\t\tCruising Along the Mother Road<\/p>\n
I\u2019m really looking forward to an early-spring reporting trip (maybe reporting trips) to points north, where I will traverse the wide-open expanses of the Texas Panhandle via the remnants of historic Route 66, which celebrates its centennial this year. I call Austin home, and as a denizen of the Hill Country, the relative pancake flatness of that part of the state has always felt strikingly exotic to me. From Shamrock to McLean to Groom to Amarillo to Vega to Adrian and on to Glenrio<\/a>, and then probably back again, I can\u2019t wait to see sights\u2014including the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn, the Devil\u2019s Rope Museum, Cadillac Ranch, and the Mother Road\u2019s actual midway point, in Adrian. Send me any recommendations! \u2014David Courtney<\/p>\n A Weekend Packed With Small-Town Charm<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be spending some time exploring Brenham<\/a> this spring, when wildflowers will make the short drive from Austin a colorful blur. I\u2019ve visited a few times for weekend stays at a friend\u2019s ranch, but I\u2019ve yet to truly indulge in all that Washington County\u2019s biggest town has to offer: a famed sandwich shop<\/a> known for its homemade pies, a dreamy rose garden<\/a> and nursery, and a brewery<\/a> where every beer is named after a song the brewers love. I\u2019m hoping to catch a good show at the town\u2019s intimate nonprofit playhouse, Unity Theatre, and maybe a burger at Danny\u2019s, an elevated bistro. Antiques mecca Round Top<\/a> is less than half an hour away, but Brenham has a few lower-key vintage shops of its own that I plan to dig through. My weekend there will be free of hard plans and full of meandering strolls through the town\u2019s charming downtown streets. \u2014Amanda O\u2019Donnell<\/p>\n Paying Respect to a Piece of Abandoned Texas History on the Border<\/p>\n In the fifties and sixties, Rio Vista Farm, in Socorro<\/a>, was one of five intake centers for the bracero program<\/a>, a temporary agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that allowed Mexican nationals to work legally stateside to address labor shortages, especially in agriculture. Staff members at Rio Vista processed more than 80,000 Mexican braceros annually. Each of them was examined and fumigated with DDT<\/a>\u2014a powerful, now-banned insecticide\u2014before getting their assignment. Today the abandoned site is easily missed from the road. A friend from nearby El Paso took me to Rio Vista Farm briefly during a local taco trip several years back. Two plaques on a stocky stone block were the only signage I saw, not exactly conspicuous for a site that was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2023. Otherwise, the former government station was all but ruins. Rio Vista is currently undergoing a restoration<\/a>, including the creation of a new museum, funded by private grants and $2 million from the state budget<\/a>. I\u2019ll be going back this year to see how the site has changed since my last visit, as such an important locale should, and to spend more time on hallowed ground. \u2014Jos\u00e9 R. Ralat<\/p>\n Mining a Colonial Mexican City\u2019s Past and Present<\/p>\n I visit Mexico up to five times annually. These trips take me from northern cities to southern mountain villages<\/a>. But one destination evades me year after year: Guanajuato. The colorful, historic mining town is known for baroque and neoclassical churches, small plazas, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and winding, hilly alleyways. It\u2019s those paths that have long attracted me, like Salsipuedes (Exit if You Can) and Callej\u00f3n del Beso (Alley of the Kiss), so named because its balconies are so close that neighbors can kiss without leaving their homes. I\u2019m also intrigued by Guanajuato\u2019s subterranean streets, which once redirected floodwater, and the Museo de las Momias, a collection of naturally mummified bodies. This year, it\u2019s Guanajuato! \u2014Jos\u00e9 R. Ralat<\/p>\n Flying Into Big Bend Ranch State Park<\/p>\n Planes are a bit like time machines, and when it comes to the Big Bend region, a pilot\u2019s license changes the travel math entirely. What\u2019s usually an all-day, nine-hour haul from Austin becomes a relaxed two-and-a-half-hour flight. As someone with a long-standing love of Big Bend, I find that kind of shortcut hard to resist. This year I\u2019m finally planning to land my Cessna 182H, a four-seat piston-engine plane, on the airstrip inside Big Bend Ranch State Park<\/a>, the largest state park in Texas and a place I\u2019ve admired for years. The goal is simple: Make West Texas feel close, if only for a weekend. \u2014J.\u200aB. Sauceda<\/p>\n Picture your typical beach vacation: lazy days on the sand, wearing your best Hawaiian shirt to a different seafood joint every night, and\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0staring hundreds of feet up at the top of a giant rocket? That\u2019s the trip to South Padre Island<\/a> my family has in mind this spring, and in a perfect world, we would time it with a SpaceX rocket launch<\/a>. Last time we were in SPI, in May 2024, we made the drive around South Bay to the launch site at Boca Chica Beach. When a launch isn\u2019t imminent, you can get shockingly close to the pad. The only things between us and a partially stacked rocket a couple of football fields away were a few Keep Out signs staked in the dunes. Next time we won\u2019t be as close, because we hope to see one blast off. \u2014Mike Snyder<\/p>\n I started hearing about it not long after I moved to Texas from my native New York, eager voices telling tales of a three-week-long spectacle of cowboy-coded merrymaking: livestock running amok, superstars belting out hits, and crowds a million strong milling around the carnival grounds, all in service of the sort of display unimaginable to anyone from up north. They were talking, as you well know, about the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo<\/a>, the largest event of its kind in the world. The closest thing to a rodeo I\u2019ve seen up close was the tandem of traipsing ponies I once observed at a small ranch in New York. I had no other choice but to get a ticket; March can\u2019t come soon enough. \u2014Jack Sullivan<\/p>\n Kiddos\u2019 First Big Bend National Park Trip<\/p>\n One of my first getaways upon returning to my home state after about fifteen years of living too far north was a several-day escape to Big Bend National Park<\/a>. I climbed up a bit higher than intended on a trail, tentatively looked out across the desert from the cliff, and thought, \u201cMy son would one hundred percent jump off of this.\u201d That was four years ago. My three kids, who are twelve, ten, and six, now have slightly more impulse control\u2014enough, my husband and I have decided, that it\u2019s time. This spring break, we\u2019re making Big Bend the first stop on a West Coast road trip. On the agenda: an RV, spooky stories in Terlingua<\/a>, and a scenic hike. Okay, maybe we\u2019ll stick to the relatively flat Santa Elena Canyon Trail. I still don\u2019t trust that kid. \u2014Sandi Villarreal<\/p>\n Revisiting an \u201cIf You Know, You Know\u201d West Texas Tradition<\/p>\n West Texas is my home away from home. It\u2019s the place where I spent the most formative years of my twenties, working as a reporter in the small border town of Presidio, and a place I always return to. This year, I\u2019m especially looking forward to revisiting Presidio\u2019s drag races<\/a>, which take place every month or so. The Presidio International Speedway, revamped in 2019, sits on the edge of town and hosts bracket racing, in which beat-up work trucks line up against souped-up muscle cars. One year a kid even raced with his mom\u2019s Tesla. It\u2019s a scene and a guaranteed good time. Townsfolk and those visiting from across the border gather to tailgate amid the sounds and smoke. \u2014Sasha von Olderhausen<\/p>\n Checking off Cowtown at Last<\/p>\n After six and a half years of living in Texas, I\u2019ve visited all of the state\u2019s biggest cities except for Fort Worth, but I\u2019m planning to fix that this year with a long weekend in the city. I\u2019ve bookmarked many of the shops and bars that my colleague Katy Vine mentioned in her recent write-up of Fort Worth\u2019s Near Southside<\/a>, and I\u2019m looking forward to visiting the Amon Carter and Kimbell art museums. (I don\u2019t think my husband will be interested in the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, but maybe I\u2019ll visit that on my own while he does some crate digging at Record Town or Panther City Vinyl.) \u2014Anna Walsh<\/p>\n![\"Boca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/texas-bucket-list-2026-houston-rodeo.jpg\")
![\"Boca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/texas-bucket-list-2026-starbase.jpg\")
The SpaceX rocket-launch site at Boca Chica Beach.GettyCatching a Rocket Launch on South Padre Island<\/p>\nEvery night of the Houston rodeo, the national anthem is sung as a rider gallops around NRG Stadium with the American flag and a sparkler.Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle via GettyA New Yorker\u2019s First Rodeo<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/texas-bucket-list-2026-zacatecas.jpg\")
La Quemada, an archaeological site outside Zacatecas.GettyA High-Risk (to Some), High-Reward Mexican Escape to Less-Trodden Ground<\/p>\n