Texas Country Reporter

08/31/2026

I’ll be headed up to the panhandle this week and hope to bump into some of y’all. But even more importantly, our show is back with a brand new season starting this weekend.

We’ll be driving up and down Route 66 meeting some of the folks that have kept its legacy alive and developing. We’ll tell the history of that Mother Road the best we can over the course of two full episodes of TCR. We can’t wait for you to hop in and travel with us.

08/30/2026

This year our YouTube channel was viewed over 20 million times! We've done a lot of work to make TCR easier to find however folks watch TV, and it's paying off.

The fun byproduct of this has been that lots of new viewers have also found many of our classics on the channel. Some of them have racked up a lot of views since they were uploaded many years ago.

We decided to count down the top 10 classic videos that have been viewed the most on our channel. See if your favorites made the cut!

Here's another speedbump of optimism for y'all: on this very YouTub...

08/28/2026

We love an old watering hole and this is one of the oldest. In fact, it had the first license after the end of prohibition.

Pull up a bar stool and visit Riley's Tavern with us.

Pool tables, shuffleboard, and live music in a historic building ol...

08/26/2026

“You always run into someone you know” is something my crew jokes about a lot.

Today, it was on Highway 29 just west of Llano. I was driving from London, Texas following a white car for about 30 or 40 miles.

I passed them near town and they immediately sped up to pass me back. As I looked in the window I saw waves of bright white hair and immediately knew that it was my friend Traces of Texas.

He waved at me to let me know he had seen me as well and I signaled for him to pull over. Turns out he was on his way home from Terlingua, a place we both love and often bump into each other in.

His passion for Texas history is unmatched, and those of you who follow his page know this well. For years he’s made it a gathering place for folks to share memories and remnants of our state’s great story.

If you don’t follow him, I encourage you to because the community he has fostered is a great one to be a part of as a Texan.

Cheers amigo! See ya on the road soon!

08/24/2026

I’ve never been on the back of a bull before, but I love watching it. In my younger days I’d head over to the Horseshoe Lounge and watch it with my bartender buddy Reid on the little TV above the ATM.

My kids on the other hand have it a little easier as we had a chance to sit down in the dirt suites this weekend at Austin Gamblers Gambler Days.

J.C. has been growing like a w**d so he asked Priscilla to take him shopping for a new getup. He got plenty of compliments and how all black choice. Evie on the other hand was just excited to eat the snacks.

This is our second year going and after interviewing JB Mauney last year, I’m surprised more of the bull riders are able to walk as well as they do. We saw more than our fair share of guys take a beating after they hit the ground.

Either way, it was a nice way to spend the weekend with the family and a reminder that although my lower back might get sore occasionally from all the driving, I have very little to complain about. 😂

08/24/2026

Fun fact: I used to dress up as my high school mascot.

I grew up in La Porte, Texas where the mascot is the Bulldog.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that donning a very thick and fluffy dog costume with giant head on Houston-area humidity is not fun. But as the 17-year-old I was, I did it for the school pride (and to hang out with the cheerleaders).

But compared to some schools around our state, the Bulldog is on the milder end of the spectrum of randomness. There are others with Zebras, Gladiators, and Wampus Cats. The list is seemingly endless.

A reader wrote in to Texas Monthly to ask my friend the Texanist what the weirdest mascot in Texas was, and I can assure you whoever came up with it gets an A for creativity.

Read about it here: https://www.texasmonthly.com/culture/weirdest-high-school-mascot-texas/?utm_source=texasmonthly&utm_medium=webcta&utm_campaign=giftstory&gift_code=OTkxNzUxO0ZDalZUUTR3cVdkbzdyTHR6enBNclVQaHBZbzI7MjAyNjA4MjQ=

08/18/2026

I was nudged by a viewer about this story for a year. I’m so glad he did.

Today I got to meet Mr. Head, who at 99 years of age has been running Heads Hardware Inc for 80 years. It’s an old school style hardware store and fence supply company. You can even get a full-service tank of gas there.

His son is his business partner and his grandkids and great grandkids help him around the store.

These are the types of stories we love to tell on TCR. Thanks to David Sine aka “Coach” for the tip!

08/10/2026

My family got to enjoy our first Garner State Park dance this weekend.

Thursday night it was just me and my son while we waited on my wife and daughter to get there after cheer practice. We went ahead of them and got our RV set up. I enjoyed listening to the music while he looked up in awe at the stars. Friday and Saturday we went as a family. Saturday was the last dance of the summer.

If you’ve never been, the dance at Garner goes back to the 1940s, and some say it started in the ’30s with the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps who built the park. Every summer since, people have gathered on that concrete slab under the oaks surrounding that beautiful pavilion and danced until around 11.

Older folks two-step to songs that remind them of being young and in love. And teenagers and kids alike build the confidence to go ask another teen to dance.

My daughter is 10 and every bit of a shy one at that. A young boy asked her to two-step. Despite her initial nervousness at it being the first time she’d ever been asked, she accepted. She ended up getting asked 3 times across both nights. Getting to watch that happen is something I won’t forget.

My son is 7 and was too shy to ask anybody himself. He said he just wanted to dance to Footloose. Then a little girl walked up and asked if he’d dance with her friend. She was probably 2 years older and 6 inches taller, but he did. It was so fun to watch.

Priscilla, my wife, loves a waltz, and the jukebox had plenty. We danced to Strait’s “You Look So Good in Love” both nights. Of course Garth’s “Callin’ Baton Rouge” gets the blood going so we made sure to get plenty of spins in for that song too.

At the end of Saturday night, Ken McGarrahan, who with his wife has been a park host at Garner for 42 summers, came up to tell me he’d enjoyed watching us dance. He said we both looked good but he had to break it to me that my wife is much better looking. I couldn’t agree more.

It was special weekend. Grateful for another handful of days on this side of the dirt. Lucky to spend them with the folks I love, and Texans who love old traditions like this.

08/09/2026

I remember the first time I drove past this sign in Hondo, Texas. I was in college and some friends and I decided to spend the weekend on the Frio.

We tossed some sleeping bags and camping gear in our trucks, printed out directions off MapQuest, and headed out.

The second we saw it we all laughed. We stopped and had to get a picture with the sign, though it was with a point and shoot digital camera since this was before iPhones.

It’s been over 20 years since then and I can’t help but chuckle every time I pass it, as I did today on my way home from Garner State Park.

The thing I love about Texas isn’t just the grit of the Texans who live here. It’s our wit too. It’s sharp, but never too serious. Many things about Texas have changed in 20 or so years, but our wit hasn’t.

08/09/2026

We’re closing out our summer of family travel at Garner State Park camping in our RV on the Live Oak loop. My wife and I met dancing, so it’s only fitting that our kiddos trade in their two left feet for two steps, and there’s no better place to learn than a Garner Pavilion dance. Tonight’s was the last of the summer.

I spent a lot of time down here on the Frio in my 20’s, but this is a first for Priscilla and my kiddos. It only took one trip for them to all understand why some families have made it a generational summer tradition.

This is a special place in Texas and undoubtedly will become a special place for our family for many years to come.