You’d be surprised that the “Cowboy Country” of Oregon has a lot in common with the Wild West of Texas. Sure it’s not quite as flat and there’s this cold, white stuff called “snow,” but it’s a place with cowboys, rodeos and juicy steak! Watch the video to see my family’s adventures.
Thanks to Best Western for making us feel at home — even in another state! Book your next stay here: https://www.bestwestern.com/
Each New Year at The Daytripper World Headquarters, we make a list of a few of our travel ambitions for the new year. We love to explore new parts of Texas and we’re always on the hunt for new episodes, but we also have our own travel dreams that have nothing to do with making a TV show. They just feed our wanderlust. So here are some of the places in Texas we hope to explore in 2020!
Chet – “I still haven’t visited all 254 counties in Texas. I hit up 15 new ones last year. This year I really want to check off five more, but they’re in the remote reaches of Texas. I hope to be in the 254 club soon.”
Alaina – “I’ve always wanted to visit all 36 Buc-ee’s locations in Texas because I love truck stops.”
Daniel – “I want to take my girls to the Waco Mammoth Site, then hang out around the Silos and eat some cupcakes at Silos Baking Co.”
John Mark – “I’ve always wanted to go to Grapevine at Christmastime with my family to see the ice sculptures, ride the North Pole Express, and eat some good ol’ Texas Chili.”
Linsey – “There’s this huge Pet Parade at Jo’s Coffee in Austin every year when South Congress is taken over by dogs parading around in costumes. There’s a marching band and a costume contest. It sounds like the most Austin thing ever and I’d love to go because I am obsessed with dogs!”
Richie – “I’d like to trip out to West Texas again. Shooting the episodes for the show is great, but I’ll be really happy when my family gets to go with me to see McDonald Observatory in Ft. Davis, the incredible art in Marfa, and the mountain serenity in Alpine. Of course, grabbing some burritos in Balmorhea on the way to El Paso sounds good too. When I can put the camera down and just take it all in, that’s on my bucket list!”
Now that you’ve read our Texas Travel Bucket List for 2020, we challenge YOU to make your own. Where do you want to trip this year?
Email us and let us know – contact@thedaytripper.com
While our show features amazing places all over Texas, few realize that behind every episode are hours, even days, spent in dark rooms making sure The Daytripper looks as good as possible. Many of these hours are spent on color correction to brighten every shot and make it shine.
One of our frustrations has been that even if we make the shot look great on our monitors, we never really know what it will look like on TV. We’ve bought calibration tools, but they are only so good.
This new monitor from Dell is a game changer. Not only is it 27 inches of beautiful 4K resolution. But it has a built-in colorimeter, making color correction a breeze! The Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor UP2720Q has helped us make our episodes look great, and you can learn more about it here.
One of my favorite things to do at the end of any year is look back on all the blessings that the year brought. If I don’t intentionally take some time to slow down and reflect, then I completely miss celebrating the victories. Simply put, I miss the chance to be thankful for some pretty amazing things. Of course, no year is perfect and 2019 definitely had it’s struggles, but here are some of the amazing moments. Thanks to everyone who made 2019 our best year yet.
Hands down the birth of my son – Shepherd Garner. I know it seems like I have to say this, but truthfully, nothing can top it.
I got to be the emcee for the Governors Inauguration on the Capitol Lawn. Other honors include winning our 9th Lone Star Emmy, being named a finalist for the Austin Under 40 Awards, and being the Grand Marshall for the Oatmeal Festival.
It’s a close one, but the winner is Second Bar + Kitchen in the Domain. It was a multi-course roman feast and everything was amazing. Runner Ups include: The Brewers Table in East Austin and The Schooner in Nederland.
This is a really tough one, but the winner is Bodacious BBQ in Longview, TX for its killer….everything. Close second goes to Interstellar BBQ in Austin, TX.
We eat a LOT of burgers on the show, but on camera and in between the official locations. My top burger goes to “Nate Nasty” at The Porch at ETX Brewing in Tyler, TX. It looks like a pile of slop but its SOO good with beef, pork, mac & cheese, and an egg. Runner Up burgers include Willie’s Place in Wichita Falls, Fat Boy Burgers in Johnson City, and Eatsie Boys in Houston.
This one goes to two experiences. One was taking my first hot-air balloon ride and the other was hiking to the top of Baldy Peak in the Davis Mountains.
My family got to visit Oregon with our partner Best Western. It was an incredible experience. The Eastern side of the state is very similar to Texas in the best of ways. The video will come out in early January 2020. Runner Up includes taking my kids into the “Shark Cage” at the Mesquite Rodeo.
My wife and I got to go to New York City before our baby arrived. We made a video about it which you can find here. A close Runner Up was a getaway to Camp Lucy in Dripping Springs.
There are a ton of these, but the ones that stand out in my head as really special are…
I better cut it off here. But the more I look, the more that I find incredible moments hidden in between these. I want to encourage y’all to take some time and celebrate 2019. I’m sure it had challenges, but don’t miss the chance to celebrate the blessings.
THANKS FOR AN AMAZING 2019
Want to MEET ME IN Mesquite,TX??
I’m partnering with Mesquite Convention and Visitors Bureau to give 1 lucky winner a Weekend Getaway to Mesquite, TX complete with 2 nights in a premiere hotel AND exclusive tickets to all sorts of Mesquite, TX attractions including MEETING ME at the Mesquite Championship Rodeo in a private suite!!
There are multiple ways to enter the contest & you can enter more than once to increase your chances of winning! Contest ends Dec. 19.
Click here for details: https://www.visitmesquitetx.com/contest
Forget partridges in pear trees and five golden rings…the 12 Days of TEXMAS GIVEAWAY will be even cooler. Follow The Daytripper World Headquarters on Instagram (@daytripperhq) for details on how to enter to win a NEW PRIZE GIVEAWAY every day for 12 DAYS!
**Please place all orders that are Christmas presents before Dec. 15 to guarantee they make it by Christmas day.
You are invited to join the city of Georgetown and the Rotary Club of Georgetown in honoring our Central Texas veterans and soldiers at the third-annual Georgetown Field of Honor from Nov. 9-17, presented by Don Hewlett Chevrolet.
The Field of Honor has an amazing display of over 1,500 U.S. flags standing in tribute to veterans, active and reserve duty military, and first responders. You can purchase a flag in honor of a loved one at the field for $40 each. Proceeds from the flag sales will directly benefit organizations that address suicide prevention, PTSD and support veterans and first responder families.
Here’s a few photos from the first Field of Honor in 2017.
There was a display on the evolution of the American flag from the 1776 Grand Union flag to our current flag that was created in 1960.
Look closely for the super important 28-Star flag created when Texas joined the Union in 1845!
The Field of Honor is open to all and can be accessed anytime of the day or night. Admission is free. A few of the week’s highlights include the 5K Honor Walk on the 9th, the Opening Ceremonies on the 10th, a Veteran’s Day Tribute to WWII and Korean War Veterans on the 11th and the Patriot’s Ball on November 16th.
Visit georgetowntxfieldofhonor.org for more information on these events and to order a flag today!
After our last VIDEO giving y’all an insider’s look at our new office, we had some people ask what specific DELL systems we use. Well we have a few different DELL Workstations around the office, but our editing team all has the same system.
For the nerdy, tech-spec types, the details are below. This system is incredible. Not only is it mobile allowing us to take it on the road, but it’s crazy powerful and allows us to process serious amounts of footage and data with ease. Seriously, 4K footage puts a ton of pressure on a workstation, and these computers have the beef to handle it.
If you have any specific questions, please email us and we’ll be happy to tell you more.
MODEL: 15.6″ Precision 7530 Mobile Workstation
PROCESSOR: Intel Xeon 6-core 2.70 GHz, 4.40 GHz Turbo
MEMORY: 64GB DDR4
PRIMARY HARD DRIVE: 1TB SSD
SECONDARY DRIVE: 2TB SSD
GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA Quadro P2000 w/4GB GDDR
We’re proud Dell users here at The Daytripper, so check out this tour of our new Daytripper World Headquarters in Georgetown, TX to see how we use Dell Precision Workstations to create the show!
We’re so excited to announce our first Daytripper event at The Daytripper World Headquarters — the Season 11 Premiere Party in Georgetown, TX
Join us at 6 p.m. on October 3 for an EPIC Street Party on W 8th Street in front of our new Georgetown store!
We’ll start the night with live music, a Meet & Greet, raffles, and a special showing of our FIRST EVER episode from Season 1 in Waco, TX! We’ll also have special guest appearances throughout the night AND food & drink pop ups from local vendors including ice cream from Scoops and a lemonade stand from Mom’s Beverage Co.
Then when it’s dark enough, we’ll premiere our NEW Season 11 Waco, TX Episode! See a tentative schedule here.
Hope to see y’all there!
DISCLAIMER: This is a sponsored post, but all the opinions are 100% my own.
There’s a new fundraising app in town, and it’s changing the game on how to raise money for your kid’s sports team. No more bake sales, coupon books or chocolate bars.
Thanks to FlipGive, all you gotta do is shop… That’s right — using the FlipGive app, you can buy things you actually need and want (from Starbucks coffee to movie tickets), and donate to your fundraiser at the same time!
So say you’re wanting to turn a day trip into a weekend trip, you can book a couple nights at Best Western through the app and 5% of the money will go towards your sports team or charity!
And the best part?? I’m teaming up with fellow Texans Staci Salazar & Colby Shipwash in a competition against Team California to see who can raise the most money for charity on FlipGive. So go download the FREE App and join our Texas Tornadoes team using the code: MG9V4M. Explore the app and help us raise money for the Red Cross at the same time.
GO TEAM TEXAS!
We had hundreds (thousands?) of awesome #FlatChet entries, and it was a really tough choice, but — DRUMROLL PLEASE — here are the WINNERS!!!!
If you’re on this list, please share and brag with all your friends. Also, check your social inbox as we’ll be touching base and sending you your special Daytripper prize! If you didn’t win…start plotting for next summer.
This post gave us all the feels. Chet’s in a backback. She’s flyfishing with dad on a river by the mountains. It’s awesome. This is what summer adventures should look like. So it’s our OVERALL WINNER! Congrats to Denise and her daughter!
It was a hard (and hunger-inducing) decision, but in the end Teddy and his smorgasbord of Greek food won our stomachs over. Check his profile and you’ll see lots of food pics with #FlatChet. Honorable Mentions go to Jennifer C. with her Round Rock Donuts & Fried Chicken from Underwood’s Cafeteria, Bryan Vinson and his Rudy’s Bar-B-Q Breakfast tacos and Luvit BBQ (because we also loved #FlatChet’s apron).
Y’all created some AWESOME clothes and costumes for #FlatChet and we were very impressed. First place in this category goes to Windy with “Hawaiian Chet” because…well, COCONUT BRA. Honorable mentions go to Kristie’s “Hamilchet,” Scott’s Boy scout Chet, Tracey’s “Hot Pants Chet,” and Oleksandr’s Ukranian Chet.
The winner of this category was Jennifer D. with her almost perfect recreation of the Round Rock photo above. Honorable Mentions go to Brad’s Texas Basket Company photo, Allison’s Route 66 photo and @newswissfarms Dolan Falls recreation.
This wasn’t a category we saw coming, but it became clear that it was one we needed. Winners are Mad Science with their Rocketship Chet and Honorable Mention goes to The Alamo with Cannon Chet.
Ed L. takes this one with his trip to India (approximately 9K miles from Austin!). Next up is Wynn in the West Bank (7K miles) and Oleksandr in Ukraine (6K miles).
Y’all took #FlatChet to new heights with this competition. Winner Jennifer C. took him up to 14,260 ft., while honorable mention Lisa H. was just a couple dozen feet behind at 14,229 ft. We’re giving her a prize too because she hiked this 14’er. Kristen M. reached 12, 005 ft.
Michael W. blew away the competition on this one with 58 TOTAL PHOTOS with #FlatChet. That’s an epic road trip for sure! We’re also sending our Honorable Mention a prize on this one because she was super close. Congrats Stephanie!
This one was a very tough choice. There were SO MANY awesome Texas photos with #FlatChet, but this photo by Allison K. in front of the Texas sign at Palo Duro Canyon before she watched the TEXAS Outdoor Musical (about the origins of Texas) was just SO Texan that it’s our winner. Honorable Mentions go to Heidi’s photo in front of the Alamo and Jennifer’s photo at Washington-on-the-Brazos.
These photos are just downright wrong… First place goes to Bucket List Chet because, erm, well wrong show, and honorable mention goes to Ashley’s Aggie Flat Chet because that maroon just hurt Chet eyes.
Mandi and her creative Flat Chet photos kept us rolling on the floor laughing, so we had to reward that. Though this photo was our top pick for this category, her Leaning Tower of Pisa Flat Chet is also worth checking out.
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