How is Round Rock? Is Georgetown any better?

Will you be commuting to ft hood? Georgetown is not too bad. About 40 minutes up 195. Add 10 minutes for RR.

Both are sprawling Austin suburbs bearing little resemblance to the quaint "small" Texas towns they once were.

There's also Leander and Cedar Park.










[This message has been edited by Captain Pablo (edited 2/7/2011 6:00p).]

yes ft hood commute thanks

Salado is not a bad drive down the interstate. If there are kids the schools are good.

The commute via 35 will be awful as they are preparing to expand it! If it were me and I had children, I would opt for Belton or Salado. If you prefer slower paced country living, Lampasas.

Austin is close enough to all that area but between Salado and Austin is just chaos as far as traffic these days, I wouldn't want the commute hanging over my head.

But the toll road turns off just north of Gtown and you can get to most places in Austin by way of the toll system if it is a spouse with t ajob.

The commute up 195 will drive you insane, it is 2 lanes for most of the drive and full of idiots.

quote:

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Austin is close enough to all that area but between Salado and Austin is just chaos as far as traffic these days, I wouldn't want the commute hanging over my head.

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I made this very commute for 5+ years from Georgetown to Temple. It is significantly better than having to live in the Temple/Belton area.

Anything in particular you didn't like about the temple/belton area?

Just didn't like it the area much. The landscape was simply ok, but nothing special. There is a lot of the manufacturing/low rent type of folks in the area that brought the socio-economic status down.

I really got the impression that it was a world of have and have nots. While I suppose I fell in the "haves", it just wasn't an area I wanted to raise a family in.

My 5th year ol' lady lived in RR when he was stationed at Fort Hood. I had two people on my block in RR who were Active Duty at Fort Hood. Plan on commuting a solid 30,000+ miles per year. You'll want to invest in tires Hopefully you don't have a leased vehicle.

Now back in the day (mid-late 1990s), there were a lot of programs where the Regular Army guys at Fort Hood didn't have to work a full 5 days/week so, they didn't have to make the commute every day necessariy.

As far as driving on 195, it is dangerous however, most of the soldiers from Fort Hood generally only try to kill themselves on Friday nights or Monday mornings. So, 8/10 commutes per week shouldn't be too bad, right?

Any particular area in HH that you guys recommend?

HH? Are you married? Kids in public schools?

Yea, right next to me in a new Carothers, custom built, white stone and brick home.

Here is a look at the homes.

http://www.carothershomes.com/

[This message has been edited by JoeAggie1010 (edited 2/10/2011 9:00p).]

Married...kids not in school yet, will start while we are there.

Killeen ISD

Look, here's the basics...

Your choices, within an hour are:
Killeen - 10 minutes
Heights - 15 minutes
Cove - 15 minutes
Belton - 25 minutes
Temple - 30-35 minutes
Salado - 30 minutes
Georgetown - 45 mintes
Round Rock - 55 minutes
Lampasas - 30 minutes

Killeen - Great restaurants & retail. Wouldn't live there

Heights - Bedroom of Killeen. Probably an OK place to live. In Killeen ISD (rough)

Belton/Lake Belton/West Adams - Probably where most growth is. Schools OK, but growing fast. High School at 2500 and growing. Few restaurants & retail. Gotta go to Killeen, Heights, or Temple. Schools are generally regarded well.

Cove - Don't care for it. Nice hills, creeks...Full of tatoo parlors and pawn shops. Nasty.

Temple (not including West Adams area) - Hospital, mall, decent but not great eateries and retail. opinions on schools vary. Decent sense of community. Probably the town, moreso than the others, where people have actully lived for most of their lives, and even for more that a generation. IMO, it has more a sense of community than the other towns where VERY large percentages of residents have lived there for less than 5 years. Less transient. Seems that way to me anyway.

Little river/academy - Includes parts of South Temple - Rural, but schools supposedly good. 2A High school. nowhere to live except out in the country or South 5th Street area in Temple.

Salado - affluent with fair amount of military. Expensive housing. touristy. country clubby. good schools.

Georgetown and Round Rock - Now Austin suburbs. Big damn schools. sucky commute.

Lampasas - Don't know much about it. See other posts.

Small towns - Rogers, Troy, Academy, Florence, Jarrell. Just need to visit them and the schools. small town livin'.

Know little about Gatesville. Probably 30 minutes away. 3A school that kicks ass in golf.

If I was in your spot, I'd probably pick a spot in Belton/Lake Belton or Lampasas. Salado if you can afford it.





[This message has been edited by Captain Pablo (edited 2/11/2011 12:37p).]

Pablo,

Twice on this thread you have insinuated that Georgetown and Round Rock are very similar and "suburbs" of Austin.

The two towns are distinctly different and hardly comparable in my opinion. Georgetown is the county seat and in my opinion has the most unique downtown area of all the towns you listed.

I personally wouldn't commute to Ft. Hood from Georgetown or Round Rock mainly because of having to drive on 195, but that is just me.

Eh. Georgetown. Round Rock. Same diff.

Oops, wrong emoticon.

Meant ^

FlyArmy, we're moving to Hood in May from FLVNKS too. Thinkin G-town (currently looking in Berry Creek area). Trying to find something not "too" far from Hood with good schools an decent prices. Not easy. My oldest child has a bad nut allergy so we're working through that too.

Berry creek, Georgetown village, and serenada are very nice. They are also in far north Georgetown which is closer to hood via 195, and outside the nightmarish North Austin I-35 traffic cluster-****, which starts a few miles south.

CAV, do we know each other?

Probably ;-) I commanded V-1 my Zip year: 97.






We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well, and live!

Well then, I assume we got to enjoy COL Dan's weekly Thursday evening meetings together. Maybe, maybe not. I think I have you narrowed down to one of two guys, but the other went MI, so glad to hear you are doing well.

The houses I'm finding online do not appeal to me much...guess I'll have to figure this out over 'spring break'.

I'm MI. Former enlisted grunt, lifetime cavalryman.

We're struggling too. My wife is headin down there this weekend on a recon. She wants to check schools, actual driving times and look at the handful of homes we like. We're looking at Georgetown Village and Berry Creek. We'll see. Houses in Plugerville are better priced, more abundant and the schools are great there but I don't think I'm ready to drive that far!

Yeah, Pflugerville is not going to work for you commuting to Fort Hood. Round Rock is barely doable. That extra 10-15 minutes (when you've already been on the road for an hour) is not going to work out.

My BQ buddy who lived in my neighborhood in Round Rock when he was in the 4th ID put at least 30,000 miles on his truck every year. In fact, I think it was more. We're talking oil changes every 3-4 weeks or so.

Save yourself the commute and check out Belton.

Well, I've narrowed it down to Harker Heights, Nolanville, Belton area.

As much as I want to enjoy being near Austin, a few factors pushed me in the other direction.

Of those 3, pick Belton.

Hell everybody wants to be "close to Austin". Because Austin is basically an amusement park and just so damn cool. Woo-hoo. We are so sure than if we can just be "close to Austin", it will be a party every night.

But even if you move to Georgetown or wherever, you'll soon realize that you don't hit Austin near as much as you thought you would. You have kids, remember. Also, after commuting 2 hours every day back and forth to Hood, the last thing you're gonna want to do is get back in the car and drive another 45 min to an hour in insane traffic, just to hit that cool bar or restaurant that only exists in ever-so-cool Austin.

Look, take it for what it's worth. You're going to be driving EVERY day back and forth to work. Is the 20 minutes you shave off your MONTHLY drive to Austin worth the extra hour PER DAY you spend with your ass in the car seat getting back and forth to work every day, not to mention the mileage you put on your car and fuel costs?

Sorry if I have horned in on your thread more than I should. Just one perspective I guess.

No issues, I appreciate any free perspective. I don't vomit of the mouth with regard to my reasons for wanting to be near Austin. I have my reasons, none of which have to do with restaurants or bars.

Either way, as you can see above I changed my shot group, and even then, I can assure you we will be in Austin quite a bit.


[This message has been edited by Fly Army 97 (edited 2/19/2011 7:01a).]

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I have my reasons, none of which have to do with restaurants or bars.

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Ah. Indeed. Sure did come across presumptuous, didn't I? Apologies.

You'll hear the "closer to Austin" thing a lot when you get to Central Texas. Usually, it's the coolness factor. Or, if you're a sip, closer to whatever it is sips do in Austin.

So, if ya gotta be close to Austin, and close to Hood, heights or Belton would be OK. I'd encourage you to check the schools before your decision. There's good and bad about all of them.

Also, I don't know you budget, but there are several new subdivisions in bothe belton and heights. There's a new on going up over by the expo center which is about as centrally located as you can geT for your purpose. 52 miles from downtown Austin, 20 miles from hood, And it's one minute each from I-35 and 190. $120-150k houses.

Please excuse all the typos in the previous post. On an iPhone and there are too many to correct.

Austin isn't anything like Captain makes it out to be...what's your problem with Austin dude?

[This message has been edited by AustinAgChef (edited 2/20/2011 11:32p).]

quote:

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Austin isn't anything like Captain makes it out to be...what's your problem with Austin dude?

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What's your problem with reading comprehension, dude?

My post had little to do with Austin, and everything to do with the attitudes, with good reason, you may get with young people who land jobs in Bell County. Many of whom do not want to live in Bell County, but would rather be closer to Austin because of all the good things to do - restaurants, clubs, shows, music, cultural activities and events, bat watching, etc..

But what did I say about Austin that tripped your wire? Well, lets see:

coolness: Is there a problem with that? Do you deny it?

amusement park: If you're into live music, good food and drink, shopping, etc... Hell it is an amusement park! What problem can you possibly have with that?

party every night: It is. What's the problem?

sip-centric activities: Do live under a rock?

Cool restaurants and bars: Again, do you live under a rock?

insane traffic: See rock reference above!!

ever-so-cool: Are you saying your hometown is not?

Well, pick it apart, dude. What did I say that was inaccurate, or that "Austin is nothing like"?

Not saying there isn't other things about Austin not included in the above. Again, my post is not about EVERYTHING in Austin. It's about COMMON reasons why some young people who work in Bell County may want to "live closer to Austin".

Oh, I forgot to mention to Fly Army that Austin people use the word "dude" alot. And I didn't say a WORD about all the smelly hippies, bums, and liberals that are like iron to a magnet to Austin.





[This message has been edited by Captain Pablo (edited 2/21/2011 9:11a).]