We’re heading out of Texas now towards Houston, with its sky scrapers made of shiny steel and sheets of glass, shimmering in the afternoon sun, full of promise and success, built on the abundance of fossil fuels in underground oceans beneath the Texas deserts. Texas is a big state and we have crossed it from north to south and now are going from west to east. We have hiked its deserts and mountains. We have driven for hours and days and now we are approaching its eastern edge. We’ve gone from barren, unpopulated deserts to rolling hills and big cities. I don’t want to leave the Lone Star State and there’s two reasons for that. One, is that it represents us leaving the western United States and going and getting west is part of the allure of going cross country like we have. The west is the rockies, and the Pacific and the deserts of the southwest. It represents the stark differences from the east coast and there is an excitement associated with being in this different world. As we head now towards Beaumont Texas, I know we will cross into Louisiana and we will be leaving the west behind. We will be heading east and our western swing portion of the journey will be over. I know we still have 5 months of travel left but I can’t help feeling an end to this significant part of our trip. The second reason is that I like Texas. The first time I came here was when I shipped out for basic training to San Antonio, Texas. Young, eyes wide open, long hair on the floor of the processing center, and learning the ways of the Air Force. After basic training I spent a year here in tech school and it was during that time that the transition occurred. I remember hating country music and expecting all of Texas to be red necks but the longer I was here, the more I found myself enjoying the “Texas Culture” and really embracing it. It’s cowboy hats, cowboy boots under jeans, and ornate, thick, leather belts with your name embossed on the back. It’s long sleeved shirts with pearl snaps for buttons. It’s horses, and rodeos, and Lone Star Beer, and pick up trucks and pick up trucks and pick up trucks! It’s deserts and its rolling hills, and big horizons and endless blue skies and long horn cattle. It’s a state where the Texas flag might be seen flying in more places than the American flag. It’s where you’ll see “Don’t Mess With Texas”, Dallas Cowboys, and “The Rest of You Can Go To Hell, I’m Going to Texas” by Davey Crockett, on bumper stickers and signs from one side of the state to the other. And its got country western music from more radio stations than you can begin to count playing modern country, classic country, and the Outlaw country music of Willie, Waylon, and Jerry Jeff. It’s coyotes howling at a desert moon in the land that was ruled and revered by Apaches and Commanches. It’s Tex/Mex food and football at the High School, College, and professional level that is a religion. There’s so much more but there’s one thing that’s hard to put a word on so I’ll just call it that ‘”Independent Spirit” and an identity that seems to be among the citizens here that almost makes you wish you were from Texas. And lastly, it was Guadalupe National Park and Big Bend National Park that took us through the deserts and mountains and rivers of West Texas and treated us to a mighty fine meal of Mother Nature. We actually are in Louisiana now and whether its real or imagined, we know that we’re no longer in the west and no longer in Texas and I can’t help feeling sad about that. As Roy Rogers and Dale Evans used to sing: “Happy Trails, To You, Until We Meet Again”, and if you don’t know the TV show that its from, ask your parents. Until then,  find some time and take a trip to Texas and experience it yourself. You won’t be disappointed.