Everything is big in Texas and that includes the state. It can broadly be divided into five areas, each completely different from the next.
This is one of the drovers who drive the longhorns through the streets of the historic Stockyards district in Fort Worth. The famous Fort Worth Herd walks through the Stockyards each afternoon.
North Central Texas, the area surrounding Dallas/Ft. Worth was originally grassland and its clay-like black soil made it perfect for farming. Summers are hot and winters are cold, wet and gray. In spring, unplowed fields and highway medians sprout masses of wildflowers blazing red, yellow and blue. Both Spring and Autumn bring often violent but beautiful thunderstorms as the warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexio meets the cold air coming from the north. The personality of the original settlers and farmers pervades all of this area in a work hard, play hard attitude. Lake Texoma, a (very) wide spot in the Red River is a favorite backyard playground for this area as is the Brazos River which runs south to the Gulf. The cosmopolitan metroplex of Dallas/Ft. Worth still has a flavor of the old west with major attractions like the Ft. Worth Stock Show, the Mesquite Rodeo, the State Fair of Texas, and many famous entertainment venues like Mickey Gilley's.
East Texas is a land of red sandy soil and tall pines. Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in Texas, borders on Texas and Louisiana and this is where the hard working Texan attitude begins to meld with the more laid back influence of Lousiana. Hunting rules the day here with many businesses closing down for the first day of deer season. Some major cities here are Longview and Nacogdoches. Tyer is a small East Texas town famous for its roses and hospitality.
The Hill Country lays in the heart of Texas stretching roughly in the shape of a triangle from Austin to San Antonio and up to Waco. Here rolling hills are covered with live oak, ash and cedars. Gentle spring rains can make the European traveler think that they are in the northern districts of England as they travel the miles on pastoral highway. Winters are gentler here, enabling lantana to surround the capitol in Austin as a beautiful and fragrant perennial hedge. The Devil's Backbone, a mountainous area west of Austin cradles Travis Lake as well as many others. San Antonio, with its famous River Walk and rich history (the Alamo is here), begins to see the transition to the more arid Gulf Coast area to the south.
The Gulf of Mexico defines the the southern border of Texas streching from Port Arthur in the east to Brownsville in the west. Galveston, Corpus Christi and Padre Island are all popular destinations for tourists and Texans alike. Padre Island may in fact be best known as a Spring Break Mecca. The waters of the Gulf are warm though not so clear by the shoreline. Charter boats can take you out a short way to where the waters of the Gulf turn clear and blue and deep sea fish abound. Brownsville is on the border with Mexico and many enjoy a stay there to cross the border for shopping and entertainment in Mexcio's border towns.
West Texas follows the Rio Grande River north until making a dog leg to cut out the shape of the Texas Panhandle. West Texas could arguably be divided into two districts itself. The Big Bend area in the south is a desert in the true sense of the word and elevation increases going north lead to the mesas and plateaus of the Panhandle. El Paso is a good example of a west Texas town in the desert. Here the cattlemen ranch in sections instead of acreas (each section being approximately 90 acres) and it is not unusual to see ranchers pull up to a diner with a small helicopter pulled behind their pickup.. The sands turn red as you approach the Panhandle (Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland-Odesso) and the occasional sandstorm can turn the whole sky red. Similar to their "work hard, play hard" neighbors to the east, the residents of the Panhandle often have a peculiarly entrepreneurial spirit possibly passed down by the original settlers attracted to the free arid lands in the late 1800's.
Texans are often accused of seeing their state as a world or country of its own, but one trip will show you why. It is.
