will texans welcome me? british guy heading to texas alone for a few months . (San Antonio: live in, dangerous)

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

Pass the Shiner, please.

(Though I admit I like Modelo, too...and Heineken! Actually - I like beer.)

You like the stronger, fuller-bodied ones (more hops..??). I can drink both of those, but prefer the lighter ones.

For Mexican beer, I like Tecate and Corona.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by Westerntraveler

i have never tried the 55. Lone Star is just too heavy for me.sorry to hear that.haha.I cant stand warm beer.

I've never had warm beer. I like it so cold that there are ice chips floating around in it.

[hellpaso]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

I've never had warm beer. I like it so cold that there are ice chips floating around in it.

Back in EP, we used to make a Michelada with ice, lime juice, & Tecate. Never have understood adding chile or Clamato to it, like they do here in the RGV. Maybe we need a new thread re beer dranking in our fine State.

I hope the OP hasn't been turned off by our debating about beers. . Maybe it just shows that we all belong to the big "family" of Texans, a place unlike any other in this country.

Nothing at all wrong with agreeing to disagree!

I welcome him to Texas, & I look forward to hearing about his experiences & impressions of our great State.

Please keep us posted!

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by hellpaso

Back in EP, we used to make a Michelada with ice, lime juice, & Tecate. Never have understood adding chile or Clamato to it, like they do here in the RGV. Maybe we need a new thread re beer dranking in our fine State.

I hope the OP hasn't been turned off by our debating about beers. . Maybe it just shows that we all belong to the big "family" of Texans, a place unlike any other in this country.

Nothing at all wrong with agreeing to disagree!

I welcome him to Texas, & I look forward to hearing about his experiences & impressions of our great State.

Please keep us posted!

Yes, I second all that. I hope he's not mad at us for sort of hijacking his thread!

[nick_1981]

thanks for all the replies everyone, due to time zone difference i was asleep while you were all debating between beer and the southern status of Texas lol! i will go through and make some replies with my morning coffee but very interesting if not a little entertaining aswell, i had no idea there was this huge "is texas southern" battle going on, for my 2 cents from a british perspective i see Texas as its own place again the same way i see Alaska, and yes i know the southern debate is about geography also, but for me Texas stands on its own terms and the "south" i have always considered to be (with my lack of any real knowledge) the kind of place the movie porkies was set, kinda Boss hog dukes of hazard if you wanna throw out a crass generalization, to me thats the south, but Texas is......well..Texas!

[nick_1981]

Originally Posted by Qazulight

You didn't say what time of the year you will be here. A cold day in Houston can be warmer than a summer day in London. The Big Bend area should be avoided after April and before November.

If it will be a year are so before you come, I would suggest you subscribe to this magazine

TPW magazine | State Parks

and maybe this one also.

Texas News, Politics, Food, Recipes, Travel, Music & Entertainment | Texas Monthly: The National Magazine of Texas

(And yes we CAN have a "National Magazine of Texas" and no we don't need to blow anybody up to do it.)

On the religion thing, if you are going to be living in one area, you will make friends. If so, and they go to a church, especially if it is a "Cowboy Church" or a "Holyness Church" and they invite you to go with them one Sunday, I would go. I think of it like going to Mass in Italy, or Synagoge in Israel. I have done neither and regret it.

If you are in a small town you may want to go to the Rodeo. I know I never liked the rodeo, still don't for that matter, but when they had one in San Augustine (Population 2100) it turned into quite a quaint community event.

As for as the "whole Texas thing" I was raised on the Gulf Coast, lived in Houston, and now live in East Texas. I have vacationed entirely within Texas at least once and taken several weekend jaunts. You will not be able to "soak in the entire Texas thing" in two months. Maybe two life times.

While the Dallas to San Antonio corridor is becoming as crowded as any megalopolis, some where along that Freeway would be a good place to settle. Just some quick checks on Google maps shows that from Temple to just about anywhere is a 8 hour run. (I am not recommending Temple, it just seems to be the most rural area in that corridor, personally I like Deep East Texas it marches to its own drummer, or some say maybe it killed and at the drummer, I don't know.)

Make sure you have a car and the air conditioner works. (even in the winter)

Cheers
Qazulight

Thanks very much for all the info there, i will be visiting in the summer july through to september, staying with a good friend in wichita kansas who is getting engaged, going to spend a week there meeting her husband to be and her family, then im heading south!! and yes i do intend to stay in one place and just do day trips to other areas, but i intended to stay in the same town and get a feel for the place and in turn get a feel of what life in texas is like, the rodeo is something id love to see as is livestock markets and if i get lucky a chilli contest, i love chilli...... but yes i agree i would need alot more than a few months, but thats all i have so gonna make of it what i can, really just need to decide which pat of the state i should head to,

[nick_1981]

Originally Posted by War Beagle

Except for Lone Star. Avoid Lone Star like the plague.

Im a big fan of bourbon myself (Makers Mark is my tipple of choice) but when im having BBQ, beer is always what im reaching for , and again in the hot weather beer is my drink of choice, i will be visiting in the summer, as far as beer goes, i tend to prefer the stronger ones at least 4.5% in strength, here i drink stella artois or kronenburg or newcastle brown ale, all strong full bodied beers, at the ripe old of age of 31 am i still going be getting asked for ID everywhere i go lol, thats one thing about the usa i really cant get used to.

[nick_1981]

Originally Posted by High_Plains_Retired

If you come through Lubbock from Amarillo, we welcome all who want to visit and you won't find wider skies anywhere in Texas. We try not to bash other Texas cities because we believe all of Texas is our home. Take home a High Plains tumbleweed if you wish but we wish you could take them all!

You may know the UK loses a few folks each year to the Clovis, New Mexico area after one of the city's annual Clovis Music Festivals. Clovis is of course where Buddy Holly, one of Lubbock's most famous sons, did much of his recordings in the 1950s. Each year in September various Buddy Holly era impersonators provide great shows at the Festival and your countrymen seem to really love Buddy Holly's music. We do too.

well you are the first poster to stick up for the west/panhandle area, which as i stated was where i originally (before starting this thread) intended to head to, but now i have been corrupted by all these people vouching for pretty much the areas south of dallas lol! part of me wonders if more of the real texas "warts an all" lies in the more isolated western/north western towns, but at the same time im starting to think i will have a nicer and better time if i spend it a bit nearer to the austin/central/southern texas area with more to do and see, but i gotta stress, im not one for tourist stuff, i like meeting locals and seeing how life in the place im visiting unfolds, and just picking up the feel for a town or area, connect to it if you like. the Buddy Holly thing sounds great, i'll be honest and say i dont know much about him except for some reason i have this notion in my head he was like the american Cliff Richard, but i love live music and any type of festival/gathering, im really positive about my upcoming trip now, thanks to all these interesting and encouraging replies

[nick_1981]

Originally Posted by hellpaso

Lol! Drinking a Lone Star is like wearing a big, flashing light saying--Tourist! Tourist! It hasn't been a Texas beer for many years. Try a St. Arnold's or Shiner, instead--or opt for local spirits like Tito's or Dripping Springs. The Hill Country is full of wineries, as well. Might as well drink local!

lol i certainly do not want to drink any beer or indeed do anything that places a giant TOURIST badge on my chest!

[nick_1981]

Originally Posted by wardwhirlboromarlpool1955

The only parts of Texas I would describe as "dangerous" would be the most urban parts of Houston and Dallas. It's a shame most New Yorkers and Californians would rather all of Texas look like Detroit or the South Side of Chicago. But it also is disappointing how the drug trade has corrupted the more traditional Texas towns. This is true for most of the rural USA though. I also wish Texas (along with most US states) could have a more diligent system of alcohol control than it currently does. Pennsylvania is a state all the rest should model their liquor control on. So is Utah.

I've never been to England or any of the UK myself, but I had a Welsh coworker many years ago. He was very nice (and still is a good friend of mine) but I was a bit disturbed by his opinion about something. When we had a discussion once about his travels in the USA, and he has been to quite a number of states, I noticed he didn't consider Texas to be a Southern state. While it may be richer, more diverse, more cosmopolitan, and has a different origin than the rest of the Southern states, it shares the culture and social mores of its neighbors to the east. It irritates me that not just him (but also many Americans in the North) think of only the smaller Southern states when they hear a generalization of Southern culture. I don't know what's worse: people getting the misconception that all Southern states are rural and starving, as is true of much of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc, or people getting the misconception that states such as Virginia and North Carolina are where to experience traditional Southern culture (in this day and age anyway, many communities in both those states have forgotten their Southern character).

Also, isn't it sad that the majority of folks in NYC and Philadelphia don't realize how New Orleans, while being in a Southern state, has both rural Southern hospitality and the multicultural flavor and history of the big Northeastern cities?

im so very sorry......but i have to agree with your welsh buddy, as a british person i just dont see Texas as the "south" as i posted a few mins ago, the south (and again this is crass stereotypes formed over here mainly from hollywood movies) is more where hillbillies live, you know making moonshine and wearing denim braces, and the same crass stereotype (in england at least) for texas is guns, cowboys and cattle, of course this is all down to movies and i wager neither place is really like that, at least not as its portrayed.