How did we end up in the Texas hill country? Well in 2009, my entire department at work was moved from Ponca City, Ok to Houston, TX. U.W. and I really liked Ponca City. We lived there on two different occasions during my career and would have been happy staying, but it was not to be.
This transition found us buying a house in the Katy Area near Houston. It was not long before we decided the Houston area was not our long-term home. We made many good friends, but Houston was just not for us.
If not there, then where? We decided that following our kids would not work out well even though we would love to be closer to grandkids. One advantage to south Texas is the climate. While many would decry the hot summers, the remainder of the year is quite nice. However, I’m not a fan of the occasional hurricane with its floods and winds. A colleague of mine mentioned that he had decided to look for a place north of hurricanes and south of snow. This is a very intriguing pursuit but does limit the geography considerably. My other criterion was to stay in Texas. That was the dream, north of hurricanes, south of snow, in Texas. The reasons for this are many, but let’s just say that even though I spent many years in Oklahoma and have a great affinity for that State, I’m native Texan and that’s that.
South of snow would mean that while snow is possible on rare occasions, it is not the norm. When we were living in south Louisiana, folks there claimed anyone north of I-10 was a Yankee and therefore too far north. There is merit to that thinking, but we decided that one degree or so further north would likely be ok (I-10 through Louisiana is roughly 30o 14’ N). In my estimation this means staying south of Austin or roughly 30o 15’ N latitude. Some might argue that a body could go as far north as Waco or roughly 31o 32’ N latitude. But south of Austin is a more conservative choice, although putting the words “Austin” and “conservative” in the same sentence just seems wrong.
North of hurricanes is more nebulous.
Being that hurricanes are a coastal issue, north of hurricanes in Texas really means a little north and a lot west. You can go way west and stay way south and minimize your hurricane quotient. But U.W. and I wanted to stay in Texas rather than Mexico. Also having spent my younger years in west Texas and southeast New Mexico, I developed a slight aversion to thick stands of trees.
They make me claustrophobic. Therefore, staying west of trees is another good criterion. I like a few trees here and there, but in my mind the horizon should be below my normal line of sight rather than 30 feet or more above it.
The Texas hill country meets all these specifications quite well.
Growing up, I spent many family vacations in the Texas hill country. U.W. and I occasionally took our family there over the years. Several years ago, we determined to spend about one weekend a month visiting the hill country and other Texas locations to see what we liked. While living in OK, I bought an old Honda Goldwing touring motorcycle that had belonged to one of my uncles. I thoroughly enjoyed riding, but U.W. did not. In fact, she refused and though my son and daughter would ride with me, U.W. never did. Riding a motorcycle around Houston is just plain scary. I would occasionally tour the backroads south of Katy, but it just wasn’t as fun alone. U.W. does not mind at all riding in a car while I drive, so a sports car was the ticket. I sold the bike and bought an orange Corvette. Awesome! We would take either the Corvette or the pickup and boat to our hill country destinations. We scouted the country looking at land, houses, and anything else interesting. We really enjoyed these outings.
I like to fish. I like to catch fish even more, but I’m lousy at it. My dad had the fishing knack, but all I got was the other knack . Anyway, one of the things we would do on these weekends was fish. The odd thing was that every time I fished Canyon Lake, I caught at least 1 fish. Every time. No fooling. God was telling us something. One weekend we happened upon bunch of road signs advertising a new subdivision and decided to check it out. On July 19, 2019, we bought a lot in a subdivision on Canyon Lake at roughly 29o 52’ N latitude.
There is lake access in the subdivision, all the lots are 1.5 acres or more and it is less than 25 minutes to HEB (another Texas requirement). It meets the criteria – north (or west) of hurricanes, south of snow, has fish, and reasonable distance to HEB.
Look forward to following the progression of your build.
New to blogging.