Impressions of TX (Houston, Austin, Corpus Christi: middle-class, sale, real estate)

[Jammie]

Thank you for those links. Actually, I hadn't been following it until this thread. I guess I had been under the impression that eastern Tx. was very nice. Well, at least internet pics seem nice.

[MSJones]

Originally Posted by Jammie

I guess I had been under the impression that eastern Tx. was very nice. Well, at least internet pics seem nice.

It is, Jammie - don't get us wrong. Parts of east Texas are gorgeous. But, there are areas, just like anywhere else, that aren't so nice, and southeastern Texas has never really been known for its beauty.

[sweetclimber]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Great thread, don't know how I missed this one!

And good suggestions, Bob! East Texas is a region of the state that I always strongly advise newcomers to tour, as it destroys that old "western movie" image of Texas.

When you mentioned Hwy 59, I got to thinking of my own favorite town in East Texas...Jefferson. Pure charming "Old South" Ante-bellum in its historical district and downtown area. Be sure and go to the Jefferson General Store.

And speaking of General Stores, there is one called T.C. Lindsey and Co. about 15 miles from Jefferson, in a little settlement named Jonesville, and it is the oldest extant in Texas (having been in continuous operation since 1847). It is like a walk back in time.

Have any of y'all ever been there? Here is a good link: Backroads: A visit to the T.C.Lindsey General Store

Another day trip could be the highway 290/6 trip from Houston to Waco. Good bbq at the Waller county line store on 290, could stop for fresh watermelon at this stand just north of Hempstead on 6, then in College Station see the beautiful Texas A&M campus and grab a beer at the chicken. The drive is pretty relaxing and more interesting than one might think!

[Mom2Feebs]

Originally Posted by Bily Lovec

what area of town are you in ?

we have a lot better places to eat than your usual messican food, and Tex-Mex is to be avoided at all cost.

houston is one of the most diverse citys in america, let us know what you're wanting to experience and we'll fix you up

Originally Posted by Bily Lovec

maybe you should stop eating at pappasito's...

i have never eaten at a taco bell, i dont know what to compare it to. I generally eat at true mexican and real latin restaurants, which houston is overly blessed with. The tex-mex which you seem to adore, is usually overpriced, fried in fat and covered in cheese. I guess if thats what you're used to, bon appetite

I guess Im just spoiled from living in brasil, bolivia and areas of mexico.

have a nice day, *****hat...

OMG, I just about spit my drink out. Avoid Tex-Mex, in TEXAS?!? Not from around these parts, are ya?

[jm21]

At a little coffee shop with internet in Athens (looks almost like something that you'd find in the NW, but could really use some fresh-baked scones, and an experienced barista).

I wasn't expecting the SE to be beautiful or anything, and thought there'd be quite a bit of poverty, but I wanted to get a view of the area as a whole. I've never felt endangered or anything. The people outside of Houston have all been pretty friendly, but not more-so than in small-town OR or WA, until I got a bit further north (longview/marshall area). Lots of hurricane damage still in the SE, for sure...

I'm just getting ideas right now. Not gonna buy a house based on my trip or something, heh :P. Wanted to see the coast and the piney woods, and that's what I'm sticking with for this trip. The hill country is almost as expensive as the NW, so I'm not sure it'd be worth the move. The rest of the state doesn't appeal to me all that much from what I've read (just personal preference there).

Now I don't have my map with me and typing quick, so sorry if I miss a bit here or there or spell some names wrong.

Going north a bit from Nacogdoches the scenery got more and more beautiful, until it was downright pretty. So far the nicest part of TX I've visited by far. If I was going to move, I'd look into that area.

I headed up towards the Starr home, and the lady who does the tours chit-chatted with me a bit, she found out I was thinking about moving down and was interested in prosecution and had a friend I guess at the DA's office, called them up and arranged for me to come in (though to talk with a different DA than her friend)...I was pretty amazed but headed on over, talked a bit with the DA for a bit, who was also pretty nice. Things are a bit different down here, but pretty similar to OR as far as prosecution goes...anyways...pretty surprising and left a real nice impression. Marshall seemed like a real nice town, as did longview. Dudley's had good food and the best service I've had in ages...super-friendly.

I stayed the night at the primitive spots at Martin Creek Lake State Park. Very beautiful to camp out on the island there, but there's a power plant right on the other side of the island...i went out at night wandering a bit (man, on the east side of the island there's a cleared area with an AMAZING view of the big TX sky), but the flashing from the lights on the smoke towers ruined it...it was kinda pretty to look at at night though with all the lights.

Went through tyler the next day, picked up some BBQ at..ehh...hickory fare I think it was called. Wasn't too impressed, but good prices. Ate the lunch at the rose garden, which wasn't much to see at this time of year, but seemed kinda similar to the one in Portland.

Decided I'd poke my nose out of the piney woods a bit, and headed up towards Tawakoni Lake state park...got out of the pines and it was pretty ugly in the winter, though probably nice at other times of the year. Most of the campground was closed and no primitive sites, and no campfires because of the driness, so I moved on south to Purtis Creek. They have some primitive hike-in water-front camping like Martin Creek Lake, but a longer walk (not so fun at night) but much nicer campsites. Beautiful vista to wake up to in the morning with the sun rising and birds flying around.

Heading down towards palestine, pick up some BBQ to go, then visit the caddoan mounds and mission tejas, and head south towards corpus christi probably and camp somewhere between here and there. Then spend two days or so in the corpus christi area camping and poking around. Then up to houston to fly out.

[MSJones]

Good to hear from you, jm! You're making great progress!

If I were going to live anywhere else in Texas, it'd be in the Hill Country - but yes, it's expensive.

I don't think you'd find a good scone or barista in a smaller Texas town - Dallas or Houston would be your best bet for those. LOL!

Check in again when you can!

[tstone]

The Davy Crockett National Forest always impressed me. That's a bit west of Nacogdoches and you can drive highway 7 straight through. That was my pathway from College Station when I went to SFA to hang out.

Venturing in the swath that goes from Corpus to Victoria to Houston to Port Arthur (0-50ish miles from the coastline) will look pretty similar as far as scenery goes. TX/Southern coast grasslands. Blah. (Though Corpus beaches are decent.) That's mainly all I've ever lived in though, so when I vacation to places like the N coast of Oregon for example, I can really appreciate it.

[Jammie]

Good to hear from you, JM. So at this point, are you saying that the Longview/Tyler area has been the nicest? I guess I'm still so surprised that the east coast isn't beautiful. I love the beach and palm trees.

It sounds like you're having a very nice time and I'm surprised that it's warm enough that you can camp out. It's January up here.

[jm21]

Well, took me longer to see the sites, went to check in a bit early at the campsite (huntsville state park) so I didn't have to drive through Houston at night (cities+my bad nightvision=bad things happen), but it was closed temporarily for the hunting season. Weird...like closed 4 days then open for 3 or something like that...would never have expected something like that, but oh well. Didn't want to try to find a little private campground with tent sites that late at night (from my experience they can be real hit and miss), so just at a hotel tonight on the fringe of Houston. Oh well, with the cold and hard ground I didn't sleep well the last two nights so probably not a bad idea.

A lot of the drive from Mission Tejas to the Houston area was very pretty as well except for a few short miles. I think highways 21, 19, and 45 are the ones I took (aside form about 10-15 miles of country roads). The BBQ from Shep's in Palestine was good, and again good prices (but seems like almost all the BBQ places have good prices really). I'd been wanting to visit a site of the mound people for a long time, so the caddoan mounds were good for me, and would be a good place to take kids (as would Mission Tejas), but maybe a little boring for most.

So I guess, generally, I'd say the prettiest stretch was Marshall (and probably a bit north and east of that), west to ..maybe Canton? Then south all the way to Houston really. I didn't venture north really because it seemed like it was very sparesely populated, but I bet there are some pretty spots there as well. The rest was definitely liveable except I'd avoid Port Arthur and most of Beaumont especially, and probably most of the SE in general. If I got a job offer for somewhere down there though? I'd probably take it and find a place to commute from. I think you could find some nice places to live close enough, or just out in the country where you don't have to worry much about neighbors.

Someone asked about Galveston and I'm not sure I really answered them. I didn't spend much time at all in the actual city...just walked along the gulf-side beaches really. It seemed nice enough...maybe a little on the expensive side (I checked out a realty book at lunch and drove past a house or two for sale), but that's what I would expect for prices on an island (limited land) fairly near a major city. The few people I met at the store and such didn't seem very friendly compared to the people in the Piney Woods.

I actually kinda liked Groves in SE TX, though it was pretty poor as well...not sure what all other cities are included in that area that I visited. Beaumont probably has some nice parts too. The beaches seemed OK. But certain areas were really impoverished...places I wouldn't want to live near, and I've lived in a decent amount of subsidized and slum housing around OR, had friends from the trailer park, lived in the "barrio" in SoCal, etc...the plant life seemed to be mostly stuff I'd think I'd find in a marsh too, near the coast.

And I felt a lot of the places I went to more towards the south would look a lot nicer in the spring/summer/fall too. But half the time I'd be outdoors would be winter in TX due to the weather down here, so a place that looks nice in the winter would be a big thing for me.

[BobTex]

Originally Posted by jm21

Well, took me longer to see the sites, went to check in a bit early at the campsite (huntsville state park) so I didn't have to drive through Houston at night (cities+my bad nightvision=bad things happen), but it was closed temporarily for the hunting season. Weird...like closed 4 days then open for 3 or something like that...would never have expected something like that, but oh well. Didn't want to try to find a little private campground with tent sites that late at night (from my experience they can be real hit and miss), so just at a hotel tonight on the fringe of Houston. Oh well, with the cold and hard ground I didn't sleep well the last two nights so probably not a bad idea.

A lot of the drive from Mission Tejas to the Houston area was very pretty as well except for a few short miles. I think highways 21, 19, and 45 are the ones I took (aside form about 10-15 miles of country roads). The BBQ from Shep's in Palestine was good, and again good prices (but seems like almost all the BBQ places have good prices really). I'd been wanting to visit a site of the mound people for a long time, so the caddoan mounds were good for me, and would be a good place to take kids (as would Mission Tejas), but maybe a little boring for most.

So I guess, generally, I'd say the prettiest stretch was Marshall (and probably a bit north and east of that), west to ..maybe Canton? Then south all the way to Houston really. I didn't venture north really because it seemed like it was very sparesely populated, but I bet there are some pretty spots there as well. The rest was definitely liveable except I'd avoid Port Arthur and most of Beaumont especially, and probably most of the SE in general. If I got a job offer for somewhere down there though? I'd probably take it and find a place to commute from. I think you could find some nice places to live close enough, or just out in the country where you don't have to worry much about neighbors.

Someone asked about Galveston and I'm not sure I really answered them. I didn't spend much time at all in the actual city...just walked along the gulf-side beaches really. It seemed nice enough...maybe a little on the expensive side (I checked out a realty book at lunch and drove past a house or two for sale), but that's what I would expect for prices on an island (limited land) fairly near a major city. The few people I met at the store and such didn't seem very friendly compared to the people in the Piney Woods.

I actually kinda liked Groves in SE TX, though it was pretty poor as well...not sure what all other cities are included in that area that I visited. Beaumont probably has some nice parts too. The beaches seemed OK. But certain areas were really impoverished...places I wouldn't want to live near, and I've lived in a decent amount of subsidized and slum housing around OR, had friends from the trailer park, lived in the "barrio" in SoCal, etc...the plant life seemed to be mostly stuff I'd think I'd find in a marsh too, near the coast.

And I felt a lot of the places I went to more towards the south would look a lot nicer in the spring/summer/fall too. But half the time I'd be outdoors would be winter in TX due to the weather down here, so a place that looks nice in the winter would be a big thing for me.

Groves is not that impoverished. Mostly populated by refinery workers and a lot of those guys are knocking down $100K/year. Nederland and Port Neches are the other small towns (pop. 12-15,000) between Port Arthur and Beaumont. I have lived in Port Neches.

Beaumont definitely has some nicer areas that you must have missed. Plenty of money in Beaumont. I live 50 miles from Beaumont (just SW of Woodville) and commute 3-4 days a week into Beaumont. The main good thing about Beaumont /Port Arthur is the economy is so bolstered by the petro-chemical industries. People don't move/live there for the scenery or the air quality. Having said that there are some awesome things there to see and do (if you love nature).

Areas to consider if you were to work in Port Arthur would be the Winnie area west of Beaumont along I-10 or Fannet. Also north of Beaumont along the US 69 or 96 corridors. My neighbor (I've posted this half a dozen times on these forums) drives the 75 miles to the Motiva Refinery in Port arthur 15 days a month. This is the same refinery presently begging for workers for its multi $billion expansion.



A lot of the cooler areas to see require a boat and as you can see this area is laced with waterways! Also you say you like outdoors areas did you even explore the Lake Sam Rayburn Lake Toledo Bend areas? These are awesome, forested, nature filled areas with some beautiful areas to live. Only problem is there is issues finding decent paying jobs in East Texas. That is why I'm where I'm at ... I love the woods but enjoy a much higher pay scale by heading into Beaumont area to work!