My first training camp & tour of Texas

[Wood]

For 3 weeks I was able to tour Texas and see my first Cowboys training camp. First section is my observations from camp & second is observations of Texas cities.

Training camp (last week at Star)

The good:
2) Malik Collins was ridiculous. His punch was heard thru whole stadium. OL were startled by his power punch. He has quickness to quickly accelerate once he gets OL off balance from punch.
3) Paea gave Zach Martin everything he could handle. Beat him cleanly on one drill.
4) Lets talk about Chaz Green. The first thing that jumps out is how well he is put together. In drills he looked powerful. I quickly came to realization that he is purely a tackle and seems to do better at LT. Problem is he has soft tissue of a kicker and can't stack games/practices together.
5) Dallas WR are really good. They catch everything. Its almost like each of them had career off-season. Twill looks lean, fast and catching passes with his hands. Dez is ripped. Butler is fast, long and catches everything. Even Noah Brown impressed me. Switzer doing work on side.
6) Dallas is stacked at TE. Witten had off day. Hanna catches everything even with defenders right on him.
7) Dak still having fun. I like how he runs things. Takes each snap serious and executes but knows when to have fun too. Zeke would alley opp ball above cross bar and Dak would dunk it.

Not so good:
1) Zeke was booed as he initially came onto field. Didn't see that coming.
2) Bell (OL) looked bad. Looks sloppy with poor body language. Really surprised Dallas can't upgrade from him.
3) Taco was standing directly in front of us. From behind he has tree trunk legs and is bow-legged. Based on body mechanics its unreasonable to expect elite pass rusher from him. Looks to be solid DE and I wouldn't even rule out move to DT based on build.


Texas observations: (visited: Houston, Austin, Frisco & Dallas)
This was my first time staying in Texas outside of going thru their airports.

First let me say that I never meet so many friendly people along the way. I wish I could bottle that and bring it back to North East.

Houston: My wife brother lives in Houston and has been trying to talk us into moving there for 2 years. We stayed with his family for a week to get good feel for place. I had open mind and really wanted to like the place because I really want warmer weather. It just didn't happen. Found it too congested, creepy random guys sitting in Wattaburger (which btw is waaay better than In-N-Out) with mirror sunglasses staring at us. This happened at two separate locations and we ended up leaving both times to finish meal at home with their kids. Highways. Holy S does Houston have these monster highways that go for as long as you can see. Those highways comes with strip malls and felt lack of creative by City planners/designers. Lets talk heat. I lived in florida for 4 years so had some background with heat...but this took it too next level. I would call this swamp heat. Mixture of humidity from Gulf combined with Texas heat. I honestly couldn't wait to get out of Houston. Thumbs down.

Austin: I waited longtime to travel to austin after reading how it was top place to live for what feels like the last 10 years. Only spent 1 night downtown. Initially hit a wall of traffic. Then I did some researching and it turns out Austin has possibly the worst traffic in US. There is reason for this. The roads were originally designed to keep the black and hispanic populations from reaching white side of town. They had plans to completely redesign the roads but construction never started. They are now left with archaic road system combined with popular place to live so traffic will be problem. Visited the State Capital building. Read the confederate statue there about how 500k confederates took on 2mill yankees and fought them to draw (not sure how much of that I believe). Again regardless of how bad traffic was or how hot it was customer service was always exceptional in Texas. Still thumbs down.

Frisco: High end developing town. Stayed here two nights for training camp. Not a ton to do here except watch cowboys practice and eat. Alot of construction. Thumbs up

Dallas: Dallas really saved my trip. We has blast here. Traffic was surprisingly light. Getting to Dealey Plaza was breeze. For 2 days we took free Trolley rides to uptown. They put on free music show at one of parks. People at restaurant, parks, trolley were super nice and wanted to have conversation. In Philly & NY they want you to look the other way and not bother them. I have been back home 2 days and still can't stop thinking about Dallas. I am definitely going back but next time I want to visit Forth Worth area. Guy at airport told us he lives there and loves it: good schools, homes are reasonably priced and safe.

So there you have it.

 

[Ranching]

For 3 weeks I was able to tour Texas and see my first Cowboys training camp. First section is my observations from camp & second is observations of Texas cities.

Training camp (last week at Star)

The good:
2) Malik Collins was ridiculous. His punch was heard thru whole stadium. OL were startled by his power punch. He has quickness to quickly accelerate once he gets OL off balance from punch.
3) Paea gave Zach Martin everything he could handle. Beat him cleanly on one drill.
4) Lets talk about Chaz Green. The first thing that jumps out is how well he is put together. In drills he looked powerful. I quickly came to realization that he is purely a tackle and seems to do better at LT. Problem is he has soft tissue of a kicker and can't stack games/practices together.
5) Dallas WR are really good. They catch everything. Its almost like each of them had career off-season. Twill looks lean, fast and catching passes with his hands. Dez is ripped. Butler is fast, long and catches everything. Even Noah Brown impressed me. Switzer doing work on side.
6) Dallas is stacked at TE. Witten had off day. Hanna catches everything even with defenders right on him.
7) Dak still having fun. I like how he runs things. Takes each snap serious and executes but knows when to have fun too. Zeke would alley opp ball above cross bar and Dak would dunk it.

Not so good:
1) Zeke was booed as he initially came onto field. Didn't see that coming.
2) Bell (OL) looked bad. Looks sloppy with poor body language. Really surprised Dallas can't upgrade from him.
3) Taco was standing directly in front of us. From behind he has tree trunk legs and is bow-legged. Based on body mechanics its unreasonable to expect elite pass rusher from him. Looks to be solid DE and I wouldn't even rule out move to DT based on build.


Texas observations: (visited: Houston, Austin, Frisco & Dallas)
This was my first time staying in Texas outside of going thru their airports.

First let me say that I never meet so many friendly people along the way. I wish I could bottle that and bring it back to North East.

Houston: My wife brother lives in Houston and has been trying to talk us into moving there for 2 years. We stayed with his family for a week to get good feel for place. I had open mind and really wanted to like the place because I really want warmer weather. It just didn't happen. Found it too congested, creepy random guys sitting in Wattaburger (which btw is waaay better than In-N-Out) with mirror sunglasses staring at us. This happened at two separate locations and we ended up leaving both times to finish meal at home with their kids. Highways. Holy S does Houston have these monster highways that go for as long as you can see. Those highways comes with strip malls and felt lack of creative by City planners/designers. Lets talk heat. I lived in florida for 4 years so had some background with heat...but this took it too next level. I would call this swamp heat. Mixture of humidity from Gulf combined with Texas heat. I honestly couldn't wait to get out of Houston. Thumbs down.

Austin: I waited longtime to travel to austin after reading how it was top place to live for what feels like the last 10 years. Only spent 1 night downtown. Initially hit a wall of traffic. Then I did some researching and it turns out Austin has possibly the worst traffic in US. There is reason for this. The roads were originally designed to keep the black and hispanic populations from reaching white side of town. They had plans to completely redesign the roads but construction never started. They are now left with archaic road system combined with popular place to live so traffic will be problem. Visited the State Capital building. Read the confederate statue there about how 500k confederates took on 2mill yankees and fought them to draw (not sure how much of that I believe). Again regardless of how bad traffic was or how hot it was customer service was always exceptional in Texas. Still thumbs down.

Frisco: High end developing town. Stayed here two nights for training camp. Not a ton to do here except watch cowboys practice and eat. Alot of construction. Thumbs up

Dallas: Dallas really saved my trip. We has blast here. Traffic was surprisingly light. Getting to Dealey Plaza was breeze. For 2 days we took free Trolley rides to uptown. They put on free music show at one of parks. People at restaurant, parks, trolley were super nice and wanted to have conversation. In Philly & NY they want you to look the other way and not bother them. I have been back home 2 days and still can't stop thinking about Dallas. I am definitely going back but next time I want to visit Forth Worth area. Guy at airport told us he lives there and loves it: good schools, homes are reasonably priced and safe.

So there you have it.

Nice write up, hope your family in Houston is doing well.

 

[Macnalty]

For 3 weeks I was able to tour Texas and see my first Cowboys training camp. First section is my observations from camp & second is observations of Texas cities.

Training camp (last week at Star)

The good:
2) Malik Collins was ridiculous. His punch was heard thru whole stadium. OL were startled by his power punch. He has quickness to quickly accelerate once he gets OL off balance from punch.
3) Paea gave Zach Martin everything he could handle. Beat him cleanly on one drill.
4) Lets talk about Chaz Green. The first thing that jumps out is how well he is put together. In drills he looked powerful. I quickly came to realization that he is purely a tackle and seems to do better at LT. Problem is he has soft tissue of a kicker and can't stack games/practices together.
5) Dallas WR are really good. They catch everything. Its almost like each of them had career off-season. Twill looks lean, fast and catching passes with his hands. Dez is ripped. Butler is fast, long and catches everything. Even Noah Brown impressed me. Switzer doing work on side.
6) Dallas is stacked at TE. Witten had off day. Hanna catches everything even with defenders right on him.
7) Dak still having fun. I like how he runs things. Takes each snap serious and executes but knows when to have fun too. Zeke would alley opp ball above cross bar and Dak would dunk it.

Not so good:
1) Zeke was booed as he initially came onto field. Didn't see that coming.
2) Bell (OL) looked bad. Looks sloppy with poor body language. Really surprised Dallas can't upgrade from him.
3) Taco was standing directly in front of us. From behind he has tree trunk legs and is bow-legged. Based on body mechanics its unreasonable to expect elite pass rusher from him. Looks to be solid DE and I wouldn't even rule out move to DT based on build.


Texas observations: (visited: Houston, Austin, Frisco & Dallas)
This was my first time staying in Texas outside of going thru their airports.

First let me say that I never meet so many friendly people along the way. I wish I could bottle that and bring it back to North East.

Houston: My wife brother lives in Houston and has been trying to talk us into moving there for 2 years. We stayed with his family for a week to get good feel for place. I had open mind and really wanted to like the place because I really want warmer weather. It just didn't happen. Found it too congested, creepy random guys sitting in Wattaburger (which btw is waaay better than In-N-Out) with mirror sunglasses staring at us. This happened at two separate locations and we ended up leaving both times to finish meal at home with their kids. Highways. Holy S does Houston have these monster highways that go for as long as you can see. Those highways comes with strip malls and felt lack of creative by City planners/designers. Lets talk heat. I lived in florida for 4 years so had some background with heat...but this took it too next level. I would call this swamp heat. Mixture of humidity from Gulf combined with Texas heat. I honestly couldn't wait to get out of Houston. Thumbs down.

Austin: I waited longtime to travel to austin after reading how it was top place to live for what feels like the last 10 years. Only spent 1 night downtown. Initially hit a wall of traffic. Then I did some researching and it turns out Austin has possibly the worst traffic in US. There is reason for this. The roads were originally designed to keep the black and hispanic populations from reaching white side of town. They had plans to completely redesign the roads but construction never started. They are now left with archaic road system combined with popular place to live so traffic will be problem. Visited the State Capital building. Read the confederate statue there about how 500k confederates took on 2mill yankees and fought them to draw (not sure how much of that I believe). Again regardless of how bad traffic was or how hot it was customer service was always exceptional in Texas. Still thumbs down.

Frisco: High end developing town. Stayed here two nights for training camp. Not a ton to do here except watch cowboys practice and eat. Alot of construction. Thumbs up

Dallas: Dallas really saved my trip. We has blast here. Traffic was surprisingly light. Getting to Dealey Plaza was breeze. For 2 days we took free Trolley rides to uptown. They put on free music show at one of parks. People at restaurant, parks, trolley were super nice and wanted to have conversation. In Philly & NY they want you to look the other way and not bother them. I have been back home 2 days and still can't stop thinking about Dallas. I am definitely going back but next time I want to visit Forth Worth area. Guy at airport told us he lives there and loves it: good schools, homes are reasonably priced and safe.

So there you have it.

I live in dallas and would agree with you on all points of your city visit, it is a climate beating in the summer for me when I head to Houston, crowded is the word I think of when pondering Austin , I do enjoy the nighttime activities and vibe of the city.
Taco seems to have found his legs so to speak, he certainly has missed the hammy issues most of the other rookies acquired during training camp.
What was your take on our best rookie Cooper Rush?

 

[Zordon]

Dallas got zoning right, Houston didn't.

A lot of people prefer Ft Worth to Austin now because of the traffic issues down there so you might enjoy that visit as well.

 

[Wood]

I live in dallas and would agree with you on all points of your city visit, it is a climate beating in the summer for me when I head to Houston, crowded is the word I think of when pondering Austin , I do enjoy the nighttime activities and vibe of the city.
Taco seems to have found his legs so to speak, he certainly has missed the hammy issues most of the other rookies acquired during training camp.
What was your take on our best rookie Cooper Rush?

on the day I went to practice all QBs played well. Rush has chicken legs so I was wondering how he would hold up in pocket if defenders are grabbing at him. One thing I really wanna focus on is his escapeability in next preseason game. I like his arm & head.

 

[MileyDancer]

For 3 weeks I was able to tour Texas and see my first Cowboys training camp. First section is my observations from camp & second is observations of Texas cities.

Training camp (last week at Star)

The good:
2) Malik Collins was ridiculous. His punch was heard thru whole stadium. OL were startled by his power punch. He has quickness to quickly accelerate once he gets OL off balance from punch.
3) Paea gave Zach Martin everything he could handle. Beat him cleanly on one drill.
4) Lets talk about Chaz Green. The first thing that jumps out is how well he is put together. In drills he looked powerful. I quickly came to realization that he is purely a tackle and seems to do better at LT. Problem is he has soft tissue of a kicker and can't stack games/practices together.
5) Dallas WR are really good. They catch everything. Its almost like each of them had career off-season. Twill looks lean, fast and catching passes with his hands. Dez is ripped. Butler is fast, long and catches everything. Even Noah Brown impressed me. Switzer doing work on side.
6) Dallas is stacked at TE. Witten had off day. Hanna catches everything even with defenders right on him.
7) Dak still having fun. I like how he runs things. Takes each snap serious and executes but knows when to have fun too. Zeke would alley opp ball above cross bar and Dak would dunk it.

Not so good:
1) Zeke was booed as he initially came onto field. Didn't see that coming.
2) Bell (OL) looked bad. Looks sloppy with poor body language. Really surprised Dallas can't upgrade from him.
3) Taco was standing directly in front of us. From behind he has tree trunk legs and is bow-legged. Based on body mechanics its unreasonable to expect elite pass rusher from him. Looks to be solid DE and I wouldn't even rule out move to DT based on build.


Texas observations: (visited: Houston, Austin, Frisco & Dallas)
This was my first time staying in Texas outside of going thru their airports.

First let me say that I never meet so many friendly people along the way. I wish I could bottle that and bring it back to North East.

Houston: My wife brother lives in Houston and has been trying to talk us into moving there for 2 years. We stayed with his family for a week to get good feel for place. I had open mind and really wanted to like the place because I really want warmer weather. It just didn't happen. Found it too congested, creepy random guys sitting in Wattaburger (which btw is waaay better than In-N-Out) with mirror sunglasses staring at us. This happened at two separate locations and we ended up leaving both times to finish meal at home with their kids. Highways. Holy S does Houston have these monster highways that go for as long as you can see. Those highways comes with strip malls and felt lack of creative by City planners/designers. Lets talk heat. I lived in florida for 4 years so had some background with heat...but this took it too next level. I would call this swamp heat. Mixture of humidity from Gulf combined with Texas heat. I honestly couldn't wait to get out of Houston. Thumbs down.

Austin: I waited longtime to travel to austin after reading how it was top place to live for what feels like the last 10 years. Only spent 1 night downtown. Initially hit a wall of traffic. Then I did some researching and it turns out Austin has possibly the worst traffic in US. There is reason for this. The roads were originally designed to keep the black and hispanic populations from reaching white side of town. They had plans to completely redesign the roads but construction never started. They are now left with archaic road system combined with popular place to live so traffic will be problem. Visited the State Capital building. Read the confederate statue there about how 500k confederates took on 2mill yankees and fought them to draw (not sure how much of that I believe). Again regardless of how bad traffic was or how hot it was customer service was always exceptional in Texas. Still thumbs down.

Frisco: High end developing town. Stayed here two nights for training camp. Not a ton to do here except watch cowboys practice and eat. Alot of construction. Thumbs up

Dallas: Dallas really saved my trip. We has blast here. Traffic was surprisingly light. Getting to Dealey Plaza was breeze. For 2 days we took free Trolley rides to uptown. They put on free music show at one of parks. People at restaurant, parks, trolley were super nice and wanted to have conversation. In Philly & NY they want you to look the other way and not bother them. I have been back home 2 days and still can't stop thinking about Dallas. I am definitely going back but next time I want to visit Forth Worth area. Guy at airport told us he lives there and loves it: good schools, homes are reasonably priced and safe.

So there you have it.

LOL. Even tourists think Houston sucks.

 

[Macnalty]

on the day I went to practice all QBs played well. Rush has chicken legs so I was wondering how he would hold up in pocket if defenders are grabbing at him. One thing I really wanna focus on is his escapeability in next preseason game. I like his arm & head.

I would assume looking and comparing Dak to Rush that physicality would be the first point of contrast. I hope he is half as good as most in the zone think he is at this point in time.

Just adding my two cents for nice places in TX, I was surprised how much I enjoyed El Paso, it actually has terrain and cooler nights during the summer than Dallas. People were extremely friendly which I think is just a hallmark of being in the southern US and in Tx.

 

[eyedoc]

For 3 weeks I was able to tour Texas and see my first Cowboys training camp. First section is my observations from camp & second is observations of Texas cities.

Training camp (last week at Star)

The good:
2) Malik Collins was ridiculous. His punch was heard thru whole stadium. OL were startled by his power punch. He has quickness to quickly accelerate once he gets OL off balance from punch.
3) Paea gave Zach Martin everything he could handle. Beat him cleanly on one drill.
4) Lets talk about Chaz Green. The first thing that jumps out is how well he is put together. In drills he looked powerful. I quickly came to realization that he is purely a tackle and seems to do better at LT. Problem is he has soft tissue of a kicker and can't stack games/practices together.
5) Dallas WR are really good. They catch everything. Its almost like each of them had career off-season. Twill looks lean, fast and catching passes with his hands. Dez is ripped. Butler is fast, long and catches everything. Even Noah Brown impressed me. Switzer doing work on side.
6) Dallas is stacked at TE. Witten had off day. Hanna catches everything even with defenders right on him.
7) Dak still having fun. I like how he runs things. Takes each snap serious and executes but knows when to have fun too. Zeke would alley opp ball above cross bar and Dak would dunk it.

Not so good:
1) Zeke was booed as he initially came onto field. Didn't see that coming.
2) Bell (OL) looked bad. Looks sloppy with poor body language. Really surprised Dallas can't upgrade from him.
3) Taco was standing directly in front of us. From behind he has tree trunk legs and is bow-legged. Based on body mechanics its unreasonable to expect elite pass rusher from him. Looks to be solid DE and I wouldn't even rule out move to DT based on build.


Texas observations: (visited: Houston, Austin, Frisco & Dallas)
This was my first time staying in Texas outside of going thru their airports.

First let me say that I never meet so many friendly people along the way. I wish I could bottle that and bring it back to North East.

Houston: My wife brother lives in Houston and has been trying to talk us into moving there for 2 years. We stayed with his family for a week to get good feel for place. I had open mind and really wanted to like the place because I really want warmer weather. It just didn't happen. Found it too congested, creepy random guys sitting in Wattaburger (which btw is waaay better than In-N-Out) with mirror sunglasses staring at us. This happened at two separate locations and we ended up leaving both times to finish meal at home with their kids. Highways. Holy S does Houston have these monster highways that go for as long as you can see. Those highways comes with strip malls and felt lack of creative by City planners/designers. Lets talk heat. I lived in florida for 4 years so had some background with heat...but this took it too next level. I would call this swamp heat. Mixture of humidity from Gulf combined with Texas heat. I honestly couldn't wait to get out of Houston. Thumbs down.

Austin: I waited longtime to travel to austin after reading how it was top place to live for what feels like the last 10 years. Only spent 1 night downtown. Initially hit a wall of traffic. Then I did some researching and it turns out Austin has possibly the worst traffic in US. There is reason for this. The roads were originally designed to keep the black and hispanic populations from reaching white side of town. They had plans to completely redesign the roads but construction never started. They are now left with archaic road system combined with popular place to live so traffic will be problem. Visited the State Capital building. Read the confederate statue there about how 500k confederates took on 2mill yankees and fought them to draw (not sure how much of that I believe). Again regardless of how bad traffic was or how hot it was customer service was always exceptional in Texas. Still thumbs down.

Frisco: High end developing town. Stayed here two nights for training camp. Not a ton to do here except watch cowboys practice and eat. Alot of construction. Thumbs up

Dallas: Dallas really saved my trip. We has blast here. Traffic was surprisingly light. Getting to Dealey Plaza was breeze. For 2 days we took free Trolley rides to uptown. They put on free music show at one of parks. People at restaurant, parks, trolley were super nice and wanted to have conversation. In Philly & NY they want you to look the other way and not bother them. I have been back home 2 days and still can't stop thinking about Dallas. I am definitely going back but next time I want to visit Forth Worth area. Guy at airport told us he lives there and loves it: good schools, homes are reasonably priced and safe.

So there you have it.

I am envious of you being able to see our boys in action. Thank you for sharing your impressions with us. Go Cowboys

 

[Wood]

I would assume looking and comparing Dak to Rush that physicality would be the first point of contrast. I hope he is half as good as most in the zone think he is at this point in time.

Just adding my two cents for nice places in TX, I was surprised how much I enjoyed El Paso, it actually has terrain and cooler nights during the summer than Dallas. People were extremely friendly which I think is just a hallmark of being in the southern US and in Tx.

one thing I can't get my hands around is how friendly Texas is but also why is crime rate higher than average. One person in Dallas got into convo with us (a female) about it and mentioned crime against females was particularly higher. It really didn't make sense from what I saw but my exposure was limited to downtown/uptown area and I didn't see outskirts of city.

 

[Macnalty]

one thing I can't get my hands around is how friendly Texas is but also why is crime rate higher than average. One person in Dallas got into convo with us (a female) about it and mentioned crime against females was particularly higher. It really didn't make sense from what I saw but my exposure was limited to downtown/uptown area and I didn't see outskirts of city.

Cannot touch that subject on the zone to polarizing.

 

[TheHerd]

First let me say that I never meet so many friendly people along the way. I wish I could bottle that and bring it back to North East.

I brought my boys to a game and a four day vacation (we're from New England, about an hour north of Boston) and they loved a lot about Dallas but this was their biggest takeaway. Three years later they still can't stop taking about how friendly you Texans are.

 

[xwalker]

For 3 weeks I was able to tour Texas and see my first Cowboys training camp. First section is my observations from camp & second is observations of Texas cities.

Training camp (last week at Star)

The good:
2) Malik Collins was ridiculous. His punch was heard thru whole stadium. OL were startled by his power punch. He has quickness to quickly accelerate once he gets OL off balance from punch.
3) Paea gave Zach Martin everything he could handle. Beat him cleanly on one drill.
4) Lets talk about Chaz Green. The first thing that jumps out is how well he is put together. In drills he looked powerful. I quickly came to realization that he is purely a tackle and seems to do better at LT. Problem is he has soft tissue of a kicker and can't stack games/practices together.
5) Dallas WR are really good. They catch everything. Its almost like each of them had career off-season. Twill looks lean, fast and catching passes with his hands. Dez is ripped. Butler is fast, long and catches everything. Even Noah Brown impressed me. Switzer doing work on side.
6) Dallas is stacked at TE. Witten had off day. Hanna catches everything even with defenders right on him.
7) Dak still having fun. I like how he runs things. Takes each snap serious and executes but knows when to have fun too. Zeke would alley opp ball above cross bar and Dak would dunk it.

Not so good:
1) Zeke was booed as he initially came onto field. Didn't see that coming.
2) Bell (OL) looked bad. Looks sloppy with poor body language. Really surprised Dallas can't upgrade from him.
3) Taco was standing directly in front of us. From behind he has tree trunk legs and is bow-legged. Based on body mechanics its unreasonable to expect elite pass rusher from him. Looks to be solid DE and I wouldn't even rule out move to DT based on build.


Texas observations: (visited: Houston, Austin, Frisco & Dallas)
This was my first time staying in Texas outside of going thru their airports.

First let me say that I never meet so many friendly people along the way. I wish I could bottle that and bring it back to North East.

Houston: My wife brother lives in Houston and has been trying to talk us into moving there for 2 years. We stayed with his family for a week to get good feel for place. I had open mind and really wanted to like the place because I really want warmer weather. It just didn't happen. Found it too congested, creepy random guys sitting in Wattaburger (which btw is waaay better than In-N-Out) with mirror sunglasses staring at us. This happened at two separate locations and we ended up leaving both times to finish meal at home with their kids. Highways. Holy S does Houston have these monster highways that go for as long as you can see. Those highways comes with strip malls and felt lack of creative by City planners/designers. Lets talk heat. I lived in florida for 4 years so had some background with heat...but this took it too next level. I would call this swamp heat. Mixture of humidity from Gulf combined with Texas heat. I honestly couldn't wait to get out of Houston. Thumbs down.

Austin: I waited longtime to travel to austin after reading how it was top place to live for what feels like the last 10 years. Only spent 1 night downtown. Initially hit a wall of traffic. Then I did some researching and it turns out Austin has possibly the worst traffic in US. There is reason for this. The roads were originally designed to keep the black and hispanic populations from reaching white side of town. They had plans to completely redesign the roads but construction never started. They are now left with archaic road system combined with popular place to live so traffic will be problem. Visited the State Capital building. Read the confederate statue there about how 500k confederates took on 2mill yankees and fought them to draw (not sure how much of that I believe). Again regardless of how bad traffic was or how hot it was customer service was always exceptional in Texas. Still thumbs down.

Frisco: High end developing town. Stayed here two nights for training camp. Not a ton to do here except watch cowboys practice and eat. Alot of construction. Thumbs up

Dallas: Dallas really saved my trip. We has blast here. Traffic was surprisingly light. Getting to Dealey Plaza was breeze. For 2 days we took free Trolley rides to uptown. They put on free music show at one of parks. People at restaurant, parks, trolley were super nice and wanted to have conversation. In Philly & NY they want you to look the other way and not bother them. I have been back home 2 days and still can't stop thinking about Dallas. I am definitely going back but next time I want to visit Forth Worth area. Guy at airport told us he lives there and loves it: good schools, homes are reasonably priced and safe.

So there you have it.

Your first impressions could be very dependent on the very specific times and spots that you visited.

I travel to all of hose locations often and the traffic is bad everywhere, especially when you don't know the best routes to take to avoid traffic.

Fort Worth traffic is a little better than the others but people drive slower there.

Nobody really like Houston other than it's close to the coast but even that's not a big attraction.

Dallas has all major sports but is a bit boring otherwise. The land is flat and not that scenic.

Frisco is suburbia to the max. You can get a lot of square footage for your money but property taxes are very high (about 1/3 of your mortgage payment).

Austin has a cool vibe and is much more scenic than the others. The roads are a little odd around downtown but similar to the other cities in the areas where most people live.

I live in the Dallas suburbs not far from Frisco but I would probably choose Austin if I had a choice. Go to the lakes there and you'll see a big difference in the scenic aspect compared to lakes near the other big cities.

 

[xwalker]

one thing I can't get my hands around is how friendly Texas is but also why is crime rate higher than average. One person in Dallas got into convo with us (a female) about it and mentioned crime against females was particularly higher. It really didn't make sense from what I saw but my exposure was limited to downtown/uptown area and I didn't see outskirts of city.

The actual city of Dallas is much different than the area referred to as Dallas that comprises all the suburbs. The majority of white collar people live in the suburbs, not in the city of Dallas.

 

[Shuff]

I was born and raised in Dallas. Love the Cowboys and Rangers, but I left because of the weather and lack of land and a great job opportunity in the West. Really, really sorry for all the people from Houston and surrounding cities, but I think HELL would be better place to live than Houston and even worse, Corpus Christi. Austin is cool now, but as mentioned if it keeps growing it will be a nightmare in several years. Love the Texas people and my family still lives there, but the state is just not for me.

 

[Titleist]

Your first impressions could be very dependent on the very specific times and spots that you visited.

I travel to all of hose locations often and the traffic is bad everywhere, especially when you don't know the best routes to take to avoid traffic.

Fort Worth traffic is a little better than the others but people drive slower there.

Nobody really like Houston other than it's close to the coast but even that's not a big attraction.

Dallas has all major sports but is a bit boring otherwise. The land is flat and not that scenic.

Frisco is suburbia to the max. You can get a lot of square footage for your money but property taxes are very high (about 1/3 of your mortgage payment).

Austin has a cool vibe and is much more scenic than the others. The roads are a little odd around downtown but similar to the other cities in the areas where most people live.

I live in the Dallas suburbs not far from Frisco but I would probably choose Austin if I had a choice. Go to the lakes there and you'll see a big difference in the scenic aspect compared to lakes near the other big cities.

As a native Texan who has been to all these cities several times but is not from any of them (Corpus Christi), this is a pretty accurate assessment. I think my favorite part of TX is once you start going west of SA or Austin - rolling hills, pretty nice state parks, good wine if you're into that...

Unfortunately now I live in Philly and as you can imagine it's pretty miserable. If I didn't have such a solid job, I would GTHO dodge

 

[xwalker]

As a native Texan who has been to all these cities several times but is not from any of them (Corpus Christi), this is a pretty accurate assessment. I think my favorite part of TX is once you start going west of SA or Austin - rolling hills, pretty nice state parks, good wine if you're into that...

Unfortunately now I live in Philly and as you can imagine it's pretty miserable. If I didn't have such a solid job, I would GTHO dodge

Sorry to hear you're in Philly.

There tend to be a lot of companies relocate to Texas now so there are a lot of job options...