Speed Street

TRAVELERS, START YOUR ENGINES!

The green flag dropped and they were off … race fans of all ages flooded the streets of downtown Charlotte for the 2011 edition of the 600 Festival’s Food Lion Speed Street event. The Texas on Tour family felt right at home this past weekend, considering we have our own NASCAR track in Fort Worth, Texas – the Texas Motor Speedway.

This weekend’s winner at Texas on Tour was the Discover Texas Dome. We had visitors racing to raise their hands so they could answer trivia questions correctly and walk away with cool prizes! My favorite moment was when someone guessed the state capital was Houston! Even though the state capital is actually Austin, he still walked away with a fun prize – as did many of our other visitors!

It came as a surprise to a lot of people to also find out about some unexpected experiences in Texas. Not only are there great adventures to be had on the water, but also on land, in caves and even under water. For example, people were interested to learn the second largest canyon in the U.S., Palo Duro Canyon, can be found in Canyon, TX. Visitors were able to picture themselves at the Canyon and among other exciting places in the Lone Star State through the “Picture Yourself in Texas” green screen experience.

Well, it’s time to wave the checkered flag on another great event. We’re going to load up and burn out of here to our next stop! Will it be your city? All you have to do to find out is go to TexasonTour.com. I’ll give you a hint … it’s another state’s capitol.
Hope to see you soon!

Joint Service Open House

Surrounded by some of the greatest war planes in our country’s history, Texas on Tour was rocking through its second stop and showed no signs of slowing down. With lines as long as jet streams, people from all over the region flocked to the 2011 Joint Service Open House in a salute to 100 years of naval aviation. Once every year in recognition of the US Military and supporting civilian personnel, Andrews Air Force Base opens its doors to the public and this year show goers received a nice surprise – A FREE TRIP TO TEXAS!

Over 200,000 people were shocked to see, hear, and even smell some of the great aspects of Texas right there on base. Ride the Texas Waterways was by far the most pleasant surprise of them all. As people’s faces lit up with every turn of the virtual reality kayaking adventure, the line grew more and more. Everyone had to see for themselves what was so exciting about this 360 degree trip down Texas’ waterways.


Texas on Tour’s live music stage also kept attendees entertained with Warren Hood. That guy can play the fiddle! At age 17 he won the Austin Youth Award and performed as a soloist with the Austin Symphony. If you missed him this time, you can still see him perform on our stage again at the San Diego County Fair.

Well Maryland, it's time for us to load up and head out, but for more information on exciting adventures in the Lone Star State, be sure to check out TravelTex.com.

It was a great weekend at the JSOH, but if you missed it don't worry. Our next stop is Speed Street in Charlotte, NC. From F-18’s and Thunderbirds to NASCAR show cars – see you there...Yeehaw!!!!!!

Atlanta Dogwood Festival

Flowers are in bloom, birds are chirping and the dogwood trees are "barking." Springtime is in full swing, and so is the 2011 edition of Texas on Tour. This year's kickoff event was at the Dogwood Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. This annual event, in its 75th year, draws more than 200,000 people to beautiful Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta and is a favorite of locals.

Flocks of people had an unexpected surprise when they found Texas right in the middle of the meadow of the park. They were even more surprised when they discovered how much Texas has to offer from beaches to mountains, and nightlife to culture ... Texas has everything you could ever want in a vacation.

Our Discover Texas dome stood out like a lighthouse for festival goers, drawing them from all over the park to the sights and sounds of Texas on Tour. Speaking of the sounds of Texas ... BettySoo from Austin serenaded the crowds with her unique folk-rock style all weekend, and toes were tapping and lips were whistling her songs as people left.

Texas on Tour is back on the road for its fourth straight year, educating and entertaining people about the Lone Star State. This year's tour takes us from the Deep South to the Pacific Northwest and everywhere in between. Make sure to check out www.TexasOnTour.com to see where we've been but, more important, if we're coming to a city near you!

Arizona State Fair

As we pulled into Phoenix for the Arizona State Fair, we knew we wanted to end this year’s tour across America with a bang, and that’s exactly what we plan to do! These folks in Arizona are wild about Texas and we’re happy to tell them all about it. We’re wrapping up our tour but there’s still a couple more days to come and check out Tje Austin on the entertainment stage and explore the waterways of Texas on our virtual kayaks! We’ll be here through Friday, so if you’re in the area come on out and say howdy!


As the sun is setting on Texas on Tour for this year, we look forward to what adventures lie ahead in 2011. We've had an awesome year full of many memories and many friends made along the way. If we didn't visit your city during the 2010 tour, perhaps we will be making a stop in 2011 somewhere near you.



Please check www.texasontour.com early next year to see our updated schedule and if we're close, come by and learn what Texas is all about. If you simply cannot wait until next year to see us again, go ahead and visit Texas for the real deal! You're always welcome!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

At our stop at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Texas on Tour is proud to welcome one of our sponsors -- SeaWorld San Antonio, and their furry -- and not so furry -- friends. Representatives from SeaWorld have been entertaining, educating, and encouraging people to travel to Texas and make San Antonio their next vacation destination. Guests to Texas on Tour were surprised to see appearances made by a lemur, wallaby, alligator and boa constrictor! It's amazing how animals can bring smiles to the faces of everyone in attendance.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is well known for its incredible hot air balloons shaped like animals, but attendees never imagined that they would see real live animals at the Texas on Tour exhibit! For more information on how you can visit SeaWorld San Antonio check out www.seaworld.com.

Along with our friends from SeaWorld, we also have Tje Austin playing on the entertainment stage in the afternoons. So Texas on Tour is the place to be! Check out the video clip to see Tje singing a song from his latest album Xperience.




If you live in Albuquerque or are going to be in the area, check out Texas on Tour and SeaWorld at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta through Sunday, October 10th. If you can’t make it to Albuquerque, then I sure hope we get to see you at the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix. I hate to say it folks, but that will be our final stop for the 2010 tour. So come out and visit us!

LA County Fair

We had a fantastic time at the LA County Fair and the thing we will remember the most is the people we met during this event. The state motto of Texas is “Friendship” and we definitely made some new friends in Southern California. Guests enjoyed “Ride the Texas Waterways” in our virtual-reality kayaks since there aren’t many places to kayak in Pomona. With temperatures reaching well into the 100s, visitors said the only thing that would have made the kayaks better was if you actually got sprayed with real water to cool off. I guess they’ll just have to schedule a trip to Texas for the real thing!

At our LA County Fair stop, we were also introduced to Tje Austin – a musician from Austin. He treated fair-goers every night to a free show at the Texas on Tour Entertainment Stage. Tje is a talented young up-and-coming artist who performs original songs and puts his own unique spin on R&B classics. We had several visitors come back night after night just to catch Tje’s performances. Tje will be joining us for the remainder of our tour, so if you can make it out I strongly encourage it.

Well friends, another Texas on Tour event has wrapped up and now we are up, up, and away to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM. I really hope to see you there!

Taste of Colorado

People flocked to the Taste of Colorado in Denver looking for fantastic food. Some of the finest restaurants in the Mile High City were featured with an estimated 500,000 people in attendance at this year's festival. Not only did they find great eats, they were also treated to a unique taste of Texas.

The Texas on Tour Discover Texas dome was a popular attraction, especially when the temperature went above 90 degrees outside. It's always a comfortable 70 degrees inside our larger-than-life dome, providing the perfect place to escape the summer heat. Even though we didn't have any food to offer, people still left us knowing more about the great state of Texas than when they entered. My favorite fact to share is that Texas has so many BBQ places that you could eat BBQ at a different spot every day of the year!

With Colorado just a short drive away from Texas, people were excited to learn that they could experience their very own taste of Texas, easy as pie! Texas on Tour will miss Colorado but, now we are heading west to the great LA County Fair in Pomona, CA. Hope to see you there!

Iowa State Fair

The smell of funnel cakes, the screams coming from the midway rides, and the sight of fireworks in the warm summer sky can only mean one thing – a fair is underway.

The Iowa State Fair is in full swing and Texas on Tour was lucky enough to be part of this year’s festivities. Crowds close to 1 million visit this Iowa attraction every summer, and this year was no different. In fact, almost half of the state of Iowa attends the fair. Many of the fairgoers were in for quite the surprise when they realized Texas was here, and they were even more surprised that it didn't cost a thing to experience the exhibit. We had so many people ask how many tickets to they needed to get in. When we told them it was all free, they almost didn't believe us! Maybe what they say is true...the best things in life ARE free!

We have a little something for everyone at Texas on Tour no matter what your age. We had people from 9 to 90 take a step into Texas. We also saw many faces make repeat visits to our exhibit just because they had so much fun. We even had trivia contests and bean bag toss competitions throughout the day where fairgoers had the chance to take home a souvenir from Texas on Tour. At various points throughout the day, we even had more people than some of the carnival games! : ) Now it's time to say Bye-owa to Iowa and drive off into the sunset towards Denver, where we are looking forward to what Colorado is cooking up at the Taste of Colorado.

Justin Herman Plaza

San Francisco marked the halfway point on our tour across the United States, educating and entertaining crowds with the sights and sounds of the Great State of Texas. The Golden State was happy to have Texas as their neighbor for a few days. We set up shop right in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district so lots of business men and women visited throughout the day. What a great way to spend their breaks from work with a quick trip to Texas. As soon as they stepped into our footprint they were magically transformed into the wide open plains and prairies of Texas. Our huge Dome Theater and Kayak Adventure allowed guests to leave behind the concrete jungle of San Francisco and escape to a much more tranquil place in Texas. We had tons of guests tell us that they never even knew Texas had water for kayaking. Boy are they wrong! With over 624 miles of coastline and nearly 200,000 miles of lakes and rivers, Texas is a kayakers dream. We noticed that quite a few workers spent 45 minutes or more of their 30 minute lunch breaks in Texas because they were enjoying it so much. Hopefully their bosses believed them when they told them they came back to work late because they were in Texas.


To top off our time in San Francisco, the Old 97's played to a packed crowd at 5pm right when everyone was getting off work. What a great way to relax and unwind after a stressful day of work! Next time these business professionals are planning their vacation we hope Texas is right at the top of their list. We are heading back east now to visit our friends in Des Moines, Iowa at the Iowa State Fair to spread the good news about Texas.

Chicago Navy Pier

Texas on Tour blew into the "Windy City" and transformed Navy Pier into a slice of Texas. If you didn’t know, everything's bigger in Texas, and we went as big as we possibly could for Chi-Town. We brought in tons of sand which was transformed, over 4 days, into a spectacular life-sized sandcastle. The crowd watched in awe as the sand artists worked their magic. If the sandcastle wasn't enough to impress Chicago, 2008 World Champion Trick Roper Kevin Fitzpatrick and his son Will sure were. The dynamic duo from Bandera wowed crowds with rope tricks. Spectators really enjoyed the father-son team as they lassoed people over to the display to learn about Texas.

To top it all off we were treated to a visit by two of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders! Lines formed fast and the ladies stayed plenty busy signing autographs and taking photos with all the fans. It was truly an action-packed event and Texas on Tour made an impression and left a mark in the hearts and minds of Chicago. Texas on Tour heads west next and it’s sure to be a San Francisco treat!