Funky Texas Traveler

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  • About
  • Attitude
    • Camping
    • 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
    • 5 steps to grow your adventure outlook!
    • Smart Souvenir Shopping
    • Have Fun Flying – Southwest Airlines
    • Strange Places to Stay
    • Start a Party- Galveston Mardi Gras
    • We have only now!
    • Lifetime of fun at National Parks
    • Surviving Hurricane Harvey flooding – 8 practical ways to cope
    • Life’s Detours
      • Cancer
        • 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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    • How to survive and thrive when your reputation tanks – Life lessons from Mark White
    • “John Cody” movie
    • 8 stupidly-simple ways the Texas Fruitcake Queen built big success
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          • Guadalupe River Tubing & Camping on River Road
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          • Wedding haunted by Bonnie & Clyde memories
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        • Schulenberg/Flatonia/Dubina
          • 8 stupidly-simple ways the Texas Fruitcake Queen built big success
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          • Port Aransas Farley Boat Works damaged by hurricane
          • Port Aransas post Harvey
        • South Padre Island
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          • 5 Reasons to visit Big Bend National Park
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          • Frontier faith in far West Texas – Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
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        • How hurricane hijacked Caribbean sailing vacation in BVI
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        • Frontier faith in far West Texas – Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
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Feb 18 2019

Surviving my rookie year at the Houston Rodeo Cook-off

4-way-being-the-New-Guy-grew-my-comfort-zone-Houston-Rodeo-Barbecue-Competition-690x400 Surviving my rookie year at the Houston Rodeo Cook-off

Learn about Houston Rodeo Cook-off from the new guy on a cooking team.  And the 4 ways this experience can grow your comfort zone.

Sometime late on a Saturday evening, after opening beers, dishing up beans and restocking portable toilets with paper for the fourth consecutive day, a friend took a picture of me. 

My hair was stringy from the humid weather and my proximity to our giant barbecue pit.  The starched team shirt was limp with sweat and wood smoke.

And I’m smiling broadly.  

Working as a rookie with the Third Coast Cookers at the Houston Rodeo Cook-off was testing the limits of my comfort zone.  And that felt good.

Don’t think – just say yes

My friend Carole has been on the Third Coast Cookers team since its inception.  Six months before the Houston Rodeo Cook-off,  she and I were at our usual Tex-Mex/Margarita Friday gathering.

Carole suggested I join the team.   Both of us were shocked when I said yes.  The word just snuck out there like a lager-fueled burp.

[Read more…]signature Surviving my rookie year at the Houston Rodeo Cook-off

Filed Under: Attitude, Festivals, Houston, Places, Taking Chances · Tagged: Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston Rodeo World Championship Barbecue Competition, Rodeo Houston

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

Aug 22 2018

Smart Souvenir Shopping

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

My-top-5-ways-to-find-unique-souvenirs....a-tale-with-Billy-Gibbons-from-ZZ-Top-1-690x400 Smart Souvenir Shopping

My idea of interesting and unusual travel souvenir ideas changed in the 70’s.  I lived on South Padre Island and ended up at a party in a beach house owned ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. 

 I was standing in the kitchen of “The Pink”, as the house was known by local surfers, and was puzzling over an interesting cluster of framed designs.   

“Fruit crate labels from all over the world,” someone answered who could have been Billy but I don’t remember (after all, it was the 70’s).  What I do remember is thinking that collecting and framing labels was a very cool souvenir idea.

I don’t know about you, but souvenir shopping in traditional shops seems like a silly way to spend your money.  Of course, you’ll catch me sometimes in a souvenir shop.  It’s usually after I’ve had a few beers and think those mummified frogs playing poker are just too cute to resist. [Read more…]signature Smart Souvenir Shopping

Filed Under: Attitude, Outlook, People, Twisted Travel Tips · Tagged: Billy Gibbons, Cheap Souvenirs, Cook Souvenirs, local artists, local authors, ZZ Top

Aug 03 2018

Lost at Buc-ee’s | How weird family stories start

This-man-got-lost-at-Buc-ees-690x400 Lost at Buc-ee's | How weird family stories start
Larry D. Moore [CC BY-SA 3.0 () or GFDL}, via Wikimedia Commons
Recently, a man got lost at Buc-ee’s in Katy, Texas.  He was so lost that his family contemplated putting out a silver alert.  If someone told me this story, I would have sworn it was an urban legend. Except I was there.  Now I know how weird family stories get started.  

How the man got lost at Buc-ee’s

I bet you’re thinking:  “How irresponsible to let an easily confused oldster roam without supervision.”  [Read more…]signature Lost at Buc-ee's | How weird family stories start

Filed Under: Attitude, Family legends, People, Popular Post · Tagged: Buc-ee's, family stories

Apr 12 2018

3 Useful Camping Tips for Weather Surprises

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

Camping in Texas can be an unbeatable escape from your daily stress.  Whether you rough it in a tent and wilderness area or “glamp” in a trailer, RV or cabin in a state or national park, it is pure heaven.  But how can you still enjoy camping when the climate doesn’t cooperate?  By using these camping tips for weather surprises

That was what we faced on our most recent trip to Sam Houston State Park.    By following these useful camping tips for weather surprises, we salvaged the weekend.   And still got to spend outdoor time with friends and family.  You can too.

DO NOT SKIP THIS #1 Rule of Camping !!!




[Read more…]signature 3 Useful Camping Tips for Weather Surprises

Filed Under: Attitude, Camping · Tagged: camping weather problems

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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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