Anyone here from Texas???

[JINGWEED]

I am looking to possibly move to Texas and interested in a warmer area and possibly renting a small place. If you live there can you please possibly PM me so I can ask you a couple questions.
Thanks much!
Ralph

[Oleman]

You might want to run a PM by Chuck Miller here on the forum.

[Hotshot]

See if you can get BCB to give you some answers. I said something smart alec about Texas some years ago. We went to email and he sent me a most beautiful slide show of his adopted state. Shut me up right now!
He is very proud of Texas and proud to explain why.

[bowfisher]

BCB is in SE TX, I prefer W TX, or the SW. Lots of info to be had, it's a huge state. Yotes, bobcats and pigs abound. I have a buddy in Childress, love that area.

[JINGWEED]

I am thinking West or Southwest too. Somewhere warm in the winter. Thanks everyone for responding.
Ralph

[Bayou City Boy]

Ok......... Here goes my unofficial immigrant travel and resettlement advisory......... Texas is indeed a big place with lots of varied geography and cultures. If you drive the speed limit you can spend all day driving in Texas from my home in SE Texas to the top of the Panhandle. Just realize at that speed your doors might get blown off by a DPS trooper or a local county mountie headed for his favorite donut shop or for steak fingers at his favorite local Dairy Queen.

West Texas is a great place to live with folks who will honor multi-million $$ deals with a handshake. Just know that it does have one slight disadvantage for living.......the wind blows. I'm talking 45+ mph....not gusts...blowing....Your wife might go bonkers the first year trying to figure out how all of the fine grain sand dust gets into her house. It even comes in under picture frames on the wall. A calm day is 20 mph..... It starts in earnest in early March and can stretch to late February. But it's a great place to live around lots of nature varying from the LLano Estacado to desert vegetation.

Anywhere along the Rio Grande might strike your fancy too. Just be aware that dudes dressed in green uniforms and driving green and white vehicles might be your new best friends if you choose to live outside of a larger community. There is a lot of Obama induced immigration in those area, but Governor Abbot and his predecessor Governor Perry have worked hard to stem it without federal help. As an example, Texas has its own inland navy which patrols the Rio Grande with armed patrol boats looking for illegals and drug traffic from Mexico. The people, both gringo and native Hispanic are great people. Vegetation varies from flat desert vegetation to the Chisos Mountains in the Big Bend area. Neither are good place to go without extra food, water, and ammo. A fairly mild climate.

The Central Texas Hill Country is maybe the most well known geographic area of Texas. Extending from Kerrville SW of San Antonio to the area NW of Austin the HC has lots of charm and scenery, and its the breeding ground of the unique Texas country music culture. There's nothing like a cold beer and good food eaten while you listen to Thomas Michael Riley perform at Hondo's on Main in Fredericksburgh. He has several versions of the story behind this song based on the audience, but this first song he supposedly wrote after knowing that his nephew was coming home safely from Afghanistan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX2NzeMuQZw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci_J8qEZ6ZU

You'll find a lot of small towns with German culture where the native Texas heritage still lives on in the town centers like it does in LLano. The memorial statue in the second photo is located on the court house grounds just to the right of the view in the first picture.





North Texas and the Panhandle have the most varied climates with lots of flat ground to live on. Seasons vary from "freeze your butt off'" ice storms/blizzard weather to hot but fairly dry summers. That's where Chuck Miller lives so it can't be all that bad........ Dallasites and Houstonians are bred to not like each other, especially during football season. This year Texan fans are seriously wondering why the Cowboys didn't give Brock Osweiler a big $$ multi year contract and release Dak Prescott where the Texans could have picked him up for chump change..........

As someone mentioned, I live in the Gulf Coast area which has the LA Cajun influence which is extremely nice IMO. Lots of humidity and we do have occasional wind spells call hurricanes. But for the most part the climate is semi-tropical with winter only lasting a few days at a time a couple times during "winter". But bring your winter coat if you've got one. 40 degrees with 85% humidity can be quite chilly.

East Texas has lots of piney woods and swamps in some areas, and great people. Just know that a few of them still might never pass up a sale on white sheets at Walmart......

Overall, the best advice I can give is to come on down and give yourself enough time to look around. You might find something that you're not looking for originally that strikes your fancy. Great people everywhere, both white and native Hispanics, and lots of other colors who are proud of their individual Texas heritages.

Texans are prideful and proud of their state. They welcome anyone who comes here and wants to become a part of the community. If you preach or try to tell them what is wrong with them and their way of life, it doesn't matter whether you come from East Bayone, NJ or SW Montana, your advice might not fly very high. Texans typically "don't suffer fools" really well.

You'll find that food, clothing, gas, and housing are relatively cheap compared to other parts of the country. Land in the country is relatively high in price, but worth the money if you want country living. Ammo is relatively available in good numbers when compared to what a place like Indianapolis has seen in the past couple of years. Hopefully that situation will get better soon for all places in the US. Good hunting is available. You just have to look for it, on both public and private land.

One thing you will learn fairly soon is that the native Mexican, Tex Mex, and Cajun foods don't necessarily require an extra bottle of jalapenos or half a container extra of "Slap Yo Momma" spice to taste great and be like the natives make it.

Good luck with your move if you make it.........

Off the pedestal..........

-BCB

[JINGWEED]

I thank you very kindly BCB. That's a lot of help. I do like the mindset of the Texas people. More common sense there than in Pa. That's for sure. I need to do some homework on this endeavor for sure but I do thank you for taking the time out for that message.
Ralph

[georgeld]

a couple things I've learned from driving (OTR) around Texas. Well, to start with. I had a US map on the wall and when I got home each trip I marked the new roads I'd just driven. In just about ten years I had the state covered to where I can honestly say "I've been within 50 miles of every inch of Texas. You bet, that's a whole lotta driving!
The following are just a few things I learned while 'making a mile' in Texas.

Get your map out, "at 75-80mph two inches across Texas WILL take you ALL DAY to drive it!" Chiggers: Here's a hint. IF they bother you like they do most folks. Drip a bit of diesel #2 around your boots, or pant legs and they'll leave you alone.

Fine folks everywhere. Yes it does snow down there too, but, it's not the snow you need to worry about it's the ice storms. When one hits, stay put til it melts!! "You ain't a goin nowhere anyway!" Even 4 wheel drive won't help.

IF you get the notion to pick some cotton from a field and try to grow it, DON'T put the bolls inside your car or cab of your truck!
The weevils WILL run you out of there quick.

Around the south and SE, the 'skeeters will hook you and fly off with you in tow by themselves, they don't need helpers!" But: you can count on there being a bunch trying to get parts off you before the first one can get away with it all! One hard lesson I learned about those monsters at Houston: "IF you sleep naked don't leave the windows open and kick the covers off!"

Take a month and travel the state before you settle on any one place, there's a whole lot of attractive areas to land in. Everyone of 'em is warmer than where you are now, count on that much.
Wish you well.

BCB: The dust isn't coming out of the walls behind the pictures, it's the static in the air that builds up on things that makes it stick there.

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by georgeld

a couple things I've learned from driving (OTR) around Texas. Well, to start with. I had a US map on the wall and when I got home each trip I marked the new roads I'd just driven. In just about ten years I had the state covered to where I can honestly say "I've been within 50 miles of every inch of Texas. You bet, that's a whole lotta driving!
The following are just a few things I learned while 'making a mile' in Texas.

Get your map out, "at 75-80mph two inches across Texas WILL take you ALL DAY to drive it!" Chiggers: Here's a hint. IF they bother you like they do most folks. Drip a bit of diesel #2 around your boots, or pant legs and they'll leave you alone.

Fine folks everywhere. Yes it does snow down there too, but, it's not the snow you need to worry about it's the ice storms. When one hits, stay put til it melts!! "You ain't a goin nowhere anyway!" Even 4 wheel drive won't help.

IF you get the notion to pick some cotton from a field and try to grow it, DON'T put the bolls inside your car or cab of your truck!
The weevils WILL run you out of there quick.

Around the south and SE, the 'skeeters will hook you and fly off with you in tow by themselves, they don't need helpers!" But: you can count on there being a bunch trying to get parts off you before the first one can get away with it all! One hard lesson I learned about those monsters at Houston: "IF you sleep naked don't leave the windows open and kick the covers off!"

Take a month and travel the state before you settle on any one place, there's a whole lot of attractive areas to land in. Everyone of 'em is warmer than where you are now, count on that much.
Wish you well.

BCB: The dust isn't coming out of the walls behind the pictures, it's the static in the air that builds up on things that makes it stick there.

Thanks for the uber scientific truck driver explanation, George, on the picture thingy. I said it in jest to simply point out that sand seems to come in from everywhere.

From the rest of your comments it sounds like it's maybe been years since you've been in Texas, and then you must have hit some truly hard to find places in your travels.

-BCB

[SmokinJoe]

Jing, you might consider NM also; lots of nice areas in that state,too.