Texas???

[Imagineer2Be]

So it looks like I will be moving from NJ to Texas. Any thoughts on packing/ driving that far/ culture shock? How do TX people get to Disney (drive v.s. fly)?

Thanks!!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

What part? It's a big place I'll say this, it wouldn't be my first choice of places to live, BUT I find Texas folks second only to Tennessee in terms of friendliness, and tops anywhere in terms of driving courtesy.

 

[Imagineer2Be]

What part? It's a big place I'll say this, it wouldn't be my first choice of places to live, BUT I find Texas folks second only to Tennessee in terms of friendliness, and tops anywhere in terms of driving courtesy.

Fort Worth Area. Most likely moving over Christmas/ New Years

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I think that's still within driving distance, but then I don't mind driving

 

[blearbear4]

I grew up in Dallas, TX and most everyone I know of flies to Disney. It is a three hour flight from DFW. When I was younger, we would drive by motorhome, which would take 18 - 24 hours depending on if we drove through the night.

Not too familiar with NJ, so I am not 100% sure about culture differences. Be prepared for a lot of Texas state pride, friendliness, football, and food!

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

We have always flown to Disney. You can drive it, but I hate driving.

In Texas, we love our state. We mostly all see ourselves as citizens of Texas first. We pride ourselves on having the best BBQ, the only good Mexican food you can get in the United States, and amazing steaks. We start learning about state history in first grade and study it either every-other-year or every three years. We have a lot of state pride. We also pride ourselves on having manners and being friendly. Please don't be offended if someone calls you sir or ma'am - even if they are older than you. We teach it to our children as a sign of respect and we say it to everyone down here. We smile at people. We wave as we pass in our cars. We talk to people on the streets. Football is big down here, as well, so be prepared for that.


Fort Worth is a great area. Make sure to check out the stockyards and the zoo - probably the best in the state. And welcome to Texas.




Oh, and if you are looking for a laugh, this site has a list of rules for coming to Texas: http://www.kaitaia.com/jokes/Funny_Lists/Funny_Lists99.htm

 

[mom2grace]

My husband is Texan, we live in the midwest.

Texas will be significantly more conservative than NJ.......it's more conservative than the midwest........

 

[codimouse]

Texas is wonderful! You will love it. We always fly to Disney but it is driveable.

Sandi; sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[1Mouse2RulethemAll]

We live in Oklahoma but fly out of Dallas/Ft Worth to Disney. So far I have gotten flights for around $200/person. For a family of 4, it would cost that much to drive.


Posted from DISboards.com App for Android

 

[brookmey]

We moved from MI to TX 4 years ago. It was a pretty big culture shock for me. TX is very conservative and in my experience here, I have found very little religious tolerance and acceptance. Again, that's just my experience, so it may not reflect TX as a whole. But after living in very liberal Metro Detroit/Ann Arbor for over 10 years, I was not prepared for such conservative views.

Texans do love their state and have a lot of pride. It's hard for the people I've met who are born and bred Texans to believe that TX isn't the best place ever to live, that any state could even compare. Getting used to the weather was a challenge at first, but it's nice in the winter when everyone up north is freezing and we have 60 degrees down here.

We live in the Houston area and drive to Disney. The drive is shorter than the one we had in MI.

All in all, I don't mind living here, but it is very, very different from living up north. Although it has been entertaining to learn how TX sees the rest of the nation, particularly the "yankees" from up north where it's always cold and hardly ever warm. LOL

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Well as a former NJ girl, then NY girl who moved to Texas and now back again here is what I would say

Everyone is so much nicer and so polite. Doors are to be held open, ditto to the yes maam, no sir etc. Manners are important and so is respect.

You are moving to the bible belt area so be prepared for that. You will see lots of churches, get invited to lots of them etc.

Say goodbye to good pizza and bagels, sorry.

In the winter the roads are not plowed, or sanded like they do in the NJ metro area. Ice storms are not fun to deal with.

Speed limit is much higher in some places.

It gets really hot in summer. Hope there is a pool close to where you are moving. Unbearably hot compared to the NJ area. Talking like 100 degrees in the shade.

Be prepared for tornadoes. I didnt know what a tornado closet was. I sure learned fast!

You will experience some many great things. The state fair of texas. We also loved visiting the San Antonio area.

We loved living in Texas for 4 years. If my dh didnt lose his job there we would still be there but we are back up here again and we still have several good friends there.

Its a great place to live. So much less expensive then the NJ metro area.

Best of luck to you.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

We moved from MI to TX 4 years ago. It was a pretty big culture shock for me. TX is very conservative and in my experience here, I have found very little religious tolerance and acceptance. Again, that's just my experience, so it may not reflect TX as a whole. But after living in very liberal Metro Detroit/Ann Arbor for over 10 years, I was not prepared for such conservative views.

Texans do love their state and have a lot of pride. It's hard for the people I've met who are born and bred Texans to believe that TX isn't the best place ever to live, that any state could even compare. Getting used to the weather was a challenge at first, but it's nice in the winter when everyone up north is freezing and we have 60 degrees down here.

We live in the Houston area and drive to Disney. The drive is shorter than the one we had in MI.

All in all, I don't mind living here, but it is very, very different from living up north. Although it has been entertaining to learn how TX sees the rest of the nation, particularly the "yankees" from up north where it's always cold and hardly ever warm. LOL

I'm sorry that you haven't gotten to experience religious tolerance. We are in the Bible belt and we do love our Christianity down here, but that doesn't mean that we need to be intolerant of those who have different beliefs. We certainly would expect them to be tolerant of us.


Oh, and she's right about "Yankees". If you're from up north, that's what you will be known as. Used to annoy the heck out of my friends from Boston who insisted that they hated the Yankess and were Red Sox. They couldn't grasp that it had nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with location.

 

[alex9179]

I live in a small town south of Houston, for the last 6 yrs, and the only thing I would disagree with is courteous drivers. I can count on one hand how many times someone has returned my friendly wave to merge into traffic ahead of me. Others are loathe to make room for me to merge. And, I regularly see a car cross 4 lanes in 5 seconds in order to exit! If you aren't going at least 70 mph, you are a hazard.

I wasn't comfortable driving in Houston for a long time! Just be prepared to floor it in Dallas!

The biggest negative I have is the lack of really good pizza. I can work around the conservative leanings. Also, the people I've come to know are very kind and generous.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I live in a small town south of Houston, for the last 6 yrs, and the only thing I would disagree with is courteous drivers. I can count on one hand how many times someone has returned my friendly wave to merge into traffic ahead of me. Others are loathe to make room for me to merge. And, I regularly see a car cross 4 lanes in 5 seconds in order to exit! If you aren't going at least 70 mph, you are a hazard.

I wasn't comfortable driving in Houston for a long time! Just be prepared to floor it in Dallas!

The biggest negative I have is the lack of really good pizza. I can work around the conservative leanings. Also, the people I've come to know are very kind and generous.

Houston drivers are much worse than Dallas drivers. In Dallas, you put on your blinker, people let you in.. In Houston, they speed up to keep you from coming over for god knows what reason. Houston drivers are easily the worst in the state.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I really appreciate the pulling to the shoulder to allow faster cars to pass on 2-lane roads thing. Wish that were more common up here.

 

[AmazingGrace]

I'm from New Jersey and I immediately feel in love with Texas. It's warm, it's friendly, it's cheaper, the weather can get extremely hot, but the winter, depending on where you are in Texas, can be quite mild. The food is awesome. The speed limits are higher. As far as religious or political leanings go, more conservative, but I don't see much intolerance. Here in San Antonio, it's pretty diverse and anyone who wants to live here is welcome.

 

[penn19]

We moved from MI to TX 4 years ago. It was a pretty big culture shock for me. TX is very conservative and in my experience here, I have found very little religious tolerance and acceptance. Again, that's just my experience, so it may not reflect TX as a whole. But after living in very liberal Metro Detroit/Ann Arbor for over 10 years, I was not prepared for such conservative views.

Texans do love their state and have a lot of pride. It's hard for the people I've met who are born and bred Texans to believe that TX isn't the best place ever to live, that any state could even compare. Getting used to the weather was a challenge at first, but it's nice in the winter when everyone up north is freezing and we have 60 degrees down here.

We live in the Houston area and drive to Disney. The drive is shorter than the one we had in MI.

All in all, I don't mind living here, but it is very, very different from living up north. Although it has been entertaining to learn how TX sees the rest of the nation, particularly the "yankees" from up north where it's always cold and hardly ever warm. LOL

I agree with this! I grew up in the Northeast and it was a huge culture shock to me. Still is after 10 years. I live in the Dallas burbs. If you don't attend church, don't broadcast that to people. You will be judged.

Try to pick up the accent quick because you will be looked at funny. They can spot a Yankee from a mile away.

For the most part people ARE pretty nice. It isn't all bad, but if I had a chance I would be out of here in a heartbeat.
If you can blend in you will do fine.

 

[brerrabbit]

As a sixth generation Texan and a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas, Welcome!

It's hot, it's conservative, it's not really all that bad, I promise. We are raised to open doors for Ladies and the elderly, we say please, thank you, yes mame and no mame. We mean no disrespect by it, it's how we were raised. We are fiercely proud of our state but also welcome all who come to it. A bumper sticker seen often here is I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.

We also say Howdy a lot, usually an influence of one of our larger Universities, Texas A&M. A&M used to mean Agriculter and Mechanics but our State Legislators in their infinite wisdom officially change it to just plain A&M. Everyone there says Howdy. It is arguably the most conservative college in the nation. They have a pretty good football team there to. Sorry if you don't like football, but most here do. The State Championship games are played in Cowboy Stadium and draw around 50,000 plus fans. For $12 it's a great way to see Jerryworld on the cheap. Games are usually the week before Christmas.

We are much more welcoming than most think and while conservative we do have some more liberal areas, Austin being the most notible. There is a lot of History to be found here so enjoy it. Weekend trips to San Antonio, Austin, Houston from Fort Worth are a great way to do it.

Houston to Orlando is right around 16 hours by car with Pensicola being about the midway point and a lot of people usually fly (we do) but have driven it several times. From Houston where I live driving to California when I reach El Paso I am more than halfway there. It's a big state.

I am a Texan through and through and can't really fully explain the way I feel about it. I don't want to ever leave and own property that has been in my family since 1836. We have a family cemetary that dates to 1838 and my parents are buried there and it is where I will be buried.

So once again Welcome and I hope your time spent here is enjoyable and profitable.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

As a sixth generation Texan and a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas, Welcome!

It's hot, it's conservative, it's no really all that bad, I promise. We are raised to open doors for Ladies and the elderly, we say please, thank you, yes mame and no mame. We mean no disrespect by it, it's how we were raised. We are fiercely proud of our state but also welcome all who come to it. A bumper sticker seen often here is I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.

We also say Howdy a lot, usually an influence of one of our larger Universities, Texas A&M. A&M used to mean Agriculter and Mechanics but our State Legislators in their infinite wisdom officially change it to just plain A&M. Everyone there says Howdy. It is arguably the most conservative college in the nation. They have a pretty good football team there to. Sorry if you don't like football, but most here do. The State Championship games are played in Cowboy Stadium and draw around 50,000 plus fans. For $12 it's a great way to see Jerryworld on the cheap. Games are usually the week before Christmas.

We are much more welcoming than most think and while conservative we do have some more liberal areas, Austin being the most notible. There is a lot of History to be found here so enjoy it. Weekend trips to San Antonio, Austin, Houston from Fort Worth are a great way to do it.

Houston to Orlando is right around 16 hours by car with Pensicola being about the midway point and a lot of people usually fly (we do) but have driven it several times. From Houston where I live driving to California when I reach El Paso I am more than halfway there. It's a big state.

I am a Texan through and through and can't really fully explain the way I feel about it. I don't want to ever leave and own property that has been in my family since 1836. We have a family cemetary that dates to 1838 and my parents are buried there and it is where I will be buried.

So once again Welcome and I hope your time spent here is enjoyable and profitable.

Ahem, last I checked, we were only the third most conservative behind West Point and BYU.

 

[brerrabbit]

Well I did say arguably. Not sure if it's something they track or not. But since we are talking A&M I will also note that it has produced more Congressional Medal of Honor winners than all the service academy's combined.