here. It’s part of the history of Fort Chadbourne.”

Every little thing here helps tell the story of Fort Chadbourne. With the abundance of artifacts, it’s a Texas-sized story.

“You’ll go out there and you’ll find other little pieces to the puzzle and when you put enough pieces to the puzzle back together, all of a sudden you can see the whole picture,” Garland said.

During it’s time as a fort, 27 soldiers lost their lives here. Six of them were awarded the Medal of Honor.  As a tribute, you’ll find all 3,500 recipients of that honor listed among a collection of actual Medals of Honor.

“These are the current Medals of Honor,” Garland said. “This is one of the early Civil War Medals of Honor. The rarest one in here is the Tiffany Cross. To be able to walk in and see all of these all in one place is pretty incredible.”

Seeing this incredible collection, hearing the stories, and exploring the fort is truly a treat for any Texan. As an added bonus, Garland brought out the big guns: A replica mountain howitzer cannon.

If you’re looking to dive deep into some valuable Texas History, Fort Chadbourne is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do at Fort Chadbourne,” Garland said. “I’ll die long before I ever get my job done. Somebody else will come in and take it over.”  

The Texas Bucket List – P-6 Farms in Montgomery

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Montgomery – Fall is always a fun time in Texas. As the temperature around Texas starts to dial back a bit, you’ll also find a few cornfields built for brave souls who don’t mind getting lost for a little while.

We decided to test our sense of direction down in Montgomery at P-6 Farms.

“It’s so cool, isn’t it?” Carey Poole said.

Carey Poole is the leading lady at P-6 Farms which is a far cry from her uprising in an urban setting.

“I’m a city girl,” Carey said. “I’m from Austin. Never in a million years would I have thought this was my job.”

She started this harvest festival with her husband Bo after he had one heck of an idea.  

“My husband is an old soul at heart,” Carey said. “Anything that brings back the past, that’s what he loves to do.”

Tired of tirelessly working on the road with construction and storm cleanup, Bo wanted to make the family farm a tourist attraction tied to agriculture.  So, in 2011 P-6 Farms formally let people flood their fields.

“It just seemed like it was the right thing for our family to do, bring him home and be all together as a network,” Carey said. “His mom works out in the grill. My mom works in the pumpkin patch. My dad works at the front gate. If it weren’t for our kids and our family, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

Over the course of eight weekends in the fall, thousands make their way to Montgomery to pick the perfect pumpkin, cozy up to cotton and let the kids blow off some steam.

“I love it,” Carey said.  “There’s nothing better than the giggles of kids. They come in clean as a whistle, smiling, happy, ready to have a grand time. They leave filthy dirty, crying because they don’t wanna leave. So, I know I’m doing my job.”

The biggest attraction at P-6 is an eight acre corn field that happens to be one big maze.

“Is it not crazy?” Carey said.

This laid out labyrinth isn’t just random rows and routes. There’s a method to the maze madness.  To get a good idea about what you’re dealing with, it’s better to have a sky-high view. It takes about a year to plan out what particular pattern the corn maze will have.  With a World Championship still fresh on the minds of fans, a huge field dedicated to the Houston Astros has been a home-run, except for the folks who can’t find their way out.

“All the time they get lost,” Carey said. “But, that’s why we have a 30-foot tower. So they can look up, signal how do I get out. They tell them right, left, straight, go this way, go that way, and it’s all in good fun.”

Getting caught up in this corn maze is only a small part of what Carey hopes families carry out of this experience.  

“They need to spend quality time outdoors,” Carey said. “They need to de-escalate and enjoy themselves.”

It’s also a learning experience for kids who might not get a chance to go to the farm frequently.

“It’s nice for the kids to know where the food comes from,” Carey said. “Majority of them have no idea where their food comes from. It comes from the grocery store. So, it’s nice to educate them about the importance of farmers.”

Eventually the field will be plowed, and the corn turned into feed, but for a few weeks in the fall you can get lost on a little piece of property known as P-6 Farms. Make sure to check out this fleeting fall experience that is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“We’re already planning for next year,” Carey said. “You plan before your current season is up.”

The Texas Bucket List- Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock

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Lubbock- When it comes to wine, it’s safe to say that Texans like to toast to the good life.  Wine is a 13 billion dollar per year industry in our state, so it’s easy to see why there are wine trails all over. Each winery has its own story to tell. So far, we’ve checked off the oldest winery in Texas, the Val Verde Winery in Del Rio, as well as the family-owned and operated Messina Hof in beautiful Bryan/College Station.  This week, we decided to head north to the Texas high plains to visit a winery that got a scholarly start.

We’re at the Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock, Texas.

“So we’re the second oldest winery, now, in the state of Texas,” Mike Laughlin said.

Mike  gave us the basics of this vested vino, but first he wanted to make sure we said Llano right.

“We go by the Spanish ‘Y’, So Llano Estacado,” Mike said. “Sounds a little more romantic, I guess. Although, I’m not a big, beefy Spanish guy.”

Don’t confuse Llano with Llano, or you’ll have made one heck of a detour!

“We get calls all the time,” Mike said. “‘Hey, I’m near the courthouse in Llano. Can we … Where are you guys at?’ I’m like, ‘Six hours north. Missed us by a little bit.’”

According to Mike, Llano Estacado means “palisaded plains”.

“The kind of fantastical story is Coronado was exploring this region of the country,” Mike said. “In order to identify landmarks, because you have to imagine back then there’s absolutely nothing out here to tell where any water sources are, so he used to drive iron stakes into the planes. So that’s kind of like the mythical story, is that staked plains became Llano Estacado. “

This story starts back at Tech when two professors decided to start growing grapes in an area typically known for cotton.

“The first experimentation, Dr. Robert Reed, a horticulture professor, and Dr. Clinton ‘Doc’ McPherson, a chemistry professor, both at Texas Tech University, they started experimenting with grapes and growing and producing wine in the late 60’s,” Mike said. “The two of them started making wine in the basement of the chemistry building of Texas Tech.”

Considering Lubbock was a dry county all the way till 2009, it’s easy to see why some experimental elixirs were being concocted.

“In the early 70’s, they actually started to have some push from some local business leaders to take this commercial,” Mike said. “The actual winery opened its’ doors in 1976.”

The amount of wine made a Llano Estacado is staggering, around six to seven million bottles a year are made. You need a lot of grapes to accomplish a demand of that size, and with the research Dr. Reed and Dr. McPherson accomplished in their school cellar, it literally took Texas wine to another level.

“In addition to being the second oldest, the first founded after prohibition ended, we’re also the largest premium winery,” Mike said. “Annually, we produce about 150,000 cases, which is not quite double most of the other wineries in the state. The Lone Star International Wine Competition here in Texas, one of the big wine tasting competitions … Viviano has actually won double gold six times out of the last 15 years. “

This entire region of Texas is known for its vineyards.

“One of the great things about being out here around the grape-growing region, around Terry County is that we’re very close to a lot of our growers out here, so our feedback on their grapes happens pretty quickly and we actually get out to the vineyards quite often, at least once a week, especially during growing season,” Mike said.

An unexpected benefit has been found in the students at Texas Tech University many of whom become wine connoisseurs when they turn 21.

“They can start learning and appreciating wine at a younger age,” Mike said. “By the time they graduate, we’re seeing a lot of Texas Tech graduates purchasing bottles of Viviano, 1836 Red, which are very dry reds for more mature, advanced pallets. But by starting them out while they’re in college, they’re leaving here with a finer appreciation of wine.”

While you’re putting your guns up at Texas Tech University, make sure you also go bottoms up at a winery that played a Texas-sized role in the Lone Star State’s surging wine industry.

“We haven’t even hit our stride yet, as far as wine making is concerned,” Mike said.