I was in Texas. I've been to Texas before. It's a bit of an odd place to a Great Lakes boy.
Dallas is like any other big city, although the lack of zoning gives it an unusual flavor. Residential areas and commercial areas are deeply intermixed.
Austin is, of course, a one-off. It's really a displaced coastal town with a western theme.
I once drove Carlsbad NM to Las Cruces NM on I-62 which is a stretch of freeway that runs through West Texas and El Paso. I stopped for a hike in the Guadalupe Mountains (lovely, and sparsely visited). I was stopped at a border patrol station and quickly scanned for illegals. And I was stunned by the endless strings of used car lots along the border.
This time I was in Houston, about which there is little to say. It seems like a decent place. Folks there are proud of their reaction to the recent hurricane and their resilience, and rightly so. I remember how the hand wringing in New Orleans went on for years. There was no such reaction from Houstonians. For the fourth largest city in the nation, it's remarkably unremarkable (that's a compliment). And it's growing enormously. Houston is growing at a rate of 9-ish percent since 2010, but that is obscuring the fact that the surrounding cities such as Pearland and College Station and are growing at rates beyond 20%. The area in what is probably a four hour drive radius including San Antonio, Austin, and Houston is just exploding. One suspects it will overshadow L.A. and D.C. given time. The country will be the better for it.
Texans have strong identity. It waxes and wanes in different parts of the state though. Houston and Dallas I saw little of it. I saw some in Austin, although there it is tinged by hipster irony. It is pretty prominent in San Antonio (notably, the seventh largest city in the U.S.), home of The Alamo, and the target of a side trip. The Alamo is a fine place to visit. It strikes a good balance of history and curiosity. It is one of the rare U.S. monuments that is clearly geared toward Red Staters; most such places hold the mainstream leftish-progressive line in their tone. It's just off the famous Riverwalk, which is also a fine place to visit and a unique social center. Luckily it was chilly and off-season, otherwise it would have been packed to the gills, and rightly so. The bars and restaurants on the Riverwalk proper are not particularly outstanding, but it's the setting that counts. Well worth a visit.
Nowhere in Texas have I ever stayed long enough to get a real feel for the place. But, as is clear, it's not just one place. Visiting for a day or two here and there and then passing judgment on Texas is like visiting Hong Kong and Beijing and claiming you understand China. My guess is that it's just fine, and while I wouldn't go out of my way to live there, I would be disappointed if I found myself a resident. Judging from its population and economic growth, the market thinks it's one of the best places. That's a more valuable recommendation that my opinion.
