Episode 5 - Texas: Big Roads, Bigger Adventures

We continue our celebration of America 250 in the Lone Star State. Welcome to Texas! Where the culture is rich. No dad, stop! The barbecue is unmatched. Let's see, that's a white shirt. Eat over your plate. And everything is bigger in Texas. Oh my goodness, this is so, whoa! I did not see that coming. Roughly about 2,000 pairs of boots in this room. Oh my god. And Sean explores the life of a cowboy. Quick motion. Pierce through here. Squeeze. I won 77. I'm vaxxing cows. How do you kiss with cowboy hats? You know you're in Texas when cars and horses co-mingling on the streets. Who wants to horseback ride? Me! Valentina, do you want a horseback ride? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Everyone has, like, such cute cowboy hats. I really want to get one. You can, like, style your own. Like, you can, like, bedazzle it. You know what I mean? Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get some food. Some good Texas barbecue. And then we're gonna tap into one of dad's greatest fears. Dad dancing. But guess what? I'm gonna do it anyway. Well, you pass that trade on to everyone in the family. Because no one... No one has any rhythm. No one can sing and no one can dance. That's right. A family of not von Trapps. We will not be von Trapps singers or dancers. No, definitely not. All right, guys, we're here. Welcome to Texas! Come on, kids. Yes, Texas barbecue. This may be my favorite stop on the road trip. We're going to Texas. I'm gonna see Lucia and Jean-Paul who are in college in Dallas. We're gonna do a little line dancing. It's gonna be awesome. What's up, kids? Hi! Hey, girls. Good to see you. Jean-Paul. I'm excited seeing Jean-Paul and Lucia. I love that they both go to the same school. They're having very different experiences. JP is a freshman and Lucia is on the verge of graduating and becoming a teacher. You guys are all everyone's seniors? What's everyone gonna do? Well, I'm getting married. I'm teaching next year for a year. At my old high school. Yeah, that's cool. Very cool. What are you gonna do? I'm going to take my LSAT this summer. Shut up. And then goal is to go to Boston. I spent some time in Boston myself. And Lucia, what are you gonna do? So I'm waitressing right now at a local Mexican restaurant, but I'm starting to apply for teaching positions and I want to work in the fall. And you are in search of what? A husband, a car. Not a husband, a car. And Jean-Paul is just finishing his freshman year, right? Yeah. So I've got two orders of ribs. Looks good. Let's pray. Pray. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Bless us, our Lord, in these days, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen. All right. Let's eat. That's a white shirt. Eat over your plate. I don't have a lot of confidence here. Maybe we can ask for some napkins. Obviously, your favorite part of being here is seeing me and JP. Why else are you here though? I want to get back to the land. I want a little ranch house. I want the porch. I want the cows, the bees, the chickens, the steers. The dogs. AP, what do you say? I like it. I've always liked rural America over a city. Are you sure you're going to be building this house by hand? No, I'm not building it. I'm not building it. No, no, no, I can't. That's not my skill set. I mean, I'm super excited. I was just going to be like, we live here. It's free rent. Free rent. We're in Texas. Free beef, free milk. Yeah. I see myself waking up in the morning with my husband and kids, grabbing some chicken, grabbing some eggs. There's one person who can veto the dream, which is Rachel, which I think she's actually down for this plan. But she's going to be here tomorrow, and she's going to come to the dude ranch, and we'll get her take as well. Yeah, it'll be fun. But I think we should do some line dancing and see if we can pick it up. Yes, girls? So fun. All right, let's go dance. I'm sad that Rachel's not on this part of the trip. I miss her, but I'll tell you this. I'm kind of glad she's not here to see me dance because it's not pretty. All right, get in here. Come on. Welcome, everybody, to Billy Bosh, Texas. This is the world's largest honky-tonk. All right. And we are very honored to have Sean Duffy with us tonight to learn line dancing. What we're going to do is we're going to start with what's called a grapevine. We're going to step out with our right foot. You can go ahead and do that, too. OK, right foot. Cross behind with your left. Step right. And we're going to do a little thing called a hitch. And that's just bring your knee up. I think this is a good example for the kids. The kids know their dad can't dance, right? 100%. But don't let fear crush you. How'd you do? Bonnie, we got it. OK. You got this? We got it? I don't got it at all. I don't got it. Watching dad line dance, I'm getting secondhand embarrassment for him. But zero expectations this is going to go well for us. I think Valentina might break that Duffy curse. She's a pretty good dancer. Go like this, go like this. Impressive. All right, Bonnie. Dancing, even poorly, is really enjoyable. Maybe we all have a little dance in our human heart. And lift, cross, one, two, three. I hereby proclaim Sean's clan Billy Bob's Texas Dancers. Thank you, guys. That was awesome. That was so much fun. Look down, you're higher than the sun, you've broken through the clouds. Hey. Hey, what's up, brother? How you doing? Thanks for having me. We sure are glad you're here. Welcome to Texas. Welcome to CRH. It's good to be in Texas. Welcome to Cold Springs. As the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, parts of my job is to stop by and see the businesses that actually make construction and projects work. CRH is the leading company that provides asphalt and concrete in America. Without those two things, you don't have roads. What makes a great company and asphalt is the culture and people. It's the people. Is that what it is? A lot of them came through acquisition, their family business, like I did. It's their life's work. It's their family's life's work. They've been doing it for a long time. So did you grow up working the asphalt plant? I did. I grew up doing this. Of our 50,000 employees, a lot of folks share that exact same story. And I think that's what separates us. This is an American manufacturing story. Awesome. Let's go get suited up. I've always wanted to live in Texas. I told Sean I would live here. A heartbeat. To this area in Texas? Yeah, I love it. While Sean is going to the concrete and asphalt company, I decided to take the kids to go buy outfits for our day at the ranch. Luckily at Fort Worth, they have a beautiful historic district and lots of shops. Hi, how are you? So here's the deal. My husband wanted to be here, but he has to work. He wants a nice pair of boots and a great hat. So he's all decked out when we get to the ranch. Perfect. All right. We can make that happen. Oh my goodness. This is all... I did not see that coming. Roughly about 2,000 pairs of boots in this room. Oh my gosh. And they're all laid out by size. So it's where it tends to start. If you kids see something that you think looks cool... No. No? No. What about something like... That's nice. Bison hide? This is going to be a little bit tougher than like a calf skin. Okay. What about something like this? You guys like that? I like that one. This one seems kind of classic looking. Yeah. All right. Well, that was quick. And a hat. Okay. Y'all want to do the hat. And if he's going to wear it out on the farm, I would recommend a straw. You guys see him in it? I'm going to take this. Okay. I thought it was really fun to shop for Shawn without Shawn because everyone was pitching in trying to figure out what really is his personality. This is fun. Everybody had different opinions, but it was interesting. We all came to a good consensus. I hope you like it. I just bought these for my Sweet Sixteen. What if Mud got these for his Sweet Sixteen? So cute. Mud bought like full sequence boots, which was not exactly dude ranch, but whatever. I really wasn't sure what Patrick's reaction was going to be. Here you go, Patrick. Let's see how the black one looks on you. I figured he was not going to like this. It was the exact opposite. I don't know. I feel like those are a little too showy. What does showy mean? It's a little too flashy. I like flashy. I kind of like for going out on a date. Oh, okay. CRH is the largest building materials business in the world. Obviously, hot mix and asphalt production is a big part of what we do. The road trip would not be complete without roads. Yeah. We got to have those, man. It's all funneled right here through this system, crosses over into our heated drum. Okay. It makes it all bind together. Are you filling these drums? Yeah. Each one of these silos has a 300 ton storage capacity. Okay. You can pave about two and a half miles with a roadway in these silos. We're walking around historic Fort Worth and we start to see everybody gathering in this certain area. This is a daily occurrence here in Fort Worth. Every day, these longhorn cattle come down the middle of the street. Welcome to the Fort Worth Herd Cattle Drive. Look at that. You see how big they are? Look at these cowboys. We like the cows. See the cowboys? You have a particular formation in how they operate. Yeah, I'm noticing that. So up front, you have what's called a trail boss. Okay. So he leads the route. He knows the route. Now, they used to move 3,000 head of cattle and it would only take about 10 or 12 guys to do it. Look how huge they are, Patrick. That's our biggest one. His name is Brutus. He's about 2,500 pounds. Wow. I love Fort Worth. It's historic. It's beautiful. Between the cowboy hats and the boots and the cattle coming down the street, I think our kids could see themselves living here. Texas, cowboys, ranches. That is America. It sure is. This is what's coming off the roadway daily when they resurface and we get ready to process it to turn it into the material that we need. There's a lot of recycling going on. There is. We recycle more material than anyone else in the country and by way of recycled asphalt. From a sustainability standpoint, it makes complete sense. And then we're able to maximize those DOT dollars in a lot of cases. That's great. Makes a ton of sense. Yeah. In the U.S., we have over 4 million miles of road and those roads have to be repaved, redone. You don't have many of our interstates unless you have plants like this to make sure those roads stay operational for you and keeps you and your family safe. So to come and see them, one of the biggest operators, is really important. You want to look and see how it's run? Yeah. Come on. We'll show you the whole brains. Welcome to our petting zoo. I want that little goat. So cute. My goodness. Such a cutie. My favorite thing about Texas is going to the petting zoo. I really like animals. So that was kind of cool seeing the goats, especially the baby ones. I have to hold them, which is really cool. Patrick, I'm in for a buck if you get one of it. Here, I'll tell you what. I'll do it with you. It's not bad, okay? It's just grass. All right, ready? All right, here we go. Do it up. Oh my gosh. Gagging. The fact that we can say that you ate goat food says a lot about your character. You got it, Patrick. Goat food tastes like grass. Ew, get away from me. You'll be all right. Well, here's what we know for sure. Wait, wipe your face. You're definitely not a goat. He's such a drama king. I ate grass. Sean's still at work, but I decided to just take the kids to the ranch. I think this whole area is super cute, you guys. Isn't it nice? We need to talk about your party, actually, Mud, because I have to order your cupcakes. So Mud's going to be turning 16 pretty soon. She wants to have a Western theme for the sweet 16. And I think this Texas part of our road trip has had a bit of an impact on her. We're here. You guys ready? Yeah. Hi. Well, hi. Welcome to Beaumont Ranch. Thank you. I'm Rachel. I'm Ron Beaumont. Hi, Ron. It's nice to meet you. Hi, I'm Shelly. Hi, Shelly. It's nice to meet you, too. Come on in. Enjoy yourself. Fantastic. Thank you. Hey, everybody. We end up at Beaumont Ranch. This is a fully functioning working ranch. It's been in their family for over 30 years. Patrick, get in there. All right, go. Go first, Patrick. You got to hold on tight. They're going to start it right now. There you go. Margaret and Patrick are always a little competitive. You know, they're close in age. But Maug is always a little nicer about the competitiveness. Patrick gets a little bit mean and aggressive with it, to be honest. What's up, kids? Let's see it, Patrick. Hey, I'm Sean. I'm Ron Beaumont. Good to meet you. This is his place. Look at this. Let's see it, Patrick. Well, hey, thank you so much for coming to the ranch. We've been doing a lot of stops on our road trip. This is like the one I've been looking forward to the most, to come to see you. So I appreciate you having us. Oh, great, great. Yeah. Well, you get to see the ranch tomorrow. Are you going to work them hard? We're going to introduce you to Jay, who's actually going to be the one who showed you how to do everything tomorrow. Hey, I'm Sean. Patty, nice to meet you. Are you going to turn my husband into a cowboy? We got some work to do. We got tomorrow. We can get there. I've been in government service for most of my life. When I'm done with my service, I got to get a farm or a ranch. There you go, absolutely. And I tell them all, and they're like, they think I'm crazy, but I'm excited about tomorrow and seeing all that you guys do to make a ranch operational. And we're going to start at what time? 6 a.m. All right. You said you wanted a farm. All right, 6 a.m., gents. We'll be up and ready to go. Great. God bless. Thank you, guys. We need to get you to bed. Let's go. Appreciate it. I decided to break. I'm going to work off these. You can't eat that much. I know. And think you're, and you're going to have. What is it like? Well, I decided I should probably try the, um, this gets a gravy. The growing boy needs his food. I thought I'm going to be out there working the farm a little bit. I could work that right off my muffins. I'm not sure you're going to be able to work that off. I'm looking forward to getting out there and just seeing what these cowboys do to make this ranch work. And I'll put my cowboy hat on. Got some cowboy boots. I'm going to have a blast. Sweet 16 is coming up. Mud is going to be 16. We're going to have a big bash and a big party. Are we, so what's, is the party going to be food? Are we going to be dancing? They made a playlist. Yeah, we should bring our line dancing expertise. Yes. And I'll be like. That's why you were meant to come here first. Yeah, I'll be up there. Okay, everybody. Now we're going to do the grapevine. Is dad allowed to dance at your party? I guess that's what he's asking. Is there a father-daughter dance at the party? No, it's not a wedding. I want to know, do I have to prep a speech for the sweet 16? Do I have to go like welcome everybody? She's amazing. No, we're not doing that. Beautiful, funny. No, no. Thank you all for being here. Is this the point of this birthday party for you to be a center of attention? Yeah, literally. Okay, not as my dad talking. No, I don't want to do that, no. Mud wants a big party without. A big party. Wants a party, a big party without people saying happy birthday and without my dad doing a speech. It's just not the vibe. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Y'all have a good night's rest? We did, we had a good breakfast too. Well, that's good. Let's roll, we're burning daylight. Let's go. Do you know what they say? Guys like me, we're all hat and no cattle. Well, let's see if we can fix that today. Bye honey. We're gonna go do a little ranching. Say bye daddy. Bye guys. Bye dad. Work them hard. I'll see y'all later. So how long has your family been in ranching? I guess I am about an eighth generation agriculturalist. Different types of farming and ranching. Is that the story? Usually it's a family business. Once you do it, there's a drawback to it. Is that kind of the story of a lot of the ranches down here? That's a big part of it. Multi-generations, passing it down to the next generation. Most farmers you're gonna meet came from farming families. It's a challenge for somebody not from an agricultural family to get into this business. All right, so what we're doing here is we've got some heifers here that we home raced. We're just kind of sorting through and getting the ones that we think are big enough to go with bulls. So how do you check them? Piano stick. Hey girls. How you doing? We call them. All right, so what are you doing here? Jet's gonna be bringing them and Kade's gonna make the call. Catch or buy. Ranching is a science, but it's also an art. And I got to go out with Jay and select cattle. Which ones are going to go off to the market? And which ones are they going to breed? Which, by the way, that is the future of the herd. Catch her. So catch is what? Catch is when we're gonna breed. You're gonna breed right there. Buy. Watch her, the narrowness. Oh, narrowness, yeah. Catch. Catch. Watch out. She'll be 900. Big mama. You want to go shoot bow and arrow? While Sean is working on the ranch, separating cattle, we are having a different experience. It's cowboy life. Ready? And release. See? Pull back farther. Farther. Nice. How'd that feel? Cool. Yeah, do you want to try it? Let mom go. She hasn't done it. We're gonna do this and we're gonna get a bullseye. Give her a trick of juicing. Okay. All right, one more, one more. It's a good try. I think I hit my lip. What do you guys think Dad's doing? I don't know. I have no idea. What would be, what's the worst chore they could have paid him to do today? Vaccinating all the calves. What we're gonna do is just kind of keep pumping that air in. Yep. And then pulling it back out. Just feel the syringe. All right, you got it. Hold that shirt. I don't think I need that. Set up here. We're gonna try to get it in the triangle of the neck. So all you're doing is going in and squeezing the handle. Just like a little guy. Okay. Is that right here? Is that the right angle? Yes, sir. I'm vaxxing cows. Oh, yeah. Good. Can I do one more? Of course. There you go. All right, baby. Hold on. Okay, man. I might be on the team here. I don't know. Let's move on. Hey. How are you? Ready to ride some horses? Sounds good. Hold on. You feel like a cowboy? Yeah. Say it like you mean it. I feel like a cowboy. Patrick loved the boots. He wanted to get a hat that worked. And he really wanted a cowboy belt with a buckle. If he could wear them to school with his uniform, he would. He wants to wear them to church. He loves it. Maybe he's a cowboy at heart. Maybe he is. Valentina, come here. Look, pop on a horse. You want to get on a horsey? All right. Look over here, you two. Valentina, say cheese. Say hi. Wave, Valentina. Say hi. That's good. You're good. Getting a picture of them? I'm trying. We're far away, though. They look so pretty. I know. It's so pretty up here. All right. Okay. Oh, wow. So pretty right here. Would you guys like to live out here? I think this is really cool. Maybe Texas is the place. I know. Watching the kids outside riding horses, just enjoying the outdoors and just being free, of course, I can totally imagine us living this life. Don't put it in there. Can I go outside and start running? Patrick and Margarita start running. It was just such a beautiful moment to go, this is what they want to do. They just want to run free. Valentina on a horse. Patrick's on a horse. Oh, that's awesome. I'm enjoying seeing the life of a cowboy and a rancher out there with Jay, but I can't wait to get back and see Rachel and the kids and hear about their experience for the day. You got it. Nothing like a John Deere tractor. American made. I have the utmost respect for the cowboys and ranchers that do this work every single day. It's hard work. The businesses can be risky. There's ups and there's downs. The days are long. And so the men and women who dedicate their life to ranching and farming, kudos to you. You make America great. Thank you for having me. Thanks for taking the time. Very grateful. Appreciate you being a great American and a great rancher. Appreciate it. I just see this little slice for Rachel and me and whatever kids I have left to have a small farm with some farm animals and a garden and a porch and a sunset. That's what I want. Nothing like a little barbecue after that. Yeah, wait mom, why can't we live on a farm? Well, maybe when you talk to dad. Maybe he enjoyed his day and maybe that's what he wants to do. Hey guys, I think that's dad pulling up. It's daddy. Go get him. How was it? Well, no, better yet, how was your day? It was great. Jay, be honest. Is he cowboy material? You know, I think potential is there. You know, he can come down here and day work for sure, so. Here's what I think. I think you like the idea of being a cowboy and a farmer, but I think you want to be a gentleman cowboy. You see how good I look in this hat? You're all hat. No cattle, that's right. We were wondering if it would be possible to stay one more day instead of making us leave. Yeah. So listen. I don't want to leave. They love it out. They love Texas. They just loved it so much out here. I know, we'll come back. Did you have a good time? Yeah, it was great. It was awesome. They loved it. There's something special about Texas. Doing road trips, you know, in all these different places and doing really cool things. So far, this is by far my favorite. I really loved Texas. I thought the whole family had a great time. I think about this road trip in America 250 and spots that are Americana. I think we got this one right. I thoroughly, completely, 100% absolutely loved this trip. Everything's bigger in Texas. But what I think is important is, as we look to the next couple of days, mud is going to turn 16, which by the way, I still think of her as a six-year-old little girl. I know. And she's going to be 16. And I think we should cheese this thing out. Listen, if we're going to let her do this party, I'm going to give her a little speech. No, don't do that to her. Oh yeah, no, no, I'm going to. No, no, I am. No, don't do that. Don't just make it what she wants. She just wants you to show up. I did the party. I gave her what she wanted. And let, and let. We're going to do a little dance competition. We'll judge that. She's not going to do that. She just wants to hang out with her friends. I'll take that under advisement. It's her day, so. Mud's going to be turning 16. And I think this Texas part of our road trip has had a bit of an impact on her because she wants to have a Western theme for the sweet 16. But she's also really wanting us to know that at her sweet 16, she does not want anyone, especially not dad, to give a speech at her party with all her friends there. Question for you. Yes. How do you kiss with cowboy hats? Does it work? Because it's a good trip. When you do a road trip, you get to experience the cultures and see the beauty that this country has to offer. And when you come home to be able to share that, I think it's important. Are you doing your hair? Yeah. Good job. It's my sweet 16 and I'm excited. Her birthday party's country theme. Thinks it's going to be fun. You want lip gloss? Sparkles. It's spiky. So spiky. Food's hot. Grab a plate. My sister party was really fun. I had the biggest s'more out of everyone. Ooh, the s'mores are so good. Yeah, the s'mores are good. Walk. Use your feet. Let's go. My family's trying to make me line dance at my own party. It's not going to happen. But all my friends came, so it was really fun. If your soon-to-be 16-year-old daughter doesn't want you to give a speech, you tell her you're going to give a speech. I mean, that's what you do. You're a little bit trolling her. A little bit. Your bark was bigger than your bite on this one. A hundred percent. It was just good, clean fun. I hope she had a great day. Happy birthday, Mutt. Well done. Great. Happy sweet 16.