(upbeat music) - [male VO] You're watching "Made in Texas."

- [Jay] Funding for this program was provided by... - [Chrissy] The J.W.

Couch Foundation.

- [Jay] Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University, Kingsville.

- [Chrissy] Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi.

- [Jay] The Gulf of Mexico Trust.

- [Chrissy] Threshold Foundation.

- [Jay] Shield-Ayers Foundation.

- [Chrissy] Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation.

Gossamer Gear.

Cina Alexander Forgason.

Pam and Will Harte.

- [Jay] Helen Alexander.

Blair and Wade G. Chappell.

Claire Dewar.

Cheryl and Paul Drown.

Deborah and David McBride.

Myfe Moore.

Shirley and Dennis Rich and the Texas Water Foundation.

- [Chrissy] For more information and a complete list of funders, please visit ChasingTheTidesSeries.com (gentle music) - [Jay] The Texas Coast.

- [Chrissy] From the Sabine River to the Rio Grande.

- [Jay] It's diverse.

- [Chrissy] It's industrial.

- [Jay] It's a buffer.

(waves crashing) - [Chrissy] A gateway.

- [Jay] And it's rapidly changing.

- [Chrissy] We're gonna show it to you.

As we walk every inch.

- [Jay] This is "Chasing the Tide."

- [Chrissy] Our journey began over 20 years ago.

I had just finished a field job on Hawaii's Big Island.

I was trapping mosquitoes and banding birds to better understand the impacts of a warming climate.

- [Jay] I was working with a partnership of ranchers and indigenous tribes in the Brazilian Amazon to salvage the most biologically rich place on the planet.

- [Chrissy] He invited me down to Brazil to meet the people he'd been working with for over three years.

It was amazing to see the beauty, but also heartbreaking to see the devastation of such an important ecosystem.

- [Jay] We got married in 2005.

A few years later Sophia was born.

Katherine and Amelia followed.

As our family grew, we instilled our love of the natural world with our kids.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

- It tastes a little funny though.

- It tastes funny?

Yeah?

Like salamander?

- [Sophia] No.

- Uh, blind catfish?

- I don't know what that tastes like, so... - (laughs) Good point.

- [Chrissy] We've also dedicated the past 20 years to conserving Texas wildlife and open spaces.

- [Jay] Chrissy working in wildlife conservation and photography.

- And Jay in land conservation and film.

But one of us has had a little more freedom to escape.

Yes, I'm very excited for Jay - [Jay] Are you excited for Jay?

- I'm a little jealous, yeah, I wish I could go.

- I'm jealous.

- Maybe we could trade off like halfway through.

We can, uh, I can tag in.

While we've logged countless hours traveling the state for various projects and jobs, one place that we, along with most Texans, have overlooked is the Texas Gulf Coast.

- [Jay] For much of the past 500 years, the Texas coast has represented the next frontier and a harbinger of the future.

From indigenous tribes, to the birth of a republic, to the beginnings of an industry that would forever change the world, and new technology that seeks to leave this one behind.

- [Control] Exiting tower, and lift off of CRS-26 Falcon and happy Thanksgiving.

- [Chrissy] Jay and I decided we wanted to see it for ourselves, to try to understand the rapid changes taking place.

So we figured the best way to do that was to walk the seven barrier islands, where the unrelenting force of the Gulf of Mexico meets Texas beaches and communities.

This three-week, 370-mile journey will be difficult, not only for us, but for our entire family.

- We have right about 50 in here.

- [Jay] This is a story about the Texas barrier islands.

It's a story about understanding the past, and adapting to the future.

It's about those who call it home, those making a comeback, and those fighting for survival.

- [Chrissy] This is a story about seeing the beauty in the details and finding meaning in the journey.

It's about the price humanity is willing to pay to live on the front lines of change, and the lengths all of us are willing to go to protect the natural world.

(bright music) - You got sunscreen, right?

- [Chrissy] Yes, the sun will be our greatest enemy.

- [Jay] You have some?

All right, I got some.

- This list is mainly kind of for us like what we need to make sure we have.

- For us, personally.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

Oh, look what I got.

- Ooh, nice.

- Look what I found.

Jalapeño - Just one?

- Just one.

- So wait, is that for me or for everybody?

- [Chrissy] You like hot sauce, you can have it.

- [Katherine] I love hot sauce.

- [Jay] Okay, so this Tents, PFD, raft, et cetera.

- [Katherine] What?

- [Sophia] I thought you could do it - [Jay] There's these tags and everything, you just make sure that you like, you've got it screwed in correctly, and all the safety mechanisms that don't allow it to deploy that you've got all that stuff off of it.

- Does this go around?

- Yeah, it'll go around her.

Yeah.

There you go.

(Jay laughs) You're ready to go.

- You're gonna dance.

- [Jay] Paddle.

- I think just- - Ultra light.

- Does that not work for rain?

- No, just sun.

This is the tent that you and I are gonna carry and we're gonna sleep potentially together in, and then these are two individuals that we can take if we're not getting along.

- Oh, okay.

(chuckles) - I know, I brought those just for backup.

- Oh yeah, mom.

- Amelia, come here.

- Hold on.

(Jay laughs) - So y'all are coming halfway through the trip for some levity, some levity.

- [Chrissy] Yeah, for entertainment.

Will you just walk next to me like that the whole time.

- [Jay] We could probably drone drop her every 40 miles.

- Is there one she can hold on to?

- Yeah, like we'll probably have to get water in Galveston, my guess, like Galveston, Follett's Island, and then Sargent, Matagorda.

We have jugs that we're gonna take with us.

- I have two four gallon.

- [Chrissy] Where are we refilling or buying?

- We're gonna have to buy water in those towns and then carry enough for like three, four days probably in the truck and then you and I will have to carry at most for like two days.

- And it's because it's day one, I think we're gonna get probably a later start than what we think, because of kids and just day one.

- Yeah.

That's fair, so we may not go as far as we thought we would the first day.

- [Chrissy] But we'll make it up.

- Yeah, we'll make it up.

And then there are gonna be areas like Matagorda Island where they can't do cleanups or they don't do cleanups.

- I think I was kind of in denial the whole time.

Like, oh, we've got a year, and then we've got six months.

And then as we got closer and closer, I think I started to panic a little bit.

Because not, I mean, not only have all the logistical things we had to think about for the trip, but like, you know, we've got three kids that we have to make sure are gonna stay alive while we're gone and, you know, are taken care of.

So when we were gone, too, walking on the beach we were also managing a home life, too.

Yeah.

- It's a lot.

- Where do y'all start?

Where do y'all start the walk?

- [Chrissy] Where do we start?

Do you want to look at the map?

- Sure.

- And it's called Sabine Pass between Louisiana and Texas.

So we're all gonna go out Sunday morning, super early.

It's so remote here at the tip of Texas that we have to take an airboat to get to the start.

There are no roads that go there.

So we're gonna go to the very tip up here and then we're gonna start walking this way.

(airboat rumbling) (airboat rumbling continues) (wind rustling) - This is mine.

- Thank you.

(soft music) (soft music continues) - You'll make it home and Dad and I will still be walking.

(waves crashing) (Chrissy laughing) - Take care of your sisters, okay?

It'll come fast.

(soft music) It was hard to leave the girls.

They got pretty emotional at the end.

And then it was time to begin.

370 miles in 21 days.

(adventurous music) (adventurous music continues) - It was harder than I expected, it was hotter.

The terrain varies pretty substantially.

You've got like deep shell and sand and this like peat kind of material, like thick, almost like mulch.

There was no beach to speak of.

So the erosion on this part of the coast is really high.

It's like this, just these ridges of thousands of years of built up shell and there were huge shells and rocks and it certainly wasn't beachy, like you would think of South Padre or Galveston.

Not what we expected to go through.

(adventurous music) - [Chrissy] One thing that was really striking walking down the coast was the erosion that's taking place.

(seagulls squawking) - [Jay] The danger in having no beaches or dunes means that the coast is vulnerable to storm surge, with nothing to keep that flooding from going miles inland.

(adventurous music) It makes for pretty tough walking.

- [Chrissy] The crew was starting to wonder if we were actually going to be able to do this in what turned out to be the hottest year on record.

(adventurous music) - The tide was up pretty high, so we kind of got pushed up and squeezed between the saltwater and the marsh.

And we're on this old shell ridgeline right now, really walking through the marsh.

Not much to speak of as far as sandy beaches.

(majestic music) - [Chrissy] It didn't help that some spots, like Sea Rim State Park, and homes in the area were devastated by Hurricane Rita and Ike in the 2000s.

(waves crashing) - [Jay] Hurricanes are a fact of life for the upper coast.

- [Reporter] Breaking news, Hurricane Harvey, an enormous powerful Category 4 hurricane has made landfall in Texas.

- [Chrissy] Hurricane Harvey in 2017 was yet another devastating blow for the Texas Gulf Coast.

- [Reporter] Wind, rain, and the potential for catastrophic flooding as Hurricane Harvey pounds the Gulf Coast of Texas.

- [Reporter] Well, what you're seeing right now is kind of a traffic jam caused by all the boats that are headed into Port Arthur to rescue people.

Here, about five miles from us, is the largest oil refinery in the United States.

And that has prompted major shutdowns as floodwaters have risen.

- On that day that the storm actually landed, we were told that we could evacuate.

At that time when we were told we could evacuate, our backyard was like the middle of the Gulf Coast.

It seemed like they picked our house up, put it in the Gulf Coast, we were surrounded by water.

So from the very beginning of the storm, we were already stuck at home.

So it started off on 100.

- As we exited the freeway and moved into the communities, we saw the devastation and it was horrific.

- Hurricane Harvey was an experience that I've never experienced before in my, at the time, 54 years, living in Port Arthur, Texas, Southeast Texas.

Taylor, the eldest, walked through the house, just casually doing what we were normally doing.

Went to the garage and maybe 10 minutes later, he said, "Pop," he said, "There's water in the garage."

And immediately the water just channeled through the house.

Immediately when we walked out, the water was here on me.

Water, at that level, it's not forgiving.

You had debris, chemicals floating through the water.

It was an experience that we wouldn't want to experience again.

- [Jay] Since the 1850s, over 66 hurricanes have struck Texas.

And due to climate change, it's likely that they've increased in severity.

The effects of hurricanes on the coast can be devastating for another reason, their impact on the energy industry.

Texas leads the nation in oil and gas production.

If it were a standalone country, the Lone Star State would be the ninth largest oil and gas producing nation in the world.

Houston and Port Arthur make up the largest petrochemical and refining complex on the planet, processing base chemicals for consumer products, diesel, and 33% of America's aviation fuel.

There are over 900,000 energy workers employed throughout the state.

- [Chrissy] For over a century, oil and gas have been a huge economic engine for Texas.

The infrastructure that has been developed over that time isn't going anywhere.

And most of the time, it's been developed on Texas's Gulf Coast.

- [Jay] Port Arthur is home to the largest refinery in North America.

And more than 20 others are located on or near the Texas coast.

That clustering makes them vulnerable to hurricanes.

(upbeat music) - [Chrissy] The oil and gas industry is the source of the largest emissions of greenhouse gases and carbon.

Due to the tidal flow of melting ice caps, the effects of climate change will be felt most strongly on the upper Texas coast, where the industry is based.

Recent studies show sea levels rising faster near Galveston Island than only one other place on the planet.

At this pace, much of the island will be underwater in the next 100 years.

- Environmentally, we've got a fabulous coast.

Economically, we've got an incredibly vibrant economy.

We have really talented people in both sectors, but they're not used to talking to each other.

I'm talking about nature to industry, and that's a conversation they're not used to having.

So I think, first of all, we've got to be open-minded.

We are in a transition.

The Texas coast needs to be the center of the energy transition.

The energy future in 2050 will be very different than it was in 1950.

It's a different world, it's a different environment.

All of us are gonna have to get comfortable with these changes, and change is the hardest thing humans deal with.

- [Jay] But we can't ignore the changes taking place on the Texas coast, and we have to figure out a balance.

(gentle music) - [Chrissy] The marshy area west of Sabine Pass, known as the Chenier Plain, covers an area the size of Massachusetts.

(gentle music) - [Jay] Fresh water, elevated ridges, and dense vegetation have historically acted as the first line of defense for coastal communities against flooding from storms and hurricanes.

On this flat, wet landscape, Chenier ridges provide elevated places for people, wildlife, and livestock to escape flooding.

- [Chrissy] In recent years, storms and hurricanes have seriously tested the flood prevention powers of this complex of beaches, dunes, wetlands, prairie, croplands, and wooded forests.

(gentle music) Cheniers and the associated coastal marshes slow inundation from the Gulf of Mexico, reducing wave energy and protecting inland areas from flooding.

- [Jay] It may look like a swamp, but it's abundant with wildlife and an enormously important ecosystem.

(majestic music) - [Chrissy] Farmers produce most of Texas's rice here, which provides additional freshwater habitat to wetland-dependent species.

- [Jay] It's one of the prime areas for wintering and migrating waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, and songbirds in all of North America.

(majestic music) (majestic music continues) - [Chrissy] When the tide is in, many juvenile crabs, shrimp, and fish use the dense cordgrass for protection and feeding, and are then prey for those birds.

- [Jay] But the wetland is losing ground to rising sea levels and a lack of new sediment from rivers.

- The wetlands on the coast, they get their feet wet every day.

That's kind of, you know, the tide comes in and goes out, but they're not supposed to be surrounded by water all the time, and with sea level rise, we'll have that level rising, and if there's no sediment coming in to keep the marsh growing upwards with that, the marsh will drown.

A drowned marsh will have basically dead root systems.

That will give way, and we'll lose essentially the building blocks of the coastal fishery.

As humans, we've built a lot of dams.

On the Mississippi River, on the Missouri, on the Sabine, we've got Toledo Bend up in East Texas, we have, you know, Sam Houston, we have Lake Livingston on the Trinity.

All of those capture sediment, and so they are sediment traps that reduce the sediment flow from what historically has come.

And that's been a long-term trend, and we're seeing the impacts of that with the beach losses, and then now we're gonna add sea level rise to that, and between those two things, our marshes are threatened, our beaches are threatened, and much of the low-lying area of the coast, I'd say there's upwards of six million acres on the Texas coast that are endangered by those two factors.

- [Chrissy] Over the past century, we've altered this place.

With the construction of the Gulf Intracostal Waterway in 1930, the overland freshwater flows that used to drain from the upper part of the watershed to the lower part, were cut off, leading to the elimination of almost half of salt bayou's watershed, and a decline in overall biodiversity.

- [Jay] The community, along with federal and state partners, rallied after Hurricane Ike in 2008 devastated the region and began what would become one of the largest coastal restoration projects in the country.

- [Chrissy] New dunes and beaches could give the marsh a chance to flourish again.

The last 15 years of work to restore this ecosystem could help the people, communities, and wildlife of this region stand their ground.

- [Jay] It might also simply postpone a managed retreat from the coastline.

As we learned from this nearly month-long journey, most Texans living on the coast prefer to fight.

But as we made our way down the coast, we encountered a roadblock in the form of construction.

(tense music) - [Chrissy] The beach restoration project at McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge was adding 17 miles of beach and dunes.

But that construction meant no one could walk the beach, and our support and camera crew couldn't drive it.

We hadn't anticipated this kind of setback just a few miles into our journey.

- [Jay] To build the beach and dunes back, sand is dredged from the ocean floor a few miles out into the Gulf and piped ashore.

- [Chrissy] When it's done, it'll provide more coastal protection and recreation.

- [Jay] But for now, it meant we couldn't walk a big section of the coast.

- To only make 12 miles, day one, I think you were panicking a little bit.

- Yeah, I was worried and somewhat demoralized.

- Yeah.

- Because you spent so much time planning and then to get to the first day and achieve half of your goal of what you're supposed to be doing every day for 20 days, I felt like all of a sudden, the train was completely off the tracks and everything that we had worked for and planned for was in jeopardy.

Next time on "Chasing the Tide."

It's been raining and lightning the last four or five hours.

- We are responsible for the largest public works infrastructure project in the history of the United States.

- Yet the proposed coastal barrier wouldn't necessarily protect us from the four or five.

- [Jay] Funding for this program was provided by... - [Chrissy] The J.W.

Couch Foundation.

- [Jay] Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University, Kingsville.

- [Chrissy] Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi.

- [Jay] The Gulf of Mexico Trust.

- [Chrissy] Threshold Foundation.

- [Jay] Shield-Ayers Foundation.

- [Chrissy] Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation.

Gossamer Gear.

Cina Alexander Forgason.

Pam and Will Harte.

- [Jay] Helen Alexander.

Blair and Wade G. Chappell.

Claire Dewar.

Cheryl and Paul Drown.

Deborah and David McBride.

Myfe Moore.

Shirley and Dennis Rich and the Texas Water Foundation.

- [Chrissy] For more information and a complete list of funders, please visit ChasingTheTidesSeries.com - When I get big, I want to get married, have a house and a job, with my own family and friends.

- Why should he be denied because he has Down syndrome?

♪ Taking the long way home ♪ ♪ you and I were born to roam ♪ ♪ Oh, whoa, oh, whoa-whoa, oh, oh, oh ♪♪ Howdy everybody?

Chet Garner here to let you know about a new series created right here in the Lone Star State to celebrate the spirit, the talent and the stories that are made in Texas.

So join us as we dive into a vibrant world of Texas filmmakers where creativity knows no bounds and every story has a unique flavor.

So don't miss "Made in Texas."

Coming soon to your favorite Texas PBS station.

(dramatic music) - [Man] What this man's accomplished is mind blowing.

The passion, the drive, the force.

- [Narrator] Born into poverty in Mexico, one of 12 children, Jesse Trevino grew up on San Antonio's poor West side.

But he was a kind of child prodigy in art, winning contests after contest, then a scholarship to a prestigious New York art school.

- [Jessie] Exactly where I wanted to be with all these artists from all over the world.

It was great.

And that's when I got drafted and I ended up in Vietnam.

I got blown up with a booby trap and got shot in the leg at the same time, and I didn't think I was ever going to make it.

- [Narrator] He would lose his right hand, his drawing and painting had.

- [Jessie] The worst thing that could happen.

I mean, it was just like I could never, ever do what I wanted to do, you know, that I've always wanted to do in my life.

- [Narrator] But while at his very lowest, nearly two years in the hospital, even contemplating suicide, he realized-- - I wasn't just going to stop thinking about art, I couldn't.

I had to find a way.

(dramatic music) So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the star of our show, the Honorable Austin Underwood, and his mother, Jan. Austin.

(applauding) - Thank you.

(Austin speaking with Jan's assistance) (Austin speaking) When I get big, I want to get married, have a house and a job, with my own family and friends.

Thank you.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ - [Austin] Hi, Anthony.

- [Anthony Underwood] Hi, what are you doing?

- [Austin] I'm good, I'm at home.

- [Anthony] I see, what you doing?

You got your purse on.

- [Austin] Yes.

- [Anthony] Are you going to work?

- [Austin] I'm about to go to work.

- [Anthony] Are you gonna walk today, is the weather okay?

- [Austin] Yeah, it's okay.

- [Anthony] Well, good, have a good day at work.

- [Austin] All right, you too, Anthony.

- [Anthony] Okay, love you.

- [Austin] Love you.

- [Anthony] Bye.

- [Austin] Bye.

♪♪♪ - [Austin] My mom was pregnant with me when she was 26, she had her first-born baby who had Down syndrome, and that was me.

♪♪♪ - [Joe Underwood] I didn't even know what Down syndrome was.

- The pediatrician came in and he sat on the bed, and he said, "Your child will never be self-sufficient, he'll never be self-supportive."

- It was a total shock, the doctor looked at Jan and I, and said, "Well, you don't have to take him home."

- Now, can you imagine those words being said to a mother after they've given birth?

- [Jan] And I was just like, "Okay, well, I'm gonna prove you wrong."

- We brought him in this world, we're gonna take care of him.

- [Marian] He has a name, he's Austin Underwood, and he is going home.

♪♪♪ - [male announcer] Medical knowledge, facilities and skills have developed enormously in the past century.

With the best of prenatal care and a knowledgeable medical regime, there is still no assurance that every child will be completely normal.

Some serious abnormalities can be diagnosed by the attending physician at birth.

This is generally true of Down's syndrome, which at this time is largely unpredictable.

- [Mary Harmon] Down syndrome is a chromosomal condition.

For someone that's unfamiliar with Down syndrome, they might see it as strictly a disability, instead of just a genetic variation that occurs naturally.

And there's a lot of joy and difference, and opportunity that comes along with that difference.

- [Betsy Price] But I think people far too often don't talk about intellectual differences, and when you don't talk about things and you don't treat them as if just mainstream, people get nervous, and they don't know how to deal with things.

And I think that it's always been the Underwood's gift to all of us, is that they just talk about it all the time and treat it like it should be.

- I think the number one misconception is that they don't have feelings like the rest of us.

- [Jan] "They're always happy, they're always loving, they don't get mad," most of that is not really true, they can be loving or they can be very hateful, or they can ignore you, just like any other kid does their mothers.

- They are all unique in their abilities, their personalities.

I think that we don't give them enough credit for what they can accomplish.

- You mostly will hear, "They can't, they can't do this, they can't do that," and that is exactly the opposite, they will meet your expectations.

Presume confidence, not incompetence.

♪♪♪ - [Jan] When Austin decided to take his first steps, he didn't just take a few steps, he actually got up and pushed open a sliding glass door, walked out all the way around the driveway, and landed in the middle of the street.

From then on, he became a runner, he didn't walk anywhere, he ran everywhere.

- That's true, yes, I was a runner, and I would run away from my mother.

- Jan would lose him in the store, and she would have to go and find the manager.

- He was kind of a wild child, but he was your typical brother.

- [Jan] "Wild man" Austin, and at the other end is "Sleepy" Sara.

And the wild men are so wild that you can't even get them in the camera.

Let's go downstairs and see what Santa brought.

- [Austin] Okay.

- [Jan] Sara, turn on lights as you go so mom can continue filming.

- [Sara] I don't know that I knew anything was really different, being younger, he didn't get special privileges, he was treated just the same as his older sister and younger brother.

- [Joe] It's a basketball.

- [Austin] Mama.

- [Jan] Looky there.

- [Jan] Run, Austin.

- [Betsy] I think Austin's siblings, Sara and Anthony, just picked up on Jan and Joe's idea of who Austin was and what he could do, they treated him just like most siblings would.

- [Sara] As far as discipline around the house, doing chores, we were all treated the same, definitely there were differences in like school work and things like that.

- [Joe] The public school system didn't know what to do at that time.

- [Jan] We had to really fight to get him into public school.

- With Fort Worth ISD, there was a separate campus for children that had different challenges, but Jan and Joe were huge in advocating inclusion.

- [Jan] We didn't want segregated schools, I wanted Austin to grow up surrounded by the children that would eventually be his employer.

We had to kind of wage a war against the district.

- Going to school board meetings, and just having to campaign over and over.

- My wife fought through it.

- [Sara] You know, that kind of changed the whole way public schools looked at kids with learning differences.

- [Kim] Inclusion is so important, especially for school-age kids to be included with their peers.

- If you expect the sky, you're liable to get there, because you give people the opportunity to reach and to try.

♪♪♪ - [Jan] Oh, is that a film-- movie camera?

- "We will, we will rock you."

- [Jan] Can you help Todd with this stuff?

- Ugh, how many clothes you got in here?

- [Joe] Jan found that college, Eastern New Mexico, in Roswell, we packed up the car after we got him admitted and all.

- [Austin] They want me to be independent because I'll do everything on my own, and that's what I did.

- [Jan] You know, it was a big step, but he was ready.

- [Joe] I'll never forget, leaving Roswell, I didn't think we'd ever leave.

- Hi, everyone, this is my apartment, this is-- Come on in.

There's our sink, that's my bed, just turn around to the dad.

- [Joe] It was hard to leave, because.

- [Austin] That's it, bye.

- [Joe] Did he know how to live on his own?

- Oh, and this is my key.

- [Jan] A lot of the parents would, you know, they were like, "Oh, we don't know how you let him do that, you know, how can you do that?"

And I'm just like, "Why wouldn't I do that?

You know, my other kids did it, why should he be denied because he has Down syndrome?"

- [Joe] That probably was the best experience Austin had, it made him grow up more than anything we did.

♪♪♪ - When I was in college, my major was in cooking.

- [Jan] He became a very good prep chef.

- When he came back, he lived with us for just a little bit, and then we said, "We're gonna get you your own place," let him live on his own.

- [Austin] My boss who gave me a job, and his name is David Campisi, now I've been working there for almost 11 years.

- Austin and I meet, he shows up, suit and tie, resume, professional, it was one of the most professional interviews I've ever done.

Austin represents everything from the front of the house, he's not reactional, he's proactive.

- I have friends who would call me when he first went to work at Campisi's and go, "There's the cutest young man working at Campisi's, you've just got to go to meet him."

I said, "I know, it's Austin Underwood," and they're like, "You know him?"

I said, "Yeah, I've known him all his life."

- [David] Austin's personality and his work ethic, it's not cancerous, it's infectious in a positive way, so having Austin really has accelerated our culture at Campisi's.

If I had five more Austins, I'd have more locations.

- He just makes people feel comfortable and makes people feel welcome.

- I think people go to Campisi's to see Austin.

- Austin and I met, it was a on my mom's birthday, and we went to his restaurant job called Campisi's.

- [Marilyn] And I will never forget it, we opened that big brown door and Austin was standing there as the host, and I walk in and said we had a reservation.

And I mean, he beelined it, past the door, outside, to introduce himself to Jenny.

- He's very trustworthy, he's very independent, more than anyone I know.

- Jenny's got a whole crowd of people that know her through TCU, through KinderFrogs, the two of them have Fort Worth pretty well covered.

♪♪♪ - KinderFrogs was brought to the community in 2000 because there was nothing in the area for children with Down syndrome in 18-months to six years of age.

Students come in not feeding themselves, not walking, not talking, and they leave and go into kindergarten pretty independent, do very well.

And that's the goal, to help them transition into a typical classroom with their typical peers.

- [Jenny] My role is I am a teacher's assistant at KinderFrogs.

- [Marilyn] Jenny is irreplaceable, they love their teachers, but when Jenny comes in the room, "Jenny, Miss Jenny," and they are very, very excited to see her.

- [Jenny] I love to play with them, I get their lunches ready, get their snacks ready.

- [Marilyn] And of course she's the favorite because she has the food, ah-haha.

- [Jenny] Then they impact my life and impact their lives, and I love working there.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ - When I watch Jenny and Austin together, it's just pure magic.

- Jenny is like my favorite person.

- [Jenny] Everywhere I go with him, he treats me like a princess, I cannot imagine what I would do without him.

♪♪♪ - [Austin] I challenge myself because I want to be that person, to learn how to be responsible for myself.

♪♪♪ - [Jan] Initially, Austin was adamant that he really wanted his own restaurant, and I said, "Okay, maybe we'll start a food truck."

- [Austin] I like hot dogs trucks, that's my dream, to the own Austin's Underdawgs.

- Underdawgs was conceived about three o'clock in the morning when I sat up in bed and said, "Oh, Underwood, Underdogs, we're gonna sell hot dogs."

♪♪♪ - [Jan] I booked Austin and I two flights to Chicago, and enrolled him at Hot Dog University.

- [Betsy] Austin got his own business, I mean, he's done a lot of things on his own to begin with, but really being able to do Underdawgs and travel around the country, that has been one of the coolest things to happen.

- [Jan] He especially likes the events where we are serving the community of people with Down syndrome.

- [Marian] He's at the window, he helps make everything.

- [Jan] He loves to talk to the people.

- Our community knows Austin, and I think because they know Austin and see what he's capable of, he's gotten rid of a lot of the stereotypes of what it means to have Down syndrome for the general community.

He's one of those people that, when young families, or any family for that matter, looks at him and talks to him, they're like, "Wow," they know their child has that possibility, right?

And that's the most important thing.

- [Mary] Meaningful employment for individuals with intellectual differences involves a scaffolding and a support system that allows them to grow, but at the same time, meet them where they are and provide a little bit of a challenge.

- Mary Harmon is our first franchisee, and she has Awesome Underdawgs.

- My son Logan inspired me to look at life differently.

At the young age of four, he had half his brain removed in the most radical brain surgery that exists, and he is much like Austin, he's positive, he's a go-getter, he's just got this energy about him that you just can't bottle it up.

I think that Austin's Underdawgs could make a further impact if there were more franchise owners.

And I'm hoping that, being the first franchise owner, I can show people that it is possible, and that other people will see that they can do that too, and provide opportunities in other communities and other areas where there might not be many.

- [Jan] As a child, I grew up visiting my grandparents in Mingus.

- [Austin] My mom's grandparents, they started with a liquor store and a grocery store.

- I ended up with the property.

- [Joe] And she says, "I wanna start a school for kids that have learning disabilities."

- [Jan] I couldn't let Mingus die, and I was like, "Oh Lord, I've got my work cut out for me here."

♪♪♪ - [male announcer] Tiny town with a huge heart.

- [female announcer] Mingus.

- [male announcer] Mingus, Texas, is home to the Each and Everyone Foundation, which gives adults with special needs the skills they need to live meaningful lives and pursue the American dream.

♪♪♪ - It's amazing to see the transformation, because this started out, in 1905, as a dry goods store.

- [Jan] When she gets her mind set on something, she's gonna do it.

- [Eliza B] She hires these young adults to come and learn how to prep food, how to cook food, how to wait on people, take their orders, how to clean up the restaurant.

She's been more than just a boss, she's my friend.

- [Jan] I decided to build tiny houses, to have them live on the setting and get some independent living skills, because the families that I come across, the 23, 25-year-olds, they've never been away from home.

- If you talk to adults with Down syndrome, they very much crave that independence.

- [Jan] We've had 12 participants, and they all loved living in the tiny houses.

- I was the first participant of the Mingus job for 2020.

You can make it work as who you are.

- [Austin] We try to train them how to live on their own and have their own dream, they have their own dream like I have.

- [Jan] Austin was my inspiration, because I saw what he could accomplish.

- I can tell you right now, there's nothing underdog at all about Austin Underwood, he's a winner.

♪♪♪ - [Marian] With anything in life, you have to make the least harmful assumption, the least harmful assumption about someone with disabilities is that they can, not that they can't.

And so, when you're looking at expectations, expect that they can, they may do it their own way, they may do it their own time, but assume that they can and provide that opportunity, and let them show you instead of you limiting them.

- [Betsy] It all comes down to expectations and not limitations, always think that they can do it, and then modify what needs to be done so that they're successful.

♪♪♪ - [female] What does the term "Expectations, not limitations" mean to you?

- [Jan] I think it means "Austin."

♪♪♪ - [Austin] When I get big, I want to get married, have a house, get a job, with my own family and friends.

- Hi, I'm Austin.

- Hi, I'm Jenny, and we are at Curly's.

- [Austin] Curly's having ice cream.

[Austin and Jenny singing] - [Jan] Austin, and Jenny, making the famous Austin Underwood banana pudding.

- [Austin] Hi.

I love you.

- [Jenny] I love you.

♪♪♪ - I am so happy to be a part of this.

- And so am I, yeah, I love y'all.

- We love y'all too.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ - [Austin] We're at the zoo.

- [Jenny] And, look at this.

- [Austin] And we both got-- and we both are engaged.

- [Sara] Welcome to your engagement party.

- [Austin] Jenny and I are getting married 25/25.

- [Brie Electra] 5/25/25?

- Yes, 25/25, 25/25, 25/25.

- [Brie] That works, amen to that.

- [Brie] Ready?

Are you recording?

- [male] Yeah, yeah.

- [Austin] Action.

♪♪♪ ♪ Woo, ooh-woo ♪ ♪ Get on your feet ♪ ♪ there's sites to see ♪ ♪ rolling hills or city streets ♪ ♪ ocean to ocean, and all in between ♪ ♪ it's out there just waiting on you and me ♪ ♪ Take it in, we got no plans ♪ ♪ good things come to those who can ♪ ♪ Leave moments of moment ♪ ♪ and all in between ♪ ♪ it's out there just waiting on you and me ♪ ♪ So, look alive, 'cause wild's waiting for you ♪ ♪ paradise is on the other side ♪ ♪ of what we don't know ♪ ♪ Taking the long way home ♪ ♪ you and I were born to roam ♪ ♪ Oh, whoa, oh, whoa-whoa, oh ♪ ♪ whoa, oh, whoa-whoa, oh ♪ ♪ whoa, oh, whoa-whoa, oh, whoa, oh ♪ ♪ whoa-whoa ♪ ♪ We'll never know until we go ♪ ♪ we'll make our home out on the road ♪ ♪ When walls can't confine us ♪ ♪ we'll make our own way ♪ ♪ we'll leave all our troubles ♪ ♪ in yesterday ♪ ♪ Look alive ♪ ♪ 'cause wild's waiting for you ♪ ♪ paradise is on the other side ♪ ♪ of what we don't know ♪ ♪ Taking the long way home ♪ ♪ you and I were born to roam ♪ ♪ Oh, whoa, oh, whoa-whoa ♪ ♪ Oh, whoa, oh, whoa-whoa, oh, oh, oh ♪♪ - I thought it was about to rain.

(upbeat music) - [male VO] You're watching "Made in Texas."

Jace Tunnell here.

Hey, we got some real cool stuff washing in today.

And you might have seen these if you've been out at the beach lately, but there's literally millions and millions of these velella velella, for you scientists out there.

Now, normally, people call them 'by the wind sailors.'

And so there are hydrozoa.

They've got, uh, what it sounds like a little sail that's up at the top right here.

That's a clear little tab.

And that's how they move around in the ocean, you know, by the currents and then by the wind.

And, then they're on, like, this platform of blue, that floats, and then they have tentacles that's below it.

And so, you know, you might be thinking, oh, tentacles, you're going to get stung or something.

Well, they actually do have stinging cells, but, you know, they eat plankton.

And so the stinging cells actually grab onto the plankton and that's what they feed on.

But you know, it's not strong enough to hurt us.

Now, what I wouldn't do is I wouldn't take this off my finger and then rub my eyes, or put it in my mouth or something like that, because, you know, if you're if you have sensitive skin, it, you know, it could, could, affect you there, but, these are real neat if you see them floating around.

Now, there's a couple of things you will find with these.

Normally, there's Portuguese man o' war that are also around these.

There's also a purple storm snail which feeds on these and, Portuguese man o' war.

And then if you're lucky enough, you'll actually find the blue dragon that also feeds on all those, especially the Portuguese man o' war.

But, this is a neat one.

They're found worldwide, so you'll see every once in a while, a news story will come out saying that, there's all these blue things washing up in mass quantities.

Now, the reason we're having these wash up right now is because we started having southeast winds.

These are supposed to be out in the open ocean.

So, you know, they're not made to be up on land and, whenever we get the right conditions and they're blooming in the springtime, these will wash up on our beach here.

And so that's why we're seeing them right now.

Now, most of them we're seeing are very, very tiny.

And, like, I'll pick one up right here.

Most of them are about that size.

Now they can get, you know, a couple inches.

This was probably an inch or so.

So they're all still pretty small, but they can get they can get, pretty good size.

But, and they grow, fairly quickly.

So, you know, maybe in the next couple of weeks, we'll start seeing some larger ones come up.

But I figured y'all might be interested in seeing these and wondering what they are.

Why are there so many washing up?

By the wind sailor.

So now you know.

We'll talk to you later.

Bye.

(wind blowing) (upbeat music) ♪ ♪