Impressions of TX (Houston, Longview, Portland: transfer, garden, places)

[jm21]

Some other things I remembered about the trip thus far that I had wanted to mention but kept forgetting to:

When it rains, it can really RAIN. Buckets come down, hard to see even, and many of the roads don't seem to be crowned very well so water stays on the road. Makes it hell to drive in, but keep at it for 4-5 miles and you're out and sunny again.

Crawfish down here are a different size (maybe breed) than those in the NW. The NW ones are a lot bigger apparently. I was talking with the waitress at Dudley's about it a little (she had visited the NW). I was wondering why the pieces of crawfish down here were always so small...in the NW they're like a mini-lobster and we usually eat the tails and sometimes the claws, dipped in some lemon-garlic-butter (or at least I do...I actually don't know too many people who eat crawdads, lol).

There seemed to be quite a few Vietnamese people in the golden triangle, or at least a lot more than I would have thought. If I'm remembering right, I saw a couple Pho places and there were several people I saw at various places around town who I would peg as Vietnamese (though being white-bread as I am, I might well be wrong).

Originally Posted by BobTex

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.

Hmm...I think I must have missed the nicer areas, ya, but Groves still seemed pretty nice. The parts I saw weren't what I would consider typical for upper-middle class though. But I'm sure there are some nice places there.

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!

I didn't realize that SE TX stretched all the way to Sam Rayburn. I thought it ended around lumberton or so on the north side. That would include the big thicket and Angelina national forest as well then? and BA Steinhagen lake? Martin dies jr. state park as well? Sea Rim says it's opening in march, wish I had been able to go there, looked great. There are a couple national wildlife refuges down there I didn't go to...not sure if you can.

Those would be extremely nice in spring/summer/fall I think, though probably tons of bugs. They were alright at this time of the year, but not anything to write home about, imho. Seemed like a lot of the foliage had died back for the winter.

[jm21]

OK, maybe there's more to this whether a place is poor or not than I was thinking originally. In the NW, a middle class household is going to spend probably 180-300k in a small town for a house. That amount of money would buy a pretty darn nice house in the piney woods, so that's sort of what I was looking for in a middle-class neighborhood. But maybe middle/upper-middle class Texans in the piney woods just spend a lower percentage of their income on housing typically, and that's throwing my senses off. The wages seemed about the same for white collar workers. I would have thought a house worth less than $100k or so would be poor, or lower middle class at best.

[Jammie]

Groves, TX, Real Estate Listings and Groves, TX Homes for Sale - Realtor.com

JM, that is so nice of you to keep us updated. I was the one who was curious about the Galveston area. Guess I thought the coastal areas of Tx. would be pretty nice. I love palm trees and the beach.

I wasn't sure what town you were referring to when you talked about the price of houses so I did a search on Groves. I did the price as zero to 100,000. A lot of the homes don't look too nice, but I thought the last few houses looked pretty nice. Of course, I have no idea what type of an area they are in or what they look like inside, but the brick home for 99,000 looks nice to me. Of course, we all have different tastes, too and many of you may be used to living in expensive, elegant homes. (Pretty average here) But it really seems that the prices between the Pacific Northwest and Texas are very far apart. Tx. seems to have a much more reasonable cost of living and more sun shine, too.

[tstone]

SE Texas has no set-in-stone boundaries and is based somewhat on opinions. I consider it inside a line that bounds approximately Port Lavaca to Bryan to Huntsville to Jasper. Some of that I guess is considered "Deep East." Sam Rayburn Lake is definitely E TX to me. Houston is basically where S and E Texas meet. Others would say it's where the Piney Woods and the Gulf Coastal Plain meets. Likewise some people say SA is S TX, while I say South-Central (where S and Central TX meet or where Brush Country and Hill Country meet), and others say Brownsville is not S TX at all, but the Rio Grande Valley. Then when you look at the state some say Southern and some say Southwestern. Many say Houston is Southern, but look around and it seems every 5th business is called Southwest ______. More like western flavored south. Anyway, my point is you can't easily classify Texas. A good guideline is to look at NOAA weather reports.

As far as house prices, $100k is middle class. When you have to pay 3k/yr property tax, 1k/yr in insurance, 400/yr HOA fees + maintenance and repairs, it can make you feel trapped, considering a 3-4% rate of appreciation. No west coast swings means almost no one here will make out like bandits, but almost no one here will get ruined either, unless they got conned into the subprime game.

[jm21]

The gulf coast beaches at Mustang Island were great, but South Padre Island was better. Both rival just about anything I've seen, and warm water, though OR has more natural bluffs and other scenery around the beaches that I like, and other places have their unique charms, whereas MI and SPI are just beaches really, though SPI has some nice dune areas. So many people drive on the beach though...I mean, it's nice to do, I'm sure, but it gets the beaches crowded with vehicles and the sand all torn up or compressed, they drive too close to the water, etc...

The only way to reach Padre Island (not south padre) is apparently off-road, which would be a hell of a lot of fun if I wasn't in a compact rental car . Sleeping on the beach is not as fun as one would think though.

Port Aransas and SPI both seemed very touristy, especially SPI. PA had some big club and seemed to have some party goers out at night...dunno about SPI...don't think I'd want to live in either of them. But close to those beaches would be nice .

The inland water by SPI was beautiful in spots. Amazing color.

Within 5-10 miles of the water all seemed pretty nice really, but after that (like once you get to 77) it seemed pretty bland. Palm trees were mostly in the SPI area...are they even native to this area?

Good food here and there, probably some very good food in Corpus Christi (I'm heading there tomorrow and Goose Island State Park). The restaurant I hit in...eh....Wharton I think? On the way down...Cuco's or something like that...was pretty good, good prices, huge servings...tex-mex I think? I had fajita beef stuffed, deep-fried avacadoes...sounds tex-mex to me but I have no clue really on the difference between tex-mex and mexican. Didn't see anything too appealing in Port Aransas and didn't feel like driving into CC at night so I just ate some leftovers and snacks. The place I ate at in SPI was called the palm street pier or something like that...mediocre food and crappy service but an amazing view.

I'm in Brownsville now, just writing this stuff down or I'll forget it, and I figured I'd share it out as long as I was writing it anyway.

[Jammie]

So glad to hear that you enjoyed the area you just toured. Do I understand this right~there is a "Padre Island", too? We've heard of SPI, but not the other one.

[case44]

Originally Posted by Jammie

So glad to hear that you enjoyed the area you just toured. Do I understand this right~there is a "Padre Island", too? We've heard of SPI, but not the other one.

Corpus Christi is near the location of North Padre, which is across the JFK Causeway. Padre Island is very long, stretching from near Brownsville all the way up to Corpus. The area in the middle is nothing but sand.

[Jaipur]

JM I think you need to travel a little farther north from Brownsville. To the Hill Country. You should visit the state parks in there and go to Fredericksburg. To bad it isn't peach season. You may want to check out Austin, but that is up to you.

[jm21]

Ya, I've heard good things about the hill country and had it recommended, but it seemed significantly more expensive than the other areas, and the main reason I'd move would be cheaper land/housing. Maybe on another trip . I'm flying back early Tuesday morning.

And after seeing the "keep Austin weird" bumper stickers and hearing all the green hippy types in Portland talking about how great Austin is...mehh...think I'll pass on that one. Whatever I do, I'm getting away from those types as soon as I can...no offense to the hippies on this board, just definitely not my crowd.

They pretty much build ont he sand at some places on the OR coast (good luck to the people buying those houses)...I'd imagine Padre Island will eventually get filled in, but probably not for a good long time...

I actually kinda liked what I saw of Brownsville, and there are some really small nice-looking neighborhoods scattered around that area. I had the impression that the area was going to be all unfriendly hispanic people who couldn't speak a word of English, but it didn't really seem that way to me. Everyone was friendly that I met. Some good restaurants (I went to Antonios and it was good, cheap, good service, live band (not really my thing), but not for the sensitive of stomach).

The Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge was nice (would be amazing for birders) but I ended up spending way too much time there.

In CC now and it seems more big city-ish than I thought it'd be. EDIT: I was just reading the other thread on CC, and didn't mean big city-ish like had lots of malls or selection of restaurants...just the general look/feel of things...

[wade_word]

My impression of Texas is still very old west but with a certain charm like in those novels. But very contemporary. Still, I can't complain about Texas. I don't know how anyone can't like it.