The Daytripper

- The "Daytripper" is made possible by Rudy's, real Texas barbecue.

Shipping nationwide at rudys.com.

Karbach Brewing Company from Houston, Texas, makers of Karbach Lager, a beer that is proudly partnered with Don't Mess with Texas, please dispose responsibly.

Visit Georgetown, where big ideas meet small town charm.

Georgetown, the most beautiful town square in Texas.

Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, protection and peace of mind for Texans since 1952.

Don Hewlett Chevrolet Buick in Georgetown.

Making Texas road trips possible for over 50 years.

Don Hewlett Chevrolet Buick, Texas True.

Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, Texas' local bottler providing the Lone Star state with a variety of Coca-Cola products.

(upbeat country music) - Let's head to a town where the history of our country collides with the history of country music.

We'll tour the frontier fort where the world's most famous Comanche kidnapping happened and walk the house where a Texas songstress penned tunes for everyone from Elvis to Michael Buble.

We'll pig out on a three pork sandwich and devour catfish so good, you'll think you're back home at nanny's farmhouse.

You'll love it even if you can't pronounce it.

Mexia!

And if you forget how to say it, just think, what does ma cow eat?

Ma hay!

(cow moos) (upbeat country music) (country music) About 50 miles east of Waco and 90 south of Dallas lies the history-making town of Mexia.

So where's the funny name come from?

It was actually taken from the Mexia family, who received the original land grant to settle this entire region back in the 1830s.

Although the town itself didn't get plotted out until much later when the railroad came to town.

And then in 1921, Mexia's first oil gusher boomed, and this place exploded.

Things got so rowdy, they had to enforce martial law.

Now, lucky for us, Mexia has calmed down a little bit, although the stories they tell are as wild as Texas.

Say it with me now, Mexia, (country music) 'cause nothing outs you faster as an out-of-towner than that other shameful pronunciation.

- I got some bad news, I think, guys.

- What?

- I didn't bring my passport.

- Did you read the call sheet on where we're going?

- Mexico!

- I knew it.

I knew it.

- Mexia.

- Yeah, but it's not even Mexia.

It's Mexia.

- So we don't need the passport, right?

- We got into Canadian Texas without it.

I think we'll get into Mexia, Texas without it.

We won't be crossing the border today.

But our first stop is to visit the home of a songwriter, who broke through the boundaries of country music, Cindy Walker.

You know, some people write songs.

Cindy wrote hits.

Banging out a quick little diddy real fast.

(Chet hums) (typewriter clicking) Brisket (typewriter dings) Ah, end of the line.

Next verse!

Cindy was a songwriting dynamo.

If you've ever heard the music of Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, or Roy Orbison, well, then you've heard the music of Cindy Walker.

From this humble home in Mexia, Cindy forged an untouchable career as one of the greatest songwriters in country music history.

This is Lindsay Liepman, Executive Director of the Cindy Walker Foundation.

People may not know the name, but they know the music.

- She didn't wanna be famous.

She wanted her songs to be famous, and they were.

So now, we're restoring the house, and we're gonna fill it with music again as an art and community music space and have a museum too.

- Can we go in?

- Yeah.

Let's go into Cindy's house.

(country music) - Cindy passed in 2006, and the house has sat abandoned for many years.

But every room, curtain, and chandelier sings its own verses of Cindy's story.

- It's a fixer upper, but it's going to be beautiful someday.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cindy tried the stage early in her career, but soon realized that she preferred a simple life back home writing tunes with her mother.

- And they really were a duo.

The baby grand piano that Cindy bought for her mother would sit right here where you're standing.

- Okay, yeah.

- Be careful!

- Roll into this hole.

- Exactly.

Be careful.

And this is where she would record the demos on a reel to reel player that Billy Graham gifted to her.

And that was her process from here in Mexia.

- If you're still confused as to all this Cindy hype, let's look at her resume.

Her song, "You Don't Know Me," has been recorded by everyone from Ray Charles to Elvis.

Bob Wills recorded over 50 of her songs, and Willie has an entire album of her music.

Orbison's Dream baby got me dreamin' sweet dreams that's Cindy's.

She's in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Johnny Cash named his daughter after her.

Are you getting the picture?

- And right here at her desk (upbeat music) is where she wrote all of her greatest hits.

- This is Holy Texas ground.

- If you look up, this is hanging brass monkeys.

Many times, she would say, "They didn't care that I was a woman's songwriter.

If a monkey wrote a good song, they'd still want it."

So I gotta think that she must have sat down and maybe on a hard day, she'd look up at those monkeys and say, all right, it's so easy a monkey can do it.

Let me just see if I can write another.

- Another hit right now.

- And she did.

I mean, she had hits from the 1940s all the way until the 1980s was the last time she had a top 10 hit.

- People see so many barriers towards them and their goal of being a songwriter.

So it doesn't take much.

- I mean, if you have a great imagination, it can take you anywhere.

- Yeah.

And apparently, we haven't heard the end of her imagination just yet.

- So we thought that we would reconstruct the house and save the house, but we ended up finding her never before heard music, all of her demos that the world is now going to be able to hear.

- That's like a undiscovered treasure trove.

- You wanna hear it?

She recorded this here in the home.

Well, I woke up feelin' happy Feelin' good and satisfied I woke up to the sound of Tennessee rain (Cindy tapping) With a Texas woman by my side By my side, by my side - That's a Charlie Crockett song tomorrow.

- Yeah.

- And we're having such a renaissance of that classic country sound.

- Yeah.

- These are all just waiting to be hits.

- I think we have a few hits in here.

- That's incredible.

- Isn't that awesome?

- That's awesome!

- Yeah.

- More, more, more.

Lindsay, what this house is gonna do, it's not only gonna shine a light on a talent that was so special, but it's gonna inspire a whole nother generation of people that come after Cindy.

- 'Cause it's bigger than me as a person.

It's bigger than the town of Mexia, Aad we're excited about what's ahead.

- Great things ahead.

You know, while I'm here, (upbeat country music) it's gonna hit right here, the creativity.

- Yeah.

I believe it.

Sure.

- It's coming, guys, just- - look at the brass monkeys.

It's coming, the song is coming - Cindy would've thought you were hilarious.

- Oh, yeah, sure.

I'm sure she would've kicked me out of her house already.

- No, honestly, she had such a good sense of humor.

- Maybe Cindy even giggled as she left those tapes behind for us to find.

New melodies and memories of Cindy's music for us to discover and rediscover all over again.

(upbeat country music) Mexia streets feel as classic as the Texas sized personalities they've given birth to.

And I'm getting hungry, so let's head to a place that's putting a classic spin on the classic American diner experience, Joe Friday's.

The walls are covered in vintage decor, while the kitchen serves up vintage recipes like old fashioned cheeseburgers and hand-spun milkshakes, right alongside modern upgrades to classic dishes.

Stephen, what do we have here, man?

- Our fried green tomatoes.

It's our signature appetizer.

- Signature appetizer.

That means y'all are a rich, deep southern sort of eatery.

Oh my gosh, that's good.

These are owners, Val and Stephen Friday.

Stephen grew up cooking, went to culinary school, worked at high end resorts, all before moving to Mexia to share his fresh take on diner grub.

All right, million dollar question.

Who's Joe?

- Granddad was in the end of the Korean war, and he was in Vietnam, and he was a Green Beret.

Well, they called him Sergeant Joe Friday because of the TV show, "Dragnet."

I thought his name was Joe all of my life.

And then we get the wedding invitation and there's Elmo on there, and I'm like who is Elmo?

- Who's Elmo?

(Chet laughs) - I was like no wonder he never wanted go by anything but Joe.

- Well, Elmo Joe Friday would be proud, as Stephen comes from a long line of family cooks.

- My grandmother owned a butcher shop and canned a lot of stuff and sold 'em at the shop.

- I see a bunch of jarred stuff up there on the counter.

- The pickles are actually her recipe.

- I was worried I was gonna not be able to open that on camera.

Oh man, that's addictive.

That jar has no hope for the rest of this day.

(Stephen laughs) As you sit and look around, you'll notice this place is as much museum as restaurant.

- So people bring me stuff all the time.

- Someone unloaded a BB gun on this guy.

The 1995 bi-district champs.

There's people who eat here that were on that team like- - Uh-huh, yeah.

- That's us.

- Now, Valerie, you grew up in Mexia.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Mexia's special, like you obviously see people that you went to high school with, went to church with, and they always wanna support however they can.

- All right, what should I get for lunch?

- I would choose the Porky Pig sandwich.

- The Porky Pig is good.

- Now, talk to me.

- A grilled pork chop with grilled ham, bacon.

- You don't have to say anything else.

That's what I want.

Well, this little piggy is gonna watch how it's done.

- Center cut pork chop.

Then we're gonna pound it out a little bit.

(tenderizer thudding) - That's that butcher shop coming outta you.

(Stephen laughs) - Lay it up here on the grill, then season it.

Put some ham down and Texas toast.

Then we got bacon, and then we're gonna throw a fried egg down too.

- Oh my gosh.

It's a whole barnyard.

- So we got our garlic mayo that we make in house.

Put the cheese right over the top.

- Sooie!

- Yeah, that's good.

- Here, little piggy.

(upbeat country music) Well, here it is, folks.

Three little piggies on here.

But the biggest pig sitting at the table is definitely gonna be me.

Oh, that's good.

The meaty star of this sandwich is that pork chop 'cause it's got like tender, good grilled seasoning, but then you got like the crispy bacon and the ham.

I was a little worried it was gonna be too much, like we had hit our pork threshold and just rocketed right over it, but it's not.

This sandwich is excellent.

And not to be upstaged by the lemon pepper steak fries.

I mean, this is what a diner used to be.

Delicious, homemade craft food.

And th- th- th- th- th- that's all, folks!

And while a diner like this may rewind the clock back a couple decades, let's rewind a couple centuries, as our next stop is gonna take us all the way back to 1833 and to a time when Cynthia Ann Parker, the would-be mother of famed Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, was kidnapped from this frontier fort.

This is like stepping back in time.

How tall the walls are with the spikes on top of 'em tells you how dangerous it was to live here.

- Yes.

- This is Connie Colon, caretaker and director of Old Fort Parker Historic Site.

This is what I imagine, you know, John Smith, Pocahontas.

I don't think of this in Texas, but it was.

- It was.

They lived in cabins similar to this.

This is as close as we can get to period correct.

- How many people would've lived in a house like this?

- It would've been a mother, a father, and usually at least two or three children.

- Oh my gosh, a whole family.

- They made use of every available space.

They hung their chairs on the wall when they weren't using their chairs.

Their mattresses were hand-sewn straw mattresses.

- It's that new technology, hay.

Can I test this out?

- Sure!

- Do I need to dial in my number on an app?

Is that how this works?

Oh!

(Chet laughs) You know, you rustle in the night, you're gonna go all the way off onto the ground.

You feel so spoiled in our era when you step back in a cabin like this.

- Yeah.

I have something special I wanna show you.

Flintlock rifle.

- From the 1800s.

- Yes.

- This is incredible to something in my hand that's that old that people would've been running around here sticking outta these little holes in the walls to, you know, fend for their lives.

We have to defend the fort.

(upbeat country music) There's women and children in here.

(record scratches) - You'd be good at this, Chet.

- We're gonna try that again.

We have to defend the fort.

There's women and children in here!

Man, I'm a bad shot already.

I'd be extra bad through one of these tiny windows.

I don't think there was a job for TV hosts on the frontier.

(bright country music) - So the main gate is wide enough and tall enough for covered wagons and things like that to come through.

This was referred to as the spring gate, and they intentionally made it low, so that horseback riders couldn't ride through on horseback.

- Oh, that's interesting.

- They found this spring, and it has fresh water coming out of the ground 365 days a year even in drought years.

- One of God's water faucets right in your backyard.

- My grandsons asked one time when they were here, "Mimi, where's the bathroom?"

So I brought 'em out here.

(Connie and Chet laugh) - Here it is!

- This is where you would take a bath, and they're like, "What about when it's cold?"

- Yeah.

(Connie laughs) We call that stinky season.

- Yes.

- We don't bathe.

This fort comes alive numerous times a year with living history reenactors sharing the story of Texas.

But few stories in our state are more important or more stirring than the kidnapping of Cynthia Ann Parker.

(soft, dramatic music) - This is the blockhouse, kinda like a lookout tower.

- Okay.

- And they could shoot from the gun turrets up there.

There was one on each corner.

- Take us back to that day.

- May 19th, 1836.

Most of the men were out in the fields working.

One of the Parker brothers saw approaching Native Americans, and one of them was carrying a white flag.

- One account from that day says that at one moment, the fields were clear, and at the next, there were, quote, "More Indians than I dreamed possible."

The white settlers inside the fort were highly suspect, yet they opened the gate as many of the women and children escaped into the woods through the spring gate.

Well, soon the war band attacked, killing all five men present and taking two women and three children hostage, one of which was Cynthia Ann Parker.

And so Cynthia Ann, at nine years old?

- Yes.

- But she assimilates into them, right?

- She was adopted into a family.

She was raised as a Comanche child and grew up essentially a Comanche, even though she was white.

- This was not the story for most Comanche prisoners, but it was for Cynthia.

She married War Chief Peta Nocona and even gave birth to the man known as the last great Comanche chief, Quanah Parker.

- She would even put buffalo grease in her hair to darken it so that people couldn't tell from a distance that she was white.

- In 1860, after living with the Comanche for 24 years, Cynthia was captured back into white culture by a group of Texas rangers, as her Comanche family was killed in battle.

- She really wanted to be with her Comanche family.

She lost her family as a child, her white family, and then she lost her Comanche family as an adult.

- Wow.

Her story is tragic, yet so unique, it inspired the John Wayne classic, "The Searchers," and the film, "Dances with Wolves."

This era's history is so complex, but it's something that we should all learn about, and more importantly, learn from right here at Old Fort Parker State Park.

All right, question.

(upbeat country music) How long do you last on the frontier?

- I'd give myself a couple of hours, and I'd be like, yeah, I'm done.

- I could make it work.

- I saw Chet try to shove a gun through a tiny hole in the fort, and I think we'd all be dead if he was in charge of security.

- Oh no, that's no doubt.

- I think we would all be awful.

You have something other than hay for my bed?

My allergies that are getting... - Well, I know in Oregon trail until I got dysentery, then I was gone.

- It was very fast.

- Ford any rivers?

- That never went well.

You always lost little Timmy.

- Never made it to Oregon, not once.

Every time I died though, I had a wagon full of buffalo meat.

- I was gonna say.

- 'Cause all I did was kill buffalo and die of dysentery.

Luckily, the river cross into where we are going has a bridge and a concrete dam thanks to the impressive work of the Civilian Conservation Corps back during the Great Depression as they built Fort Parker State Park.

- They had a hard life, but a good life.

- They still got to have some dances.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Get some Mexia girls down here.

- For sure.

- This is Park Ranger, Kristy Turner.

I gotta say, I don't think most people even know this lake exists, a spot like this to feel like the city just disappears.

- 100%.

You can see how quiet it is out here.

- Yeah.

- Do you hear any traffic?

- Zero.

The park is great for hikers, fishers, campers, even birders.

For instance, right now, there's an entire flock of white pelicans just chilling on the lake.

Is it mostly a fishing lake?

- Yeah, it's pretty shallow, probably like five to eight feet.

- Yeah.

- It's also great for beginner kayakers because if you fall out, you're just gonna stand up, guys.

It'll be all right.

- Yeah.

- Let me show you something really cool.

We actually have a CCC member, who is buried here in the park.

- Let's go.

- All right.

(country music) - Interestingly, this state park is built on the footprint of an old Texas town named Springfield that was once booming, but was bypassed by the railroad and began to dwindle as people left.

Well, except for the people they left.

- This is what remains of the town of Springfield.

- Where effectively was the town?

- Under the park.

(Chet laughs) - Okay, that way, that way.

- And actually this here, Ezekiel Rhodes, he was the son of a freed slave woman, and he was actually a crew leader in the CCC when they were here building the park.

- So this has gotta be the most haunted state park in Texas too, right?

(Kristy laughs) - I'll not confirm or deny the possibility of ghosts in the park.

- Good thing we're not camping to find out.

Just here to enjoy the beauty of God's green earth in the daylight.

(bright music) Here's the second lake inside the park, Lake Springfield, which is actually spring-filled, and that makes it the spring-filled Lake Springfield.

Just if you were confused at home.

I've actually stocked this one with rainbow trout in the winter.

Oh, wow, look at this.

So these are those springs flowing out of Lake Springfield and joining the Navasota River.

This is beautiful.

Man can build something super impressive like that dam right there, but only nature can build something like this.

I've always said that if there's a state park, there's a reason to visit, and Fort Parker is only proving my point.

Y'all know I don't shy away (soft country music) from complicated history.

So it's with a deep breath that we all head upriver to a Texas historic site, also listed on the National Register of Historic places.

These are the Confederate Reunion Grounds, meaning from the 1880s after the Civil War, all the way up until the 1940s, veterans of the Confederacy and their families would meet every year to have a reunion here.

This was the dance pavilion.

They would have a barbecue and speakers.

They would fire the cannons, tell war stories, and pause to remember their fallen brethren.

History shows that as many as 7,000 people attended annually drawn from all over Texas.

We think of the Civil War as like our distant past, but it really wasn't.

I mean, the last Civil War veteran died in 1956.

My parents were alive in 1956, so this was just one small jump into our past.

Don't misunderstand me, I am by no means glorifying the cause of the South, but if you try to put yourself into the mindset of these people who fought that war, all of them had gone through a struggle.

They had lost family members, and I think this was a way for them to get together and sort of heal and realize that hopefully, they and our entire nation had come out stronger on the other side.

And we are stronger.

Not perfect by any means, but always striving toward that more perfect union.

(country music) While we're on a history kick, are y'all ready for another seemingly random spot that you've probably never heard of and most likely can't pronounce, but that was almost our state capitol?

Good luck saying this one, Tehuacana.

You thought Mexia was hard to say.

But I was scouring the internet one day, and I came across pictures of this building and I thought what in the heck is a building that big doing in the middle of nowhere.

Back when it was built, this was not the middle of nowhere.

This building was actually the first campus of Trinity University.

It later became the Westminster College, which was part of Southwestern University.

And in 1850, there was actually a vote held by the Texas legislature to make this town our state capitol.

It failed, of course, but if it'd gone the other way, that might be Congress Avenue right there.

Crazy.

We had our set designers come and put the vultures on top just for effect.

And what do me and the vultures have in common?

We're always looking for our next meal.

So let's leave the echoes of history behind, head back into town, or more specifically, head out to the Farm House.

(upbeat country music) This is a true country cooking destination.

However, out here, catfish isn't just on the menu, it's the main event.

And this place reels 'em in from far and wide to soothe their craving for crispy fish.

This is owner, James Ward, and a plate of deep fried goodness.

Y'all like your fried food around here, huh?

- Yes, sir.

- And I can't fault you.

This is one of our generation's greatest contributions to country cooking is the fried pickle.

The mushrooms, don't sleep on the mushrooms.

- No, that's a fresh mushroom.

We cut it up.

Farm House takes the time to make food the way it should be made, carrying on the traditions James learned from his nanny at her farmhouse, all before opening this restaurant with his dad back in 2001.

- I tell you what, it's just been a blessing to Mexia.

I mean, we've been busy ever since.

- And the star of the show since day one, catfish.

- Just one bite and you're hooked.

- Yeah.

Hey, there you go.

- That's our slogan.

People will drive for catfish like they do barbecue, man.

Even more so in my opinion.

- I mean, y'all got the steaks on the menu, the chicken fries, things like that.

- They're coming for the fish.

They're like a catfish connoisseur.

- All right, James, you gotta have some sort of secret.

Can we step in the back?

I wanna see you cook some catfish.

- Yes, sir.

(country music) - Where the magic happens, baby.

- Grab three just like I just did.

- Okay.

And then no one ordered catfish sushi?

Ooh!

- Just shake it.

- That's a little different motion than the ocean right there for these catfish.

- Cornmeal it up, baby.

- There's gotta be something special about this.

- I can't give away all the secrets.

- Okay.

- But a package of this lemonade drink mix.

Throw that in your cornmeal and your flour, your golden.

- Where in the heck did you learn about trick?

- Hey, nobody wants that muddy taste.

- I'm pocketing that trick for later.

Well, hell, I'm on a roll!

Hey, you want catfish tonight?

There's a bunch of tickets coming up, man.

- Who wants catfish?

Let's go!

I know.

Drain it, drain it, drain it!

Go!

Move, Chet, move!

I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I gotta do something when this TV show burns out.

- Drop it in there.

- The basket?

- Drop it right in here.

- It would take an army of daytrippers to keep up with the catfish orders coming in.

So I think I'll retire and go eat mine.

(country music) I hope this is the catfish I made because I feel very bad if anyone else in this restaurant is eating it.

The regular comes with six pieces.

Anywhere else, that'd be the ultra grande.

I mean, that is awesome.

Not too heavy on the cornmeal.

It's so weird to know that there's lemonade mix in here.

We've eaten a lot of catfish around Texas.

I think we might be moving into catfish connoisseur territory.

A catfishoissear we might call it.

- Sounds like a dinosaur.

Does it?

(Chet laughs) Fries, beans, coleslaw 'cause what else do you eat with catfish?

- A salad.

- Coleslaw is salad.

That's basically salad soup.

- Oh, gosh!

You know, James made the point that people will drive insane amounts of distance to eat fried catfish.

I was like, no, come on.

But then you eat it and you're like, oh yeah, I'd drive insane amounts of hours to eat that catfish.

It was a day of pioneers, (country rock music) both literal and musical, but also a day to forge our own path through the deep fried, deep flowing, deep history of Mexia.

And that means it's time to hit the road, so I can go back home and hit the hay.

Ugh.

Dessert and a stagecoach ride?

Come on!

So I will see all y'all out on the road.

Vaya con dios, amigos.

Hi ho silver!

That's good.

(Chet laughs) - The "Daytripper" is made possible by Rudy's, real Texas barbecue.

Shipping nationwide at rudys.com.

Karbach Brewing Company from Houston, Texas, makers of Karbach Lager, a beer that is proudly partnered with Don't Mess with Texas, please dispose responsibly.

Visit Georgetown, where big ideas meet small town charm.

Georgetown, the most beautiful town square in Texas.

Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, protection and peace of mind for Texans since 1952.

Don Hewlett Chevrolet Buick in Georgetown.

Making Texas road trips possible for over 50 years.

Don Hewlett Chevrolet Buick, Texas True.

Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, Texas' local bottler providing the Lone Star state with a variety of Coca-Cola products.