Mineral Wells, Texas: Unveiling the Secrets and History of the Newly Designated "Wellness Capital of Texas"
Aug 01, 2023Season 1Episode 5
Jill Dutton
Pack your bags, because we're embarking on a wellness journey like no other! This episode of our podcast takes you to the heart of Texas, to the city of Mineral Wells, a place boasting a rich history of wellness, healing waters, and a culture deeply rooted in well-being. With our guest, Rose Jordan, we'll peel back the layers of this city's enchanting wellness story, exploring its unique wellness experiences and spa havens, and revealing the truth behind its famous Crazy Water.
Our exploration takes us back in time, to the discovery of the healing waters by Judge James Alvis Lynch, and the celebrities that couldn't resist its allure. We'll take you through the city's wellness culture, its outdoor activities, and its recent designation as the Wellness Capital of Texas. You'll get the inside scoop on safely enjoying the healing waters, the fun activities that have charmed visitors for decades, and the transformation that led to the city's new focus on wellness tourism.
Wrapping up our journey, we'll delve into the community's wellness events such as Crazy Wellness Day, World Wellness Weekend, and the Crazy Water Festival. We'll also give you a taste of the local cuisine's wellness connection, featuring delectable treats like sprouted nuts, Lion's Mane gummies, and locally sourced organic food. We'll cap it off by showcasing the city's lodging options and the wellness paradise that awaits you. So, sit back, relax, and let us take you on a journey through Mineral Wells, where wellness isn't just a catchphrase, it's a deeply ingrained way of life.
Pack your bags, because we're embarking on a wellness journey like no other! This episode of our podcast takes you to the heart of Texas, to the city of Mineral Wells, a place boasting a rich history of wellness, healing waters, and a culture deeply rooted in well-being. With our guest, Rose Jordan, we'll peel back the layers of this city's enchanting wellness story, exploring its unique wellness experiences and spa havens, and revealing the truth behind its famous Crazy Water.
Our exploration takes us back in time, to the discovery of the healing waters by Judge James Alvis Lynch, and the celebrities that couldn't resist its allure. We'll take you through the city's wellness culture, its outdoor activities, and its recent designation as the Wellness Capital of Texas. You'll get the inside scoop on safely enjoying the healing waters, the fun activities that have charmed visitors for decades, and the transformation that led to the city's new focus on wellness tourism.
Wrapping up our journey, we'll delve into the community's wellness events such as Crazy Wellness Day, World Wellness Weekend, and the Crazy Water Festival. We'll also give you a taste of the local cuisine's wellness connection, featuring delectable treats like sprouted nuts, Lion's Mane gummies, and locally sourced organic food. We'll cap it off by showcasing the city's lodging options and the wellness paradise that awaits you. So, sit back, relax, and let us take you on a journey through Mineral Wells, where wellness isn't just a catchphrase, it's a deeply ingrained way of life.
Want more? Follow Jill's travels, view itineraries, read travel articles, and listen to podcast episodes at Global Journeys with Jill Dutton.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Global Journeys with Jill Dutton, the captivating travel podcast that takes you on an extraordinary adventure around the world. I'm your host, jill Dutton, and I am thrilled to be your guide through the mesmerizing tapestry of cultures, landscapes and experiences that await us. Global Journeys with Jill Dutton is more than just a travel podcast. It's an exploration of humanity itself. Through the power of storytelling, we illuminate the lives of the remarkable individuals we encounter along the way, whether it's through the eyes of a fishing guide, a distillery owner, a mixologist, a historian, chef, or even a farmer. Each person we meet adds a rich layer to the narrative of culture and place. In this podcast, we embark on a transformative journey where the focus goes beyond the typical tourist attractions. Instead, we dive deep into the hearts and souls of the places we visit, uncovering the hidden gems and untold stories that make each destination truly unique. Join me as we venture off the beaten path, seeking authenticity, connection and a deeper understanding of the world we inhabit. Together, we'll unravel the tapestry of cultures, one story at a time. Although my writing career began in the late 90s, when I created and launched a wellness publication called Evolving Magazine, since 2015 I've worked as a travel writer on a mission to seek out the locally celebrated foods, liquor, trends, outdoor activities and stories of those I meet along the way. My work has been published in Wine Enthusiast, a far woman's world, first for women, insider road trippers, modern farmer chilled magazine and many more digital and print publications. I'm also the creator of Global Plates the people we meet, the food they eat a syndicated column. Creating this podcast is the next step in my journey of sharing the stories of the people I've met along the way. So pack your curiosity, leave your preconceived notions behind and let's embark on Global Journeys with Jill Dutton, where each episode promises to inspire, educate and awaken the wanderlust within us all. In this episode of Global Journeys with Jill Dutton, we take you to the heart of the Lone Star State Mineral Wells, the wellness capital of Texas. Join us as we dive into the history, culture and secrets behind this enchanting city's wellness legacy. Discover the legend of Crazy Water and its mystical healing properties that have drawn visitors from far and wide for generations. You'll hear tales of famous figures like President Roosevelt, who sought rejuvenation in mineral wells' therapeutic embrace. Today we sit down with local expert Rose Jordan to unveil the city's unique wellness experiences, spa havens and the incredible transformation stories of travelers who found healing and rejuvenation in mineral wells' embrace. Whether you're a wellness aficiado or an adventurous traveler seeking a rejuvenating escape, this episode is your ultimate guide to unlocking the hidden treasures of mineral wells, where wellness is more than just a buzzword it's a way of life. During my visit to mineral wells, I attended the Crazy Wellness Retreat. There we stayed at the Crazy Water Hotel, sipped crazy water at every opportunity, ate health-focused foods, started each day with rooftop yoga, experienced health and wellness check-ups, took classes at the Clark Botanical Gardens and relaxed each night with glorious sound healing using crystal-singling bowls. It was truly a rejuvenating experience. If you'd like to read more about my trip, there's a link in the show notes or you can visit EvolvingMagazinecom to read the story there.
Speaker 1:
Today we speak with Rose Jordan, the director of tourism for mineral wells. Rose is an ambidextrous ambervert whose favorite part of high school was cutting loose in costume as the mascot at Grafford High School, which really just means she's perfectly suited for the tourism industry. After serving on the Mineral Wells Tourism and Hospitality Council for three years, she was offered a position to get paid for doing what she loved talking about all the things that make mineral wells awesome. With nearly five years as the director of tourism and marketing, she can't imagine doing anything else anywhere. Fun fact Rose and her husband are park hosts at Lake Mineral Wells State Park, so she is quite possibly the only director of tourism living inside one of her attractions.
Speaker 1:
So, without further ado, please join me in welcoming Rose Jordan to Global Journeys with Jill Dutton. Rose, thank you for joining us today and sharing your insider's look at mineral wells, texas. We can't wait to embark on this incredible journey with you. Rose, thank you again for joining me. First, I'm going to ask some quick questions that you can respond to briefly. The questions are designed to give the listener a quick overview of the destination, so don't go over. Maybe a couple sentences. Are you ready? Yep, okay, other than wellness, which we'll discuss shortly, what is mineral wells known for?
Speaker 2:
So two things One is our crazy water, which we're really famous for, and the other is outdoor adventure. In fact, we won a statewide award as best destination for outdoor adventures in Texas.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's fantastic, Wonderful. And on your day off, or if it was, even if it was a visitor coming to mineral wells, you know what do you consider a perfect day?
Speaker 2:
For me. I love being outside. So a day for me is, you know, a few hours out of my kayak, or maybe hiking out of the state park or just kind of stroll it around Clark Gardens.
Speaker 1:
Excellent, excellent, yes, okay, and your favorite restaurant.
Speaker 2:
So I'm the director of tourism here. I'm not allowed to have a favorite, but my first choice is always going to be one of the restaurants that are partnering with our community garden and our local farmers to source their local produce and me.
Speaker 1:
Oh, yes, yes, and can you name a couple?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, bras's Market and Bistro. Old School Pizza is doing that. Our new, soon to be here in a couple of months, the restaurant and the new hotel, the crazy water hotel, oh okay, they will be doing a lot of local sourcing too, so yeah, oh, that's great.
Speaker 1:
That's great to know. And what is it that surprises you most about mineral wells?
Speaker 2:
You know I am constantly amazed at how the businesses and the organizations here they're always actively looking for ways to collaborate and support each other. So in Mineral Wells everybody's working for the good of the whole community rather than just for their own business, and I love that.
Speaker 1:
That is nice. That's very encouraging to hear, and are there any hidden gems or lesser known spots that travelers should explore?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think a lot of people miss, like Clark Gardens, botanical Park or Texas Frontier Trails. They're really fabulous spots to enjoy the outdoors in peace and quiet, but they get missed a lot because they're tucked away off the main roads, which is actually why they're so peaceful.
Speaker 1:
Oh, yes, and I hope we go into more detail about Clark Botanical Gardens because there's so much to offer there.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and then if someone's wanting to visit Mineral Wells, how do they normally get there if they're not in a drive, you know, if they're not just a couple of hour drive away?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so if you're flying in commercial, you're going to fly to DFW airport out in Fort Worth or Dallas Lovefield. If you're flying yourself or you're chartering the flight, you can actually fly into our airport, mineral Wells Regional Airport. But if you're driving, you're going to take Interstate 20 and then Exit 386, which is for State Highway 281, will take you straight. It's 14 miles into the true crossroads of America, which is at the intersection of Highway 281 and Highway 180.
Speaker 1:
Oh, perfect, oh, that's great. Thank you and your best tip for someone visiting.
Speaker 2:
Always start at the famous water and stock up on crazy water, especially if you're going to be here for outdoor adventure. Make sure you're clean, hydrated and then, yeah, start at famous water and just make sure you get plenty of water.
Speaker 1:
Excellent, excellent, thank you. Well, thank you for the quick look at Mineral Wells. Now let's dive into your city's new designation as the wellness capital of Texas. This is huge, and what led to this distinct honor. I'm going to start with the crazy water. There's a lot of talk about crazy this and crazy that, and many may wonder why a town that's focused on wellness would call everything crazy. What is the story behind that?
Speaker 2:
Our water. We are founded on our water. It's mineral rich water that occurs naturally and when the first family came, the Lynch family came in from northern Texas and Denison. They were built here and when they dug the water, as you do when you're a settler and you're locating to a new place. And that was late 1800s, late 1800s, late 1800s 1877 is actually when they came to.
Speaker 2:
Mineral Wells, okay, and so we'll tell.
Speaker 2:
We'll talk a little bit more about that story.
Speaker 2:
But moving forward just a little bit to the crazy water story, at that time there were several wells here in town and one of them, a woman who people in town thought to be crazy would spend her days at this one particular well drinking the water, and after a period of time she became less crazy. Now today we think probably it was something along lines of dementia, because the water here's got some minerals to help kind of rebalance some of the brain, brain chemistry type stuff. But because the crazy woman was hanging out at that well, they started calling it crazy woman's well. Later it was shortened to the later, it was called the crazy water well, and that is now where the crazy water hotel is, and so it's just called the crazy well or the crazy water well. And so from that everybody started branding crazy water, crazy water, drug crazy water, crystals crazy water, bathhouse crazy water. So when you see crazy here, it's not because we're all crazy, though we are crazy about our town, it's because our water was found to have killed people back in the late 1800s.
Speaker 1:
And that leads to I kind of back stepped ahead a bit there. But so if we could backtrack, could you give us a historical perspective then as far as what it is, how the wells were discovered and what's the significance to the city's wellness culture now?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so back to judge Lynch, or James Alvis Lynch, and we always recall him here. Judge Lynch, his family came in from Denison, they said a moment ago, and when they settled here the first time they pulled water they noticed that it had like a funny smell and a little bit of a funny taste. And so they decided to try it on their cattle. And when they're cat, the family started drinking it and they discovered that their ailments they had rheumatism, digestive issues and things they discovered that their ailments were were alleviated and so very quickly you know where it got out people started coming in droves for the healing water. So it's actually the origin even of our wellness culture. Here is our mineral water.
Speaker 1:
That is so interesting and it just blows my mind thinking about it, and so I think I read something about President Roosevelt coming for the waters. Is that correct? Yeah?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So we had several historic. Lots of famous people were coming here, famous entertainers, roosevelt, we had Judy Garland here just lots of people were coming and they were really just kind of flocking here, some out of curiosity, but a lot of them because of, you know, the healing waters. And when you think about it, traveling back then was not as easy as it is today. They were coming in from all over the country and they weren't just flying in or just you know, when they came they were making a commitment, they were really like having to plan out this trip. And back then you'll see a lot of the old postcards that have gone back and forth where we've gone to mineral wells for a season. So they would come for weeks at a time usually to quote take the waters, so yeah.
Speaker 1:
And what would have visited back then in Compass? Would it be like going to a bath house and soaking?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So back then we would have had today, where people you know often will go to the bar and drink beer. In those days we had dozens of wells and we had several water pavilions, as what we call them, and many, many hotels.
Speaker 2:
So when you came to mineral wells to quote, take the waters you would spend time at the pavilions and each pavilion had its own specialty, like one might be shuffleboard and one might be dancing and one might be playing cards, but all of them had a water bar, and so you would really kind of pay the equivalent then for water, what most people pay for alcohol. So it was that that much in demand. So you might spend some time at one of the pavilions, or many of the pavilions. You would very likely go to one of the bath houses and soak in the waters, and then obviously we have so much nature here and one of the really popular things to do back then kind of the Instagram moment of the late 1800s and early 1900s was to hop on our donkeys and ride them up the mountain and get pictures.
Speaker 2:
So really, if you didn't have a picture of your group on a donkey in our mountains. You can't say you were here. We laugh now, but we're doing the same thing on Instagram. So, yeah, I mean, that would have been a day, so a lot of time out in nature and then a lot of time drinking or soaking in the waters.
Speaker 1:
That is fantastic, that is so interesting. And the different levels. Can you just kind of fill us in about the strength? I know, is it one through four and one through four?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and so that's based on the amount of minerals. So number one has trace minerals, number two has kind of a low mineral content, and then three. Obviously you start to get a little bit higher. Three is really where you start to notice the difference in the taste of the water. And then number four is high in mineral content. And I always tell people, if you're trying our crazy water for the first time, don't start with number four, because number four is the one that is that is so famous for healing people, but it's also famous for cleaning you out.
Speaker 2:
So I was going to start with, if you're going to taste the number four for the first time, do it when you can stay close to home. So the different well depths have a different mineral content. You know, different mineral content and that's what the numbers are based on is the strength of mineral content.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's so fascinating. And what do you personally do? So? Do you personally drink?
Speaker 2:
you know, yeah, but I mean sipping on number two right now. We so here at the office, we keep a number three in a water dispenser, so that's what I drink the most. My favorite is number four. If it's cold, I'm not a fan of it. When it's warm, it's because that's when you really start to pick up on the minerals, the extra mineral content. But when it's cold, my favorite is number four.
Speaker 1:
I love it. I love it. And during our, during my visit, I, as you know, I came to one of the crazy wellness retreats and I believe we had it. Oh, we had a. We had an oat milk with turmeric and yes, yeah, and I thought that had some crazy water in it as well, but then, it did yeah.
Speaker 1:
But then, you know, always had a bottle of it in our hands or, you know, a glass in my for our coffee. I mean, it was just, it was, it was delightful and I slept. Yeah, I kid you not, and I wrote it in that article that I'm going to put a link in the notes too. But I slept the best that I have on any.
Speaker 2:
It's pretty great.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
That retreat that you came to. You know if you remember, they did those kind of sodas where we mixed balsamic vinegars with the water. Yes, for some of that man that was so good that's. That was a takeaway for me.
Speaker 1:
It was so good, but it was just. It was great. Just every experience included that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
So I loved it. Okay, so let's go ahead and talk about, you know, this designation as the wellness capital of Texas. That's, it's really a it's a huge accomplishment and a great honor. So I'm I'm curious how, how did this come about?
Speaker 2:
It actually a couple years, say a couple years ago COVID has kind of changed my concept of time, but just, I think it was either when I was starting to look at the end of 2019 or the end of 2020, and I was really thinking about what would be the thing that the key thing that I was going to market for as as a destination in the coming year. And when you, when you market a destination, you have to find out one thing that sets you apart.
Speaker 2:
And most people know us for outdoor adventure. They'll know us for the Baker Hotel. You can't go to the Baker Hotel right now and all of our neighboring cities have really great outdoor opportunities. So that didn't really set us apart by itself. When I really looked at our historical assets and that was about the time that kind of early on in our town's just massive transformation, and so I knew then the things that were in tap and that were coming, and a lot of that was wellness focused it seemed like that was about the right time to start shifting us back towards that wellness destination marketing and after a couple of assessments tourism assessments, one of them by the Wellness Tourism Association, and we all agreed to have this is the right time to make that shift.
Speaker 2:
Of course, COVID just helped that, because COVID compelled everybody to get outside, get out in the outdoors and to really start to focus on your health and your wellness, and so we were already starting to make that shift and then COVID just kind of honestly helped us out a little bit and so as a part of that process, we were really looking at our wellness assets, what we had in place, what we had coming, and our main street manager was in a tourism council meeting with us one time and she said, well, why don't we go after that designation with the state? And I'm like, OK. So I reached out to our state representative and they didn't hesitate. So we spent a lot of time with me sending them information on kind of validating those claims. And then in June, as you know, of this year, it was made official where the Wellness Capital of Texas.
Speaker 1:
Yes, well, congratulations, you're well-deserved. Thank you, it's exciting, well-deserved, and so what are some? You know we discussed back in the 1800s and early 1900s what people experienced, but what are some of the unique wellness experiences or treatments that visitors today can enjoy in mineral wells?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so actually several. You can still soak in our mineral waters. Right now, the only place is at the Crazy Water Bathhouse and Spa, which I think you had an opportunity to try out. I did.
Speaker 1:
It was fantastic, and that's what I say. I'm really not sure exactly what helped me sleep so well whether it was the singing bowls in the evening, but I know the water, the water and the minerals and then soaking in the minerals and seeing it in the water and then having that dry rub scrub. I mean it was a really powerful bathing experience.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it is, and so you can do that. We do have more bathhouses coming, one at the Crazy Water Hotel. They're actually restoring the original bathhouses down in the basement with some modern amenities. Then, when the Baker Hotel is ready, she also is bringing back those opportunities to soak in and bathe in the waters. Currently right now you can also enjoy yoga on the rooftop at the Crazy Water Hotel, which is great because it's out in the open air but it's up above the city so you can look really great views of downtown and, of course, the Baker Hotel. We have three labyrinths here that you can go walk. Oh, and just, yeah, we do. So I don't know if we ever got to take you guys out there for the retreat, but there's one at Clark Gardens. It's a healing labyrinth, and then there are two at the National Vietnam War Museum. They have six meditation gardens and two labyrinths there, so we've got labyrinths. We actually have fairly new someone here who does scalar photon energy treatments and don't ask you to explain that, because I don't fully understand it yet.
Speaker 2:
But it has been really popular. I know people that are going through cancer and they're choosing holistic treatments and that's one of the things that they're doing for their cancer. And then, obviously we've mentioned it many times the Crazy Wellness Retreat, which is an immersion retreat that's focused on wellness for real people, so you'll leave with lots of ideas and knowledge that you can actually take and implement as soon as you get home. So that's what we really love about our wellness retreat is we want you to have the time away, but we want, more than that, for you to take the transformative information and take that home and actually be able to use it in your life.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. That's so valuable and nature is a part of the pillar of wellness and I'm curious what are some of the options? We talked about Clark Botanical Gardens and then you just mentioned the labyrinths and things, but mineral wells is the area is known for outdoor opportunities. So what are some of the highlights, I guess, of things that people can do.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we've got three state parks here within 30 minutes. We have four lakes, and so with those come hiking and biking and camping and birding and paddling and stargazing. We have the Brazos River, it's the same thing, really great opportunities. And we actually have people that will shuttle you, so you drop your car off and then drive up so that you get to choose a one, two or four day trip, and then you'll kayak down and then they'll shuttle you back to your vehicle. So that's a great one. And then we've got more than 30 miles of hiking and biking trails no-transcript, you know, out in the, in the peace and quiet, whether it's inside our state parks or just kind of in some more remote areas. Again, that's one of those hidden gems, the Texas Frontier trails that I told you about. And then we've got the only natural rock climbing in north Texas. So out of our Lake Minerville State Park. So here Minerville's truly abounds.
Speaker 1:
It is say the name again where they can go rock climbing. What's the name of the park? Rock climbing?
Speaker 2:
at Lake Minerville State Park and the specific area is called Penitentiary.
Speaker 1:
Hollow. Oh, that's great. That's really good to know. So we'd already mentioned, but I attended one of the crazy wellness retreats and I'm curious you know how these came about, what guests, what other guests can expect, and is it an ongoing theme each year? Or you know, do you have? I believe you have, four years?
Speaker 2:
so if you could talk about those retreats a little bit yeah, so Carol Elder, who owns famous water and crazy water and crazy water house, and um she and Dustin Strong, who, uh, has Strong Run Health, which is a the primary speaker at our retreats.
Speaker 2:
They've been working together actually for more than 10 years and they were offering a quarterly wellness workshops here in town before COVID, but they'd always wanted to be able to create an immersive experience that really gave people the time and the space to actually implement what they learned in those workshops.
Speaker 2:
So last year, carol told me and a few others here in town that she was really thinking about starting some wellness retreats, and we very quickly like, popped on and said absolutely, we want to be a part of that. How do we help? And so the five of us, along with Dustin, started planning those retreats, and so now it's actually a collaboration between Crazy Water, strong Run Health, the Minerals Tourism Department, our local hospital, lake Mineral State Park and Clark Gardens, so you're really getting just the the best of the community in these, and so the retreats offer a weekend that's filled with workshops, lots of time out in nature as long as the weather behaves itself amazing cuisine and then time to connect with others and and, even more so, time to really unpack, you know, the wealth of information from all of the amazing wellness experts and decide how you want to use that information for real and lasting change in your own life.
Speaker 2:
And so when we started those, we did start them quarterly.
Speaker 2:
Another goal for those retreats was to kind of create the framework, so identifying all the assets that we had, and then kind of help develop really just a framework so that if other people want to come in and do retreats, we can say here are the best tools, like here's everything that we think you might want to know or everything that we think would help you in planning your retreat.
Speaker 2:
So when we started those, we did start them quarterly to kind of get things started and get a feel, for you know what was needed and and even what the demand was for the weekend, the retreats. And then with the march retreat we started really looking at with those being quarterly, we found that by the time you have done the march retreat you really should already have june completely figured out and you should be working on the november one and we're all volunteers with full time, other things, and so we felt like we weren't able to give it the excellence that we wanted to, but we accomplished the goal of building the framework, and so now they won't be quarterly now what we're looking at is probably either annually or bi-annually. Our next one is in january and it's focused on nutrition nutrition.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that'd be a good topic. That'll be good. Yeah, okay. So speaking of events, are there any annual wellness events or festivals that travelers should consider attending? You know a specific time of year?
Speaker 2:
yeah, so we've already talked about the crazy wellness retreats and if you want to keep up with that, um, when the next ones are crazy wellness retreat dot com for that. Okay, the others we just did. In june, in conjunction with global wellness day, we had crazy wellness day, which is a day full of just really great workshops. We had things from making zero proof cocktails to using holopots for your planting to general gardening and using mushrooms in your wellness regimen just really great day full of workshops so we'll continue to do that.
Speaker 2:
That's always in june in conjunction with global wellness day. We have coming up, september 15th through 17th is world wellness weekend. Oh, and we are going to be left out of that. So we are in the midst now of planning out, um, what that's going to look like three days full of just wellness opportunities throughout the community, whether it's yoga on the rooftop or um guided tour, guided walks through the labyrinths, or workshops, again on zero proof or other kind of nutrition. But we're planning a full three days of activities and events that are wellness related for a wellness weekend.
Speaker 2:
And then the Crazy Water Festival, which this is our 40th year of the Crazy Water Festival, and this year we're going to actually add some wellness components to it. So we'll have workshops and things going on at the Crazy Water Hotel for wellness. We're also there's a crazy 5k every year for that, and so, leading up to that, we're going to do a couch to 5k program for people that want to run that or people that just want to do the program. So Crazy Water Festival now will start to add that. And then the logo that we created for Wellness Capital of Texas. The symbol is a dandelion for lots of reasons. But then we discovered that in April there is a National Dandelion Day.
Speaker 2:
So at this moment, we don't know what we're going to do, but we will for sure be doing something with National Dandelion Day, because that's the logo that we chose for Wellness Capital of Texas.
Speaker 1:
Yes, oh, that is great. Food is linked wellness and the local cuisine. It plays a significant role in the overall travel experience, obviously, but when I was there we Dustin Strong, who led the Crazy Wellness Retreat had incorporated a lot of different mushrooms into the, so I think it was Lion's Mane. We had that crab cake that Sadie's Eats made. It was divine, and so I'm just kind of curious are there any foods or dishes with that wellness theme that are going on that connect that with the city?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So I mean, obviously we've talked about Crazy Water. You can't walk five feet. Tell me that's saying Crazy Water somewhere, because everybody's hearing it. We have Gilbert Pocon I can't remember if it was your retreat or the first one that we gave everybody a package of local pecans, and so those are from. Those are a local orchard. So we really do a lot with those At Crazy Water. At their famous water pavilion they have sprouted nuts, where they're taking different nuts and they're sprouting them in Crazy Water and then they're adding things like turmeric or sea salt or those kinds of things. So those are a big thing here. You mentioned the mushrooms. We have a local grower who does the mushrooms dried grove and they are every month at our local farmers market, which is great because people are really starting to love the Lion's Mane gummies or they've got several different mushrooms that you can either get them in supplement form or you can actually buy the mushrooms to cook yourself at our farmers market, and we love that.
Speaker 1:
Oh, and then?
Speaker 2:
Speaking about? Yeah, exactly. And then you know kind of speaking about farmers market, we do. I mentioned earlier. We have more and more restaurants now which are starting to source for local farmers that are growing organically. So that means that in our restaurants here the quality and freshness of the food is higher, but also you're getting more of the benefit the nutritional benefits because they're not having preservatives on them and they're not traveling very far. So the closer you eat your food to its source, the higher the benefit. So we have a lot of that happening, which is we love seeing that happen here.
Speaker 1:
Oh, I'm sure, and I ended up. I wound up interviewing the Rick House Brewery and he even utilizes the crazy water in one of the beers, the Flying Pig Paleoil, so that was just interesting to see. How, you know, different venues in the city are incorporating the water into it.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, our Magpie Inn sorry, our Magpie Inn is a bed and breakfast and she's a chef and anytime that she cooks, if it calls for water, she's cooking with crazy water.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's great. But speaking of lodging, so the Baker Hotel, is there a projection for when that might be open? They're looking at 2026 supply chain, and that has just been nuts, okay. And then there's the Crazy Water Hotel, and what are some other options?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So, and I just mentioned Magpie Inn, you know, if you're bringing a small group, they have five rooms, so they've got crazy water in every room and she locally sources not just food but anything that she can locally source. She's locally sourcing, which is great. We've got Rest Yourself River Ranch, which has 28 rooms or suites, and there it's an exclusive experience. Out there, they're in nature, they're right on the Brasses River. You can take the whole family and rent the entire facility. It's just, it's an amazing spot and you could actually do a completely self-contained retreat out there if you wanted to.
Speaker 2:
And then, for those who are naturalists, you know, obviously camping retreat out at Lake Minerville State Park is a great option. They've got a group hall that's surrounded by screen shelters, or you can bring your tents out, and so you can do a whole naturalist retreat out there.
Speaker 1:
Many thanks to Rose for a delightful look at Mineral Wells, the wellness capital of Texas. In the next episode of Global Journeys with Jill Dutton, join us as we journey to the mesmerizing shores of Bokhawk, california, to explore the hidden gem of Laredo, mexico. Our special guest, the charismatic and adventurous local resident Jose Flores, takes us on an extraordinary expedition through the enchanting town he calls home. Get ready for an insider's look at this captivating destination, as Jesus unveils Laredo's best kept secrets and shares the unique charm that sets it apart from any other coastal town. We'll uncover the lesser known spots that hold the essence of local culture and showcase the warm hospitality of the community.
Speaker 1:
From sun-pissed mornings at the vibrant local markets to tranquil afternoons spent wandering through historic streets lined with colonial architecture, we'll immerse ourselves in the true essence of Laredo's laid-back lifestyle. So buckle up and prepare to be submerged in the beauty of Baja California's Laredo. Don't miss this exciting episode filled with insider's tips, underwater wonders, thrilling tales and the enchanting allure of this coastal paradise. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Global Journeys with Jill Dutton. Until next time, may your travels be filled with endless curiosity, open-hearted encounters and transformative adventure. Safe travels, fellow explorers, and keep wandering.
