Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i Texas Highways Magazine

LAST JULY, I finally had the opportunity to visit Balmorhea State Park, which has been on my summer to-do list since I started in this position more than eight years ago. As high as my anticipation was to finally experience the beloved West Texas oasis, the 1.3-acre spring-fed pool, with its crystal-clear waters, easily exceeded my expectations. After securing a reservation three weeks before our July 24 visit—day passes are recommended during peak season and can be booked up to four weeks early—my husband, 11-year-old daughter, 9-year-old son, and I arrived at 3 p.m. for our afternoon slot. While my daughter quickly made a beeline to join the queue for the high dive, shouting for us to make sure to watch her jump, my son opted to take his time…

DRIVING BACK TO Dallas-Fort Worth from a family trip in 2011, Albert and Amy Guerrero noticed their car’s cupholders jingling with pressed pennies—souvenirs their kids had acquired on the way to and from Colorado. The clinking of copper posed a question for the pair: What do we do with all these pennies? The answer came in the form of PennyBandz, their brand of penny-holding products that can now be found in gift shops across the state and the U.S. The silicone bracelets let you display a pressed penny in an array of color combinations and styles, and the product line has grown to include animal keychains called PennyPalz; necklaces; and an adventure journal that holds up to 146 pennies. The Guerreros build pressed penny machines, too, which can be found…

THE HALF-MOON IS still bright when my fiancé and I drive east out of Dell City, population 245, on a yucca-lined dirt road toward the Guadalupe Mountains in far West Texas. We park and take a sand-packed trail through the fading darkness as the sun begins to rise on the other side of the peaks, backlighting their toothy silhouettes. The creosote is so fragrant out here that you’d think it had just rained. I turn around and gaze toward the valley we’ve just come from, far-off mountains now crowned in violet and pink. Inside one of them, a billionaire is building a 10,000-year clock called the Long Now. The trail crests, and white sand dunes appear from out of nowhere: a seascape in the desert. We stand in a terrain…

1 ⁄ Sure, that view is priceless—like big Gulf vistas at Beachfront Deck Bar & Grill—but if the Lone Star is ice cold and the crawfish is plentiful, a neon beer sign in the window will do just fine. 2 ⁄ Oversized fiberglass sea creatures—the bigger the better. Whether it’s a leviathan blue crab on the roof of Gaido’s or a gargantuan fishing lure hanging from the ceiling inside Topwater Grill, these colossal avatars of aquatic authenticity are a must. 3 ⁄ When it comes to local color (literally), a dive worth its weight in peel-and-eat shrimp and never met a paint job that wasn’t highlighter-intense. Top honors go to Paradise Key Dockside Bar & Grill, which you might be able to see from space. 4 ⁄ Listen: Do you…

ALL TOO OFTEN, from his post at the shucking station at Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewery in San Antonio, chef Aaron Juvera has caught guests haughtily dismissing the merits of Texas oysters. “I’ll overhear a server talking up local oysters and a customer will say, ‘Nah, I only do East Coast ones,’” Juvera says. “So, I’ll go shuck a couple of oysters and be like, ‘You’re not gonna believe it; you just have to try these. And if you like them, let’s get some more.” Recently, a couple celebrating their anniversary tossed around names like Raspberry Point from Canada’s Prince Edward Island as evidence of their oyster affection and expertise. Always on the hunt for Texas converts, Juvera shucked a few Big Tree oysters from Copano Bay and sent them…

@THERAFORGETX, VIA INSTAGRAM Taking Flight I was 12 years old in August 1960 when Trans-Texas Airways provided an unforgettable memory [“Sky High,” May]. A few sailplane pilots, my dad included, and their families had gathered at the World War II Marfa Army Air Field to soar the famous Marfa thermals. One Friday afternoon, a TTA DC-3 landed for a nonscheduled stop to drop off some locals. We were excited to meet the flight crew going from El Paso to San Antonio. They explained that TTA in the 1950s was a regularly scheduled airline in and out of MAAF. The crew was so pleased to meet us that they gave me a photo of their plane. Perhaps that was the final visit to Marfa by Trans-Texas Airways. RUSS PETRE, DENISON Picturesque…

TEXANS KNOW THAT in the summer, you should never be too far from a body of water. If you’re not lucky enough to have a pool or live near a lake or ocean, booking a room at a hotel with a pool is the next best option. These lodgings across the state offer swimming amenities that are far from your average hotel pool. Less than an hour outside of Austin in the Hill Country, Horseshoe Bay Resort unveiled its waterfront floating pool—the only one of its kind in North America—last Memorial Day. The 2,850-squarefoot pool, designed by engineer and Texas native Tim Greeson, floats on the constant-level Lake LBJ and brings the property’s swimming pool tally to three. The pool stays cool even in the hottest summer months. “Because it’s…

LIKE HIS CHARACTER JOEL IN THE Peabody L Award-winning HBO series Somebody Somewhere, Jeff Hiller was raised in the church. Unlike the Kansan he played for three seasons, though, Hiller grew up in San Antonio. “We still own the same house I grew up in,” he says. He left Texas after college and lived in places as far flung as South Africa before settling in New York, but he comes back often to see his father and sister. “When I visit home now, it takes about 24 hours for my accent to come back,” he says. Hiller’s new memoir, Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty Year Trail to Overnight Success, is out this month from Simon & Schuster. It’s a series of laughout-loud yet heartfelt essays about getting bullied…

BIG BEND COUNTRY EL PASO Viva El Paso June 20-Aug. 2 A cast of more than 50 actors and dancers performs this musical that celebrates the four major cultures that have influenced El Paso: Native American, Spanish conquistador, Mexican, and Western American. McKelligon Canyon Amphitheatre, 1331 McKelligon Canyon Road. 915-231-1100; vivaelpaso.org FORT STOCKTON Summer Off the Patio Through July 24 Enjoy a summer breeze on the patio while watching local bands perform at this Thursday night concert series. Annie Riggs Museum, 301 S. Main St. 432-336-2167; annieriggsmuseum.org MARFA Agave Festival June 5-8 Raise a glass to the succulent plant native to Mexico and its impact on culture through food, film, music, science, and spirits. The annual event offers tastings hosted by spirits producers, dining experiences, and live music.…

ONE OF MY grandfathers served in the Pacific theater, the area where fighting occurred between Japan and the Allies in World War II, and I’m always looking for opportunities to learn more about that part of history. On a March trip to Corpus Christi, I visited the USS Lexington to experience what life was like aboard an Essex-class aircraft carrier. As I climbed the ship’s many stairs and walked its narrow halls, I certainly felt like part of the crew. The museum, located on Corpus Christi’s North Beach, offers five self-guided tours, plus guided tours and overnight experiences. Visit the flight deck to view 20 different naval aircraft, or take a peek at the quirkiest find on the tour—the many mannequins standing in for crew members. You’ll find them everywhere…

JUAN L. GONZALEZ, a professor of earth J sciences at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, hops out of the car and motions for me to follow. I’ve parked next to an auto repair shop just off US 83, which we’ve followed west from McAllen. Outside Rio Grande City, the road cuts through a hill of what looks like white dirt. Gonzalez leads me toward the edge of that outcrop, a chalky bluff that reaches 16 feet above our heads, where it’s topped with a thick layer of gravel. I run my hand over the slope’s surface, and the eroding dust covers my fingertips in white powder. This cream-colored clay is an astonishing 27.4 million years old, Gonzalez explains. It’s the top 5 meters of a 20-meter layer of ash…

OK, there’s no seafood here except anchovies on the pizzas. But what there is at this Port Aransas pirate bar is cold beer, live music, and belt sander racing. Launched by owner Kip Shannon in 2005, The Gaff’s semimonthly Saturday races are a raucous head-to-head competition between decorated and souped-up belt sanders down a 75-foot track. The top three finishers receive cash prizes and medals, as if it were a part of the Olympic Games. Which it should be. 361-749-5970…

A 1962 ADVERTISE- MENT for Pearl beer featured the tagline “From the country of 1,100 springs,” making it known that its crystalline water, filtered through miles of underground limestone shelves, was the brew’s main selling point. Over the following decades, the brand changed hands several times, finally selling to the Pabst Brewing Company in 1985. At one point, production was even moved to Fort Worth and Austin before halting altogether in 2022. Yet that famed water, lying underneath Pearl’s original San Antonio site, has remained unchanged. That’s why, in 2024, new owner Silver Ventures had the epiphany to start canning the prized, mineral-rich product. Packaged in 16-ounce aluminum cans, Pearl Water is drawn directly from an artesian well located in front of Stable Hall. Currently available throughout the Pearl Brewery complex…

GROWING UP AS A SIXTH-GENERATION Fort Worthian, Jarred Howard recalls numerous summers celebrating Juneteenth, the day Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued a general order announcing the end of slavery in Texas and the liberation of enslaved people throughout the U.S. Now, on the 160th anniversary of the original declaration, Fort Worth’s highly anticipated National Juneteenth Museum is launching a festival, called Freedom Vibes, to mark the holiday. “As long as I have been alive, Fort Worth has celebrated Juneteenth,” says Howard, who serves as the forthcoming museum’s CEO. “Juneteenth has always been a staple in the community that I grew up in. And so we’re just making it much bigger than it’s ever been before.” Plans for the museum include breaking ground later this year and having room to expand…