What's the Big Deal? (San Antonio, Abilene: to live, fence, moving)

[i_catch_tree_bass]

An interesting facet of the "flat" discussion is this: the pro-flat's tend to point out that Texas is not as mountainous or hilly or whatever as another given state that has that as it's strong suit. I'm not here trying to claim that Texas is the "hilliest" or "most mountainous" or whatever state. I'm pointing out it's fairly inaccurate to call it mostly flat. It's also inaccurate to refer to, for example, the 14,000 square mile Hill Country (larger than the state of Maryland) as a "stray outcrop of hills."

What makes Texas so unique is the number of different geographical types contained within our borders. It is typically broken into seven different regions, while many states may only have one type of landscape, and I would guess that most states have no more than three.

Weather is relative. There are only a couple of small areas in the US that have weather that SOMEONE can't take issue with. And you're still wrong about the land not being striking. How much of Texas have you travelled? Great beaches can be found in Texas. Have you been to the far reaches of South Padre? Once again, not saying that our beaches are the best in the US, just would say they're better than not "all that great." And I can't, for the life of me, understand this comment: "The cities are not as exciting as the centers of urban culture back East." As I already mentioned, we don't have a NYC, LA or really quite a Chicago, but beyond the big three, what cities are you trying to compare to?

[Trainwreck20]

Okay, got quite the argument going here :-) As a native Texan, I consider the state pretty flat, percentage-wise. Houston (biggest city) is beyond flat...DFW is flat in the cities proper, with some hills/terrain relatively close. San Antonio and Austin are located on a half-flat area, I guess you would call it. Considering that the gound is flat for most of east texas, and the panhandle is mostly flat with some mesa/arroyos, I do not feel wrong in saying Texas is "mostly" flat as long as you define flat as "no mountains". There ARE mountains in the thumb, quite nice ones at that. The hill country is not mountainous, but is wonderfully hilly. To be fair, Texas can be "mostly flat" and still have huge areas that aren't flat.

Kind of rambling....but this is kind of a pointless discussion (no offense meant). Whether you call Texas flat or not, it is what it is, and I like what it is.....

[irwin]

I guess my point on the geographic features of Texas is that they may have something but it is not that strikingly beautiful, especially when compared to other places. Texas has a lot of things that other states have, they just aren’t the most amazing examples of such things. For example, the picture posted of the autumn foliage. Nice picture no doubt. But when compared to an autumn scene in New England, it is nothing. Take the beaches. South Padre is alright (been there many times), but compared to the Pacific Beaches they are pretty sub-par (but at least they have cleaned them up a bit). Palo Duro Canyon….not bad but nothing compared to the Grand Canyon, come on. Davis Mountains (been there many times also), they are not even mountains compared to Colorado and Montana. The cities, they are alright but not world class cities like NYC, Washington, Chicago, San Fran, Boston, etc. (LA is a dump!)

This is why many people not from Texas question why Texans are so proud of Texas. One of my good friends is from Rhode Island. Nice guy but I remember one time he asked me what was the deal with Texas and Texans. Don’t have the scenery of the West…don’t have the cities of the North. Again, I said it was the people and the culture and the friendly camaraderie between Texans. He saw the Texas flag I had on my wall at my old building and commented how he didn’t even know what the flag of Rhode Island looked like!

[texasdreamin]

I can vouch for the fact that Texas is not flat. I don't even live there...but I have checked it by satillite. Also, there are mountains just to the west of Camp Wood and Barksdale. They are only about 2,000 feet high, but mountains, nevertheless. The huge mountains are farther west, towards El Paso.

I, for one, am so glad Texas is spread out. It is that slow, serene, spread out life that I am seeking and much of my reasoning for relocating, in the first place. I welcome it. I'm tired of urban.

[i_catch_tree_bass]

I guess I see where this is headed, compare all the things Texas has to the very best of each in any part of the US, and since our mountains aren't the Rockies, that makes them sub par and renders our scenery less than striking.

[irwin]

Come on Tree Bass. You know that is not what I meant.

Think of it this way. What if everyone from Wisconsin was really forward and over the top about how great Wisconsin was. What if every time something was brought up, people from Wisconsin would laud Wisconsin. What if every time people from Wisconsin got together, they would extol on and on about how great Wisconsin was, and ignore pretty much everyone else in the group. And what if people from Wisconsin were known over the entire country as being pretty proud of the Badger State and they didn’t care what you said about it.

A normal person would probably wonder what’s so special about Wisconsin. I mean, the weather in Wisconsin is pretty sorry. The landscape in Wisconsin is mostly flat and bland. They have a lake and decent little towns along the lake, but it is nothing to write home about. Milwaukee makes a lot of low-grade beer, but it is certainly not a great cultural center. So, a normal person would probably ask…”What’s the deal?”

See where I am going?

And no offense to anyone from Wisconsin! I’m sure it’s a lovely place.

[Steel Man]

As you can see on the map, Texas is very diverse.
(see web site link at bottom for more detailed info)



REGIONS
1 Piney Woods
2 Oak Woods & Prairies
3 Blackland Prairies
4 Gulf Coast Prairies & Marshes
5 Coastal Sand Plains
6 South Texas Brush Country
7 Edwards Plateau
8 Llano Uplift
9 Rolling Plains
10 High Plains
11 Trans Pecos
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Texas Outdoor Recreation Plan, 1995 (1997),38.

http://www.texasep.org/html/lnd/lnd_1reg.html

[210]

Number 7 (Edwards Plateau) is the "Hill Country."

[i_catch_tree_bass]

I see your point quite clearly, in reference to Wisconsin. My first post in this thread very directly answered the question "What's the big deal?" in reference to Texas.

[Cathy4017]

Those are very brief descriptions of three of the most important points in Texas history, and events like that, as well as the beauty of the state that I've described, the friendliness of the people, and the uniqueness of our cities, is what creates Texas pride.

To answer your question, that is what's so great about Texas.

Excellent post, Tree_Bass.

There has to be something about TX (I'm native)....we have 20+ MILLION people and growing.

For what it's worth, I've never really cared what anybody else thought about Texas myself.

I will relocate west, but if Texas had snow on their mountains and downhill alpine skiing, I wouldn't give any where else a second look.