There is no place else like Texas. You can feel it as soon as you cross the state line. The roads feel bigger. The sky seems bluer. You’ll see more pickup trucks, more big hats and more barbecue joints than you ever thought a single state could contain. The famed King Ranch alone is bigger than the entire state of Rhode Island. You can participate in a contest that challenges you to eat a 72-ounce steak (and a shrimp cocktail, salad and baked potato). But that’s Texas. It’s not one to be outdone in, well, anything.
That said, there’s absolutely one thing you will most certainly do a lot of in Texas: Driving. Texas is huge, and the open space gives cities room to breathe and grow, and makes for some great stretches of nature. The state itself covers 267,339 square miles, roughly 7.4 percent of the nation’s total area. But it also means often large distances between destinations. Texans understand this. There are more 70,000 miles of highway in the state, of which 40,985 are paved ranch and farm roads. There are more than a million road signs and markers. They drive an average of 15,221 miles annually and they do so in the 17 million vehicles that are registered within the state. There are plenty more cars to choose from, of course, as there are 13,077 dealerships with cars for sale, many of which contribute to the $52 billion in new car sales and help keep afloat the 394,938 auto industry jobs that are found there.
Just be sure that if you live in or are just vacationing on or visiting the island city of Glaveston, that you don’t drive a motor car down Broadway before noon. That’s against the law.
