West Tx Vacation! (Lubbock, Abilene, Buffalo: tree, place, weather)

[teatime]

Cowboybootnut,
That link is GREAT! I' ve never seen it before! Thanks for posting!

tgannaway,
Abilene is NOT a dump. And Lubbock is a fun place to visit, too. Keep you attitude in South Texas.

Eliza08,
What part of Ohio are you in? I grew up on the PA-Ohio border, in Sharon, PA, and now live here in Abilene. Send me a DM if you have any questions about Abilene.

[atxcio]

I agree with teatime that Lubbock is a nice place to visit. The National Ranching Heritage musuem, Silent Wings museum, Texas Tech museum, and the Buddy Holly center are all fun things to do and compare favorably to a lot of other Texas cities. You could easily fill a day or two with touristy stuff that has a West Texas feel. I don't think you could do that in Abilene, definitely not in Midland.

[lone sailor]

Originally Posted by tgannaway89

Fort Davis and the mountains are scenic but Abilene is a dump. Don't bother with Lubbock... look at a few pics on the net and you've seen it all.

Check out Balmorhea Lake if you can while your there!

I always love posts like these. You're so positive and helpful. You didn't even give any reasons as to your opinion. Well thought out.

[Cowboybootnut]

Originally Posted by lone sailor

I always love posts like these. You're so positive and helpful. You didn't even give any reasons as to your opinion. Well thought out.

Aw, come on now, lets not pile on tgannaway89 cause we know that where tgannaway89 lives there are no dumps.

[teatime]

Originally Posted by atxcio

I agree with teatime that Lubbock is a nice place to visit. The National Ranching Heritage musuem, Silent Wings museum, Texas Tech museum, and the Buddy Holly center are all fun things to do and compare favorably to a lot of other Texas cities. You could easily fill a day or two with touristy stuff that has a West Texas feel. I don't think you could do that in Abilene, definitely not in Midland.

Don't forget the Lubbock wineries!!!! I love visiting Llano Estacado, even if they do sell their wines in West Texas grocery stores, too, LOL.

You're way wrong about Abilene. But I'll excuse you because you're nice! To be honest, I didn't know how many cool things there were to do here in Abi until I started planning for my Canadian friends to come visit last summer. I haven't lived here all that long and never had time to do the touristy stuff myself. BUT, we have...

-- Frontier Texas!, a state-of-the-art, interactive center that gives the history of the area via hologram guides. It's really unusual and fun!

-- The 12th Armored Division Museum, which offers a wealth of memorabilia from WWII and the famed Hellcats. The survivors of the division still work there and run the museum! It's a fascinating place and you need at least 3 hours to see everything and watch all of the videos and footage.

-- The Grace Museum is a great art museum with special exhibits and mostly contemporary works.

-- The National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature is CHARMING! It's a museum that honors all of the classics in children's literature and has new exhibits all of the time. In the park across the street from the museum, there are beautiful places to read and for the kids to climb all over some really unique and whimsical statues and pieces of sculpture that point to children's lit. Nearby, there's also the old depot building with cute shops and a GREAT chocolatier!

-- The Abilene Zoo is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. It only costs $4 to get in! My favorite thing is to sit up on the bridge over the giraffe exhibit and feed the giraffes! I LOVE being just inches away from these beautiful creatures.

-- The restored Paramount Theater is GORGEOUS. They show classic films and there's often a concert or theatrical performance going on there.

-- Shopping and dining downtown. Cypress Street is the center of it but Abilene's downtown has been restored and is really pretty. Good restaurants, shops and cafes. Monk's Coffee House often has entertainment. There are lots of historical buildings and it's a very pleasant place to walk and browse. On the second Thursday and Saturday of each month, there are activities downtown with vendors, music, and crafts. ArtWalk has a monthly theme and Downtown Days features specials and giveaways at the downtown businesses.

-- Buffalo Gap is about 15 miles from Abilene and offers the Historic Village with 19th century buildings and sites plus a little village of unique shops around the corner. Several miles outside of Buffalo Gap is Abilene State Park, with a lake, part of the official state Longhorn herd, great camping and picnicking sites, hiking trails, and a big swimming pool. It's a great place to see armadilloes, deer, etc.

My friends from Canada had a WONDERFUL time here and were very impressed with all there was to do, the friendliness of the people, and how clean and accessible downtown is.

[Eliza08]

Teatime, you're not going to believe this, but my husband is from the Sharon, PA area. His family still has property in the Brookfield, OH area. I'm going to have to DM you soon! I'm curious what landed you in Abi. Thanks for all the Abi info....

And Cowboybootnut thanks for your links too, great photos of your trip. I appreciate all your input.

We definitely want to see the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Cathy4017, thanks for the link.

Now, now tgannaway89, is Abilene really all that bad? Teatime says it's clean. That's a big draw for me. I lived in Colorado Spgs (very pretty) before moving to Dayton. Here we have some of the worst air quality, allergies, unemployment, and foreclosures in the country. Though my husband has a good job in the defense industry, and we still have family around here so that's a big deal for us. And the people here are different than Tx folks, i.e., it's like pulling teeth when I go to my gym to get someone to look me in the eye and return a "hello"! Now how hard is it to put a smile on your face and say hello to someone, I mean really!!! Well it's turning in to a long cold winter, time to head south...time for a little TexMex! Thanks again to all of you....

[teatime]

Eliza,
I Dm'ed you back. It is amazing what a small world this is!

And if tgannaway thinks Abilene is a dump, then he must have been hanging in the industrial/sketchy area and ignoring the lovely restored downtown, the historic homes and lots of shopping. Must have missed the lovely mountains that border the city, too, although I don't know how anyone could. My friends from Calgary, Alberta, Canada kept going on about how clean and lovely Abilene is. And I'm quite sure that Calgary isn't a cesspool!

[tgannaway89]

Born and raised in the Basin (Midland). Actually I only live in SA as a student and still make monthly visits to Midland. Most of it is a dump. You can paint a turd, but it's still a turd. Abilene isn't the dirtiest city in Texas, but not a very desirable place (better than Midland though).

Mountains?!? You've obviously never been outside of Texas.

I would list some of the negatives of Lubbock... but that would be almost everything about it. At least Tech is attractive and the new highway infrastructures are nice.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by tgannaway89

I would list some of the negatives of Lubbock... but that would be almost everything about it. At least Tech is attractive and the new highway infrastructures are nice.

Enlighten us please.

[Eliza08]

Well I think we all have our frustrations about our home towns. I grew up in Col Ohio, spent 16 yrs in SA then moved on to Germany for 4. Moved back to SA for about 4 more years (lived in the hill country, pretty sweet, should have stayed and raised my daughter there) on to Colo Spgs for 4 and now in Hell, I mean Dayton, Oh. I'd have to say there's something in the Tx air, I'm always drawn back. Things are never always as we'd like them to be for our cities/towns, but I think your Tx towns are a far cry better than the area I'm in now and grew up in. I always wanted to move back to Ohio and once I did, I found out (the hard way) that I'm really not a Midwesterner. The most enjoyment I had was living in SA. We worked hard and then had a lot of fun on the weekends! I never lacked friends, and there was always plenty to pick from to do. I find in Ohio the exact opposite. Here when a GM union job goes away, say someone making $35/hr on a line, the typical response is to go on unemployment and welfare indefinitely because they spent all their money on GM "toys" that they had no business buying. I believe in working hard, and I never had nor do I ask for all the benefits that comes with the union. I've always been able to find work and sure don't like the welfare mentality. Moving to Colo I had to adjust to state income tax, now on to Ohio we have an addl city tax. That way I can help pay for all the pretty concrete statues Kettering puts in their parks. People can get down right nasty this time of year. Too much cabin fever, no sun. Totally blah winters....so I'll be off to Tx next mo. It will be a welcome change, maybe someday it will be permanent. Drop down from Abi to MO, down in to the Big Bend area, maybe see San Angelo on the way back. Actually have a 2nd cousin that lives in Terlingua, now that's a small world, how a man from WV ended up there. I think he was blessed with a job for the parks dept. So I think this will make a great trip, see y'all soon!