Art & Inspiration Living in Texas

Texas is a State of Mind, we really don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks

 

My wife and I both have our CCW license. If it is done right, no one ever knows.....

 

We may pay somewhat more for taxes north of the 49th but the quality of life is worth it. Add the cost to all the taxes south and the costs may be more. When I hit 65 the drugs are covered by Ontario or a minor charge. I know a handful of snowbirds who went south for 6 months and now don't venture south as age has impacted their health. Contrary to the nonsense peddled south about our health care it is an excellent system. My left eye sight suddenly went blurry so immediately referred to a good ophthalmologist and got monthly eye injections that are $1700 that are covered, travel grant that covers all the travel costs to have a good outcome. Eye is back to normal and now quarterly follow ups. We have had cancer with some of our extended family and their cases resolved with little to no financial harm. My nephew spent a couple months in hospital twice in the past year over a liver issue in your city at no cost. A former classmate needed a liver transplant & he got one without being financially harmed. We are retired with a good income and can do as we please and attribute that to where we live. My friends and I were going to retire about the same time so we made an effort to golf, go fishing and the odd road trip to stay connected before retirement that continues today. I think it is important to develop a social network in their retirement.

No hurricanes, torrential rains and a tornado 90 miles away once in my 70 years, last gun incident involving police was years ago. Hydro goes out when they give notice of a few hours of maintenance once or twice a year. I live in a small town and some times really miss the amenities of a big city but I can drive there if I need to or an hour to cross the border. We can travel to escape winter when we want. We anglers are out numbered 5:1 by our southern fishing friends here during summer. Flights out of Calgary going south often have good sales and lots of options. I worked with a friend in Ft.McMurray that had a dbl wide on a lake near Orlando that grabbed good sales out of Edmonton or Calgary so he went to Florida often over the course of a winter and his wife wintered there. We have friends that winter in Texas and have found a good 55+ village with all the amenities for reasonable. We have a friends that go to a 55+ village near Clearwater FL. That may be an option to get your wife close to family for a good part of the year and let you see whats around the area before fully committing.

https://www.migrationbureau.com/canada-ranked-number-one-country-in-the-world-for-quality-of-life/

 

Well as I said in a PM to oldblue our world ranking has a lot to be grateful for. I suggest that he move to Kamloops which doesn't have as harsh or th elength of an Alberta winter. Healthcare cost and service is another big plus. The list goes on.... Now why would anyone want to downsize their quality of life?

 

I was raised in Texas but due to a case of temporary insanity, I lived in Chicagoland for a number of years. (Chicagoland is a suburb of Canada according to Wiki) Eventually, the cure was so obvious I packed up and moved back.
Anyway, I digress. You see, folks up north hole up inside by the fire in the winter and build tool sheds, party decks, gardens, and other big projects in the summer. But in Texas, folks do all that in the winter and hole up indoors by the A/C or the pool in the summer. If you listen closely on a quiet afternoon in Texas you may hear someone saying, "Look at that Yankee putting a new roof on his house! Don't he realize it's August? Bless his heart."
Yes, it's true. We did get shut down by cold and snow earlier this year in Texas. This was a major tragedy. We will only get to drive our classics and hot rods for 11 and 1/2 months total in 2021.

 

They also have these things in Texas. Damndest thing I’ve ever seen.
120 gas pumps! Barbecue. Clothes. HUGE!

 

Crap they have yard ornaments...

 

I live on northside of houston in the Burbs...Active car community everywhere around me, weekly street meets with 100+ cars every weekend, shows every month, great healthcare etc. Humidy sucks here. AUSTIN SUCKS, hands down its like California with assholes everywhere, I have heard the car scene is screwy around there these days, homeless are everywhere through town now, austin has a decent music scene but at what cost? San Antonio is a bit rough for sure; get out of town and its nice, New braufuels is a college town but beautiful area for sure and humidity out in these areas is lower. If you don't mind tornadoes and hail occasionally Id stay away from DFW and north parts of texas, Droughts and warmer is San Antonio and West of that, Hill country is beautiful for driving though. I've lived here my whole life. There are positives and negatives to every place you look at. Houston's Car scene is hands down the largest in the state these days, DFW is 2nd, San Antonio 3rd, and Austin 4th. Houston gets hurricanes, floods, as do all coastal towns, so take that into consideration also for sure.

If you want rural living with healthcare about an hour away Id say look into Texas Hill country but its not cheap.

Suburbs of most major towns have good perks and being closer to family is a good thing,

If you want more than 2 seasons, DFW and north of that will get you 3 to 4..

A small town with good industry that has great roads around there is Paris Tx, same with Longview and Marshall, If you want wooded towns.

Hill country towns Id say Fredricksberg, Wimberly, Blanco, and as HRP suggested Dripping Springs is nice also.

AC is the survival piece down here, Invest in good AC and insulation etc.

I can go on for days about this place... But No state Income tax is nice, lax auto restrictions on antiques and classics. Cheap insurance also etc.

Another benefit of being around the i-10 area and south, the Mexican food is Real and real good.

 

My brother has lived in OKC, then moved South to San Antonio and now Houston. Loves both places in Texas. Is in the process of buying a house in Houston. He is spending just under 500K (big house 5bdrm 4bath) and that same house up here would be at least 600k. My place here in Sodak jumped 100K and the last year and I expect another 100K in the next couple.

 

Hello,

Back in our, after teenage years and college days, my brother and I were separated by a long distance across the USA. I was still in So Cal and he and wife were now in Houston, Texas. He had been given a full ride scholarship/research grant on medical implications of drugs. He was happy for the chance to have a low key life, although it being in Texas and academia. He was looking forward to the challenge. Both he and his wife were raised in Long Beach and lived all of their lives in So Cal. This was a new life ½ way across the USA.

They accepted the housing situation from the University of Texas and were happy for the low cost living it afforded in Houston. The savings account was starting to get filled, with little to none in the outside travel areas. The housing was taken care of, the school offered a nice research facility (biggest medical center in the world at the time) and all grant research expenses. So, what was not to like in Houston? The times my brother wrote a letter telling me about the adventures in Houston were somewhat hilarious.

“…Here is it a 6 am in the morning. It is hot outside and our nice apartment housing has the A/C on, at 6 am! It is the weekend and we are planning on going to the downtown area for some sightseeing and shopping. But, the weather might be a deterrent. So, after a shower, I started to get the car ready for the short drive, but, by the time I had the stuff inside, I was already sweating from the humidity. It is like walking around all day with a layer of water sitting on your skin, but you can’t see it.“

To them, the humidity was the key to wanting to come back to So Cal. But, they persevered. the research grant was too good to pass up and shut down. He now had time to consider building a hot rod and thought about it while working on his Chevy truck. But, each time he went outside to work on the truck, he was slapped in the face with a ton of warm/hot moist air and made him sweat instantly. It is not the person causing the sweat, but the constant high humidity outside.

Then the house A/C does not always circulate the air and it becomes a little humid, despite the A/C being on a lower temperature. In Santa Barbara, he did not build another hot rod, but could spend all day outside working on his family of cars, without breaking a sweat. It is the cool So Cal weather that does the trick.

Jnaki

It might be that Texas is located in a hot climate area, sitting next to a large body of water that is usually warmer than the cold water of the Westcoast of the USA. The summer storms from the Gulf add to the moisture in the air. It is also a given that a hurricane or two will affect the area when it swirls in a wide band on its travels to who knows where.

So, from Canada to Texas will be a huge climate change, more so than warm So Cal to hot Texas. To my brother and his family, it was alright. They had planned on building a permanent house for the long run, but the restrictions of the building code included a clause to have most of the housing built of bricks. They did not like bricks, but would over look that part. The birth of their son forced the family back to So Cal and the complimentary weather that is always a plus, in place.

It is not too extreme, but pleasant all year around. The closest hurricane came close to San Diego many years ago and in 1939 the remnants of one arrived in Long Beach to cause some panic. But on the whole, Texas is also affected from the Gulf of Mexico and its annual hurricane warnings and arrivals of said storms.

As my wife and I tried to finish our Eastern direction road trip after leaving New Mexico, we hit the western side of Texas, on the way to the OKC area. It was hot and dry and the sidewalks were hot enough to fry an egg… something to consider, when the weather is not the winter season. YRMV

My wife grew up in the OKC and after visiting twice, she said it is a nice place to visit, but she is now (since the 5-6th grade) a So Cal resident. The mild coastal area agrees with the both of us and as nice as some other places can be at certain times, it is up to the person as to where to live. "Try it, you might like it..." (not for a vacation, but for longer periods of time)

 

HaHa..... The largest is in my town.
I'm told that there are 83 toilets total....... not that I've ever personally counted.
..

 

Round Rock..

 

I am originally from the San Joaquin Valley in California, ( Winton/Atwater/Merced area ). So I know about high heat in the summer time and the fog and haze in the valley in the winter.

When I was in the Army Medical Corps, after basic training in Fort Ord , I was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio Texas.

Wow, what a change for a country kid to be in a big major metropolitan city ! Indeed the humidity is a major factor to deal with, but at that time in the 70's, San Antonio was a great place to be, the city has a lot to offer.

Once our class of students was getting settled in, a group of us started to explore the surrounding country side, and we found this cool place about 35 miles outside of town called Canyon Lake & Canyon dam. It was great to be able to get out of the city and be out around a big lake. This was in 1972 and I was 19 at the time. I am sure a lot has changed by now.

If I was going to relocate from here in Seattle, to Texas, I would definitely check out places like New Braunfels Texas, and Sequin Texas, to me they were great places that are not all that crowded like San Antonio, plus its an easy drive to Austin if you want to experience the music and other cool events, and its not a bad drive to the gulf either if you want the beaches, our group made several trips to South Padre Island and to Brownsville and to Matamoros, we always had a great time there.

After our school was over in San Antonio, as fate would have it, I got stationed at Ft. Sill, in Lawton Oklahoma for the rest of my time in the Army. Nothing against Oklahoma, but I was not impressed, hot and muggy in the summer, and cold in the winters ! It was definitely " NOT " San Antonio sad to say.

There are a lot of great places in Texas, as this thread and its contributors have stated, but in the long run, you are really going to have to sort all of this out and make a decision.

My Vote would be for either Seguin or New Braunfels , YMMV.

I am addicted to great authentic Mexican food and to good Bar- B- Que, so my vote is biased no doubt !

 

I watched Urban Cowboy.

 

Thanks for an entertaining thread so far guys.
We’re biding our time here for now.

One of the things I want to do is to possibly get into another project and part of that will be to find a place with at least a 30x 40 shop with a ceiling high enough for a hoist.

I’m just too limited in my 24x 26 garage with the 8’ ceiling.

I don’t know what that looks like now however
who knows what the future brings.

We’re always looking at the real estate market and watching for possibilities up here in Canada or down south in Texas,Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico.

We’re also optimistic about what might happen to improve the US healthcare system in affordability and access to insurance.

Doesn’t hurt to have options does it.
Really looking forward to RPU driving weather.

 

Would you actually be allowed to emigrate to the US (or more properly, the Republic of Texas)?
I assume there are some issues nowadays about visiting there, and never leaving!

Lots of Canadians spend up to six months in the Southern US to avoid winters, but limit it to that length of time so as to not lose Canadian medical coverage.

I have heard that Alberta has a more similar culture to Texas, than the rest of Canada, due to a lot of American oil people travelling between the places over the years.