Alpine

It's time to kick back, put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage or snack as we discuss, declare, proclaim, publicize, and articulate about the wonders, magic, beauty, music, and happenings here in the area known as the Big Bend of Texas.

us again for Heart of the Big Bend this is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful Big Bend of Texas specifically we will cover what's happening in Alpine an incredibly friendly small town nestled in a desert mountain valley at the heart of the Big Bend region With easy day trips from Alpine, you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer.

I'm Chris Ruggia, Director of Tourism for the City of Alpine, and today we're talking about bluegrass because it's the bluegrass time of year in Alpine, thanks to the hard work and effort of Cindy Perdue.

Hey, Cindy.

Hey, how

Thanks for coming back again.

Well, thanks for having me.

Yeah, and thanks for your effort, continual effort, bringing this five years of bluegrass to Alpine.

The three words, mythic, contradictory, enormous.

And Zoe says about this piece, it's a postcard from the 2024 Big Bend Ranch Rodeo held annually in Alpine, Texas.

Is Smith Cattle Company here

yet? Smith

that our flag was still there? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

the free becomes the brave.

I don't know about you, Alpine Texas, but I myself am proud to be an American, proud to exercise these freedoms that we enjoy here today and participate in the great sport of rodeo.

Let's

And I mean, ultimately, we're going to have to let our son own that decision.

Even this year, you know, my son Julian made the decision to go to Sol Ross State, which is a Division II school out in Alpine, Texas.

There's another school that made him a pretty good offer that was closer to home.

That was an NAIA school, but a top 50 NAIA program.

This is Victoria Contreras.

She's an archivist at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.

Victoria spends a lot of time at the library.

It is, after all, her job.

In fact, it's not even indoors.

[instrumental music] It's only, like, two miles there and back, and most of it is a very kinda, like, laid back, uh, hike up there.

Alpine, Texas, is an area basically surrounded by hills and mountains, so yes, we are going up one of them.

There is apparently one section that's a little dodgy.

It's time to kick back, put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage or snack as we discuss, declare, proclaim, publicize, and articulate about the wonders, magic, beauty, music, and happenings here in the area known as the Big Bend of Texas.

hello welcome and thank you for joining us again for a heart of the big bend this is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful big bend of texas specifically we will cover what's happening in alpine an incredibly friendly small town nestled in a desert mountain valley at the heart of the big bend region with easy day trips from alpine you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer I'm Chris Rucci, Director of Tourism for the City of Alpine, and today we're talking about hotels.

We're talking about special hotels, and we're talking with Brian Carrico of Alexa Management and Byways Hospitality, I believe.

Yeah, that's correct.

It's really important when a place is small because it's a small staff, and so there's a lot that goes into thinking about where we locate everything and how we operate that allows us to be efficient and be able to run these hotels with relatively small staffs compared to a really large conference center hotel or something like that.

Yeah.

So we're talking about three properties right now, two in Alpine, the Holland Hotel on Holland, which is really the heart of downtown Alpine.

It has been since the 20s or before.

Jim Breck.

Jim Breck Bean, own High West Outfitters out of Alpine, Texas.

Been working with GT for, I don't know what, seven, eight years now.

Known him for a very long time, but we've been working together for seven or eight years.