KLRU Neighbor Event Visit at Sky Cinema

You may not know Chet Garner by name, but you know that guy on KLRU’s “The Daytripper,” an eight-time Emmy-Award-winning Texas travel show airing on PBS. He logs more miles than Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and eats more barbecue than the Food Channel’s spikey-haired Guy Fieri.

Daytripper’s Host and Creator, Garner, will be on hand for KLRU Neighbors road trip to Dripping Springs on Sunday Feb. 10, beginning at 3 p.m., at Sky Cinema in Belterra Village. The event is free and open to the public. 

Garner joins Bill Stotesbury, KLRU’s general manager as well as the KLRU Citizens Advisory Board, Clifford – the Big Red Dog, Austin City Limits production personnel as well as several bands plus door-prize drawings, KLRU, ACL and PBS giveaways, free food and drinks, plus games for the kids and a showing of the new documentary, “A Song For You,” which chronicles 40 years of Austin City Limits, which will be followed by a brief roundtable. 

Truthfully, Chet Garner, the modest, Texas-born and bred, eight-time Emmy-winner has been compared to Anthony Bourdain for his weekly video treks across Texas, stopping to chat with the locals, tasting local restaurant menus and adding history and other quirky facts and characters into every production. 

Maybe you saw Chet’s visit to Drippin’ in Season Four’s exploration of Texas, one day at a time. 

As a kid, Chet said he toured Texas in his family’s Suburban, stopping at most every small-town museum and barbecue joint along the way. 

He attended The University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Radio, TV and Film and continued studies at Baylor University Law School, where he graduated at the top of his class in 2006.

While practicing entertainment law, Garner conceived the concept of “Austin Daytripper,” aired it in 2009 and expanded it the next year to what is now “The Daytripper,” regularly carried on PBS stations across Texas and the nation. 

On May 11, he’ll be wrapping Season 10 during a trip to Odessa – the heart of the oil-rich Permian Basin – and the birthplace of “Friday Night Lights.”

In an interview as he launched his next season, Garner described his show’s concept during an interview with The Houston Chronicle:

Q: How do you describe your show’s concept?

A: It’s a Texas-centric, outdoorsy, barbecue-eating, good-time-having show. It’s everything you can do in Texas within one day. We take all the food, culture and outdoor activities one place has to offer and create a show about it. We try to include stuff in every episode that would hit different segments — adrenaline junkies, people who drive four hours for a barbecue joint, people looking for museums and parks. We run the whole gamut.

Q: Why was creating the show important to you?

A:  I have a passion for all the Texas staples like barbecue, chicken-fried steak, outdoor activities. I grew up going to state parks, hiking, canoeing, kayaking. There wasn’t really something super Texas-centric that hit the programming I would like to see.

Q: Why is Texas a good place for a show like this?

A: I’m a true Texan. This, to me, is the most diverse, best state in the United States based on the size and the diversity of the land. Mountains out west to woods out east, you’ve got the coast, the Hill Country in the middle. Texas is any traveler’s playground. We could literally make a Daytripper show until I’m 90 years old.

Q: Why should someone watch your show?

A: If they love Texas and they love good food, they’ve never seen anything like this on TV. It’s kind of a hybrid between travel and history and sketch comedy. We’re trying to give everybody a glimpse of things they want to do within each city.

“The Daytripper” examines the many great things anyone living in Texas can do in a day, from state parks to museums to local eateries and attractions. Each episode covers a specific destination.

Garner and his wife Laura have four children, all seasoned Daytrippers.

“It’s all too common for folks to overlook the treasures in their hometown in favor of a big vacation to an exotic locale,“ Garner said, “but we hope we’re changing all that!

“When we started Day Trippin’ Texas back in 2007, it was just four people 

and some gear crammed in a car with nothing but the open road and a dream in front of us. It’s hard to believe that we’ve grown into a nationwide, Emmy-award-winning television show with some of the best fans and viewers in the world. It seems folks love Texas as much as we do, and it’s a privilege sharing it with y’all.”

Sky Cinemas, Belterra Village, is located at 166 Hargraves Drive, Austin.