**sorry for the typing errors...my laptop is behind the times and screws up a bit when I'm typing, and I'm trying to do a bunch of things in a little time when I have an internet connection, so didn't go back and edit the post.
** and sorry if I sound too negative. It really is a very pleasant area of the country and I've enjoyed myself quite a bit. But when I'm thinking of relocating or traveling, I've already got great visions of the place and am excited about it, and really want a dose of the negative aspects to cool me down and clear my head a bit. I thought that other people might like that too. If you want to see the great, positive aspects of the place, go look at a travel brochure
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Well, I've been camping and hiking and thus not near a computer, so it's taken a bit to respond. Well, I did stay at a little hotel in Beaumont, but it was not the type of place to have a wifi connection (and really shouldn't have had me staying in it, but I was tired).
My trip so far, which wasn't all that planned, sorta went something like -
Houston - galveston island - fort travis (? right after the ferry from galveston), winnie, beaumont, port arthur, sabine pass battleground, groves/port arthur, martin dies, jr state park/surrounding big thicket areas and towns, then now in nacogdoches.
I'll be heading up to the tyler/longview area today or tomorrow and cmaping out a bit more, then down through palestine/crocket/huntsville/conroe and the campgrounds in the area. Think I will take that trip down towards corpush christi and SPI as my dad has been nagging me to (he wants to go on a vacation there, and part of the funding for this trip came from bday/xmas presents from my parents, and I really did want to visit down there, especially camping on the beach).
I've got a lot of pictures, none of them very good (I'm no photographer), but not sure I want to get into uploading them until I get home.
Anyways...some more observations...
The Texas hospitality? - didn't feel it at all in Houston or Galveston really. Actually, Houstonites reminded me of Southern Californians as far as attitudes went, but maybe I just got unlucky, I wasn't there long at all.
Crazy Texas drivers? - Crazy drivers, but not much more-so than other cities....the pickup drivers seemed like country boys (the kind who whip along those windy country roads at 80) who got infatuated with city driving...touch scarey to have a big ol' truck hauling a trailer pass you on the right at 90 then do some daring lane changes.
Out in the country a bit, drivers were a lot more cooled-down. Driving was more like OR in the country, but with those long, straight, open roads it was easy to let my foot slip on the accelerator...I was slowly passing some "slow" SOB I had been stuck behind and noticed I was almost at 100.
Watch out for those country roads if you're visiting...lots of hiking trails are off of them, but they probably arne't the best place to driv e a compact rental car. Some were pretty rough.
Food? - You know, I've missed quite a few of the restaurants that I wanted to go to due to timing (I usually want to be at a campground by 5 or so so I can get some firewood gathered before dark, so places only open for dinner were out) or just not being hungry (they give you huge portions down here, and I'm hard pressed to fit in two meals a day). I've been relying on my Garmin GPS a bit to find restaurants, and seems like damn near every one listed on it is out of business. Several places I stopped at were temporarily closed for the first week of the new year, some were closed permanently. My vision isn't that great so I had a hard time spotting restaurants on the road going 60, much less telling if they were still running or not.
Gaido's seafood in Galveston I did get to, and it was pretty good. If I'm remembering right, it had that giant crab on the outside, which I thought was incredibly tacky, so it was really surprising when it was pretty fancy on the inside. Good food, don't know how you'd eat a full dinner there...the a la carte was too much...
Went to a couple Mexican places...the food was MUCH less spicy than I was accustomed to (but just read that post above about genuine Mexican food being less spicy, so who knows). All the food was less spicy though...I bought some "hot" and "spicy" chips/snacks and they didn't even tingle a solitary taste bud. All the food was buttier/oilier/greasier/more deep fried than I was used to...and when it's hot outside I usually want something light to eat.
Wish I had seen that post about hte place in Woodville, ended up just eating at a Sonic drive-in there (which was kind of interesting and retro...but not exactly "Fast" food).
The service over-all at restaurants has been a little weird...it's like the waitstaff barely interact with customers except to give them their food and check up a little at most places. When I say "thank you" and such when they bring food or a menu or whatever, or make a little small talk, they seem kinda surprised.
Poverty - The southeast in particular was extremely impoverished, imho. Seemed more like a second or third world country than part of America. Like going to a poor Indian reservation or Mexico. Port Arthur was about the ugliest town I've ever seen, but parts of Groves were OK. I wound up in a seedy part of Beaumont one night due to the location information on my GPS being incredibly wrong, and I probably should have jsut moved on rather than staying the night. Hotel had bulletproof glass in the reception area, etc...
Everything got a bit better once you went north a bit..say Woodsville, and better the further west you went as well.
Nature/hiking/camping -
I went to the beaches on the western part of Galveston Island on the gulf side, and some more towards the boardwalk (I guess?), and then looked out on some areas of the coast from historic sites in the SE. I'd say the beaches were pretty plain...not much to them. Just some sand and a ton of clamshells. Not anything horrible though, but no driftwood, or even a discernable tideline, which are things I like. Kind of monotonous. The water seemed fine, though more clouded especially in the SE. I wouldn't say it could compare to OR, but OR has some of the nicest beaches in America, imho, so that's a hard comparison. They really weren't that bad though, and I'm sure would be good for swimming (the pacific is cold as hell even in the summer so you can't swim too long at the OR coast), provided the water is all right. Huge houses along the gulf, for sure...
campgrounds were more modernized (electricity at tent sites??) than OR, and a LOT cheaper. I stayed at Martin Dies, Jr. in the "primitive" area for two nights ($10/night after everything) and there was no one else near me. A ranger stopped by the first night and I believe he said it was the first time he'd seen someone down there. An older park guy seemed to find it a little funny/weird I was down there all by mself...who knows though.
I went to most of the big thicket trails. Pretty nice, though a little bare in winter. They were kind of boring, I have to say though. Just sort of the same thing over again for the most part...different plants and trees, but pretty similar...no great vistas, no challenging trails, nothing like that. More like a walk through the woods than a hike, but certainly pleasant. I think I'd describe most of the piney woods I've been to as that: pleasant. Nothing spectacular or aw-inspiring in any way, but just sort of gentle rolling hills and quiet forests. Well, there weren't many hills in the SE obviously, or in the eastern part in general, but towards woodville/livingston I began to notice it.
The bugs - well, ****e. The bugs. I got quite a few bumps on me from skeeters, which is nothing amazing considering I was basically camping out next to a marsh. I think I got some chigger or something onto my ankle, but not sure...but the things that really got me were: 1. walking bare-foot is apparently a bad idea. I went ot answer a call of anture without my shoes on and my left foot started burning a bit...lots of little ants on my feet when I got back to the tent...my mom had said a friend had talked about fire ants in the area, so I'm assuming this is it...big let-down...I'm used to going barefoot all summer in the NW without a worry about insects. 2. Spiders. I freaking hate spiders. Maybe that makes me sound like a sissy, but so be it. I went to put my backpack away once and this giant spider just crawled right up my arm, fortunately crawling over instead of under my shirt sleeve. Nothing was really all that bad, but I remind myself that it's the dead of winter right now, and come spring....
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