June 29, 2026

How Texas Muscle Car Clubs Compete In Bracket Racing

How Texas Muscle Car Clubs Compete In Bracket Racing
How Texas Muscle Car Clubs Compete In Bracket Racing
In Wheel Time Podcast
How Texas Muscle Car Clubs Compete In Bracket Racing
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You can feel the Texas heat through the microphones, and it sparks a simple question with big consequences: where do you go when you want to race your car without doing something stupid on the street? We talk with Scott Striegel from the Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge (TMCCC), a long-running team-on-team bracket racing series that gives everyone a place to compete, learn, and hang out, whether you show up in a true street car or a full-blown track build. Scott breaks down how the points system works, what “driver rewards” mean, and why the club even added an EV drag racing class, because electric cars bring a consistency advantage when weather and track conditions swing.

We also get practical about the racing itself. Eighth mile vs quarter mile isn’t just a detail on a sign, it changes how cars are geared, how transmissions shift, and what a setup is optimized to do. Scott shares what it takes to make a heavy modern Dodge Charger run hard, from a purpose-built automatic transmission to driveline parts designed for serious horsepower. The theme stays grounded: this is competitive, but it’s also laid back, family-friendly, and affordable for spectators who want to walk the pits, see the cars up close, and ask questions.

Then we pivot to the stuff that hits your wallet: engine reliability. Jeff runs through five engines tied to major recent recall activity and owner complaints, including Honda’s 1.5 turbo, Nissan’s 1.5 VC turbo, GM’s 6.2 V8, the Jeep 4XE 2.0 turbo plug-in hybrid, and Toyota’s 3.4 twin turbo V6. To cool it all down, Mars delivers a list of Houston-area water park driving destinations, mixing big names with smaller city-run parks that can make a summer day trip feel a lot less chaotic.

If you like real-world car talk with local flavor and useful takeaways, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review. What are you driving this summer, and where would you take it first: the track or the water park?

Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!

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00:08 - Welcome And Weekend Preview

01:33 - Racing Segment Setup And Heat

04:25 - How TMCCC Bracket Racing Works

07:09 - Eighth Mile Vs Quarter Mile

09:59 - Building A Charger For The Track

13:30 - Biggest Classes And Busiest Tracks

15:36 - Family Atmosphere And Street Safety

16:25 - How To Join And Learn More

17:13 - Sponsor Break And Where To Listen

19:07 - Five Troubled Engines To Know

24:22 - Houston Area Water Parks Guide

28:42 - Break, Wrap Up, And Live Show

unknown

Yeah.

Don Armstrong

Always try to blend it on Mars.

Welcome And Weekend Preview

Don Armstrong

Hello and good morning from our dual city studios in Texas, USA. It's the award-winning Invil Type Car Talk Show. Just ahead. Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge finishes its spring season tomorrow, so we get an update. Plus, Jeff has engine problems, five engines giving big automakers big problems. And Mr. Mars has summer water parks in this week's driving destinations. Howdy, along with Mike out of this world, Mars. We always need more Jeff Seek. Don Armstrong here, David Ainsley sleeping in and watching from his bed. Make sure that everything goes just the way it's supposed to. I'm sure the phone is ringing in the back office as we speak. Because nothing ever goes right. Well, so glad that you could join us on this hot Saturday from our Houston, Texas studios. And uh I will tell you that uh there's no rain in the forecast this weekend. So hope you get to have the grass cut by at least now. Either that or wait until about seven o'clock tonight when the sun goes down. That's what you're doing, yeah.

Mike Marrs

Okay, it'll only be nine.

Don Armstrong

Well, this is a car show, and we talk about all things automotive here, including racing, because racing is a big part of the automotive industry, and uh so many innovations have come about in the car industry through racing, so we thought we'd incorporate that into our show as

Racing Segment Setup And Heat

Don Armstrong

well. And with that in mind, we're gonna go to Mr. Scott Stregel, and he is with the Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge. What he's not here yet.

Mike Marrs

He says he's gonna be a little bit more.

Don Armstrong

Wait a minute, I thought that you just got off the phone with him.

Mike Marrs

Well, I did, and he's saying his computer's running slow, it doesn't want to log in after.

Don Armstrong

Okay, all right. Well, that's not good.

unknown

Yeah.

Don Armstrong

So what would you like to do, Mr. Mars? I know that you got your tap dancing shoes on, so get up and give us a little jig.

Mike Marrs

What? I've got lots of tap dancing.

Don Armstrong

Okay, well, take it away. It's tutu.

Mike Marrs

Yeah. Well, one of the things is you know, we were talking about they're gonna take this break because of the heat. Uh it is hot down here, and you always have to wonder if it's hot, but you know, how would it affect the track and affects the cars and stuff? So let's just ask Scott that question.

Don Armstrong

There you go. Is he with us now?

Mike Marrs

He's Scott. Morning.

Don Armstrong

Morning. Well, what yeah, what do you got? Are you still working on a cup and string over there trying to get on the air with us?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know. It decided this morning that it wanted to do updates and it wasn't connecting to the internet. And I'm like, why this morning?

Don Armstrong

Do you have an internet?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Don Armstrong

Who who's your internet provider?

SPEAKER_01

ATT fiber.

Jeff Dziekan

Oh my goodness. Who do you think you are? In wheel time or something. Not getting on the air. What are you trying to be us?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You are us. What makes me laugh is some of the people out here bought it, drank that Kool-Aid from Never Heard of that came out here and said, I can do this and it's cheaper. And they go down the easy, easy. Every they'll go down internet. Wow. Yeah. That's what I went through with contest. We've seen offers that have ATT. Well, it's it's funny because I see them go down and they constantly post on Facebook, we're down on internet again. And I'm like, you know, if you would have just signed up for ATT Fiber, you would never have any trouble. But what do I know?

Don Armstrong

You know, I I will say this. But I'm when I moved into uh my new house and the new studios, um I was done with Comcast, uh, because it was always down, always a big problem. And so I went with ATT. I've not had one issue with them in the past nine, ten months now. Yeah.

Jeff Dziekan

So um so if we get on ATT, can we find out about the spring schedule for TMCCC? Can we find out about that? For what? Just saying the spring schedule. We do we really care. He was trying to make a segue there. I was trying to segue into what we're talking about.

Don Armstrong

Okay, fine. As opposed to us griping about the internet. All right, well, let's talk racing then. So, how has the spring season gone? How many races have you got? Let's back up. Explain

How TMCCC Bracket Racing Works

Don Armstrong

to everybody what the Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge is.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, it's uh club or team on team, drag racing, uh bracket racing, if you will. We have uh categories from the basic street grocery getter all the way up to full-blown race cars and including electric uh vehicles, EVs. Wow. Uh we have a class for them that we started this year, specifically because electric vehicles have a clear advantage over fuel vehicles. Um, they don't care about weather where fuel vehicles do. Um anyway, we race uh pretty much all over Texas and uh southern parts of Oklahoma. Um, we do 10 to 14 races a year. A lot of that depends on weather on whether or not we're gonna get them all in or we're gonna get some in. It's a points-based system. Um you the more rounds you go, of course, the more points you garner for your team. And we also have individual awards for um those that sign up. It's called driver rewards, and they get points that go specifically for themselves. Um, the winner and the runner-up each year uh will get uh all of their races paid for for the winner, and the uh runner-up gets half the races paid for.

Don Armstrong

So how many races in the spring season?

SPEAKER_01

We try to do six or seven. Um, this year's been a little difficult because the weather hasn't really paid uh played with us uh the right way much. So I've had to cancel a couple, I've had to postpone a couple to the fall. I'm not big on postponing because that kind of interrupts plans that people may have. Um, and the tracks really like to uh make postpone races during July and August, and we're just not really into racing in July and August. It gets a little warm around here, you know. So, but we've uh we postponed one of the races. We're doing a doubleheader in the fall uh up in uh Oklahoma, where we're racing on a Saturday night and a Sunday uh morning. And the Mother's Day race, which we we we made special awards for and and stuff like that, got canceled at the last minute because it rained up in Wichita Falls. So we're kind of doing a Mother's Day in uh in August kind of thing. We postponed that one to August, and we'll talk more about that later, sometime um in August when we get together. We'll we'll promote that a little bit more. But so far we have I think four races in. We should have six. Uh, we have our last race of the spring session tomorrow at Extreme Raceway Park in Ferris.

Don Armstrong

Ferris,

Eighth Mile Vs Quarter Mile

Don Armstrong

Texas. And is it eighth mile, quarter mile?

SPEAKER_01

Ferris is eighth mile. Most of our races are eighth mile. However, when we go up to Thunder Valley in Oklahoma, that's quarter mile. Uh and at uh Innis, uh, we've already been there, but we do quarter mile there. We we we limit it to quarter mile for the what we call the streetcar classes, which would be your street, your stock, and your king classes. They run on street tires, they do quarter mile. Anything beyond that, um we limit to eighth mile mostly for the fact that it's cars are geared for eighth mile tracks.

Jeff Dziekan

So you don't have quarter mile guys coming to the eighth mile races or their clubs or teams, do you?

SPEAKER_01

We do. Um because they like it.

Jeff Dziekan

I didn't know if they were they were segregated because it's an eighth mile. They would rather run the quarter and then leave that uh the smaller race for the for the other contestants.

SPEAKER_01

Given the fact that most tracks now have gone to eighth mile, most people are geared in, you know, like their rear ends are geared for eighth mile, their transmissions are geared for eighth mile. Um I like my car, my race car is is geared for eighth mile. I know what it'll do in a quarter mile. I've run a quarter mile, but I don't push it for a quarter mile because I'm not geared for it.

Don Armstrong

Is it a manual or automatic transmission?

SPEAKER_01

Mine's an automatic, but it was the transmission was built by Southern Hot Rod specifically for racing. So it shifts a lot harder and a lot differently and a lot higher RPMs than say your your basic street transmission.

Don Armstrong

Does it shift in the eighth mile?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Three times or twice. I'm sorry, twice.

Don Armstrong

Twice. Twice. Wow, that's a lot. Eighth mile is not that long.

Mike Marrs

No, you must have a pretty stout gear in the rear.

Don Armstrong

It's like I'm at what is 700 feet or something. It's only an eighth of a mile.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's an eighth of a mile. It's not much, but I will shift from first into second, and then from second into third, and that's as far as I'll go.

Don Armstrong

You know, it's funny because all I can think of is mom's Buick Skylark, and uh she never knew it, but I did put it on the quarter mile track, and I thought, well, I'll just put it into low. And and and I'll I'll do the shifting myself. Well, I I think I almost blew up the engine because I let it ride a little too long down there in first gear. Yeah, you you really need to know what you're doing if you're gonna shift an automatic transmission manually.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's these days a lot of cars are built to do that. Well, they'll have paddle shifters or yes, you can switch it over. Uh mine was built to do that, but when I had the transmission redone, um I took that aspect out of it to where it's strictly I I put it into um drive and it like I said, it'll ship, but it doesn't

Building A Charger For The Track

SPEAKER_01

shift until about 7,000 RPMs.

Don Armstrong

Oh my. So what kind of car is well, yeah. What kind of transmission? What kind of car?

SPEAKER_01

Well, my my car is a 2011 Dodge Charger, but it's not stock at all. I mean, it runs six and a half second eighth miles.

Don Armstrong

So you in other words, you've been diddling with it.

SPEAKER_01

Just a tiny bit.

Don Armstrong

Yeah, yeah. Uh and the transmission you said is uh custom built.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's built by Southern Hot Rods. I can't remember what it is right off the top of my head. Um, you know, old age prevents you from remembering certain things.

Don Armstrong

Everything.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Don Armstrong

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

It's like I told my wife, one of these days she'll have to wear a name tag just so I can go.

Jeff Dziekan

That's a good one. I'm gonna use that down the road, I can promise you. Just call her honey, that way you forgot a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly. But it's you know, the transmission's been built, it's got an aluminum drive shaft, it's got a 411 gearing uh Ford uh clone rear end in it. Um, and the drive shafts are built by the drive shaft shop out in North Carolina um to withstand up to 1400 horsepower. I don't have that much, but you know just in case. Yeah, just in case. But at the end of the day, you know, it it takes almost 800 horsepower to generate the speed that I'm generating because I mean, let's face it, it's a charger, it's a fat ass 4,000-pound car.

Don Armstrong

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, if I took that same horsepower and put it into an 1800-pound Mustang, um, yeah, I could run probably four second eighth miles.

Don Armstrong

But well, let's talk about uh the classes and uh let's let's talk, let's talk about the classes, and what is the most full class that you currently have?

SPEAKER_01

Probably right now we call it what we call competition muscle. Um that is basically any car that runs uh seven point, I think it's 7.45 or quicker, um, that has certain AIDS. Like you can have a two-stepper, you can have a um uh what do you call it? Uh I'm trying to think of what it what it's called. Um anyway, starting AIDS, it's not an airshifter. Air shifter has to go into a different class called electronics, but the competition muscle, um, we have everything in there from um basic race cars all the way up to small uh modifieds that go into so when when you have an event, um what obviously some guys like certain tracks, and there's probably one or two tracks that you guys go to where everybody goes.

Don Armstrong

Which which tracks are those?

SPEAKER_01

Well, our home track is Extreme Raceway Park, XRP in Ferris. We get more cars there, um, usually somewhere upwards in the neighborhood of 130 to 150 cars there. Wow.

Don Armstrong

In in in the Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge.

SPEAKER_01

Correct. Wow. In the a lot of clubs. I would say second would be the uh the uh motorplex up in Innis. Um we'll do about the same there. Um other than that, I would say maybe Thunder Valley and up uh up in Oklahoma. Um, and it's a quarter mile track. We will generate more cars at a quarter mile track. Um one of the things that I do also, and I started as president, is is every track has their own

Biggest Classes And Busiest Tracks

SPEAKER_01

uh what we call letter designation. So after your car number, let's say your car number is 100, you put in your letter designation that designates what club your points go to. Well, I've generated lesard letter designations for every track so we can bring in local racers as well.

Don Armstrong

Interesting. Uh so was this Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge. Is this your idea to put this group together?

SPEAKER_01

No, no, they've been around for 41 years. Gotcha. It was it was conceived, like I said, 41 years ago by a couple of guys that uh, and I I apologize, I can't remember their names off the top of my head, but they kind of conceived this idea of bringing clubs together to race and and giving a venue for people to race that you know didn't want to spend a whole bunch of money or or wanted something that was very much laid back, and that's what this is it's very much a family atmosphere. Um, you know, I we've we've had people show up with their grandmothers and in motorhomes, and you know, they sit there and watch us race, and it doesn't cost a lot of money. I mean, you're you're talking 20 bucks to get in, and when you get in to spectate, you can see all the cars, you can walk around in the pitch, you can sit in the stands, you can do whatever you want.

Don Armstrong

And you can ask Scott Striegel what's going on. So right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I have that all the time. People come up and they ask me questions, or they they uh they they see me wandering. And I'll tell you just real quick last year for the first time we went to uh Concho Valley in San Angelo, and we had a driver's meeting, of course, we'd never been there before, but I had people coming up to me in the pit area that were just telling me we've never seen anything like this before. This is fantastic. Are you guys coming back? We we generated more spectators there than we've ever generated anywhere we've ever been.

Jeff Dziekan

So, this is more of a legal version of what you see on the TV, the street outlaws guys where they're in the dark in the back alley racing. So, this is more of bringing them out from behind the bushes and putting them on the track.

Family Atmosphere And Street Safety

SPEAKER_01

Correct. And the other side of that coin is we're trying to get people out the street to um and you know, to be blunt, stop doing stupid things, right? Um get the kids, you know, stop being on the news because you're killing people or you're injuring people. Come out to the track, uh, bring your car, show us what you got. Um, none of us are are that uh proprietary that we're afraid to show you or talk to you or or anything about racing. You want to race your your your um I'm gonna date myself, but you want to race your Yugo, bring your Yugo. We don't care.

Jeff Dziekan

You used to do that here in Houston when we had the Houston uh raceway park. Yeah, didn't you come up to yeah? So yeah, very familiar with them out here.

Don Armstrong

Well, Scott, it's great to talk to you and uh congratulations on your success with what a great club, uh Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge. Uh, where can we go to learn more information on

How To Join And Learn More

Don Armstrong

that?

SPEAKER_01

We have a website, it's tmcc.org. Um, everything about TMCCC is on there. My phone number and email address is on there. So if there's some questions that uh you need answered that aren't answered or or whatever, you are welcome to get a hold of me.

Don Armstrong

Well, Scott, it's great to talk to you. Best of luck uh this uh this this weekend, tomorrow in particular. And uh we hope to catch up with you sometime in August.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we'll see you guys in August. We'll talk more about our fun Mother's Day in August race that we've got going on.

Don Armstrong

Sounds great, man. Thanks again, man. Uh just ahead, Jeff's Car Culture, five engines that are no good. And Mars drives us to seven water parks after this break when the N-wheel time car talk show continues.

Sponsor Break And Where To Listen

Don Armstrong

The Tex Max dining experience is defined by Lupi Tortilla, your destination for Texas's best beef beheads and frozen margaritas. Since 1983, Lupi Tortilla has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients. Atmosphere is part of the award-winning experience of Lupi Tortillas, all developed in a little house near Highway 6 and I 10 in Houston. Visit any of the Loopy Tortillas and you will see the stable attention to detail in each and every location. Start your loopy experience with queso flammiato and guacamole, along with a classic frozen margarita. Dine on the famous loopy beef and chicken fajitas or pepper shrimp crochet, or a finisher vegetarian entree, and finish with this gruptious vlog for dessert. Find Loopy Tortilla in Houston, College Station, Beaumont, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Fort Worth. There's a Texas location near you. The recipes are authentic and time-tested. The ingredients always fresh. Loopy tortilla. Eat pretty good. Apple or Android In Wheel Time podcasts can be found everywhere, on the stream and through downloads. Whether you're on the road or at home and searching for a fun car talk show, give In Wheel Time a try. Honest new car reviews, fun, informative interviews with real car people, weekly automotive news, features like Jeff's car culture, mic's driving destinations, all on In Wheel Time. Check us out on Sirius XM Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music. Inwheeltime.com has a list, so check us out. It's a fun ride. We hope that you'll join us. And by the way, uh next weekend we're gonna have a best of show. Yep. Uh and uh we're gonna have one of those rare weekends where we take time off for ourselves and our family. So uh I hope that you enjoy your fourth of July

Five Troubled Engines To Know

Don Armstrong

as well. All right, time now for Jeff's Car Culture Bad Engines by big brand names. Are you there, Mike?

Jeff Dziekan

He's got it. Let me click it.

Don Armstrong

Um Why don't you just go ahead and do it? Yeah, I'll just go ahead and do it. Thank you.

Jeff Dziekan

All right. Well, uh, engines on this list were chosen because of ongoing recalls, owner complaints, clax, class action lawsuits, and government investigations over the past 12 months. To narrow it down, these specific choices, uh most popular vehicles from major brands, have been subject to large ongoing recalls over the last year. So very, very current. First one on the list is a Honda. Uh so 1.5 turbo. Honda generally enjoys a strong reputation for reliability, but there's some Hondas their engine buyers, uh, their engine of the engines and the buyers might want to steer clear of. Uh, one of these engines is the 1.5 liter turbo. It's a four-cylinder engine, uh, it's been around for a while and now powers some of Honda's best-selling models, including this uh Civic Accord, the CRV. Unfortunately, the engine's issues have also been known for a while, namely oil dilution and head gasket failures. A blown head gasket is not cheap for a quick repair, while Honda hasn't issued a factory recall for these problems. Ongoing 1.5 liter turbo issues have come continued to plague the company, including class action lawsuits. The next one on the books is a Nissan. It's a 1.5 liter uh turbo, it's a VC turbo. Things overall have not been great for Nissan recently, as the Japanese automakers worked to dig its way out of financial turmoil and the at the corporate level. The company's innovative yet often troublesome variable compression engines have been a major culprit behind recalls and owner complaints. The 2026 Nissan 1.5 is a three-cylinder turbo VC motor, has proven especially problematic, with the company recalling over 600,000 rogue SUVs for potentially catastrophic engine problems. If uh fortunate uh the fortunate sums affected by the engine will only need a throttle body replacement, so it's either one or the other. Very, very difficult to do. Here's one that we all know it's a General Motor 6.2 liter V8. Turns out through the simpler, naturally aspirated American V8 is not without its own problems. Specifically, we're talking about problems with the GM 6.2, which powers popular models like the best-selling Chevry Silverado, GMC Sierra pickups, as well as a Chevy Tahoe, GMC UConn, and the Cadillac Escalade. Uh well, the SUV's problem in the game Cadillac as well. Problems caused by defective internal components on the 6.2 has thus far led to recall over 700,000 trucks and not to mention ongoing class action. Lawsuits there's a theme there with class action. Uh GM says a possible solution is to change the recommended oil viscosity. Let's just start there. Blame it on the oil. Yeah. However, questions remain about the effectiveness, and it hasn't really provided the L87 owners with any real peace of mind. And then we got one that we all know and love. It's been around forever, the Jeep two-liter turbo hybrid. This is an X4XE, is what they call it. Oh, four by E. Yeah, four by E. Uh, now the fast things can change in the auto industry back in 2021. The new Jeep Wrangler and the Grand Cherokee 4XE models, which use a two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine combined with a plug-in hybrid electric power, were portrayed were portrayed as the future of the Jeep brand, and the 4XE powertrain has also been plagued by mechanical and electrical issues. Surely haven't seen help in this case for sticking around, uh, among other things. The 4XE had already been recalled for potentially battery fire issues, and then there was some uh another recall for possible casting sand uh left inside of the 4XE's two-liter turbo, which over 100,000 vehicles were recalled because of that. If the sand is inside the engine, it could lead not just to total engine failure, but also to a fire risk. And lastly, on the hit parade is a Toyota. Who would have thunk it? 3.4 liter twin turbo V6, traditionally one of the uh one bought new Toyota pickup, a reputation for reliability in the big selling components. The 3.4-liter twin turbo v6 engine powers Toyota Tundra pickups, Sequoia, uh SUVs, and has suffered significant problems since the debut in 2022. And they continue to put a den in Toyota's generally excellent reputation. As the 2026 ongoing uh catastrophes of the engine, it's an engine-bearing problems have been promoted. Uh Toyota's recalled over 250,000 trucks, and there's probably no remedy in sight for the near future, but uh they're still not completely immune from that's their V8. Yep, yep, yep.

Don Armstrong

Gee whiz.

Jeff Dziekan

That's it.

Don Armstrong

Wait a minute. That's the same, well, basically the same engine that they race in NASCAR.

Jeff Dziekan

Um, well, yeah, the 3.4. No, I think it's bigger than that. Is it twin? I don't know. They might. I don't know. I'll have to look into that.

Don Armstrong

But yeah, but the 3.4, that's the V6. 3.4, yeah, V6. Oh, that's why I said V8. You said V okay. V6. Never mind.

Jeff Dziekan

All right. There we go.

Don Armstrong

Okay, we got that.

Jeff Dziekan

Yeah, we got it.

Don Armstrong

All right, very good.

Houston Area Water Parks Guide

Don Armstrong

All right. Uh, time now for um our water parks driving destinations, Mr. Mars.

Mike Marrs

Yeah, we went looking for something for the 4th of July for the family, thought about water parks. It's hot here. And of course, you think about Schlitterbaum, we mentioned earlier, or even Typhoon, Texas, up in uh Katy. Really large, a lot of people go there, big, large corporate parks. However, there's a few others around, like Hurricane Harbor Splashtown. Now, this is the old Splashtown. It is the oldest major water park in the Houston area. Uh, it's it's known for the variety of the slides, like the multi-lane racing slide. It's got a giant funnel ride, and there's a lot of wave pools on it, and it's very easy to get to. It's in the spring up off 45, so it's very popular with the families. The second one that we wanted to look at was Big Rivers Water Park and Adventures. Now, this is up in New Caney, a little bit further up, but it's more than a water park. You can do zip lines, you got aerial adventure courses, you got climbing attractions, there's some animal. They even got some amusement park rides along with the regular traditional water slides and the pools. It's kind of a hybrid water park and adventure park. It's a great place to take the family, and you can do a little bit of everything at this one location. The third one we want to look at is Splashway Water Park. Now, it's one of the got a reputation as being one of the cleanest and most family-friendly water parks in Texas. It's located southwest of Houston, and it's kind of a relaxed atmosphere, and it makes it more appealing for the family because it's a little more family comfortable as far as the trying to say it's a little bit more laid back for old people. Yeah. Well, or if you've got young children, it's well that's what I say.

Don Armstrong

Grandpa grandma and grandpa could take the young kids there.

Mike Marrs

Yeah. There you go. There you go. That'll do it. The uh the fourth one we want to talk about is, and I've never heard of it, Nestler Park Family Aquatic Center. Now, this is down in Texas City, and it's actually part of the Texas City Parking uh Parks Department. And uh it's a very community-centered atmosphere because it is part of the city parks department. It's great for parents looking for a day to get out on the water without a lot of expanse and a lot of crowds that you're going to find at the bigger commercial attractions. The fifth one, and I like the name of it, and and I've seen signs for it, but it's the Pirates Bay Water Park down in Baytown. Now it's obviously got a nautical theme, and it's got a lot of uh different things from a water park, including uh a large lazy river. It's got a wave pool, you've got lots of things you can climb on if you're a climber, and uh water slides of different sizes, and it's all part of a pirate-inspired design to give it a very different uh atmosphere, and it is another city-owned uh park, so it kind of gives it a different atmosphere. It's not quite so corporate level because it is the city park and it's for many of the Houston families that are close around. The other one I found interesting was the Strawberry Water Park. Now, this is in Pasadena. Uh it's smaller and it's much more of a neighborhood feel, so families can see the children. It's not really so big, they can get lost uh, you know, 100 yards away in some river that's going someplace. And so for a lot of the Southeast Houston residents, it's a quick, easy way to get to a water park without going all the way across town. The last one I found was Noah's Ark Park down in Houston on West Center Drive. Now it's kind of it's really unique because it combines a neighborhood water park atmosphere with a biblical arc theme. So instead of being focused on extreme thrills, it's really emphasizes family fun with the swimming and lazy rivers, that kind of thing. And and it's not every water attraction needs to have all the big towers. There's plenty of those.

SPEAKER_02

Will you be able to walk on water when you get done there?

Mike Marrs

Sir? Will you be able to walk on water when you get done there? Well, I'm not sure, but it might be part of one of the attractions they might want to add. Sorry.

Don Armstrong

I just had to go there.

Mike Marrs

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's that's uh, but that's some of the things you could do if you don't want to go to a water park that's got all the big uh commercial corporate water parks. It's got massive crowds to them. These will get you into a little bit different atmosphere.

Break, Wrap Up, And Live Show

Don Armstrong

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