How 'bout Texas - Part II

Texas is wonderfully diverse in every way imaginable. We have cities ranging from the population of one (Sandy, Texas, and of course the one person’s name is—Sandy Texas) to upwards of over two million in Houston. We hold claim to five cities in the top 50 with the largest population in the U.S. In size, we are the second largest state in the union, and outrank states with the largest most usable and accessible land mass in the U.S.A.

Offering many varied terrains to satisfy all type of palettes, Texas is a state that can appeal to everyone. Within our borders, we boasts of wide-open spaces, range land, mountain peaks, canyons, caves, plains, prairies, piney woods, farmland, ranchland, swampland, sand dunes, desert, rivers, gullies, washes, and miles and miles of beachfront. With over 800 miles to travel across the state from border to border it has oft been said, the sun has risen, the sun has set, and here we are in Texas yet.— that’s big.

We have produced presidents, movie stars, athletes, beauty queens, oil barons, millionaires, billionaires and host some of the largest dot com companies in the U.S. There are or have been in the past operating coalmines, oil wells, salt mines, copper, gold, and silver mines. And the Rio Grande valley has some of the largest food producing farms around.

For grandeur, our skies just love to show off magnificent sunrises and sunsets that are hard to beat anywhere. The heavens in Texas showcase some the most spectacular colors imaginable—parading shades of reds fading into pinks and purples; yellows into golds then orange; cerulean blue changing to cobalt into grays then vanishing into the dark of night filling the skies with millions of glimmering, sparkling lights.

When there are clouds on the horizon, there’s no description available to illustrate the beauty and splendor eyes will behold. Our fleecy white formations are the food for dreamers and shape-makers, or for just lollygagging and watching. And then again, in an instant those fleecy whites can boil, churn and roll to angry greens, grays, then blacks—just the stuff for storm-chasers.

We have the four seasons, unlike many states that only have two. In Texas weather can be wonderful, exciting, scary, edge-of-your-seat-spellbinding or nail-chewing, but never boring. We have beautiful weather, bad weather, cold weather, hot weather, wonderful spring and fall weather, and between weather. It’s not unreasonable to see a 40 degree drop in temperature in less than 2 hours. I’ve sent my children to school in shirt sleeves, and before the day is over, they should have been wearing woolens or visa versa. We often like to quote Mark Twain, If you don’t like our weather, well, you just wait a minute. It’s definitely going to change probably sooner, than later.

Texas is a love it or leave it state—no in betweens. We Texans are either loved or hated, considered ignorant or intelligent, country bumpkins or sophisticated, but always mimicked, the fodder for late night shows, and fondly thought of when mentioning the wild west. And, remember, our motto is—DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS!—We’re just that proud.