- ANNOUNCER: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - I live outside.

I have the most beautiful home of anybody.

- I primarily focus on the invertebrates, little small critters.

You might think of some alien creatures.

Pretty much right on the head.

- This park has everything we like about camping and I can't think of a better place to spend the weekend than right here.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

- MANDY LEA: West Texas is very unique.

It is a whole different atmosphere.

The rocks are probably my favorite part of West Texas.

They are the weirdest colors and the weirdest formations.

Some of the canyons have just stripes of rocks.

It creates this amazing texture.

Love it.

He is not going to jump at me, is he?

Really neat.

[camera click] I am Mandy Lea.

And I am a photographer.

[shutter click] Home is in Phoenix.

Not the city.

Phoenix is the name of my camper which I live in.

I do not have a brick and mortar home anywhere.

I live full time in my teardrop trailer, just traveling.

[trailer passing] This is Phoenix.

This is my home.

It is my bedroom, my living room, my office, everything but my kitchen, which is outside, and my bathroom, which is outside.

This is a queen-sized bed in here, and that is pretty much where the walls are.

Probably about the size of my closet in my apartment, it really is.

I had a nice big closet and this is probably about the size of it.

Luckily I am a really tiny person, so a tiny home works.

What people do not realize is this is just the room.

I live outside.

And that's huge.

I have the most beautiful home of anybody.

There is this really cool spot, you can see the Rio.

It's really about living your life to the fullest and realizing that life is too short to be unhappy.

In general, it takes work to get to the best spot.

I guess my mission is to try to show people things they do not normally get to see, to inspire them to do the things they would not normally do.

So I want to use my photography to do that.

Unbelievable!

[soft dramatic music] It is so beautiful.

Today, there are these beautiful blues and yellows, and great clouds tonight.

[bird chirping] You can hear the birds.

You can even hear the river.

[soft dramatic music] I do shoot a lot of landscapes, because of that shift in perspective.

There we go.

There is something awe-inspiring that nature created that.

And I find beauty in the small things too, but something about the mountains really draws me.

[shutter clicks] [crickets chirp] My parents and my sister and I would go camping, every vacation was camping growing up.

And we did that around Colorado, but when I moved to Texas, I took that spirit with me.

I am not sure if being outdoors slows me down, but it does put life into perspective and make me more aware.

[bird chirping] [upbeat music] This is going to be such a pretty sunrise.

It is going to turn red.

Pretty much the best way to wait for your coffee.

[coffee percolating] Look at that!

The only routine I have is drinking coffee in the morning.

And as long as I get my coffee, then the rest of the day is wide open.

I am giving workshops or speaking somewhere, or I might get to shoot or hike or visit somebody.

Every day is different, and that is what is so amazing.

[doors closing] It is really important to me to not be the couch-surfing, starving artist.

I do not have a secret jackpot.

[metal clanging] It is important to me that I contribute to society and I am a working member of this world, but I am convinced I can do that from the road.

[car passing] I haven't figured out the magic formula yet.

I am poorer than ever, but I am happier than ever.

In my old life, it was very routine.

Every day was almost the same.

I had a steady nine to five job, and I would work every day, kind of in a cubicle.

I was starting to get really burned out, and I was getting burned out on photography, which I really did not want to do because that was my passion.

So I decided to go on a photography workshop to the Grand Tetons.

And the minute I was back in the mountains, I instantly realized I was not living my life the way I was supposed to be living my life.

And in the course of this one sunrise, I made up my mind to just change everything.

I began camping around Texas at McKinney Falls and Pedernales and Palmetto, all these state parks and then I realized that was not going to be enough for me either and I was going to have to expand to the whole country.

I turned in my notice for my apartment complex to be out and I began getting rid of all of my things, and I began to get my camper ready to live in.

And I was almost there, and I went out one day and it was gone.

- NEWSCASTER: A photographer who was victimized my thieves and her beloved trailer stolen.

The story that is now gone viral, Lydia.

- This is the area where the trailer was stolen.

Since then the owner has been pleading with people to help her find it.

- I was just heartbroken and my first thought was that I was going to have to cancel my plans.

- LYDIA: This is the plea Mandy Lea posted on Facebook, and 78,000 Facebook users shared her post.

Then last night, her beloved trailer, found.

The trailer was in pretty rough condition.

No word yet on when she will get it back.

- It was a really tough month, but between insurance, and this huge outpouring of support, I was able to start fresh, and I left Austin the day I picked up my new camper.

There is a lot of hard things about living on the road, but not for one minute have I regretted what I am doing.

Oh, sweet!

I can get the whole thing right here.

Yea wide angle!

[shutter clicks] Big Bend has the rocks and cactus.

[shutter clicks] The Davis Mountains have a lot more grass.

In the higher altitudes you are getting into a little brushier feel, and certainly bigger trees.

Plugged in to power and water, it is like I can just do whatever I want.

[light switch click] [velcro rips] If it is raining, or not nice weather outside, this is where I will sit and edit.

That is not bad.

It is not always the best conditions, but there is always something fun to shoot.

[footsteps] [shutter clicks] You go to work, you go to the gym, you go to the store and you go home.

And that becomes your entire world.

And then when you go outside and you see a mountain... On top of the Davis Mountains!

...you realize this world is so much bigger than what you are used to in your daily life.

And we forget about that.

[soothing music] [fire crackles] It is getting cool, and great night for a fire, actually.

[upbeat music] When I embarked on this journey, I decided that I was going to live this life as long as I was successful.

[light switch click] Success to me is not becoming rich, success is sustained happiness.

So as long as I can sustain this life and be happy, I see myself doing it indefinitely.

I could spend the rest of my life traveling the United States and still not see everything I want to see.

The magnificence of these mountains and the waterfalls... it really makes you realize how small we are.

I have spent the last year shooting Texas, and I still have not seen all of it.

This is a big, grand state.

People forget what is out there.

[dramatic music] [water trickling] - NARRATOR: Have you ever really looked at a creek, stream, or river?

I mean really looked, up close, down at the bottom.

[water splashes] This guy does that for a living.

Meet Dr. Archis Grubh, an aquatic invertebrate biologist.

- Invertebrates are really great indicators of water quality.

Because if the water quality is going down, those are the first ones to disappear from the water.

- NARRATOR: His name is Dr. Grubh and this bug dude studies the health of Texas Rivers by checking in on the tiny invertebrates that live here.

- Beautiful.

I got an anthropod, let me see if I can catch him for you.

There's a damselfly larva, that one's super small, oh this one's a beautiful caddisfly, green one.

I primarily focus on the invertebrates, little small critters.

You see the black and yellow on it, love it!

Just beautiful creatures underwater.

You might think of some alien creatures, pretty much right on the head.

[flowing water] - NARRATOR: This is the Blanco River... and it's Dr. Grubh's latest study site.

- It's very important because I'm studying and finding out what are the diversity of these invertebrates are.

And so I'm capturing a snap shot here, and recording what all we find.

- ALANA STEVENS: I'm only getting point nine eight CFS.

We are measuring water quality now, which includes temperature, conductivity, which is the salinity of the water, um, how much oxygen's in the water.

I really like this site, it just has a lot of different components to it.

So it's got big pools, where a lot of the water is flowing up and the waters deeper.

And it's got riffles that are shallow with a lot of cobble and a lot of stone.

Bugs like a lot of things to hold on to so a lot of debris and vegetation, they really love that kind of stuff so this is just a great site for that.

- ARCHIS: Here we go!

You are going to find tons of these bugs, most of them are the nymph stage or the larval stage.

See those case builders right here.

There's a whole bunch of em here!

Oh wow, look at this a stonefly.

Yes, look at that!

That's the biggest hellgrammite for today!

You see it!

- ALANA: Very cool.

- NARRATOR: These two are here because of the floods of 2015.

- NBC ANCHOR: Good evening from Central Texas, the scene of utter devastation, a natural disaster of epic proportions.

[water raging] - ARCHIS: These flood levels were really huge!

- ALANA: It was a 500 year flood event.

- Regular discharge on the Blanco River is about 90 cfs, which is cubic feet per second.

And it peaked around 150,000 cfs.

- ALANA: Um, it came out of its banks, all the vegetation, took down giant hundred-year cypress trees.

- ARCHIS: A lot of debris came through the system and scrubbed the substrate clean.

- NARRATOR: The floods wiped out almost 90% of the aquatic invertebrates.

So for the next several months these two will check six different sites along the Blanco River.

- ARCHIS: We collect three samples, we just dump all whatever we have, there's going to be tons of insects packed in it.

- ALANA: So now that flows are back down to where they're normal level, we want to see how the bug population is reestablishing itself.

- ARCHIS: Which ones were most affected and how they are doing now!

- NARRATOR: While the invertebrates make their way back to the lab, Dr. Grubh gets a break at the house, - Hey Bucky!

How you all doing!

- NARRATOR: Sort of... - This is Tivols, he's Pearl's rat.

- NARRATOR: It's a bit hectic on the home front.

- I really like the Beta's cause they have like a really beautiful color.

- He has a little heart on his back as you can see!

- I haven't named this Tiger Barb yet.

- NAZERENE: He runs over here.

[cat hisses] [laughter] - NARRATOR: It's like the Wild Kingdom here, with plenty of fish.

- This is a 250 gallon tank.

These are some Rose Line Sharks, these are from India.

Then we got some Clown Loaches over here, those are from Indonesia.

- My husband lives, breathes, dreams, fish.

- ARCHIS: Yeah this is my planet aquarium, it's a 65 gallon tank.

I got the whole thing set up natural with live plants.

- RACQUEL: When we got married and lived together is when I noticed he was starting to do all these set ups, in our little itty, bitty apartment.

And I'm like, "That's cool."

I didn't know it would last and eventually the little 10 gallons would evolve to eight footers and I'm just like, "OK, this is a little extreme."

- NARRATOR: They say never take your work home with you.

- So I really like the blue in this Cardinal Tetras, light up really nicely.

- NARRATOR: But for Archis, it seems like the opposite is true!

- Yah, you gotta do what you love right so it's good!

- ARCHIS: Let's see how it goes.

I really enjoy this every day when I come home from work.

I just sit here, chill out, take a break, instead of turning on the TV, I just enjoy watching these.

This is one of the hardest parts.

[dramatic music] So these are some of the bugs we just collected from the Blanco River.

This part typically takes quite a lot of time because you gotta look through the bugs.

Different parts of their bodies, legs, the claws, the mouth parts, to figure out which ones they are and go through this key, and shows you what you are looking at.

This is a case builder, these guys build their cases with twigs and sand particles, and as they get larger, they abandon the old shell, and build another case.

Yeah look at that, dude!

He's attacking my forceps.

The Hellgrammites, you'll find them only in clean water systems.

They are an indicator of good water quality.

Now I'm here on the microscope spending hours, days, and finally enter all the data, and after that, upload it on the computer, and that's where the fun begins, that's the stuff I really enjoy!

- NARRATOR: It took well over a year to sample and analyze the aquatic invertebrates of the Blanco.

- All of this information from all of these species goes into one dot, so you take all these samples, all these dots and run different matrices.

- NARRATOR: Then math magic happens.

And what looks like flying shapes is some serious science.

- And finally, you condense all the data, and this is what you get, the product.

You know, we are able to see the trends.

[rushing water] - NARRATOR: Archis' data showed that indeed for several weeks after the flood, aquatic invertebrate numbers were way down.

- Yah, the numbers were like almost nil!

- NARRATOR: But his data crunching shows that as time went by, the aquatic invertebrates returned.

- The numbers come back and stabilize, at a certain level, at each of these sites.

The whole habitat is destroyed, the flood just takes off 90% of their population, and still there are able to come back and just go to stable conditions like it was before.

That's just amazing!

[dramatic music] - ARCHIS: Ah, look at this!

- NARRATOR: For Archis, now he gets a chance to show off his life's passion to his kids.

- We go out to the river and go swimming and all!

Hey look at that!

But right now when they are flipping those rocks, and they are seeing these creatures come out alive, it is just amazing!

- Daddy what is this!

- Ohh!

That's a Megaloptera!

Guys look, look!

- RAQUEL: Actually, out experiencing it!

- NAZERENE: He's awesome!

- That's the 100% goal, is for them to be hands on and touching.

I mean they are genuinely interested in bugs!

It's great, it's great!

- NAZERENE: Man, I never knew water pennies could move, they're so cool!

- NARRATOR: So whether it's taking the kids to see them up close!

- ARCHIS: It's a riffle beetle, you see that black thingy moving.

- NARRATOR: Or scoping them out in the lab.

- ARCHIS: Look at that, riffle beetle larva, oooh, he just turned in nice!

- NARRATOR: It's easy to see Dr. Grubh's love for aquatic invertebrates is pure!

- These organisms that we find in the water systems, are really essential!

We do not want sterile waters, or polluted waters, that's not good for the fish, the bugs, or us humans.

- PEARL: Ahh, let me see!

- ARCHIS: So what I want to do is, I want to be able to leave these organisms in the river systems for my kids and their kids.

I want to be able to leave the habitats in pristine conditions.

Oh, look at that!

You know not to be affected or impacted to the point, where these critters are going to be knocked out of the system.

So, I want to do whatever I can to make a difference.

[water flowing] [energetic music] - ROGER MCCABE: We're quite pleased that we found this place and to me, it's a hidden gem in the state park system.

[energetic music] - NARRATOR: Roger and Alice McCabe have brought their grandson Cole to Lockhart State Park for a weekend of camping.

- We enjoy bringing the grandson and the basketball, the bike riding, the fishing, the swimming, the whole thing.

[energetic music] We just think this park has everything we like about camping.

- KID: Look, I see one.

- ROGER: I can't think of a better place to spend a weekend than right here.

- NARRATOR: The park is just outside Lockhart, about 30 minutes south of Austin.

Many of the structures here were built during the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corp.

But the big attraction is a nine-hole golf course.

- ROGER: The view is perfect, we're right on the fairway.

And we've picked up a lot of golf balls.

Cole and I picked up 23 lost balls yesterday in just a short time.

- NARRATOR: These friends play three or four times a week.

- EDWIN ALLISON: There you are, that's a par.

- We're still one under.

- NARRATOR: Leroy, Ed, and Bill are a fearsome threesome.

- LEROY: Look at there, that pretty putt.

- EDWIN: [laughs] That was a good five!

[laughs] - NARRATOR: And together, their combined age is 245 years old.

- EDWIN: When you get this age, this is my exercise.

And I've been here 18 years and everybody that I've seen, most of them come to the point where if they quit, they go home and die, instead of playing golf.

- LEROY: Knock it in!

- EDWIN: So it's a good thing for us.

- LEROY: Emmm, that makes me [bleep] mad when I do that.

Ain't that awful.

- NARRATOR: If you need a break from the great outdoors, Lockhart is just a couple miles away.

- J. HESS: Lockhart's known for its BBQ.

Even if you just want to come out for the day, you can come out and play a round of golf and then go eat some of the best BBQ in Texas.

- NARRATOR: But when asked which restaurant he prefers... [laughs] - NARRATOR: ...J. offers up a diplomatic answer.

- I think they're all good.

[energetic music] Quite a few campers and golfers come in and tell me that this is the best kept secret in Texas.

- We're just going to have to learn to share this, this place with other people.

- LEROY: Well, that's good.

- EDWIN: Finally!

- LEROY: 'Bout time he does something.

[laughs] - EDWIN: We played pretty fair.

- LEROY: Any time I get a 38, I'll take it all day!

[crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] [crickets and birds chirp] This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.