Leaf Peepers and Wine Sippers: Safety Helmets: '25 Grand Highlander

Autumn reveals a side of Texas many travelers never experience. While summer heat dominates conversations about the Lone Star State, fall transforms Texas into a wonderland of outdoor adventures, cultural experiences, and natural beauty.

Our journey begins in East Texas, where maples explode with vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows that rival New England's famous foliage. The Sabine River region offers perfect fall temperatures for camping, hiking, and outdoor recreation without summer's oppressive heat. Moving westward, we explore the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail stretching from Fredericksburg to Johnson City. Fall means harvest festivals, grape stomps, and perfect weather for tasting award-winning reds and whites while enjoying weekend live music performances at numerous wineries.

For more adventurous travelers, we venture to Big Bend Country, where fall transforms an otherwise scorching landscape into a comfortable destination for hiking, river trips, and world-class stargazing. The region's International Dark Sky designation makes it perfect for witnessing the Milky Way in breathtaking clarity. Our final destination takes us to mysterious Caddo Lake on the Texas-Louisiana border, where ancient bald cypress trees draped with Spanish moss create an almost mystical autumn atmosphere perfect for kayaking and boat tours.

We also examine the fascinating evolution of racing helmet technology, from simple leather caps to today's carbon fiber and Kevlar marvels, and review the 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid, which combines impressive fuel economy with genuine three-row comfort thanks to its extended dimensions.

Whether you're planning your next road trip or simply dreaming of autumn adventures, join us to discover why fall might be the perfect season to explore Texas. What's your favorite fall destination in the Lone Star State? Share your experiences in the comments!

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Transcript

Fall Travel Tips in Texas

Speaker 1 0:05

Time now for Mars Driving Destinations. Fall Travel Tips in Texas.

Speaker 2 0:10

Yeah, buddy, first up we're going to talk about different places that you can go, and the first up is the Los Angeles State of America area. This is famous for all the evolving maples that have come off in November. It's really a good season for the colors, the hiking, the camping, the stargazing, and it's really Texas Crown's rule to fall for, because that's the time whenever people go out there and it really does have a lot of reds and oranges and yellows and you think about that. They're more of an Northeast part of the country, but this area is just as nice. Pass on the river. It's all fed by the Sabino River, it's got cool temperatures, so it's a really great place to go camping and hiking during the fall. It's going to be all the colors, it's going to be the colors, the colors. It's going to be the colors. It's going to be the colors. It's going to be the colors. It's not really letting. Things aren't cooling down like they're supposed to in the fall. You know we don't have good fall anyway.

Speaker 3 1:09

Well, david's going back to the UP in a few days and that's already starting to change up there.

Speaker 2 1:14

Yeah, he could get us some pictures. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 1:17

Moving on.

Speaker 2 1:18

Let's talk about the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail Wine Texas Hill Country. Now, if you go out in the fall, this means the harvest festivals.

Speaker 1 1:27

They have great stomps going on in the wine trail from Fredericksburg all the way over to Johnson city, which is not really that far when you say that all I can think of is that famous wine stomp that Lucy had on her show. Exactly. She actually got in the real fight with the actress that was playing the wine stomping lady. Did you know that? Yeah, actress that was playing the wine stomping lady, did you know that?

Speaker 3 1:44

Yeah, yeah, that really happened.

Speaker 2 1:45

I didn't know that, but fall is the harvest season in the Texas Hill Country wine world and it's a really good time to go out and explore the wine trail because it's a lot cooler and it obviously runs from Fredericksburg to Johnson City. You used to, and nobody ever thought about Texas wines per se, other than you were making them in the backyard, but there's actually a pretty big market for those. So during the fall you get the crisp mornings and the mild afternoons so you can go out and do these walkthroughs of these wineries and do some wine tastings. You get some award-winning whites and reds particularly the reds, because that's supposed to be heart healthy, so take care of that. Oh yeah, let's go for that. They also host great stomps and harvest festivals. Some places have live music in october and november on the weekend, so it's a great place to go out and check out the fall.

Texas Hill Country Wine Trail

Speaker 2 2:33

Now, if you really want to get ambitious and you really want to get serious about going out and about in the fall, head down oops, head down to the big ben country. Well, head down to the big ben country out in west texas, because during the fall the weather gets better. You go out there in the summer and it's like monster. You'll melt down in the summer but during the fall, in the winter, time out there when it's cool, you can go hiking. They've got river trips and there's actually a lot of places you can go out there and do stargazing.

Speaker 2 3:02

I've never been of these hills oh, it's a beautiful place and it's monstrously big. I went one time in the summer and that was it. That's kind of like going to new orleans in the summer. You learn, don't do that. But it does make it into the fall, makes it into a much more comfortable adventure destination.

Speaker 2 3:19

Uh, they've got places like the chisels basin, the santa lana canyon and a lot of desert landscape. If you're out in there, we're looking at the cactus and things that grow out in the desert and you can actually get over to the Rio Grande. You can do some river rafting if you want to down through there and there's plenty of stargazing going on because a lot of people go out there during Big Ben's International Dark Sky designation. That's where the Milky Way really gets brilliant that time of year and it really offers fall offers a great time to do things like that. Uh, also, if you want to go back to the east, you can go over to caddo lake.

Speaker 2 3:54

Now, this is a different. It's full of bald cypress trees that they're really old and they've been around a long time and it's me. Yes, now cattle lake is one of those that's straddling the texas louisiana border, so during the fall it's kind of got uh, different. You actually get different kind of elements of the fall going on because they've got a lot of cypress trees, they've got spanish moss in them and uh, it gets kind of swampy in certain areas when you get on the louisiana side. They got kayaking you can do, you can go by canoe. They got guided boat tours. This used to actually be the main waterway that brought ships, or ships. Boats came up bringing cargo up from the coast up until it kind of the silt and stuff it's shallowed out to where they can't do that anymore. But it's a great place to go if you're looking for something out in the lake area in the east texas fall travel tips in texas.

Speaker 1 4:47

Mr mars, thank you so much. I hope I didn't cut you off, but the time is fast approaching that we need to take a break yeah, I need to figure out how to get to where I can see the clock much better.

Speaker 2 4:58

Why did that not stop?

Speaker 1 4:59

I don't know, but uh, at any rate, uh, when you're ready, mr mars, it's time. Mr mars is now playing all the commercials.

Big Bend Country and Caddo Lake

Speaker 1 5:06

Yeah, yeah yeah and it's time now for the in real time car talk show to take a quick break. We will, and we'll be back right after this. You own a car you love. Why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it? Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts. We promise you'll be impressed.

Speaker 1 5:29

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Helmets in Racing: Evolution of Safety

Speaker 1 6:15

The award-winning In Wheel Time Car Talk Show now reaches 5.3 million folks each year. Check us out on InWheelTimecom, the Odyssey Radio app, youtube, facebook and just about every other entertainment source out there, including our live broadcast every Saturday 10 to noon Central Time. The In Wheel Time Car Talk Show has informative automotive guest interviews, new car reviews, along with popular features including Jeff's Car Culture, the latest new cars, cruise ins and racing dates. It's inwheeltimecom. Join us. Time now for Jeff's Car Culture. Helmets Do they really protect your being?

Speaker 3 6:55

I don't know, do they? Well, racing, with its adrenaline-fueled speed and daring maneuvers, has always been been dangerous sport. Behind the wheel, drivers face immense risks going through curves, straightaways, side-by-side and breakneck speeds. The most crucial defense, well, it's the helmet. In the early years of racing, drivers wore soft helmets that offered a little more protection than from bugs. Imagine leather caps and goggles the bare minimum to shield their heads from the elements. But as racing evolved, so did the need for better safety gear. So cloth, the soft cloth, gave way to football leather. While an improvement, it still fell short in the crash protection. Racing was becoming faster, more intense and the drivers needed helmets that could withstand impact. Safety wasn't the priority and, unfortunately, the shows of the death rate of the drivers were really prevalent. In the 50s, it saw introduction to the first fiberglass helmets, which offered improvement, durability and impact resistance. For their predecessors, these hard helmets were significant step towards the terms of safety, but they still lacked the features in the modern racing racers that they were wanting for their helmets. In the 60s, DuPont introduced the game changer called Nomex. This flame-resistant material formed the basis of fireproof racing helmets. With the risk of explosions during accidents, nomex was a crucial part for the safety of the drivers. In the 70s and 80s, the introduction of the full-face helmets, which was a significant leap forward. These helmets with fire-protective hoods protected drivers from debris and fire Visors, became standard, enhancing the eye protection. Also, with the advent of the computer-aided design or CAD, allowed for more precise shaping of the customized of the helmets for the person's head and the individual drivers as well. This led to the increased comfort and reduced fatigue during long races and further enhancing the safety. Then we come up to the 90s, where aerodynamics took the center stage. Sleek helmets reduced air resistance, enhancing performance.

Speaker 3 8:59

The 2000s brought lightweight materials, ensuring both safety and agility, because it's a lot of lightweight stuff on your neck. Helmets are a marvel of engineering made primarily from a combination of carbon fiber and Kevlar. The weight adjusted is about 2.7 pounds or 1.25 kilograms if you're in Neiderville. These helmets consist of about 12 layers, with the top layer adorned with bright designs and sponsor logos. Those are fantastic.

Speaker 3 9:26

Helmet restraint devices reduced the likelihood of head and neck injuries during crashes. Helmet restraints included straps and attached to the side of the helmets which prevented sudden head movements, basically to help in the crash. However, these devices were not widely used in the motorsports in the 80s or 90s. Only after the Dale Earnhardt incident in 2001 on the last lap of Daytona was more focus given to the Hans device. Looking into the future aerodynamic shapes, integrated cooling systems and helmets more advanced than ever before. Shapes, integrated cooling systems and helmets more advanced than ever before. They're actually considering putting a head-up display in the visor of the helmet, which I think is cool. I've got a head-up display in my car. I use it all the time, so it's fantastic.

Speaker 1 10:10

You know, I got one in my old Corvette 2001. Corvette's got a head-up display. It was an option back in the day and yeah, I use mine all the time. Yeah, I.

Speaker 3 10:21

And there you go Protect your head when you're driving in the race car.

Speaker 1 10:29

Time now for this hour's car review. Had a chance to drive the 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander. Now, the difference between the Grand Highlander and the Highlander six inches of length. At the back end of it that allows for a third row. Final assembly location Princeton, indiana. So it's built in the US of A. Available trim levels the LE, the XLE, the Limited, the Nightshade, the Max Limited and the Max Platinum. I had the Max Shade Hybrid Standard SUV seats, including the driver. Seven Exterior changes from last model year was all new in 2024.

Speaker 1 11:11

Best front fascia award for Toyota Looks really good. Subtle sheet metal creases create a conservative look to it. Rear hatch design allows for more interior room, yet still very attractive. Love the fake dual exhaust tips for a four-banger engine. What I liked one of the best-looking SUVs on the market, bar none what could use improvement Nothing. Interior highlights one pod for the instruments and one separate infotainment screen for accessories. Center console has a sliding door for the cover of the storage area, which is a good thing. You don't have to open it up to the left or the right or the back or none of that stuff.

Speaker 1 12:00

Yeah, that was good. Seating is comfortable. Consider captain's chairs in the second row if you're interested in buying one. I think that that would probably be a good thing, unless you actually need the extra seat. Third row actually has room for adults, thanks to that six-inch increase in length of the overall.

Speaker 3 12:18

I was in that car and, yes, it does. It is roomy. I made the comment when I was back there that, hey, you could actually fit back here. I really like it.

Speaker 1 12:27

More room in the third row when the third row is up than most. As far as cargo space is concerned, what I like? High marks for a well-thought-out interior. What could use improvement? Upscale models could use a bit more bling. The $1,350 glass roof option is for northern states only, unless you want to cook. Cell phone charger allows the phone to slide off of its charger pad. Oh man, that was a little bit of an issue.

Speaker 1 12:57

2.5-liter four-cylinder engine in the hybrid. It also has a max option for more power. But then you use the fuel mileage and that's what this is all about. It's a hybrid. Horsepower 245 is what I had. The max has 362 horsepower. If you need all of that, okay, go for it, but I like the mileage. It has a CVT transmission. Now the max has an actual six-speed transmission. Toe rating 3,500 pounds.

Speaker 1 13:29

All-wheel drive. I got well, it's rated at 36 miles per gallon on the highway 32, I'm sorry, 36 city 32, highway for a combined of 34. I got 29.7 miles per gallon over 475 miles. What I liked about it? Clearly the mileage. What could use improvement? Nothing. Just get the base engine in it. I think that you'll really be impressed. Ride and handling, the smoothness. It rides like a big car. It's not stiff, it's not trying to pretend to be something else. It will go off-road. But let me ask you something Percentage-wise how many SUVs actually go off-road? Not many, my guess is less than 1% or 2%. Yeah, not many. That's not what you buy them for. They're like a big station wagon. Dirt road is furthest I go.

Speaker 2 14:23

Really Gravel snow maybe station wagon dirt road is furthest I go. Really gravel snow maybe? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 14:26

what could use improvement? Um, nothing that I can think of. Like I said here, who takes an suv off road these days? Base trim price 52 610. Price is tested 58 187. Base model price 44 210210. Don't add too much to it. Why Junk it all up with all the options. That's an $8,000 savings, yeah, and the tendency for more stuff to break Competitors to this vehicle the Mazda CX-90 Hybrid plug-in they don't have a pure hybrid, but it's a plug-in $49,995. Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid $37,800. Kia Sorento hybrid $38,690. Next week going to review the 2025 Mazda Miata MX-5. Beautiful.