Bigger in Texas?

Is everything really bigger and better in Texas? Texans sure think so. It's like this place is its own country or something. The big question is : Will Texas or California be the first to secede from the nation? When they fly the stars and bars they always fly their own flag next to it, leaving one to wonder which flag do they think is the real National flag? They probably refer to their own flag as the "Bars and Star". In every other state residents are proud to be Americans. However, in Texas people are proud to be from Texas.

The first thing I noticed immediately upon entering Texas is that people drive faster!! For real! I even told someone this who had already noticed it previously. What is up with that? Is their time more valuable than peoples' from other states that they think they have to drive like racecar drivers? Do they just do it because the commute takes longer no matter where or when they are driving? On that note, my dad told me to leave Jackson early to 'beat' rush hour traffic. Generally "Rush Hour" is from 5pm - 6pm, correct? Knowing the big city, I asked, "ohhh, about 3pm - 6pm?" So, I planned and happened to fall into my plan of arriving around 7pm to miss the 'rush hour'. Ohhhh Noooo! Traffic was bumper to bumper in all lanes with crazy fast drivers and road construction everywhere. This is not even LA traffic, like constant speed, drivers know what they're doing, moving traffic. It's a mess of congested commuters changing lanes and slamming on brakes with half their brake lights working, stop and go traffic. Some kind of rush hour!

Construction brings me to my next hap.....
The first and only sign I've ever seen to read, "Caution Worker Convoy Ahead". WORKER CONVOY!!! convoy??? Since we are in Texas and proud to be, is this the same as the "Texas Hispanic Highway Compound"? They are escorted by a state agency so they don't get sent back across the border? Really, are they ever finished with highway construction? NO, NEVER. They keep adding routes to reconstruct, so they can add members to their 'convoy'. Let's have octuplets by invetro, unmarried, so we can have enough workers to finish this project. Ohh, wait, that was California.

If Texas is so gung ho on being different and separate, why do some of their towns have the same names as places in other states? I mean seriously, I drove through Canton, Winono and Athens all in one small stretch. Seeing the first two made me wonder if I was on my way to the Mississippi Delta on I55 or still heading my original, western direction. In fact I had to turn on the Nav System like a true out-of-stater just to make sure this was still Texas. Then, Athens came along and I couldn't help but wonder if Athens, GA or Athens, TX came first. Either way could they not come up with anything besides the ancient Grecian name?

What does one think of when wondering what it's like in the 'Wild Wild West'? Dirt roads lined with swinging, double saloon doors opening to hole in the wall, honky tonk bars, right? So, they have to wear their cowboy boots to ride into town and go into the bar. Well, not so much. This state is further east than 1/3 of the United States, and no other state has as many western cowboy boot wearing honky tonks as this state. They don't wear these in Wild Western places like Las Vegas and LA. They are not a fashion statement anymore!! Apparently the mobile home look is in now. It's not possible to count how many trailer dealers lined the highway throughout the drive on I20. If it wasn't a mobile home trailer it was a horse trailer outlet. In other states a trailer is where country people live, but in Texas they have horse trailers worth as much as their mobile homes. And every other one was named 'Big Tex Trailers'. Maybe Texans just like options. There is a Costco within one mile of a Sam's club on Central Expressway. Capitalism in its most effective state, state of emergency!

Maybe it was the 8 hour commute that got me all loony thinking or it's just reality. Unless living in a trailer is cool, or working for a convoy is admirable, Things are not bigger or better in Texas.