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Visiting Texas' Last Frontier (Big Bend NP)
From wine in Fredericksburg, Texas' brisket in Austin, and 6 nights in one of the most remote National Parks in the lower 48, the last two weeks were 🤯
Jen and Elliot
March 16, 2025
Sunday Summary #143
Visiting Texas' Last Frontier (Big Bend NP)
Hi there,
Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 143rd Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written in a Love’s Gas Station in West Texas!
Last 2 Weeks.
After a recommendation from Elliot’s Aunt, we had to visit Fredericksburg as our second city on our Texas Hill Country road trip, and we were impressed. Fredericksburg was settled by German immigrants, so the entire town has a cultural mix of Texas and Germany. It’s fascinating! We tried some classic German food and some famous Texas Hill Country Wine!
Us at the Pioneer Museum learning about the German community that founded Fredericksburg
The last city on our road trip was none other than the capital, Austin, where we met with some great friends. Adam and Kathryn from Adventures of A+K showed us around town and their homebase of Austin and took us to some of their favorite spots, including… Texas Barbecue!
All of us, including my buddy Jake went to a Honky Tonk and Two-Stepped!
From Austin, we drove straight to our 3rd National Park, Big Bend National Park. Big Bend was everything we were hoping for and so much more. We were fortunate enough to secure 6 nights during the peak season and explored as much as we could. From the trails in the Chisos Mountains to the different canyons of the park, and even a border crossing into Mexico, Big Bend was a wonder at every turn. I can’t wait for us to release this video. We have over 7 hours of footage to go through!
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These past two weeks have filled our travel cup. Big Bend was an entirely different landscape than we’ve ever seen. As I finish this email, we’re in a new state for Jen and I, New Mexico. It feels like a combination of our international travels and Great Loop!
Big Bend is an International Dark Sky Reserve, so we were able to do some night sky photography and even see the Milky Way! 🌌
The Next Two Weeks.
Well… the intention was to keep our Sunday Summary weekly, along with our YouTube videos, BUT we’re learning how to balance everything while traveling full-time! We hope, with two weeks of heads-down work in New Mexico, we can release more often, but time will tell. We want to ensure we release high-quality work.
"Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them."
Videos.
In case you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday. Summary:
Blogs.
Here are all the blogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:
From the Eyes of Ollie.
I LOVE Texas. My parents gave me a piece of moist brisket and I liked it a lot. I couldn’t hike around Big Bend National Park because pups aren’t allowed, but I didn’t want to hike. One night, I heard a large growl, and my parents said it was a Mountain Lion. I don’t know what Mountain Lions are, but my parents said they were bad news for pups.
 Ollie staring at the Javelina (on the right) |  The Javelina Ollie was staring at. |
Gratitudes.
Visiting the National Parks has long been a dream of mine (Jen). From hearing about them as a child to planning to visit them as an adult, I always imagined they would be amazing. All of this lead time gave me high expectations of the National Parks. Well… they don’t disappoint!
When we visited our first National Park, the Everglades, I cried when we left. It was dark, and I was driving, silently balling my eyes out, when Elliot looked over and asked what the plan was for dinner. I told him how grateful I was to have seen Everglades National Park.
When we visited our third National Park, Big Bend, I cried when we first saw the Chisos Mountains, Rio Grande, and Milky Way. I actually cried several times during our five days in the park, for the sheer beauty of the landscape brought tears of joy, peace, and gratitude.
I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for these places that people worked so hard to protect, making sure the conservation of these special places would be able to be enjoyed by generations to come. I think it’s safe to say we feel fortunate and grateful to be visiting the National Parks and United States in our van on our Great American Roadtrip: Sea to Sumit.
There’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes to fulfill our dreams, but none of it would be possible without you. Thank you for watching our videos, reading our emails, engaging on our Instagram, and sharing our blog posts. Without you, I wouldn’t be crying tears of joy as we visit the US National Parks. Thank you for being here!
Peace and love,
Jen + Elliot
P.S.
If you are new to our Sunday Summary, you can take a look at previous issues here.