- 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.

(bright music) - We are headed to a town where the history is as plentiful as the goats.

Things get wooly at the local auction, and plain nutty on the local pecans.

We experience the history and tastes of our ancient Texas ancestors.

And eat the tacos, burgers, and steak of a town that epitomizes Texas hospitality.

Goldthwaite.

Been waiting forever on this train.

Come on buddy, like, 10 more feet.

(train honking) (bright music) (bright music continues) (upbeat music) Goldthwaite sits about 90 miles west of Waco and a hundred northwest of Austin.

It's the county seat of Mills County and right at the point where the Texas Hill country turns into big country.

Goldthwaite, Texas.

It's a funny name I know, but it's actually a Norse word that means ravines and meadows.

And if you look around, I mean, kind of fits, but in actuality here, it was just the name of the railroad guy who helped establish the town.

But as we will see, in Goldthwaite, there's no bad days.

(rooster crows) You know it really gets my goat, so to speak, when folks think small towns are boring, especially if that small town is one of the top goat and sheep producers in the nation.

To experience firsthand what that looks and smells like, we're starting at the Mills County Commission's goat and sheep sale.

You've lived in it your whole life.

I know it's like breathing air, but for us coming in, air's a little different.

Can you smell these anymore?

- You kinda get accustomed to it.

- I imagine.

This is John Clifton.

Every Thursday morning, 10:00 a.m.

sharp, he and his sons operate one of the nation's largest goat and sheep auctions.

Yeah, you might call the Clifton family the Goat of goat auctions.

This is more goats and sheep, I think, than I've ever seen in one place.

Is this just a normal Thursday?

- Yes, we average, probably somewhere between 28 and 103,000.

- Oh my gosh, okay.

That's a lot.

Some are sold for wool, some for pets and city folk stuff like goat yoga.

But most of these will end up on a plate somewhere.

Goldthwaite is the meat goat capital of America for a reason.

You know, as Texans, we don't really eat a lot of goat and mutton.

Who's eating all these?

- It's a big ethnic trade now.

- Okay.

- A lot of 'em stay right here in Texas, but they ship them all over the United States.

- Okay.

Hey, I do love me some Mediterranean lamb chops or even some Indian goat vindaloos.

Rising demand is driving record highs in the market.

Ranchers and auctioneers love it, but not everyone.

(goat bleats) So some of these Billy goats are getting a little mean down here.

You had a few close encounters in these pits?

- Oh, yeah.

(Chet laughing) - Any near death experiences?

- Well, not quiet.

- Not quiet.

Some of these man, you turn your back on 'em, they're gonna take you down.

- Yeah, they will.

- It's a dangerous job.

Let's see the Clifton team in action.

(bright music) This, my friends, is a cultural experience.

This guy up here, he's talking so fast.

I'm trying so hard to hear what he's saying and it's another language.

(imitating auctioneer) This auction has been running the same for generations.

And honestly, I hope they never change.

Some folks, you can't even tell when they're biding.

I mean, it might just be something like this.

- Hey.

- You know, like a this.

- Be careful with those fingers.

- So the front row is for regulars.

Us folks up here in the bleachers need a card with our name on it.

Wait, what's this?

Oh look, I got one.

- You've gotta be kidding me.

- When in Goldthwaite.

You know, you never know what could happen on a day trip.

- Chet, Chet.

Do not buy a goat.

No, put it down, put it down.

Do not buy a goat.

- Yeah.

- What have you done?

- We got a dog.

- I've always, kinda.

- We named her Rosie.

- We have a.

- She's getting hair on everything.

What are we gonna do with a goat all day?

Two rules.

No children, no pets.

- Yeah, you didn't say no kids.

- Oh my gosh.

- This is gonna be awesome.

New crew member.

And since we're definitely not eating her, we gotta find some other food.

On day trips, many Texans are faced with a tough decision.

Tacos or burgers?

Well, at Mary's, you don't have to decide.

Welcome to Mary's Tacos and Burgers, a local favorite for 25 years.

I'm starving, but a bit distracted by a familiar face.

Not the one on the T-shirts, my mom.

Mom, what are you doing here?

And why is my face on all these women's shirts?

- We're the Daytripper groupies.

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah.

- So our whole fan club is based in Goldthwaite, Texas.

- Yeah.

- That's good to know.

It's good to know.

(group cheering) Oh, nice.

So my parents live in Goldthwaite, as did my grandfather and great-grandfather.

Likely why the entire community voted and won our viewers' choice contest.

Yeah, how many of y'all hacked the system to cheat the votes?

Show of hands, be honest.

All right, I know, I know.

And that's okay, a good bunch of ladies.

- Absolutely.

- Questionable fashion sense.

(group laughing) All right, love you.

- Love you too.

- A mother's love knows no bounds, which also applies to Mary herself, who's working in the kitchen with her two sons.

All right, so you're the infamous Mary, the matriarch of this whole thing.

- Well, I wouldn't say that.

My family's been with me through the whole thing.

That's Joe, my oldest son and Gus is my youngest, my baby.

- Gus.

- Hey.

- Do y'all remember life without Mary's Tacos?

- Not much.

- When did y'all start working here?

- 13.

- 13.

- I mean, I remember mom and dad bringing me when I was like seven probably.

I probably made a bigger mess than him, but.

- Hey, you were getting trained.

- Oh, yeah.

- Train 'em up in the way they should go.

In Mary's kitchen, there is a lot of work to be done.

Tortillas are hand-rolled every morning.

Even the taco shells are freshly fried.

Why do you go to the trouble?

- Because they won't let me do it any other way now.

They won't let me take shortcuts.

- Don't ever let her change.

I mean, homemade tortillas is the way to go.

Joe here, even hand forms and grills every burger, even has one named after him with grilled jalapenos and onions.

What's better, the G burger or the Joe burger?

- Definitely the G burger.

- Okay, here we go.

The sibling rivalry.

So wait, Gus, what's yours have on it?

- Okay, mine has bacon, guacamole, got jalapenos and some special sauce.

- A little G sauce.

- That's right.

- That's hard to pass up, Joe.

- A little extra.

(Chet laughing) - You can tell this family loves each other and the customers love Mary's.

Well, let me just tell you, everybody out there has smiles on their faces.

There's a bunch of crazy gray-haired ladies.

They seem a little cuckoo.

You might want to call somebody.

- I'm glad they're here.

- The sheriff or something.

Time for lunch or rather lunches.

That's kind of a lot.

I mean, yeah, I ordered a burger with a taco on the side, but evidently that doesn't exist here.

And so I got an entire plate of tacos on the side.

A freshly fried taco shell, I cannot resist.

Oh, it's so good.

- That's a loud crunch.

- You can hear that right?

- Oh, I can hear it.

- Oh.

(bright music) This shell right here destroys any pre-made shell that comes off the back of a food supply truck.

Like, that is so good.

When I heard about the Gus burger, I had to go for it.

I forgot there's guacamole on there.

(Daniel laughing) - I didn't.

- It just went all over my face.

God, that is a messy burger, but that is delicious.

This place could be either a taco joint or a burger joint and it would be fantastic.

And I'm not complaining.

(bright music) Now to roam Mills County and Rosie can bond with Teresa.

(Rosie bleats) We're gonna start by taking trip back, way back, to before Mills County, before Texas, even before the Great Pyramids at the Texas Botanical Gardens and Native American Interpretive Center.

An entire city block dedicated to showing us modern Texans how our ancient brothers and sisters lived on this very same land.

- So this was built to look like a piece of untouched land in Mills County to showcase the lives of the very first people and how they lived off of the land using the plants for medicine, food, shelters.

- Savannah here is the garden's director.

They had to live so much closer to the land than we can even process.

- Oh yeah, part of it, right?

As opposed to I'm in nature right now.

We are of nature always.

- Always.

See, that's super cool.

These people were hunter gatherers who migrated with the bison and even the mammoths.

Rather than just roam around, it seems they returned to the same campgrounds year after year.

- So this is what's called a bedrock mortar.

These holes in the stones were formed over a thousand years and used this sort of a heavy elongated rock to pound food.

- God, you would have amazing triceps too.

- You gotta be strong.

- Just, like, pounding this rock.

- And a lot of these are found along the Colorado River.

We have one site where there's 70 plus holes in one slab of bedrock.

- No kidding.

- Yeah.

- Mills County is loaded with archeological sites.

My grandfather filled buckets full of arrowheads.

If I had to kill my own food to live, I would die.

If I had to make the weapons to kill my own food to live, I'd be ex extra dead.

- Maybe you would be one that would make the traps.

- Yeah.

- You'd be the one that eats it all.

- I could, I'll be the cook.

Speaking of eating, one of the many hands-on activities here has me hungry.

This is education director, Jessica Hester.

- Well, I've set up a table here with things that you might have seen Native American people eat or use.

- And I mean they would like use every part of the buffalo, but not just that, like, every part of everything.

- Every part.

- Every horn, bone or stick could become a tool or a weapon.

Stones for fishing weights, sotol for knife handles, yucca roots for soap.

Wash the goat off of me.

Even if I couldn't kill a bison, I could pick up a pecan, which Mills County has always had in abundance.

- And a lot of times, they would even take what was left and they would make a special pecan milk called Powcohicora.

- Powcohicora.

Oh, it's delicious.

- Like a pecan.

- Yeah.

- It's pretty good.

- It's tasty.

- Gimme like a gallon.

(Chet laughing) - Yeah.

Okay, I'll go start picking pecans.

You know what goes great with pecan milk?

Pecan pancakes.

- You're doing a good job.

- So how many of these do we have to get for a pancake?

- Oh, you know, about a hundred.

- Okay.

- Just kidding.

- Whoa, look how greasy.

Tastes delicious.

Now little ants crawled across this and got ground up into it so there's extra protein.

- Extra protein.

- After a few minutes I could make at least a quarter pancake with this, but thankfully, Jessica's got me covered.

- I made 'em at home for you.

- Thank you.

- So you can try 'em.

So you can just see what it tastes like.

I also have prickly paired jelly for you.

- Oh, nice.

- So you can sample some.

It's prickly pear.

- I know that took a lot of work for them to make something like this, but that's delicious.

- Oh, I almost forgot the best part.

- Wait, you can eat redbud flowers?

- You can eat flowers, absolutely.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That's a beautiful thing is that we can still enjoy all these wonderful things the way they were enjoying them thousands of years ago - Got like a floral sweetness.

It's so cool how they lived with so much knowledge of the land that we just forgot and they would be laughing at us, like, of course we know that.

We've known this for tens of thousands of years.

Life got more complicated, but did it get better?

All right, Daniel.

Modern society is poison.

- What are you talking about?

- I live here now.

- What?

- I can't deal with your speed and the chaos of modern life.

- My speed?

So you're just gonna eat pecan pancakes for the rest of your life.

- Yeah, I think they serve 'em here.

(Rosie bleats) Rosie, quit eating that.

No.

Nothing like a new pet to bring you back to reality.

Daniel's on duty.

To keep this historic timeline rolling, let's head next door to the Mills County Historical Museum.

All right, so Joe Goldthwaite was the railroad agent in charge of getting folks to move to this town.

He promised them two things, a free lot and a free house.

But there was one catch, they had to name their firstborn male child Goldthwaite.

- Yikes.

- So here is a silver cup memorializing the birth of none other than Goldthwaite Dexter.

That is a tough first name to have, folks.

Reminds me of one other guy named Goldthwaite.

Bobcat Goldthwaite.

(Chet grunts) (Daniel laughing) This was actually the very first automobile registered in Mills County, 1906.

I mean, can you imagine driving one of these on these streets back in that day?

I mean, this would've looked like a spaceship.

Whether you're hunting history or looking for local legends like UT basketball coach, Jody Conradt, this museum is well worth the trip.

Oh good, I'm glad.

I need to make a pit stop.

- This is an outhouse?

- Yeah, there's two seats if you want to use it.

Pilot to copilot.

- I'm gonna let you go solo on that one.

- Okay, good idea.

Ow, a rattlesnake bit me through the pothole.

Fortunately for trippers, Mills County has plenty of indoor plumbing these days.

And if you need to fix the plumbing at your house or shoot the rattlesnake under your house, just come to the same place Goldthwaite residents have been coming for over a hundred years, the Mills County General Store.

General store, lots of general things.

You know, I've just got some projects to do.

They won't take that long.

Here, hold that.

- Whoa, hello.

- Here, hold this.

- Wait, that one too?

Oh.

- Here, hold that.

- The whole thing?

- Well, I don't know how much I need so I gotta buy a lot.

Ax.

- Here, hold this.

- No, no, no, no, no.

- Oh yeah, right.

Hold.

The store opened in the early 1900s.

It's changed hands a few times over the years, yet remains the heart of downtown.

Here's its current owner, Mark.

- It's been a little bit of everything for a long, long time.

You want your bicycle fixed, you come in the back door and they'll tweak your bike.

You want your saddle fixed, they'll take care of that.

- Yeah.

- If you wanted to have one of your horses cut, they'd pull up a trailer in the alley and do little slice and dice.

- No way.

One stop shop.

- One stop shop, yeah.

- That's crazy.

Castration services are no longer offered, but this place sure feels like a throwback.

- Everybody's been coming here for a hundred years.

We've had a 90-year-old, you know, lady, talking about when she was a little girl holding her to dad's hand, getting candy over here.

And that kind of stuff, man, that's what it's about.

Little general stores in little small towns, you can't go wrong.

- Not many of 'em left, but this one's still holding it down.

- Yes sir.

- Years may pass, but the Mills County General Store abides.

Daniel, why did this take us 16 seasons to get a pet goat?

- Because this was a horrible idea.

- Where'd all that hair come from on you?

That's disgusting.

- Yeah, I know.

- I can't wait to get her acclimated to the office.

- I'm sure y'all need to, like, shred papers or something, right?

- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yes.

- Rosie, you hear that, girl?

- We're not keeping the goat.

- You're gonna be a star, kid.

You're gonna be a star.

- I bet if you rolled down the window and let her put her head out, she'd be happy.

- I think she would jump.

Quite frankly, I'm willing to jump myself.

- Get a little fresh air there, girl.

- Oh, no, horrible decision.

- Hair everywhere.

That was so bad.

- Oh, Rosie.

- That did not work.

(Teresa laughing) - Having a pet goat is proving a little more difficult than expected, but we are not stopping.

In fact, I'm ready to crack a little further into the local pecan biz at The Cabin, the storefront for pecans.com.

So I heard y'all have pecans in here.

- Just a few, just a few.

- We got chocolate covered, cinnamon covered, sugar covered.

The ice cream, the cobbler.

- Coffee.

- The bars, the coffee.

- The fudge.

- The fudge.

Come on now.

- Oh, the fudge.

- Let's go.

This is Jessica, the owner and our pecan bartender, so to speak.

So what should I have?

- Texas pecan affogato.

- Okay.

- Which is our Texas butter pecan coffee poured over blue bell butter pecan ice cream.

- Okay, but can we put some pecans on top of it and then crumble some pecans.

- Yes, absolutely.

- And then could you you know, like a bread bowl, but made of pecans?

- What in the world?

- Could you build a pecan out of a spoon?

The natives did that.

I'm pecan maxing.

Throw in some pecan peach cobbler and things are really getting nutty.

Ooh, thank you.

- You're welcome.

- If you came here for pecans, you'll not be disappointed.

If you came here with a pecan allergy, you should probably stay at least a half a mile away from this building.

Oh my gosh.

It's like a pecan Blondie, brownie, bread pudding cobbler.

Mm, and the coffee.

Come on.

Now all I need is like a warm cup of pecan coffee to sort of offset this one.

She heard me.

Oh.

Going nuts never tasted so good.

If only Rosie agreed.

My goodness, kids are picky.

(upbeat music) Pecans.com is just one of my favorite shops in town.

There are many.

The Mills County Artisan Guild is full of items made by local Texan artists.

And what I love so much is like, it's wild.

There's stained glass, bone art, jewelry, and don't sleep on these homemade jackets.

I think this one's my size, y'all.

Oh yeah.

I mean, that's a one of a kind.

- You may think you're joking here, but that looks pretty good.

- Don't kid me, Daniel.

I will buy this right now.

Nobody else is gonna have one, that's for certain.

Down the street, Joyful Trading Company keeps the kids stylish.

Oh man, they got some great stuff.

I can always use a new cowboy hat.

- That's not a cowboy hat.

- I'll buy a new cowboy hat.

- That is a cowboy hat.

- Any day of the week.

Everything's bigger in Texas.

Is this really a fanny pack?

- I mean, I don't think.

No, that can't be.

- Bigger than my fanny.

Oh, they got some great shirts.

All right, I kinda like this one.

It's a little loud though.

Yeah, but you know what it would go great with?

- My new coat.

- Yeah.

- I'm getting this.

(bright music) Well, it's time for dinner.

I'm still not quite ready to eat Rosie, but I might be coming around.

To finish the day, let's head to Southside Tavern.

An example of what's possible when a few visionaries get ahold of an old feed store and revive, not just an old building, but an entire downtown community.

This is Brittany and Nick Hammond, who along with Nick's brother Travis, made their Mills County dreams come true.

What do we have here, Brittany?

- So we have our hand breaded onion rings here.

- The biggest onion rings in Texas.

- It's a good onion ring.

- That's a good onion ring.

The Southside kitchen turns out some of the best craft dishes I've found on the road, burgers, sandwiches, Texas sized steaks.

But this vision was born from a place every hard working Texan knows all too well.

- We got really hungry one night after working goats with Nick and Travis's grandfather and there's nothing in town to eat at eight o'clock at night.

Travis.

- We wanted a beer.

- We wanted a beer.

- You'll be honest, you weren't hungry, you were thirsty.

- And so we said, why not?

- With that simple question, an abandoned building that had once been their great-grandfather's grocery store and a feed store is now feeding the new generation of Goldthwaiters.

- My wife here was very reluctant for the tavern name.

- Goldthwaite wasn't so warm to the idea of a bar.

- Okay, yeah, yeah.

- Hearkening back to the colonial term of the tavern.

- Yeah.

- Our country was founded in one.

It's a communal place.

We've been blessed to be in Goldthwaite where there is an absolute amazing community.

That's what we wanted to be.

- You feed the community well and treat 'em like family, well, they'll keep coming back.

And keeping the food fresh and delicious is the job of Nick's brother and chef, Travis.

AKA Grumpy.

I mean, y'all are serious about cooking.

Ingredients, food, recipes - We've done this our entire life.

This is what we were destined to do.

- When you and your brother and everybody was looking at what kind of food are we gonna do?

What were the thoughts?

- Out there.

- Okay.

- It is kind of off the rails.

If I think of something overnight, we're gonna do it the next day.

- It's like in a moment of inspiration.

- Yeah.

My brother and sister-in-law, they give me a lot more freedom than what I should have probably, but.

- They probably agree with that.

- Yeah.

- Trust me, nobody in town is complaining about Travis's creativity, except for that one time he tried lamb fries.

- And lamb fries.

- Mills County mountain oysters.

- Grown and harvested, yeah.

- You might have got a little over your skis with that one.

- It was, it was.

- Yeah.

Tonight, I'm going with one of Travis's delicious creations, bacon wrapped meatloaf medallions, grilled and topped with tomato sriracha glaze.

Oh man, that is so good.

Why have we never been doing this to meatloaf before?

It's got all the kick from the sriracha.

Woo.

That is not your grandma's meatloaf right there.

That is amazing.

Like, what I love so much about Southside Tavern is they probably could have played it safe with the food, but, like, bringing people something new and innovative like this, like, that's it right there.

Let's push the envelope, right?

Let's throw off the safety rope, let's go.

( gentle music) - Chet.

What are we gonna do about the goat?

- I know what I need to do.

It might not be what I want to do.

- Wait, what's gonna happen to Rosie?

(Rosie bleats) Goldthwaite is a great example of what a small town can be when it pushes forward while never forgetting it's fast.

A place to explore, learn, indulge a bit and relax.

Just bring a lint roller for all the goat hair.

Hey, Mom, hey.

You remember those times I made have forgotten, like, I don't know, a gift to get you on some occasion.

- Yeah.

- So, okay, well.

All right, we don't have to rehash the past.

I did wanna make up for all of those moments, right now at this moment.

I was a pretty tough kid and I think she's gonna be a better kid for you.

All right, I'll see all y'all out on the road.

Probably not her, but you.

Vaya con dios, amigos.

(bright music) Howdy, y'all.

Follow along with my adventures at chettripper on Instagram and at thedaytrippertv on Facebook and YouTube, or head to the daytripper.com for travel guides, past episodes, and info on our mobile app and team "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 miss 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.