Texas Bucket List

Texas Bucket List

Simmons Bank

The Texas Bucket List – Presidio La Bahia

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We visit Presidio La Bahia in Goliad to explore the grounds where men died fighting for Texas Independence from Mexico.  You can even stay the night at La Bahia, just as long as you aren’t afraid of what goes bump in the night!  It’s a place that every Texan needs to visit, and hear the battle cry of Texas in soft South Texas breeze – Remember Goliad!

The Texas Bucket List – Thurber Ghost Town

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If you can’t get enough of the eerie, pop on over to Thurber, a ghost town with a tall spire on Interstate 20.  There not too much that’s left of the once-bustling Texas brick manufacturing and coal mining town.  We learn about the people that were forced to leave this place and visit one of the most desolate graveyards we’ve ever gazed at — well worth the stop on The Texas Bucket List!

The Texas Bucket List – Luckenbach, Texas

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If you’ve never been to Luckenbach, you’re missing out on a country music culture that lives in the air and in the hearts of the people of this town. On our very first episode on The Texas Bucket List, we sit beneath the mighty oaks that have had years and years of musical notes pick their way through the branches. In the breeze and in the air everywhere is the sound of a good ole’ country twang, dust scuffed up from boots at the dance hall, and the constant picking of guitar strings. Celebrate the country, celebrate music, and come have some fun where everybody is somebody in Luckenbach on The Texas Bucket List!

The Texas Bucket List – Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana

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Corsicana – When it comes to Christmas confectionery, there are all sorts of sweets that one can savor here in the Lone Star State. There is one cake that keeps people coming to Corsicana, and it goes hand in hand with the holidays, Collins Street Bakery in Corsicana.

“This is a part of Texas history,” Sarah Keathley said. “It’s unique. The world’s greatest fruitcake.”

Since 1896, the Collin Street Bakery has been getting a rise out of customers by providing carbs that are well worth craving.  Back in the beginning, baking bread was the business’s backbone, but after too many bakers starting popping out of the oven, the Collin Street Bakery took a different approach.

“They sold all of their bread equipment and made this decision just to go and gamble on this product that nobody heard about,” Hayden Crawford said. “They did it and it was a home run.”

Hayden’s family bought into the business in the 1960’s back when Corsicana’s craving for fruitcake started to become a fruitful fixture during the holidays.

“Historically, the fruitcake has always been a celebratory cake,” Hayden. “It was a product of the fall harvest with the pecans and some of the fruit, and then this was all put together in a delicious cake. [It] was put back in the root cellar and held back until Christmas and pulled out so that everybody could enjoy the bounty of the harvest.”

Today, the fruitcakes are a bit fresher thanks to a bounty of bakers that help make one million fruitcakes every year!

“So what you see is freshly shelled native pecans, big decorative halves to decorate the top of the cakes,” Hayden said. “We use pineapple from our Costa Rican farm. We have the largest organic farm in the world. Cherries from the pacific northwest, raisins from California, all go into this fruitcake to make one of the finest Christmas products in the world.”

Each cake is carefully topped, baked, and prepared to be enjoyed by somebody.

“I’ve been coming to the bakery ever since I was a kid but believe you and me fruitcake was not always on my favorite list,” Steve Keathley said.

Despite what you may think of fruitcake, you just never know how good it is until you try it.

“We’ve put free samples everyday because we have to prove to people ‘hey this fruitcake is really a quality product’ and people walk in and the worse thing I ever heard them say is ‘Hey this isn’t bad,’” Hayden said.

Turns out what was once equivalent to getting coal for Christmas is now cool again, and people are going nuts for fruitcake.  

The captains of industry, leaders of nations,” joked Hayden. “Everyone loves to enjoy fruitcake.”

With Christmas upon us here in the Lone Star State, filling your face with fruitcake in Corsicana is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“Because it is the world’s finest,” Hayden said. “There’s no other product like it. It’s just a combination of pecans and fruit all bound together with local clover honey. It’s a fantastic product. Everybody needs to try it before they kick the bucket.”