Funky Texas Traveler

Be a traveler, not a tourist. Dig deeper, learn more.

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  • Attitude
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    • How to survive and thrive when your reputation tanks – Life lessons from Mark White
    • 8 steps to unexpected success from Texas Fruitcake Queen
    • 5 Road Trip Luxuries You Shouldn’t Travel Without
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    • Have Fun Flying – Southwest Airlines
    • Strange Places to Stay
    • Start a Party- Galveston Mardi Gras
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    • Lifetime of fun at National Parks
    • Surviving Hurricane Harvey flooding – 8 practical ways to cope
    • Life’s Detours
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        • Breast Cancer – Think you might have it? What happens now?
        • Breast Cancer. 5 steps to take before treatment
        • My Breast Cancer Experience – A Month at MD Anderson Cancer Center
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Nov 02 2018

8 stupidly-simple ways the Texas Fruitcake Queen built big success

Inside – the Texas Fruitcake Queen was an innovative farm wife who took eight simple steps to create success with a part-time business she started in her kitchen.

8-simple-ways-to-built-success-with-Texas-Fruitcake-Queen-690x400 8 stupidly-simple ways the Texas Fruitcake Queen built big successGladys Farek was a wife and mother of six girls who held down the farm for her traveling salesman husband.  She fed and cared for her daughters and the cattle, keeping their homestead functioning in Cistern, Texas (population 150).

And in her spare time, she became Texas’ fruitcake queen, appearing on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and “The David Letterman Show.” 

How did she do it?  More importantly, what business and life lessons can you and I learn from Gladys?

Related Post:  A Houston company built on a college morning-after hack

I met Gladys a few years ago at a country wedding outside of Schulenburg.  She was the grandmother of the bride. 

In the first 15 minutes with her,  I knew all about Gladys’ Bakery, and her alter-ego as the Texas fruitcake queen. 

Gladys was then 83 years old, but could easily pass for younger with her style and vivacity.  She delighted in showing off her husband Jimmy like a newly-wed, even though they’ve been married three years. 

I get the impression Gladys has had that same enthusiasm for every part of her life, a big key to her success.  Here are the other keys: [Read more…]

signature 8 stupidly-simple ways the Texas Fruitcake Queen built big success

Filed Under: Attitude, Food, Outlook, People, Places, Schulenberg/Flatonia/Dubina, Texas · Tagged: Cistern, Dubina, fruitcake, Johnny Carson

Sep 27 2018

San Antonio south of Southtown – where to eat and drink

San-Antonio-South-of-Southtown-690x400 San Antonio south of Southtown - where to eat and drinkDiscovering San Antonio, south of Southtown helped me fall back in love with the Alamo City. Or more accurately, it took determining where to eat and drink in San Antonio south of Southtown to reignite the passion!

Be honest. Hasn’t the idea of San Antonio started to look better on paper than in person? Especially once the kids were grown, and we were no longer proudly showing them where the heroes of the Alamo fell. Or watching them feed the ducks on the Riverwalk while us grownups huddled under an umbrella, enjoying frozen margaritas and a plate of nachos.

Losing the  love for San Antonio Riverwalk

Once I quit seeing it all through my kids’ eyes, I couldn’t push aside being pissy over the traffic and the souvenir shops and the chain restaurants. The Hard Rock Café, Landry’s Seafood, Saltgrass Grill and Rainforest Café were as romantic and authentic as Disneyland.

[Read more…]

signature San Antonio south of Southtown - where to eat and drink

Filed Under: Central Texas, Food, Home Top, Places, San Antonio, Texas · Tagged: Southtown

Aug 02 2018

Five Ways to Do Port Aransas Right | One Year After Hurricane Harvey

 

5-ways-to-do-Port-Aransas-right-one-year-after-hurricane-690x400 Five Ways to Do Port Aransas Right | One Year After Hurricane HarveyPort Aransas has mostly recovered after the worst hurricane season in U.S. history.  I was down on the island recently and did a little scouting.  Based on that visit, it’s time to put out an update with five ways to do Port Aransas right… a year after Hurricane Harvey.

Sadly, some beloved spaces are only sweet memories.  Yet other hangouts seem comfortably the same with just a little evidence of storm-related upgrades.   Like when your grandma changes her lipstick color.  And the Key West of Texas vibe is still strong. [Read more…]

signature Five Ways to Do Port Aransas Right | One Year After Hurricane Harvey

Filed Under: Coastal Texas, Home Top, Places, Port Aransas, Texas · Tagged: belt sander races, Dancing Dunes

May 31 2018

Fredericksburg Weekend – War Heroes & Wine!

 

Fredericksburg-1-690x400 Fredericksburg Weekend  - War Heroes & Wine!
National Museum of Pacific War. Image from Goodfellow Air Force Base

Fredricksburg has always seemed rather a poodle-like town.  Highly mannered and manicured as befits a town founded by disciplined German settlers whose inner agenda was to replicate the Deutschland in the most unlikely of places, frontier Texas.

But nothing in nature is just two-dimensional, no matter how much we humans try to pack it into a neat box.  Good or bad, right or wrong, black or white, poodle or pound puppy.  [Read more…]

signature Fredericksburg Weekend  - War Heroes & Wine!

Filed Under: Fredericksburg, Places, Texas · Tagged: Arc de Texas, National Museum of the Pacific War, WW2

May 22 2018

Houston’s Chinatown

Houstons-Chinatown-3-reasons-to-visit-690x400 Houston's Chinatown
Image by Andrea Nguyen via Flickr 
(CC by 2.0) 

Houston’s Chinatown, along with the Bellaire corridor, has been calling me.  I haven’t been able to get out on the road like I’ve wanted to.  To keep from going crazy, I decided to be a tourist in my own town and kick up some exotic adventure.  


[Read more…]

signature Houston's Chinatown

Filed Under: Houston, Places, Texas

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Just visiting someplace is boring – I dig around and roll in it. The people, the peculiarities and the hidden history that gives any destination its own unique story. Come excavate with me and let me know places I should go!

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