Don't Mess With Texas

One of the very first things that baffled me when we begrudgingly moved to Texas was the pride that most Texans had regarding their home state. You see it everywhere, "Don't Mess With Texas" bumper stickers...HUGE lone stars adorning houses...Texas flag colored clothing and hood ornaments...the list goes on and on and on. Literally, Texas pride is EVERYWHERE! Good grief, they've even got a professional football team named after them; the Houston TEXANS. As if being a Texan is something in and of itself that should be regarded with grand respect. You'd think that the sun rises and sets for this State alone.


Don't get me wrong, Texas is a decent place. The schools are phenomenal, the people appear to be friendlier than most you encounter in California, housing prices are very affordable, and where else will you find families that deepen their bond with one another through their frenzied obsession with Friday night high school football? Yet, I still am caught up in amusement over the pride...the Texas pride.

I believe that it starts early...they must brain wash their young from the very beginning. How else could any human being deny such simple facts like: Whataburger is NOT better than In-N-Out Burger. It doesn't even come close....not even a smidget. And landscape beauty....I hate to tell you, but Texas doesn't compare to the slices of heaven known as:

• Whidbey Island, Washington
• Lithia Park in Ashland, OR
• Lake Tahoe, CA/NV
• Any city along the northern CA/OR coastline
• Sierra Nevadas
• City of San Francisco
• Puget Sound, Washington
• Heck, even the populous city of Bieber, CA

These are just a few of the areas that I've been to personally that cast a dark shadow on the conspiracy theory that Texas is the state above all states. I don't know if Texans are in denial or just plain stupid. Whatever the reason is, I don't get it. The sense of pride that oozes from these creatures is downright spooky. Needless to say, I don't let my children drink the water here.

I guess my attitude is so sour simple because I never truly wanted to come here in the first place. It's humid, the bugs are larger and more rampant, people have a funny accent which inevitably my children will pick up. And try as I might, my negative attitude shatters any good that might surround me regarding this state. As I confessed to my husband yesterday, I guess I am just hard to impress. I've seen some of the most spectacular views in this country...and Texas doesn't have any of them. So when I hear of a beautiful waterfall area in a "mountain range" just north of where we live...and I take the day to surprise my family with a drive to such place, I expect to see this...
or this....

I do not, however, expect to see THIS.....

Keep in mind, this picture is very flattering....the water actually seems clean displayed here unlike the true poop brown color that it was yesterday.

So call me hard to impress. I'm fine with that. I know where I've seen true beauty and I know what parts of the country truly have the right to puff out their chests with pride. And for this outdoors-woman and lover of landscape beauty, Texas ain't one of 'em.