Seguin Gazette: The Daytripper, in Seguin to shoot for popular tv show

Seguin Gazette: The Daytripper, in Seguin to shoot for popular tv show Main Photo

26 Mar 2019


The smorgasbord menu at Guero’s Backyard and the eerie hallways of The Magnolia Hotel are just some of Seguin’s treasures that the crew of the PBS television show, “The Daytripper,” explored last week.

Host Chet Garner and his crew arrived Thursday to start the filming of the Seguin episode slated to air May 25.

“Seguin is great. I love Seguin. It has a beautiful river and beautiful downtown. I’ve come and scouted it a few times,” Garner said. “Seguin has been one of those that I’ve known was going to be a show for a long time, but it was just a matter of time before we got around to it.”

Some of their first stops included the Sebastopol House, The Power Plant Grill and The Magnolia Hotel.

“For this episode, we’re talking about the pecan history of course and the history of Juan Seguin,” Garner said on Friday. “The Magnolia Hotel was creepy last night. We’ve got two hours of footage and audio that we need to go back and see if it picked up anything.”

During their visit, “The Daytripper” also stopped at Guero’s Backyard for a bite to eat before ending their day on Friday at Son’s Island.

“The town really is something special and I know there’s probably a lot of community pride here because I can see it already,” Garner said. “It’s in the faces of all the people we meet.”

Out of all the places he visited in Seguin, Garner said he couldn’t pick a favorite.

“I would say having day tripped a lot it’s always fun to find one of a kind experience of places. I don’t want to pick a favorite because I think all the spots we’ve put on the Seguin show are showstoppers where people are going to be like ‘I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,’” he said.

“The Daytripper,” which airs on PBS, focuses on food, culture and the outdoors while usually showcasing two restaurants, an outdoor spot and two historical sites. The show has covered about 150,000 Texas miles by visiting other towns such as Corpus Christi, Midland, San Antonio and El Paso.

“We basically are here from sun up to sunset — sometimes a little later and show people what they can eat, see and do if they found themselves in Seguin for the day,” Garner said.

He selects the towns by looking at a Texas map, which he has broken up into different regions: the Panhandle; West Texas; Big Country; Texoma; North Hills; North Texas; North East Texas; East Texas; Central Texas; Hill country; Heartland; South East Texas; Coastal Bend; South Texas and the Valley.

“I look at the whole state of Texas, at the different regions and through monkeys, darts and bingo cards we pick the season,” Garner said. “There’s endless stories, endless experiences and we’re here to inspire those.”

Unlike some town episodes, which have been picked by viewers, Seguin was handpicked by the crew, Garner said.

“This one was one that when we set out to do the season we wanted to feature Seguin,” he said.

Garner said he hopes the episode gets viewers interested in going on an adventure to Seguin.

“The goal is for people all over Texas and then hopefully all over the country is to go, ‘Seguin? I’ve never been there,’” he said. “A lot of them are going to say, ‘I’ve never heard of that town, and now I want to plan a vacation there.’ We want to just highlight what makes this town special and truly what makes every town special because once you go you always find cool stuff.”

The Seguin episode is slated to air at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 25 on a local PBS station as season 10 starts wrapping up in early June. Season 11 is expected to start in the fall.

For more information, visit thedaytripper.com or www.facebook.com/thedaytrippertv.

To view the original story from Seguin Gazette, please click here.
Valerie Bustamante is a staff writer for the Seguin Gazette. You can email her at valerie.bustamante@seguingazette.com.