Hop In and Travel
Ablind painter in Denton. third-generation hatter in Brookshire. A 93-year-old oil equipment mechanic in Odessa who makes women’s clothing in her spare time. These are Bob Phillips’ people. He calls them “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
Phillips has spent the last five decades crisscrossing Texas, exploring littleknown places, eating in tiny diners, and highlighting people you’d probably never hear about but for his independently produced TV show, Texas Country Reporter. Since the 1970s, Phillips—in that deep, friendly baritone—has invited his audience to “hop in and travel” with him. And over the years he’s driven more than 3 million miles. He’s been to every county, every town, driven on practically every paved road in Texas.
“That’s all just the getting-there stuff,” Phillips says. “It’s really about meeting all these people and hearing their stories.”
Sometimes it’s the story of siblings who sell
