The Inbound Marketing Blog

Two weeks ago, I had an brilliant idea. I decided I wanted to start exploring some of the smaller cities around the Metroplex each weekend, find their points of interest, and blog about them. The only catch — I have to meet someone from each city before and sleep on his or her couch in order to get the insider’s tour. Sound crazy? It is a little bit. Over the last few weeks I’ve been to: Comanche, Denton, Glen Rose, Keller, Las Colinas and Roanoke. I want to visit Ennis this weekend (*update: didn’t make it).

Last Friday night, I couchsurfed in Las Colinas. Last Saturday, a family in Keller, Texas. I won’t mention their names for the sake of anonymity.

How did I do it?

I started by putting an ad out on CouchSurfing.com offering up some services in exchange for one night on someone’s couch. While some people may offer house cleaning or cooking, I got a little creative and offered a little more unconventional labor.  Plus, I’m not really good at cooking or cleaning anyway.

Couchsurfing Tip #1 : Offer something of value in exchange for your stay. This is something of value to your host, not you. It does not have to cost money. Think of everything you are good at and enjoy doing for others and make a list of services, which most would consider valuable. This may sound obvious, but don’t offer anything you are not really willing to do,  because he/she may take you up on your offer. This means, if you hate washing dishes, do not put it on your list! Put a dollar value on your time.  Most all of these services I could do in one hour and I put a $50 value per hour on my time.

See the slightly HILARIOUS list of services I offered inside: Read the rest of this entry »

When I was younger, I had my fair share of family vacations– snow skiing trips, Disney Land, World, New Mexico. Some were closer to home with other families like the Bishops like Six Flags or Wet N’ Wild (Hurricane Harbor). In retrospect, some of my favorite trips were the ones we took within Texas. In the summer of 1989, when I was eight years old, my family, brother, mother, and father (my sister wasn’t born yet), loaded up in our Astro Mini Van and headed to Canyon, Texas, 25 miles outside of Amarillo. The point of the trip was to watch one of “the world’s most popular outdoor musical dramas” TEXAS, and to take the Palo Duro Canyon tour.

The Canyon Tour

Palo Duro Canyon State Park , located outside the main city of Canyon, Texas, and considered to be “the Grand Canyon of Texas” opened to the public in July 1934. It contains 26,275 acres is 120 miles long and is as much as 20 miles wide. With a maximum depth of 800 feet, its elevation at the highest point is 3,500 feet above sea level. Some say Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. The largest, the Grand Canyon, is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 6,000 ft. deep.

The actual tour was breath taking. We surmounted the rocky terrain rode in one of those 30 - 50 tourist mobiles driven and narrated by our guide. He pointed out some memorable scenes and rock formations, but I was more excited about the roadrunners and lizards I saw for the first time. After the tour, and while awaiting the performance we spent time in the gift shop where my father let me buy my first pocket knife. I still have it. Read the rest of the post on Palo Duro Canyon State Park here.

Austin, Texas, is one of the fasted growing cities in the US according CNN’s Money Magazine. As of 2006, it is the 16th largest city in the US, and the fourth largest in Texas. It is quickly becoming the hub of commerce combined with a high quality of life.

With an above average income, and relatively low housing costs, in the last few years there has been a land rush for stake in this No. 2 “Best Places to Live” (also according to Money Magazine). Below are seven attractions in Austin divided into three categories: music, museums, and bat bridge (a category of its own). If you live in Texas, take a weekend trip and enjoy what Austin has to offer.

Music Festivals in Austin

Learn more attractions in Austin. Read the rest of this entry »

When out of state tourists think of Texas road trips, only a few hot spots come to mind: The Alamo, Austin night life, and that is about it. I wanted to point out some other lesser-known city and outside attractions that might make for an interesting road trip.

Schlitterbahn - For your summer time road trip, drive your water-amusement-park-lovin‘ self down to New Braunfels, Texas and get your feet wet in this German themed oasis of fun. There are two parts to this park, and I personally enjoy the older classic part. I don’t know, there is just something nostalgic about that muddy water tube slides and river tubing.

I am sure a family would prefer the newer part with a man-made river of the chlorinated persuasion one can lounge on alligator floaty on all day. It keeps you moving whether you want to or not. There are also huge slides that make for a real tongue swallower! 

More pictures inside. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best road trips I’ve ever taken was to San Antonio and Austin, Texas, during Spring Break of 2002. It wasn’t Padre or Cancun, but I had a good time because I love Texas culture and it was just my girlfriend (at the time) and I.

I really don’t know what prompted it, but there we were South of San Antonio, in a low key neighborhood not too far from the San Juan Mission is an intersection of roadway and railroad track that has become known in a catalog of American ghost lore. The haunted railroad they call it.

Brief History of the Haunted Railroad
Here’s the back story: In 1941, a catholic school bus full of kids made its way down the road and toward the intersection. It stalled on the railroad tracks and a speeding train crushed the bus, sacrificing all of the children. The bus driver, a nun, survived, until she went insane and committed suicide. Since the accident over 60 years ago (as the story goes), any vehicle stopped on the railroad tracks will be pushed by tiny unseen hands across the tracks to safety.

Ghost picture inside. Read the rest of this entry »

First-year drivers, and anyone under 25, save yourself some trouble, take what I have learned through mistakes and years of living the reverse Boy Scout’s motto, and equip your car with these items in your first new or new-to-you vehicle.

I live in my car. Ok, not literally. That might make it tough to type this article. What I mean is… I spend a lot of time in my car. Forget the shower, driving is where I do my best thinking, singing to the radio, making up my own songs, and just pondering plans for the future. Through twelve years of driving legally, I discovered twenty-four items that one’s car must always, positively, never be without. These items are in no particular order of importance.

1. Insurance Card – Red and blue lights in your rearview and a siren means you have been stopped by the police and the first two items the officer will ask for is your license and registration. Keep a current insurance card in your glove compartment. Even if you have insurance, but accidentally left the card at home the police will have no mercy. It’s not worth spending half the day at the municipal court standing in line to get your ticket dismissed. Take it from someone who has learned the hard way.

2. Flashlight – My grandfather told my father to keep a flashlight in his car at all times and my father passed that knowledge on to me. Not just any flashlight will do, only a big a** flashlight that could be used as a billy club if needed. Not to mention the obvious illuminating benefits, you might have to put the beat down on a car jacker. You can you use it as protection if you ever have to make a pit stop at a roadside public restroom George Michael wouldn’t even frequent (see Google for 90s George Michael public restroom reference).

3. Batteries – What good is a flashlight with dead batteries? Strike that, there is still the aforementioned benefit, but batteries make it even better. Batteries are convenient to keep in your car not only for the flashlight backup, but also to replace the juice in a garage door opener or gate opener. Plus, if you get bored, it’s always exciting to put the top end of a fresh 9 volt to your tongue. Kids, do try this one at home.

4. Towel – I got this car item tip from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and it makes a lot of sense. You never know when you might spill your Super Jumbo Colossal Gulp and have nothing to clean it up with. Towels are very multi-purpose, it may have to be your blanket one night or a costume to crash an East Indian wedding party buffet. Get 20 more items inside! Read the rest of this entry »

It was the spring of 1997 and I was a sophomore in high school. I was in Austin, Texas, with about 25 other classmates from my high school. We traveled down to Austin to watch other schools, large and small, participate in the state one-act play contest. We wanted to soak up everything we could about state-quality plays after losing disappointingly in the competition circuit a few months before. Can you imagine being the theater instructor or one of the parents chaperoning such an event? With male and female high schoolers ranging in age of 15 - 18 with varying maturity levels and hormones ranging, I did not envy them. Needless to say, it was an interesting road trip.

Our theater instructor Ms. Murphy had to drive one of those school provided white utility vans hauling her share of the kids for five hours south on I-35 and around town while another parent did the same. We were “her kids” since she never had any of her own. We loved playing tricks and mind games with her, almost as much as she liked playing them on us. Every year her house was toilet papered and forked - not because we didn’t like her. We loved her. That’s why we didn’t throw eggs.

Guess which famous stars we ended up seeing in person? Read the rest of this entry »