Movin' to Texas

overdrive148 said:
We were somewhere around Salina, on the edge of the plains, when the caffeine began to take hold.

We can't stop here, this is flat country.

The only thing that really worried me was the Starbucks. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of a coffee binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station.
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You drive, there's something wrong with me.

And send up some golf shoes!

Nauga,
who does not want your ether, TYVM
 
overdrive148 said:
And I'm about to leave Denver here in an hour or so headed for Oklahoma. I hate that drive, soul crushing is an understatement. Everything I own is packed in my car. Kind of a neat feeling. Again.

But it's 726 miles to Oklahoma, I've got a full tank of gas, no cigarettes, it's dark and I'm wearing sunglasses only for the purpose of this post...
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Yeah, not much to see from east of Denver all the way to central OK. You can't tell the difference between Eastern CO, and Western NE/KS/OK outside of the type of crops sometimes.
 
jkaduk said:
McMansions, you couldn't give me one. Well you could but I would sell it and move somewhere less boring.
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We just spent a couple of days in Plano. Nice place, and we had fun going to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum, sleeping late, and drinking beer -- but I've never seen such a phony, plastic place...

Mile after mile of "CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero..."

I don't understand why people seem to want every place to look exactly like every other place. There's no reason to travel when where you're going looks exactly like where you've been.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Mile after mile of "CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero..."
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I've seen that in many large cities. I'll bet there are streets in the LA basin that you could drive 30 miles and see the same thing over and over.

Jay Honeck said:
I don't understand why people seem to want every place to look exactly like every other place. There's no reason to travel when where you're going looks exactly like where you've been.
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I'm not so sure they do. Corporations attempt to appeal to the largest demographic and therefore all of their products look the same.
Personally I try to never go to chain restaurants.
 
With some products it's good that they are repeatable. I'm willing to experiment with food, more so than some of the people I've traveled with. Some of them would rather stick to chains.
 
Jay Honeck said:
We just spent a couple of days in Plano. Nice place, and we had fun going to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum, sleeping late, and drinking beer -- but I've never seen such a phony, plastic place...

Mile after mile of "CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero..."

I don't understand why people seem to want every place to look exactly like every other place. There's no reason to travel when where you're going looks exactly like where you've been.
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In two words? Resale value. Same principle behind the prevalence of HOAs.
Humans are wildebeest in every aspect of their collective behavior. It's really not good, bad or indifferent; it's just endemic.

To be fair, there's some practical value to that behavior. But I agree, it's incredibly boring and to me at least feels dehumanizing, paradoxically enough.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I'd sooner live in McKinney than Arlington, personally, but it's likely quite a bit more expensive. Hell, they're building a $63M high school football stadium in McKinney! If I were going south/west in the D/FW area, I'd probably look at something closer to Fort Worth or maybe even north of Arlington around the Grapevine/Flower Mound areas. Again, just my opinion.
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That's insane, but I know Texans love their high school football, and probably ridiculous real estate taxes too.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Mile after mile of "CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero..."
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Sounds like just about any built-up place in the country.
 
hindsight2020 said:
In two words? Resale value. Same principle behind the prevalence of HOAs.
Humans are wildebeest in every aspect of their collective behavior. It's really not good, bad or indifferent; it's just endemic.

To be fair, there's some practical value to that behavior. But I agree, it's incredibly boring and to me at least feels dehumanizing, paradoxically enough.
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HOAs are the work of the Devil.
 
Jay Honeck said:
We just spent a couple of days in Plano. Nice place, and we had fun going to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum, sleeping late, and drinking beer -- but I've never seen such a phony, plastic place...

Mile after mile of "CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero..."

I don't understand why people seem to want every place to look exactly like every other place. There's no reason to travel when where you're going looks exactly like where you've been.
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That is not just Texas anymore - it's everywhere. When my pilot and I are in different towns (Little Rock, and Oklahoma City recently) we've been trying to make a point to go to the non-chain local restaurants just because they aren't what we can get anywhere in Dallas.
 
paflyer said:
That's insane, but I know Texans love their high school football, and probably ridiculous real estate taxes too.
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So true. When I played football in the early mid 70s, Fridaynightfootball was one word. If you were on the team, you had a good summer job at the farmers co-op. If you weren't into sports, you stocked shelves at the Piggly Wiggly.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Here Ya Go.
Million dollar homes in Plano. I'm sure the interior is lovely but I can't imagine having so little exterior space.
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steingar said:
That's your friendly neighborhood Steingar. The Steinholme is the biggest house on the smallest parcel of land I could get. I have better things to do with my time than landscaping.
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I would think that if you could afford a million dollar home then you could also afford to pay someone to cut your grass & manage your landscaping if that's something you don't enjoy.

I'll take a bit bigger lot and the privacy. My lot is somewhat irregular but is basically 2640' x 3960' with the house pretty close to center.

:cool:
 
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timwinters said:
I would think that if you could afford a million dollar home then you could also afford to pay someone to cut your grass & manage your landscaping if that's something you don't enjoy.

I'll take a bit bigger lot and the privacy. My lot is somewhat irregular but is basically 2640' x 3960' with the house pretty close to center.

:cool:
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Plano and a lot of areas around here can often be populated by people that can't afford million dollar homes but live in them any way.
If I lived out there I couldn't afford my lawn guy. Or my kids.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Plano and a lot of areas around here can often be populated by people that can't afford million dollar homes but live in them any way.
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That's exactly what led up to the 2008 crash. Big house, big screen TV, two new cars on the garage, but when the furnace breaks they pay with a credit card because they don't have enough money in the bank to cover the $2000 repair/replacement. I ran across these people all the time during the "live on credit era" of the early 2000s.

It's amazing how we never learn a MF'ing thing from our previous mistakes. SUV and pickup truck sales going thru the roof now that gas is (very temporarily) cheap is another example of our society's myopic memory.
 
hindsight2020 said:
In two words? Resale value. Same principle behind the prevalence of HOAs.
Humans are wildebeest in every aspect of their collective behavior. It's really not good, bad or indifferent; it's just endemic.

To be fair, there's some practical value to that behavior. But I agree, it's incredibly boring and to me at least feels dehumanizing, paradoxically enough.
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I'm old enough, barely, to remember road trips before the interstate highway system was complete. In 1961 and 1963, my dad took us on epic 3-week driving vacations from Milwaukee to California and back.

I was young, but what I remember most was the vast diversity of the country. People dressed differently, acted differently, had different mannerisms and speech patterns. The food was regionally different, and roads varied wildly by state or county.

We did it again in the 1970s. By then most of the trip was on the freeways. It was much easier, but the trip went from being a journey to enjoying the destinations. The drive was...irrelevant.

Nowadays? On the rare occasions that we must drive to San Antonio or Austin, due to weather, we get OFF the freeways, and take the old highways. It's amazing how, just a few hundred yards off the interstate, real America still exists.

It's not pretty anymore -- the interstates suck up most of the easy business, so it's a hard-scrabble existence -- but it's still there, and the food and lodging that you can find are often superior to anything the chains have to offer.

Sadly, 75% of Americans won't ever see it.
 
I'm with Jay on this. I avoid freeways like the plague unless I'm in a terribly big rush. The byways give you a better feel of the towns and countryside. Found some great eating places back-roading too.
 
I look for the places where you see the cop cars, linemen trucks, city trucks etc., that's usually the best food around. Sometimes it's off the beaten path and it may be an old house that doesn't look that great but the food will either be really good or they give you a ton on a plate and it's edible.
 
I live in SW Fort Worth. I drive to Addison almost every day. 52 miles and it takes about an hour no traffic and average 1.5 with no wrecks and I've seen over 2 hrs several times a month. I did the drive to Denton and it was about the same. Not fun.

Apply to DFW airport. They have open positions a lot.

There is also Costco. For a temp job. Or Lockheed if you go into aerospace.

Remember that here in TX there are tons of upper management jobs and tons of entry level jobs but not that many middle career jobs. At least on the surface job postings etc... Once you get rooted you will be fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Norman said:
I'm with Jay on this. I avoid freeways like the plague unless I'm in a terribly big rush. The byways give you a better feel of the towns and countryside. Found some great eating places back-roading too.
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As am I. In all my years of travel, I have oft taken the side roads, especially to my last destination (the hotel typically) of the day on a day of numerous stops. Just a couple of weeks ago I took the back roads from Zanesville OH to Steubenville. It was a beautiful drive and took me over two hours instead of the 1+30 that it would have taken on the 4 lane highways but it was well worth it. Cambridge, OH was a spectacularly beautiful little town.
 
Jay Honeck said:
We just spent a couple of days in Plano. Nice place, and we had fun going to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum, sleeping late, and drinking beer -- but I've never seen such a phony, plastic place...
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Oughts come up to Frisco. They could give Plano a run for their money

Jay Honeck said:
Mile after mile of "CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero, CVS, Walgreens, Applebees, Chilis, Walmart, Valero..."
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You forgot RaceTrac and QT!!
 
JCranford said:
Oughts come up to Frisco. They could give Plano a run for their money



You forgot RaceTrac and QT!!
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Hey, leave QuikTrip out of this! They are awesome (a Tulsa, OK company) and generally one of the few convenience stores you can go to in any city and it's very clean and the employees are pleasant.
 
Haaa, they ARE nice and I LOVE RaceTrac ice but they ARE EVERYWHERE!
 
timwinters said:
When I go into QuikTrip to urinate I make sure I miss everything and I don't buy anything in exchange for watering the wall in their men's room either . . . Not that I have any opinion on this matter mind you.
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Tell me how you really feel, lol. Seriously though that sounds terrible, do you have any background detail on the incident? They are a Forbes Top 100 employer, do a ton of charity/social work, and generally hire from within their ranks before seeking outside hires. They've come quite a long way, even since the 90's.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Tell me how you really feel, lol. Seriously though that sounds terrible, do you have any background detail on the incident? They are a Forbes Top 100 employer, do a ton of charity/social work, and generally hire from within their ranks before seeking outside hires. They've come quite a long way, even since the 90's.
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I do a lot of work in there distribution centers and they are very fair to all involved, its a good organization and I visit their stores often.
 
I don't know what Tim is talking about, but holding a chain of gas stations up as anything desirable in our society is, um, silly.

As anyone who is old enough to remember the days before the government conspired with Big Business to destroy all the mom & pop gas stations, there was a time when gas stations were actually fun places to visit. You knew the owner and all the employees, and it was sort of the gossip nerve center of town, since everyone stopped there.

Now? As with all chains, they have all the ambiance of a sticky door knob (Tim? Is that you again? lol) and a 350% employee turnover rate. And, of course, few people venture inside with pay at the pump.
 
If a guy came out to pump your gas and lift your hood nowadays he'd probably get shot.

Old full service gas stations were fun to hang around and good summer jobs for young men. I worked at one one summer. You learn a heck of a lot about cars as a bonus.

I guess no one under 40 will get it, even I dont understand how so many things changed so radically seemingly overnight from mom and pop to Calcutta. I always hear foreigners took over the convenience sector because of .gov help but don't know it as a fact.
 
Norman said:
I'm with Jay on this. I avoid freeways like the plague unless I'm in a terribly big rush. The byways give you a better feel of the towns and countryside. Found some great eating places back-roading too.
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My favorite function on my car (phone) GPS is the "avoid highways" function.
 
txflyer said:
If a guy came out to pump your gas and lift your hood nowadays he'd probably get shot.

Old full service gas stations were fun to hang around and good summer jobs for young men. I worked at one one summer. You learn a heck of a lot about cars as a bonus.

I guess no one under 40 will get it, even I dont understand how so many things changed so radically seemingly overnight from mom and pop to Calcutta. I always hear foreigners took over the convenience sector because of .gov help but don't know it as a fact.
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The Patels started with a single California hotel in the early 1960s, and now control the industry. In many ways, it's the American Dream incarnate.
 
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