tell me about texas.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

i really wanna go. who here lives there or has been? what bits would you recommend and why?

austin looks great but i'd like to see texas in its variety - all the different terrains and what not. perhaps a road trip across it.

its a pipe dream, i'll never be able to afford it, but the fantasy is nice. help me facilitate it.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Texas is a hell of endless fields, scattered forests and barren arid and desert wastelands. Though, the actual landscape isn't always so bad, if often boring with how flat it is. But the cities, the cities, they are so hideous they are like piles of vomit that came flying out of space and struck the planet, specks of hideous over-wide motorways with lanes in shimmering white concrete and endless endless fields of detached home sprawl. Big box stores and malls like islands in a vast ocean of car parks.

Cracks in the roadways, scavenging birds in the sky; the unendurable heat. But above all, the puke cities whose foul road-oriented developments stains the earth for a good 70 kilometres right across, endless belts of sameness, repeating ad-nausea.

Maybe I just fucking hate the place because my boyfriend lives there and there's no hope of him ever getting out of that hell. Kill everything.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

that bad?

any positive views?

[Tenka]

perhaps a road trip across it.

You're going to need loud music and probably caffeine pills to keep you awake and avoid crashing on the endless ill-maintained and little-varying roads. If you could afford to go anywhere I really wouldn't recommend Texas! (unless you know someone there who's rich, I guess)

P.S. I live here. No I don't have any money.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

It's in the south. That's a big enough reason for me to hate it.

But really, what is appealing about it if you're not a god-fearing conservative? I guess some good eats... that's about it. Maybe some amusement parks too if you can bare the long lines.
I really do hate the place though.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

It's in the south. That's a big enough reason for me to hate it.

But really, what is appealing about it if you're not a god-fearing conservative? I guess some good eats... that's about it. Maybe some amusement parks too if you can bare the long lines.
I really do hate the place though.
definitely eats. i've heard that austin is really cool too, in that its very much not a conservative place, can anyone reflect on this?

btw, you have hank hill as your avatar. one of my texas dreams is to sell propane for hank hill and live a comfortable, american middle-class lifestyle. perhaps even attend the local methodist church every sunday, followed by a propane-fueled barbeque :crying:

[Decolonize The Left]

It's big. It's where George Zimmerman went after he was released and it was there that he was given a whole bunch of guns by the NRA. I hear Austin is really groovy. I also hear that there are some cool places by the gulf but all in all it's pretty barren.

If you're looking for "all different kinds of terrain and what not" then I'd advocate New Mexico, Utah, and Montana. And if you're looking for good eats then I would not come to the south other than NO. I would go to coasts for sure.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

My parents went to Texas in around 1987, a few years before they got married.

Verdicts:

- it's far, far too hot
- the food isn't great and you get given far too much
- american cars from the eighties are horrid
- Lots of people are really friendly
- unfortunately there are a lot of pretty racist people
- driving in Texas is really, really, really boring
- they did find a genuinely nice burger bar or something where the owner had worked out you can use vegetables for things other than garnishes.
- seriously it's too hot

[Bostana]

Hmmm Texas? Well........
Ha3SSgWK-oE

[Consistent.Surprise]

My parents lived there while my father was working on his doctorate. My mother hated Dallas (too polluted & hot), Houston was ok, loved Austin (saw Stevie Ray Vaughan before he was famous), & loved the food in the small border towns. I've been there for a hot minute about 23 years ago & never really wanted to go back.

[Urban Rubble]

Texas has a couple of cool parts and far too many horrible ones.

Austin, as you mentioned, is definitely cool. I've spent a little time there and it always consists of drinking on awesome outdoor patios and late night swimming in quarries and shit.

El Paso, while pretty boring, is separated from Ciudad Juarez a fence. Ciudad Juarez is not boring. It's not as dangerous as you're led to believe (and not as dangerous as it was 2 years ago) but still sketchier than most people have experienced. If you pass through El Paso, park the car and walk around downtown for a bit, it's interesting and you most likely won't find any trouble if you don't do anything majorly stupid like try to buy drugs.

That's all I really know about the place. I once went to Odessa, where they film all those high school football shows, and it was definitely one of the worst places I've ever visited. Way worse than Juarez in it's own way!

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

I often say that, if I had my way, I'd give everything south of Austin back to Mexico (and nuke Dallas into a crater).

Because seriously, everything else about that State other than Austin (and the food) is so goddamn obnoxious. The cowboy mentality, the political backwardness, the superiority complex, the naked hyper-capitalist greed...it's fucking mental.

Seriously, fuck you texas. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxP442T-aZ0)

[Os Cangaceiros]

I lived in Texas for over a year. Ironically it was because I was arrested while travelling through the state and was basically exiled in Texas, on probation, for a year. I legally couldn't even leave the county I was in.

However, somewhat surprisingly, my verdict on Texas isn't all bad. I lived in Austin TX, which is a pretty nice city. Very friendly people (who are surprisingly tolerant, against Texas stereotypes, but I guess it is the "People's Republic of Austin"), warm weather (that becomes extremely hot in the summer), and at least one great public park with good swimming opportunities (the Barton Creek green belt). There's also several really good eateries, like "Torchy's Tacos" and "Juan in a Million", where they will almost literally kill you with food for just a couple bucks, and a bar scene that's excellent (6th street). In addition Austin probably has the largest far-left scene in Texas, and there's a pretty big network of leftists and labor activist folks in the San Marcos-Austin area. This isn't that surprisingly though as the University of Texas is right in the middle of Austin, it's a college town. Austin also hosts a couple huge cultural events, like Fantastic Fest and South By Southwest, and the Alamo Drafthouse is pretty legendary.

Since Austin is really the only place I've spent a considerable amount of time in, that's the only place I can really comment on. The people who say that Texas is "ugly" are tripping, though...places like west Texas are beautiful, especially at dusk, w/ sprawling umber desert vistas as far as the eye can see. I don't know, I think it's beautiful, just like many other places in rural America, although not as beautiful as western Montana. You can also drive down the freeway at 90 miles per hour without fear of being pulled over...

Also, Houston is supposedly the most ethnically diverse city in the entire United States.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

I spent a couple weeks in Houston as a kid. Lots of good food, but I was staying with my uncle, who lived in a hispanic neighborhood so awesome food was everywhere. Don't remember much else.

[Red Commissar]

It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to road trip across Texas you should be prepared for a very long drive. You probably already know that the state is large, and to get from one end of the state to another you'd spend more time than you would doing the same on the main isle of the UK.

Texas is the second most populated state in the US, but most of that population is clustered in three areas for the most part. I'm most familiar with these three areas.

There's a sprawl in the north of the state near the Oklahoma border consisting of Dallas and the smaller Fort Worth, plus their surrounding suburbs. From my experience there's more to do in the Dallas area than in Fort Worth. In the case of the latter you basically have the city's historical role as a hub to send meat up to Chicago for the slaughter. They also have one of the nation's top zoos there. Near Fort Worth you have Arlington, which has two theme parks (Six Flags and its water park) plus sport complexes. Despite a pretty sizable university (UT Arlington) there, it hasn't created the effect that Austin does because it all stays on Campus rather than affecting the rest of the city. This is a good time as any to mention Arlington is a pretty old that is getting hit by decay from the old economic base being moved away, and as such has been hit by gentrification.

Dallas and its northern suburbs are more developed but this is mainly an urban sprawl in its worst aspects. The people in the northern suburbs pretty much have a lot of stereotypes of entitled types, especially in some parts of Plano, Preston Hollow in Dallas, or Highland Park. There's not much world-known history here beyond the oil boom, Bonnie and Clyde, and JFK getting shot. Oh and Dubya's home is here right now (well to be technical it's actually in Highland Park, which is a town inside Dallas so the rich people avoid paying taxes into Dallas). There's some museums, clubs, restaurants, and such but something that's internationally known? I can't say there is.

In the Dallas end you have major universities like UT Dallas in Richardson and the University of North Texas in Denton- so those might be areas with some interesting stuff (the latter more so probably for your interests). Going northish of Plano you get to younger suburbs like Frisco, Allen, the Colony, Little Elm, which are just massive suburban developments really.

That being said the cities are conscious of this tourism problem and have been trying to improve this in other ways. Most of this has fallen into trying to improve the food industry, though unfortunately this manifests itself as fast casual chains and restaurants catered to upper middle-class rather than a cultural boom (gentrification again). The food in Texas is of course more southern with a BBQ bent or just generic Americana, but you've had other cuisines come in from the different cultures here so it's possible to find many interesting things. Burger and burrito restaurants seem to have been popping up a lot more here, as well as microbrewery/restaurant combos and food trucks for some reason.

In the DFW area, you have sizable populations of Mexicans, El Salvadoreans, Guatemalans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Arabs, Kurds, Iranians, and much more, so they bring their own cuisine into the mix. Others have been coming from out of state to take their luck here. So honestly there is a good food scene developing, you just got to go off the beaten track to find them here.

Then there's Houston. Houston is a larger city on its own than any other city in Texas, but the suburban sprawl isn't *as* large as the DFW area. The city is also older so the planning and layout can be chaotic, so navigation might be troublesome. Compared to DFW the Houston area as a whole is more diverse, and this is partly because of Houston being a major port city as well as home to several countries' consulates. The demographics is more or less the same here as DFW, though I feel that Vietnamese are more dominant in the Asian category compared to DFW, which has more Chinese. As far as food goes I think you'll find it similar to DFW with a lot of variety, but like DFW there's a weak history here. Houston's history is mostly tied up in the oil business like Dallas's, as well as some defense contracting and of course NASA (mission control is here). I suppose the entitled part of Houston area is Sugar Land, so avoid that. The universities here include a UT branch and Rice University, but I don't think they have done to the city what the main UT has done for Austin.

North of Houston there's a place called Huntsville. I only mention this if you're interested in seeing the archetype of a prison town in the states. This town hosts the largest prison in Texas and the city's economy revolves completely around this one prison. Another bizzare thing is approaching the town from Houston you see a large statue of Sam Houston, a major figure in Texas history, in a way greeting you to this prison town. I never really knew why this large statue wasn't in Houston, but it's there, presumably to mark the entrance to the large state park forest which is named after Houston. This state forest is nice though, despite being next to a depressing prison. There's a university here that's also, again, named after Houston.

I haven't really had a chance to try out food here, but again I what little I got it is more or less same as the DFW area.

South of Houston is Galveston Island which is the area's main beach, though this is the kind of beach common to the Gulf area- which means the water is usually a bit more cloudy and the sand more muddy. And Houston the way it is you'll see a lot of container ships moving around, even from the beach! One thing you'll notice along this stretch of the beach is that you can find refinery complexes, again, Houston being a major port hub it is also home to this kind of activity.

The other end of the population triangle is a loose sprawl formed between Austin and San Antonio. The former you probably have already heard a lot about. Despite being the capital of Texas and as such home to the state's government, the city as a whole is more vibrant and open-minded than it's otherwise its status as a capital for arguably the strongest, conservative state in the Union would indicate. This reputation has grown up more over the past two decades, and I think it's largely from having the University of Texas within Austin's city limits- which in turn means a mixture of both in-state and out of state students- that has helped fuel this. So expect the kind of food you'd see from a younger cultural mold. As OC mentioned you also have some more well-known events like SXSW and a number of music festivals.

Further down the highway from Austin you hit San Antonio. San Antonio has its place from Texas history for only the Alamo (this isn't its original location, but the last fort to bear this name at that location when the battle took place). If you go there expect a lionization of Texas history and convenient ignorance of the role of slavery, but anyway. San Antonio is larger than Austin and its main tourist trap is the "river walk" which has several local restaurants though some chains are also here. This is basically a development going along a river in the city which is focused on foot travel and small tour barges. The water is notoriously murky though which is often referred to by San Antonio's rivals.

San Antonio compared to other cities has a much larger population of Hispanics, mostly Mexicans. You can see this pretty much on the streets and the kind of food you will eat here. More authentic Mexican is common here as is the usual spins on Tex-Mex.

An odd note here is northeast of San Antonio there's the city of New Braunfels, which as the name might indicate used to be a settlement for Germans. That time has long gone, and the city is mostly known for a tourist trap, a water park called Schlitterbahn.

Outside of these cities you get a lot of empty areas. In the eastern part of Texas, this is mostly a flat plain area dotted with some small forests and the rare hill. Southward towards the gulf it gets more flat and humid, and towards the Mexican border it gets dry and gets more of the stereotypical Texas seen in old Westerns. In the extreme west of Texas you got El Paso, which forms a bit of a sprawl with Juarez across toe border in Mexico. This area feels different from the rest of Texas and takes on the appearance of what you'd see in the Southwest in places like New Mexico. In the "heart" of Texas its more of the flat plains and prairie with sparse tree cover that the middle USA is known for. The furthest I've been in an empty area of Texas is to go to Fossil Rim, which is an outdoor zoo/safari thing with free-roaming animals which was pretty amusing to me as a kid but I haven't been there since. In the same area you also have an old area where Dinosaur fossils were excavated and was the home of a quack group for creationist nuttery. There's also Big Bend, which is a park along the Texas-Mexican border which has some picturesque southwestern landscapes. This is a full-blown national park so it's part of that system which brings more funding and such compared to the more cash-deprived state system. I do like this place, but Big Bend is very far away from the major population center of Texas, so be warned.

Small towns that come up periodically along the major highways between these three urban hubs, and even smaller when you strike out east or west. There are some other cities- near Dallas you got Waco which has Baylor University but is more notorious for the Branch Davidian siege. south along the coast from Houston is Corpus Christi, which was once a major tourist spot but has seen better days to put it lightly. Further south you can hit Brownsville, which is a border town with Matamoros, Mexico. Near that is South Padre Island, which is probably the more picturesque beach in Texas but is home to the spring break crowd. The aformentioned El Paso in the West, and the small country cities of Abeline, Amarillo, and Lubbock, which truthfully I've never been too because I've never heard much of anything interesting there (well, there is a university in Lubbock, Texas Tech, but again never been around there). There's another college town, College Station, which hosts Texas A&M, but I've never been there either.

I should also add that it gets pretty hot in July and August. Triple digits isn't uncommon then (excess of 37 Celsius) and the air can get pretty bad if you having breathing problems like asthma or what ever.

So yeah Texas has a lot of stuff, but I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for or what you think Texas is. And I'll say it here- Texas is by and large conservative and this gets worse when you end up in the suburbs. While the countryside is also this way, I find the suburban ones immensely more idiotic and fitting of the stereotypes. The country ones can be bad too, especially in racism, but fortunately they keep to themselves. By and large though the people in the cities and suburbs usually tend to keep to themselves, and in most country areas they won't go and bother you. Living here as long as I have been and as a minority, while I've faced racism here, frankly I've found it worse in the presumably more "liberal" north.

This being said if you're coming to the US Texas isn't probably the most tourist-friendly place there is. Be sure you really know where to go because public transit is nonexistent here beyond some bus lines and a handful of light rail in some of the cities, and the old greyhound and amtrack lines between some cities.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

thanks for that awesome answer. if i ever get the chance to come, i'll probably ask you and some others for the places to go and not to go for a short visit.

[Rugged Collectivist]

Texas? That's where RiFF RaFF's from.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Surprised this hasnt been posted yet.
QxP442T-aZ0



The only reason to go to Texas is to re-enact no country for old men.





Everyone hates Texas that isnt from Texas.


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[Comrade Jacob]

I went there once...it was not fun.

[Pirate Utopian]

Watch this about Texas:

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[#FF0000]

Texas isn't as bad as it's made out to be. Especially if you stick to the cities.

I do remember a friend of mine telling me about one city (Houston, I think) which is basically like post-industrial ghost town like Detroit or Scranton these days, with a huge empty downtown area with skyscrapers and few people. (Anyone know the city I'm thinking of?)

[MarxSchmarx]

I was in Austin, TX for work about two years ago on several occasions for a few days each time.

I must say that I found the alleged "coolness" of Austin, which is repeated ad nauseum on this thread and IRL, to be very seriously overrated.

Frankly I found it bland, had a pretty minor college town vibe indistinguishable from most major college towns I've been to, and maybe a few quirky venues that I could count on one hand. In short, not at all different from any other mid-sized American city with a large university attached to it. I have seen really funky parts of America, and Austin just does not cut it.

If you are into music (I really am not), well, maybe you might have a different experience in Austin. But I found the place incredibly over-rated, pretentious, and hardly special.

I'll grant people who've lived there both on this thread and IRL must feel differently. Perhaps the fact that people think Austin is so "weird" and unique speaks more about how abnormally awful the rest of Texas is.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I actually agree about the "weird" thing, I don't think Austin TX is that weird. The tiny hick town I grew up in is way weirder than Austin.

But I still like the city.


I do remember a friend of mine telling me about one city (Houston, I think) which is basically like post-industrial ghost town like Detroit or Scranton these days, with a huge empty downtown area with skyscrapers and few people. (Anyone know the city I'm thinking of?)

Definitely ain't Houston, which is the fourth most populated city in the USA (after NYC, LA and Chicago). The zoning in Houston is really strange, though, it's all haphazard and there's like high schools right next to skyscrapers.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Also, UGK, the Jesus Lizard and the Butthole Surfers all came from Texas. Keep that in mind before you put it down too much.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

The Sword also came from Texas as well. So it can't be all bad.

....I still want to nuke Dallas into a crater, though.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Also, UGK, the Jesus Lizard and the Butthole Surfers all came from Texas. Keep that in mind before you put it down too much.
qfEZOHCWuQQ
listening to this right now. they're one of the reasons i wanna go to austin

[Red Commissar]

Texas isn't as bad as it's made out to be. Especially if you stick to the cities.

I do remember a friend of mine telling me about one city (Houston, I think) which is basically like post-industrial ghost town like Detroit or Scranton these days, with a huge empty downtown area with skyscrapers and few people. (Anyone know the city I'm thinking of?)

There's a lot of bad things about Houston but being a depressed economy isn't one of them. That being said Dallas and Houston both do not have much purpose to their cities beyond the economy- there isn't a lively night life or w/e on account of the urban sprawl causing these food and service businesses to follow them out of the city. Some residential areas in Houston are depressed though.

I can speak from experience working in Dallas that in some hours of the afternoon- after when most people have lunch but before most people get off work- the streets can get pretty empty, especially on weekdays. Houston is likely the same way because like Dallas it's soooo business-centered they've forgotten about other things that other cities in the US focus for (wasteful spending, as they see it :/ ). As such a considerable chunk of people who work in the city don't live in the city, and accordingly service and food follows them out into the suburbs and parts of the city end up vacant. They only now seem to be self-conscious of this and are trying to make up for it, Dallas I know supports its west side and specifically Deep Ellum restaurants and bars for night activities. Maybe this is what your friend saw (urban sprawl, city flight, etc.)? Texas is pretty much urban sprawl embodied, and politicians here embrace it unfortunately.

What you are describing does sound more like Corups Christi slightly. Corpus doesn't have that many skyscrapers but it does have a few in its downtown. It's more like Atlantic City though, its golden age having passed and trying to claw its way back up, but it at least has a functioning port still. I know Galveston has a lot of dead areas (mostly abandoned homes and beach rentals), its importance as a port having been taken over by Houston, but it doesn't have any skyscrapers beyond some large hotels. Hurricane Ike didn't help it much either. I've been told Beaumont is like this but I don't think it skyscrapers.

Again though OP if you're going to come to the US there are better places to go. If this is your first and possibly only visit, it'd be wasted on Texas. You can choose one city to go to for a few days but for an extended trip other areas are more tourist-friendly and liked.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Definitely ain't Houston, which is the fourth most populated city in the USA (after NYC, LA and Chicago). The zoning in Houston is really strange, though, it's all haphazard and there's like high schools right next to skyscrapers.

It might very well be Houston, because the inner city areas outside of the very central core are in a not very good shape. There are large empty undeveloped lots in the inner residential areas. It's not due to zoning, it's due to white flight from the inner areas, populations primary absorbed by new sprawl communities outside of I-610 (the second orbital motorway for those who do not know what it is, second to the very city centre motorway box). The inner city and some districts, mostly to the south-west of the city centre, have seen gentrification and become fancy cesspools for hipsters and young professional dregs and assorted sick, but many areas remain looking a lot like Detroit.

The Harrisburg Freeway, a city-centre connection that was planned to connect from the inner motorway box to the I-610, was stopped after protests from the working class neighbourhoods along the way (the motorway now ends at I-610, as the State Highway 225). The area remains largely neglected and is partially empty.

The situation is not entirely dissimilar in Dallas-Ft. Worth, either (though there the gentrification is more centred towards the north of the city centre). It's partially due to the way American cities are politically divided (without metropolitan government) and the complex socio-economic reasons, as well as some to do with race and culture. Most new housing is concentrated to single-development sprawl districts ("subdivisions") and the older areas with small lots of disparate ownership are systemically neglected.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

This is weird, I actually have the opportunity to travel to Texas but I'm like ehhhhhhhhh, I don't fucking know about that. Thanks for starting this thread, it's been informative thus far. In my head, it's like if you combined Bonanza and Fallout New Vegas; that's how I see Texas.

[Tenka]

In my head, it's like if you combined Bonanza and Fallout New Vegas; that's how I see Texas.

That's more or less accurate, except I'm pretty sure Texas is flatter and less people want to kill you. Pretty sure....

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

That's more or less accurate, except I'm pretty sure Texas is flatter and less people want to kill you. Pretty sure....

Idk, to me it's still the wild west down der, I mean, I heard if a man catches his wife cheating he legally can murder both her and the other man due to temporary hysteria/insanity or something like that. Plus, king of the castle law, all the redneck good ole boys, crazy ranchers, anti-immigrant types, hunters, the state of Texas' stance on the death penalty, Mexican cartels, etc.

It seems all bang bang, skeet skeet.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

We're still talking about this?!
If you want good BBQ, forget Texas... and Memphis!
Head up north to Kansas City for the best BBQ in the States.
Although I'm sure you can still find some great heart-wrenching burgers in the Dirty South.

They do get a lot of great concerts, tour-dates, and bands, so that's a plus.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

you have hank hill as your avatar, he's a texan hero

[Skyhilist]

As someone who is really into the outdoors, I have heard really good things about the nature at Big Bend and Guadalupe national parks. These are both in western Texas though, away from most of the cities. Most of the cities are very conservative except for a) Austin and b) cities that have a high percentage of hispanics (who are slightly less reactionary because of how obvious conservatives make it that they don't give a shit about them).

[F9]

Dillon panthers are a sell out!!Support East Dillon team!!