Hi all

[caprockvista]

You don't notice the humitiy in the Temple area if:

You bathe 3 times a day while running refrigerated air supported by a fan in the bathroom.................

Spoken as a West Texan with Central Texas roots.......

caprockvista

[Sperki]

Hi Carol!

I am a native Texan and love this place dearly. Ore City certainly has greenery. However, if you want to stay away from tornadoes, that is not the best place to be. A good bit of severe weather goes on in that North Texas area. West Texas has tornadoes, but the number of rainy days per year is far lower in West Texas than East Texas. Central Texas has more of a balance as far as weather goes. It would be the area I would choose if I were moving to Texas and wanted a good combination of greenery and sunshine.

The next thing to consider is your interests. If you like to eat out and go to movies or other events, you would want to stay closer to a larger city. Texas has plenty of those. Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston are huge cities. A whole bunch of Texas is flat as a pancake. When you go North and West of San Antonio and Austin (which are just about 70 miles apart) you will be in the hill country area, which is beautiful! If you like a quiet life with a little fishing that is not too far from anywhere, Brownwood is the place to be. It is a town of about 20,000 or so, and it is almost smack-dab in the middle of Texas. It is about three hours to Dallas, San Antonio, and Lubbock (which is nortwest and has a population of about 200,000). You will find plenty of homes with acreage in Brownwood. The cost of living is manageable, too. If you like to cruise, Houston is a pleasant 6 hour drive and there are quite a few cruises that depart from Houston and Galveston (which is less than an hour from Houston).

No matter which Texas town or county you choose, if you are a relatively friendly person you will have a ton of friendly encounters, and quarter ounce or so of encounters with stinkers. So git on down here, and quit worryin' about them dingity-dang tornadoes. The weather here is like the people... you will have a ton of gorgeous days and a quarter ounce of severe weather days. And heck, you can build a tornado shelter and stock it with some good books and some good vittles, and just sit a spell till the storm moves on.

Anyway, here's a prospective. "Welcome to Texas, Y'all!"

[cedarcreekgal]

Originally Posted by Cedar

Hi, what about Tool, Tx on Cedar Creek Lake, just about 50 miles southeast of Dallas!

Planning on buying a home there! Hows theyear around weather, I currently live in San Diego, Ca where it is about 70 year round!

Now is a good time to move to Tool. If you have small children they will be able to go to a brand new school next school year. The area is growing and homes are being built in nearly every neighborhood. The whole lake area is growing and you rarely have to go to Dallas to shop. There is just about everything around the lake now - even entertainment. Location is good. One hour to the Dallas or Tyler areas. About 90 minutes to Ft. Worth or Frisco. It's 4 hours to San Antonio and Houston. Austin is 4-5 hours away. You can be in Galveston in five hours or a little less depending on traffic.

[victoriana]

Hi there - I'm a native Texan too, just here the past few years for family reasons but I want to tell you that the Panhandle area of Texas isn't bad. Now, to be perfectly honest, there is little green unless we have an unusual amount of rain. It is rather deserty, actually. However, like other areas of Texas, its pretty friendly because SO MANY PEOPLE either are new or know what its like to be "new." Amarillo is the centre for health care in the Panhandle, and there are several colleges. Therefore, we have jobs in the education field and the medical field galore. Texas Tech has a school of pharmacy and medicine also. It is a growing city - with the usual growing pains. In one respect, it is like other places in that the crime rate here is not good for the size of city statistically. I am sure we are all facing increased taxes within the next 5-7 years because we are sorely in need of new fire stations and more police. If you are looking for good weather, try here, however. We get TONS of tornado warnings - yet oldtimers will tell you an actual tornado usually goes right over us and slams poor Oklahoma. This winter is the FIRST time in years we have actually had a decent winter. We get a few inches of snow interspersed over three months. with many in between days of sunshine and warm days and that's usually about it. Anyway, its also a growing retirement place!! Hope this helps someone.

[looking for new home]

Don't count on being able to move back economically. Cost of living is so different and appreciation is more moderate.

I moved here to give my kids a better life, we moved to a town about 32,000 (from Anaheim). We've spent about 16 years on the "Staked Plains" because that is where family was.

Californians I've met out here (Lubbock!) tell me how much they love it! (It's a lot like Bakersfield area.) Our kids are grown and live near DFW & Houston, we're looking for a place with trees and water that is blue.

I think the biggest thing for anyone coming from other places is to know that this is TEXAS, not the place from which they are coming. There is beauty of different types in different areas. The only way to have any idea of what it's like is to live here - anywhere!

When my daughter moved back here after a few years in N. Ca. & Seattle area of Wa., she was commenting on how friendly and polite people are, I expect that's true of most places in TX that has Texans.

I would avoid the isolation of Laredo, we prefer living within an hour of a city, but SA, Lubbock & Abilene are ok in size to us. San Antonio area is very nice, only a couple hours to the Gulf, lots to do on weekends, still affordable. You can even find places that remind you of Fontana nearby! Mostly it's more like Solvang area (without the ocean).

[brokenground]

Bound for Texas,

Hi again! I agree with BobTex I really think Tyler is a great place! The outskirts (between Tyler and Lindale) have a lot of property for sale- good acreage and some parts have dsl now. if you live on the outskirts be prepared to use a satellite dish for tv. Other than that, it's a beautiful place to be.

[Just Lookin]

Oh my goodness. I can't even get dsl here in Calif. I am leaving right now. Really though. I would love dsl. I hate this dial up stuff.

Lots of Real Estate sounds good. I will be coming soon. I hope anyway. WE have a buyer coming tomorrow. So everyone with us luck. I'll let you know.

[rlndjssc]

What is going on in Paris TX? Rape is over 20 times the national average - there has to be a reason.

[Canadianguy]

Hey all, been thinking about traveling to Texas, always been real intrested in the state and it's histroy. Would like to know if anyone could suggest places to visit and such?