I'd get a divorce. I've been to all those states and most of the others and I've never been to a place that can offer what Texas does as far as outdoors, sports, people, food, music, country, and general greatness.

quote:

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Ragoo:
- The rivers are small, muddy, and slow.
- The deer are tiny
- Fishing in the gulf is pretty good, but nothing you can't get elsewhere
- It's too !@#$ing hot to camp six months out of the year
- Most of the state has very limited hiking terrain... you've got some great spots like enchanted rock, but nothing like anywhere along the east or west coast. Or hell, even Arkansas.

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Hmmmm... so aside from being wrong about 80% of that basically what you're saying is there's not enough public ground?

The rivers vary tremendously from clear cold rivers like the Devil's and South Llano to muddy crags like the Red. Further, some of them like the Brazos are completely different at various places along its length. There are no true native trout streams, but some tailraces are even showing promise in that realm.

The deer are tiny body-wise in parts of Central Texas but are good sized in far south Texas, are big in West Texas and are really big in the Panhandle. Panhandle deer are as big as any you'll see outside of the north woods. Even the Central Texas puppy dog deer aren't any smaller than those throughout the Southeast US. In addition the desert mule deer in the Chihuahuan desert are 250-280 with some frequency.

Fishing in Laguna Madre is about as good as you'll find. Maybe not better than some other parts of the gulf, but certainly on par. Further, the bass fishing is world class. Ray Roberts, Fork, Sam Rayburn... doesn't get much better.

It's pretty hot. I'll give you that. But you can camp during the winter when you can't camp in the winter in most other places. You still camp 6 months a year, it's just a different 6 months.

There is tons of quality hiking in Texas it just doesn't happen to be located immediately adjacent to an interstate. Put in some windshield time and visit Big Bend, the Davis Mountains or Palo Duro Canyon. Then get back to me.

I suppose its easy to toss around generalizations if you choose to not visit any of the features that the state has.

Don't feed the troll, muchachos... Nobody leaves Texas unless some God-foresaken @sscrack region of the world needs some good ol' boy know how on getting oil in a barrel.

Guess I moved here from the Pacific NW and haven't been impressed with much 'cept the winter weather. I don't miss the rain, and I enjoy the winters here while all my buddies are beetching about about 40 degrees and freezing rain.

But... I'm used to hiking in the Cascades or the Coast Ranges. I'm used to deer larger than my dog.

And I'm used to not having to drive 2 days to get to it.

Now, year round veggie gardening, lots of sun, and no snow down here in south/central TX... yeah, that'll do. But when I get a weekend off, I really don't feel like driving half of it to go for a hike somewhere besides Sam Houston, Bastrop, ...

I was thinking what Sean said... Except with the oil spill, TX might have an edge on the saltwater fishing too. And that there are some huge bucks up and down the Red River, besides just the panhandle.

For and all around sportsman like me, TN has a great mix of hunting, fishing, and scenery. Seems like a huge portion of the people there are also sportsmen, so that's cool.

My ancestors landed in Virginia. They then proceeded to move through Georgia and Alabama. They stopped in Texas and stayed there...way before air conditioning was invented. The indians killed some of them but they still stayed.

I could maybe live part of the year in some other state but not permanently.

If my company did business in Colorado or NM, I'd have moved there a long time ago to try it out.

Nova Scotia, Canada.

quote:

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Hmmmm... so aside from being wrong about 80% of that basically what you're saying is there's not enough public ground?

The rivers vary tremendously from clear cold rivers like the Devil's and South Llano to muddy crags like the Red. Further, some of them like the Brazos are completely different at various places along its length. There are no true native trout streams, but some tailraces are even showing promise in that realm.

The deer are tiny body-wise in parts of Central Texas but are good sized in far south Texas, are big in West Texas and are really big in the Panhandle. Panhandle deer are as big as any you'll see outside of the north woods. Even the Central Texas puppy dog deer aren't any smaller than those throughout the Southeast US. In addition the desert mule deer in the Chihuahuan desert are 250-280 with some frequency.

Fishing in Laguna Madre is about as good as you'll find. Maybe not better than some other parts of the gulf, but certainly on par. Further, the bass fishing is world class. Ray Roberts, Fork, Sam Rayburn... doesn't get much better.

It's pretty hot. I'll give you that. But you can camp during the winter when you can't camp in the winter in most other places. You still camp 6 months a year, it's just a different 6 months.

There is tons of quality hiking in Texas it just doesn't happen to be located immediately adjacent to an interstate. Put in some windshield time and visit Big Bend, the Davis Mountains or Palo Duro Canyon. Then get back to me.

I suppose its easy to toss around generalizations if you choose to not visit any of the features that the state has.

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+++11111

Texas is the most outdoors diverse state in the country.
Gulf Coast
Rolling plains
Balcones Escartment
Edwards Plateau
Hill Country
Piney Woods
Paladuro Canyon
Big Bend
LLano Estacato

If you don't like muddy rivers or lakes, get out of east texas and visit some rivers in the hill country or west texas.

Your post made it blatantly obvious that you are not originally from here.

Of those, probably Tennessee

Only place I would consider is western Montana.

I'd probably pick Tennessee. Lots of farmland, pretty girls, and you can shoot like 5 deer a day during deer season. I'd sure miss my saltwater fishing though.

Well put Sean there is plenty of stuff here in Texas and even more in the rest of the US. There is no one place to get it all. You have to choose what you can do without and what you really need.

I was in Barnes & Noble in San Antonio this week and there were THREE different books there listing "day hikes in and around San Antonio".

I have never been a "hiker", but the availability of bunches of trails surprised me since I am from this SA area.

My point is that you can probably find what you are looking for if you look hard enough.

and I would go with the one state that has elk.

non granola
non hippie
non liberal
business friendly
2nd Amend friendly
non illegal friendly

These would be on my list above the size of deer. Without the above, I would not want to live there anyway.

Sounds like Arizona is your state

quote:

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and I would go with the one state that has elk.

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...but there is more than 1 state on that list with elk, so that makes it a little tougher.

Rocky Top, Where'd you go to HS?

"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken"

-Colonel Sanders

bring that kayak up here to Washington state.

I love the PacNW. outside of Seattle, you dont really have to worry about the super liberal hippie folk, but I ignore em anyway. I like Seattle.

I live on the water, hour's drive from the ski resort. mountains, trails and lakes right at my doorstep.

I love the PacNW, but I would live on the east side of the state. Give me high desert over cold wet ocean any day of the week.

Probably Tennessee. No state income taxes.

joshq- I'm certain we did not go to HS together, as I'm from TN. I think we know each other from when I was a grad student in College Station and you were an undergrad and also from grad school in Kansas... I could be completely wrong though. If so, I apologize for the mix-up.

Live in Texas, visit other USA states, stay out of Mexico, South America, Europe.

Fireinthehole,

Bingo! We have a winner!

Tennessee

I have spent some time in every place you mentioned and Tenn by far would win with me hands down.

Rocky top- I gotcha,yes I think we do know each other. Hope all is well.

"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken"

-Colonel Sanders

Florida, enough said!

if you can stand the culture, Utah isnt a bad place to be for the outdoors. I moved up here for work a few years ago and haev never been left with a shortage of stuff to do outside. I ski all winter, flyfish all summer. I can hike in any number of national forests and mountains etc. I spend at least a few weekends each spring in Moab mountain biking and hiking. Yellowstone, and Jackson hole are short enough to make an extended weekend trip if i choose. I havent found the hunting to be that fantastic, but thats why I have my lifetime license in Texas.
If it werent for these things i wouldnt be able to stand living so far from Texas.

Arkansas or Tenn

Tennessee
Arkansas
Kansas


But there's pretty much no way that I am leaving Texas unless it is for Colorado, Florida, or Hawaii.

I choose Kansas for the pheasants alone!!

I also like helping Dad find his deer, but I hate turkeys!! ...and there are tons of them around here!!

>>Most of the state has very limited hiking terrain<<

Huh??

You can hike in every corner of Texas and virtually everywhere in between. You don't have to go to the Guad, the Hill Country, or Big Bend. Hell, DFW and surrounding areas has some pretty decent hikes. Not Rocky Mountain National Park everywhere you go, but in no way "limited." Or, to put it another way, if it is limiting to you, then you will only be happy living in 3 or 4 different spots in this country. If that.

If you move to tennessee you can vote for this gentlemen:

http://politics.freesitenow.com/basilmarceauxforgovernor/

Tennessee. Born and raised there and miss most everything about it.