Frommer's Texas
Chapter One
The Best of Texas
by David Baird, Edie Jarolim, Eric Peterson & Neil E. Schlecht
Texans are a unique bunch, unapologetic in their swaggering embrace of the
place they call home. "It's flat and dry," you say. "Yup, parts are," they reply. "It's
hot," you say. "Hotter 'n hell," they confirm. "Texans talk funny," you say. "Y'all
do too," they retort. Self-confident and independent almost to a fault, Texas
seems to embody all that's good, bad, and especially big about the United States.
The former independent Republic of Texas-which shook off the landlord
claims of Spain, Mexico, France, and even the United States-has diehards who
still wish Texas would suck it up and secede.
Texans don't seem to mind too much if outsiders get caught up in the myths
and cliches about Texas (that way they get to keep the truth to themselves). A
10-gallon hat doesn't hold 10 gallons of anything, nor is Texas flat, dry, and featureless,
filled with cowboys on the range, oilmen watching their backyard gushers
spit up black gold, and helmet-haired beauty queens. But it's hard to
compete with the state's image, the canvas for 100 Western flicks. The big-sky
frontier of Texas and the West is the quint ... read full excerpt from Frommer's Texas ebook
