Best places to retire in Texas? (Houston, San Antonio: transfer, tornadoes, living in)

[Bestemor]

My husband and I are looking at Texas as a place to retire in. Want to avoid the most hot and humid areas. Living a reasonable distance (hour or less) from full medical facilities is important, and don't want to live right in the city--used to having a lot of space around us. Husband loves fishing. Suggestions?

[doctorjef]

Most of the state is hot and humid! Apart from the fact that your post rules out the coast, it's hard to know what to recommend because everything along the I-35 corridor is hot, humid, or both. Lubbock and Amarillo really aren't going to provide much in the way of fishing opportunities. I would say you'd do better in the Ozarks, maybe close to Fayetteville, Ark, if you'd consider those medical facilities acceptable. I think something's gotta give in your formula -- what's most negotiable?

[Canine*Castle]

You asked about Clifton and there you'll find great fishing at Lake Whitney as well as an excellent medical facility for a town's population of under 4,000. You will also find very hot and humid weather but in Texas, that's the norm. If you can survive from May through October, you've got it made after that. It really is a very unbearable heat.

I don't know where you're from but keep in mind we also get very bad storms and occasional tornadoes. I don't know if that matters to you or not, but it's something one might want to consider if you're not used to violent weather.

There are beautiful wide-open spaces in Bosque County...where Clifton is located.

[Bestemor]

Have visited Fredricksburg, Kerrville, and Harper--found weather to be acceptable. Have also been to Houston and then south to Wallisville and that's just too humid. This is one reason we ruled out AR. Quality of medical care is a top consideration but we just can't tolerate living right in a city with neighbors 100 feet away. We are willing to drive to lakes and rivers if we have to. We live in NM and love the dry air but it's a 1.5 hour drive to civilization and 3 hours to Albuquerque's medical facilities.

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Most of the state is hot and humid! Apart from the fact that your post rules out the coast, it's hard to know what to recommend because everything along the I-35 corridor is hot, humid, or both. Lubbock and Amarillo really aren't going to provide much in the way of fishing opportunities. I would say you'd do better in the Ozarks, maybe close to Fayetteville, Ark, if you'd consider those medical facilities acceptable. I think something's gotta give in your formula -- what's most negotiable?

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by Bestemor

Have visited Fredricksburg, Kerrville, and Harper--found weather to be acceptable. Have also been to Houston and then south to Wallisville and that's just too humid. This is one reason we ruled out AR. Quality of medical care is a top consideration but we just can't tolerate living right in a city with neighbors 100 feet away. We are willing to drive to lakes and rivers if we have to. We live in NM and love the dry air but it's a 1.5 hour drive to civilization and 3 hours to Albuquerque's medical facilities.

I love that area. What months did you visit Kerr and Gillespie counties?

[doctorjef]

Well, I think Kerrville's great, personally. You might also consider Bandera, although I'm not sure how far that is from San Antonio (medical facilities). Kerrville, of course, has medical facilities at a level you'd expect for a small city -- I don't know if you are wanting med facilities that would only be associated with a larger city (?). Bandera has the Medina River and Lake Medina for fishing. Climate pretty much like anywhere else in the Hill Country.

[Cathy4017]

You like NM's dryness? So do I, and I always have.

The only place in Texas where you might find comparable humidity is in the Panhandle, far West Texas around El Paso and farther south, in the Alpine-Ft Davis-Marfa area. I am originally from West Texas, and just got back from a few days there.

Compared to Alamogordo where I am, my old WT hometown was humid, though it doesn't compare at all to Central Texas. Central TX is gorgeous, and one of my favorite areas--in the late fall and winter. Summers are like a sauna.

In most parts of TX, nights are not going to cool off nearly as much as they do here in NM, so you'll have to get used to hot, humid nights that sometimes don't get below 85.

[doctorjef]

This is the thing -- if you want a reasonably dry climate with good night time and morning coolness and cool autumns you want the Panhandle or possibly the Davis Mtns - Alpine, most likely. However, while Lubbock especially will have the medical facilities (and Amarillo to some extent), I'm not sure you will be in for wonderful fishing around that part of the state. The Davis Mtns are much like areas of NM, but living in Alpine you would have quick access only to mediocre level med facilities and be hours from larger "civilisation" (El Paso, I guess). I think if you can take the level of heat and humidiity in the Hill Country, places like Wimberly, Bandera, Kerrville might be your best choice.

[StuckInTexas]

Couple things come to mind...
You could live in Las Cruces, NM which is 100K people and has ok medical facilities, but El Paso is only 40 miles from Las Cruces if you ever had to be transferred to a more major med. facility.

From Las Cruces, you are only about 1 hour to 1.5 hours from major fishing in rivers and a couple lakes (out towards Ruidoso). http://www.ruidoso.net/visitors/outdoors/fishing.html

You are also only about 2 hours from SIlver City, NM which also probably has a couple of forests and lakes (or streams) in those mountains near there as well.

Las Cruces doesn't have any major forests right in town (some planted), but there are a few small forests in the highest mountains right East of town, and towards Ruidoso there are some heavily forested areas above 6,000 feet (especially around Cloudcroft). Las Cruces gets some rain June thru October, but is really dry the rest of the year (summer is the wettest time).

Otherwise, if you lived in the northern suburbs of El Paso, then you are still only about 2 hours from fishing at Ruidoso or near Silver City (maybe 2.5 hours at most).

Other than that, there is the Fort Davis / Alpine / Marfa area, but not much fishing around there (if any) and medical facilities aren't that established. There is a major pine forest in the mountains just past the McDonald observatory (about 20 miles past Observatory), but most of the other forests are those stubby oak looking trees which aren't that pretty. The area is prettiest in August because everything is green (sometimes it's green in June thru Oct, but depends). That area isn't quite as dry as Las Cruces, but still pretty dry.

The weather is perfect in Fort Davis area pretty much, it rarely ever gets above 95 even in the heat of the summer, and it cools down at night usually. Las Cruces is a bit colder, but still very good weather. El Paso is warmer than both places but still pretty good weather too (but drier as well).

Other than that, Amarillo and Lubbock have some canyon areas near them that kind of look like mountains (Palo Duro Canyon which is 800 feet deep looks like mountains from certain spots)
In my opinion, Amarillo is WAY too cold in the winter because it is one of the windiest cities in the United States. Heck, if you go by wind chill Amarillo is often colder than many parts of Colorado because of the horrible winds. Lubbock is really too windy as well, but not quite as cold, however both places smell like cow poop most of the time (unless you live far away from the cow ranches).

There is also the far-out suburbs of Odessa or Midland, but I'm guessing this is pretty far from any major fishing, and there aren't mountains here (but mountains are not that far away). Weather is hotter here in summer, but fine most of the time.

[StuckInTexas]

Also note that Caballo Lake State Park is only about 50 miles north of Las Cruces, and the largest lake in NM is only 80 miles north of Las Cruces (Elephant Butte Lake). So within 120 miles, there are probably about 6 lakes (some near Ruidoso, some just north of town, and some near Silver City).
Furthermore, both Ruidoso and Silver City have a decently modern hospital (Although very small), so if you got in trouble while fishing there is an emergency medical center.

If I were into mountains, fishing, good weather, low humidity, then I would choose the far northern suburbs of El Paso (100 miles from fishing) or the suburbs of Las Cruces (60 miles from fishing), as both places have the infrastructure and are semi-close to fishing and forested mountains.

There isnt really any place in Texas where you can get closer to it than that.