Huckleberries Online

Toad: Texas Is Great — To Visit

Posted by DFO

July 20, 2009 8:17 a.m. • 5 comments

Coming back, we pulled a small UHaul trailer with pretty much the last of our stuff out of my parents attic in Boyd, TX. We drove through two blue states and three red states on the way (not counting Texas, which is so red they’ve almost outlawed MSNBC and CNN in favor of Fox news 24x7). New Mexico was friendly and unique, Colorado was congested and smoggy along the front range, Wyoming was big, wide, and completely empty, Montana was dry and empty at first, then more interesting as one got closer to Idaho. The Idaho panhandle was beautiful, but on the way back, thankfully small. Texas was, well, hot. It was over 100 degrees and over 40% humidity where we were EVERY single day we were there. We’re glad to be home where the nights are cool, and the summer days are temperate. This is home now, for us, I think.

Question (for all but Coeur d’Alene natives): How long did it take for you to feel that you belonged in the Inland Northwest?

Five comments on this post so far. Add yours!

raymond_pert on July 20 at 9:33 a.m.
When I moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1979, I really thought I wanted to be a convert to life in Cascadia. That all began to change in 1992 at my twenty year Kellogg High School class reunion, and my longing to return to the Inland Empire grows stronger all the time. I just returned to Eugene yesterday after a week long visit to Kellogg and Camp N-Sid-Sen on Cd’A Lake and I will feel lonely for the next few days, lonely for my family, lonely for the North Idaho land and waterscapes, and lonely for my good friends in Kellogg. Even after 30 years in Eugene, I can’t talk with and joke with and tell stories with anyone in Eugene like I can my good friends from Kellogg.
Cindy_H on July 20 at 10:43 a.m.
Welcome back, Toad:-)
Stickman on July 20 at 7:13 p.m.
Welcome back Toad. I have spent many a day in many parts of Texas, and never liked a single day. I was in El Paso for a year and a half before shipping out to Vietnam in 67’, hated everyday of that as well. I have been to Houston and lived in Dallas for 6 months, hated all of those experiences. So, to say the least, I am not fond of Texas. Again, welcome back to the great Northwest.
TexasAnn on July 21 at 2:34 p.m.
That’s okay. We don’t want y’all here anyway. We want to keep our unemployment at half the national average, our budget balanced and our taxes low. Last thing we need is a bunch of snobbish west coast yankees who think their you-know-what don’t stink.
Cabbage Boy on July 21 at 3:21 p.m.
That’s okay Ann. If we want to go to an hot, arid, dusty place where we aren’t welcome, we will just drive through the tri-cities. It is closer and we can get home sooner. btw, the piles of crap there do stink, but they probably aren’t as big as the ones in Texas.

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.