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| Big Tex - Dallas State Fairgrounds |
How can I possibly tell you about Texas? It is huge – the largest state except for
Alaska. Texas has so many different
areas that it could easily be a country all by itself as it was in the early
1800s. If you want variety, Texas certainly has
it. The southeast is on the Gulf of
Mexico so you can find sandy beaches, barrier islands and plenty of water
sports. There are also swamps further in
and gradually the land rises to the piney woods of east Texas. There are rolling hills, grasslands and
prairies in the center of the state. You
can find deserts, canyons, mountains and unbelievable amounts of open land as
you travel west and southwest.
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| The Astrodome in Houston |
There are large cities, each with unique characteristics and
many small towns, farms and ranches. Houston is the fourth largest city in the
United States and is a major seaport.
NASA headquarters are located here and tours are available to learn
about the missions that resulted in the moon landing.
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| The Alamo - San Antonio |
San Antonio features both The Alamo and a
lovely river walk in the downtown area.
Dallas/Fort Worth is another major metropolitan area and home to the
Dallas Cowboys, a popular football team along with the Dallas Cowboy
Cheerleaders. El Paso is at the western
border with New Mexico and borders Mexico along the Rio Grande River. Austin is the capital city and hosts the SXSW
(South by South West) musical festival each year. Each of these cities have their own unique
museums, art galleries and other interesting places to visit and of course,
family oriented attractions for the youngsters.
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| The Devil's Tombstone-Palo Duro Canyon |
Big Bend National Park is in the southwest area of Texas and
has valleys, mountains, desert and canyons.
There are 13 National parks and over ninety State parks to choose from.
When I was a very little girl, several families from our
neighborhood held an Easter picnic in Palo Duro Canyon which is located south
of Amarillo. It is an area that is
similar to the Grand Canyon only much smaller with unusual formations of rock. My older brother and his friends – all about
10 or 11 years old-went exploring and found a place called The Devil’s
Slide. They thought they would get back
to the picnic area by going down the slide side which was shorter. My brother was the first one to slip and then
he tumbled with fallen branches and rocks.
The other boys helped him back to the top and the long way back. He tore all the ligaments and tendons in his
leg so his summer was on crutches that year.
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| Texas Longhorns |
I lived in Amarillo, in the “Panhandle” area of north Texas,
when I was a little girl and then in the large city of Houston when I was in
high school. I have traveled across the
state many times to visit my grandparents who lived in Houston while I was growing
up. When we drove from California to be
there for Christmas, I remember waking up at dawn in El Paso and my Dad driving
all day long to reach Houston by Midnight.
It’s over 900 miles across the state so even with the modern interstate highways,
it is still an all day drive.
Another unusual place west of Amarillo is the Cadillac
Ranch. There are 10 old Cadillac cars
that were an Art project done by the Ant Farm group on the land of a wealthy
Texan in the 1970s. They have been
repainted many times and covered over with graffiti from the visitors to the
ranch.
