OT texas help

Well, from what I have heard, everything is bigger there...

LOL!

Not as classy as being a 'Dental Floss Tycoon', but that is only my Canadian opinion... ;-)

I am an east coast Canada boy and met my wife, a Newfie, out in the Canadian Rockies....

We are now in Toronto, because my wife's family are all here and it was time to settle down for our son's sake with school. It was a 'good' move, despite both of us hating big cities...

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

"Nathan W. Collier" wrote:

Nathan W. Collier did pass the time by typing:

Never been to ElPaso, but I've stopped several times in Amarillo. (it's on the drive to Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs)

They have a big prison facility on the NE side and a fairly large downtown area.

Your about 300 miles from Colorado Springs up through Dumas and Dalheart. And 260 or so to Albaturkey.. er.. Albaquirkey.. ah.. you know.

North of town is Lake Meredith National Recreation Area a tiny lake (about a mile wide and 20 miles long).

Either way your going to have to drive to scenery, It's kinda flat.

El Paso is ON the border with Mexico, due south of Albuquerque. And on the edge of the aptly named Ft. Bliss Army Base. ^:o)

That's about it for my knowlege... You prolly could get a job with the Border Patrol. Drive a Jeep all day long.

any wheeling to be found? any greenery (trees, grass)? does it snow in the winter? is it racially balanced or is it overwhelming in any direction (balance is fine, i just dont want to be a minority anymore)? is oil an active industry (good welding money in oil fields)? are large tracts of rural land available or have ranchers got it all? is it a "good" place to raise a family?

do you know anything like the questions listed above about it by chance?

thanks doug!

that could be good _or_ bad. :-)

Approximately 9/24/03 16:36, DougW uttered for posterity:

El Paso is about as flat as a folded tent. High mountain desert type terrain with really fierce looking mountains, medium height lava flows, sand dunes, white sand dunes. There is a coupla thousand feet elevation difference just between the south [Rio Grande] and north side of town which is built on the side of a set of mountain ridges with a really nice car ride to the top peak.

Is a long way from Albukewkew. Is much nearer Carlsbad Caverns. And Alamogogo. And Los Alamos [which can be a blast...]. And Las Cruces. And Organ [home of Pat Garett]. And Ruidoso.

I'd see if White Sands, Biggs AFB, Holloman AFB, or NASA Journada needs welders.

If Nathan comes up with good roll bars, would think that alone could fund him. Seems the locals have a form of recreation called sand dune jumping. There are about as many old BLM trails as there are military ones.

Approximately 9/24/03 16:51, Nathan W. Collier uttered for posterity:

Wheeling all over the place.

There is a tiny bit of greenery, but it is rare enough it is a felony to touch it. >:-)

It has been known to "snow" in the winter but it never lasts more than a day or causes much more than one PITA rush hour. El Paso is at high altitude, but is well south.

El Paso is an old spanish town and still has many of the very old wealth type spanish folks. Also has a mix of not so wealthy spanish folks. Bilingual helps. I'd guess when I was there [60's] that El Paso was just over half hispanic, which is much less than Las Cruces. So you'd be in the minority, but a very highly educated minority which is probably much different than Fayettenam.

There are tracts of land available, but El Paso is a big town to get in and out of. Also there isn't a heck of a lot of water on any rural tract.

I don't recall any oil in the area, but there was natural gas, plus a lot of military stuff.

Nathan W. Collier did pass the time by typing:

What Lon said.

Not rilly. I just pass through Amarillo on the way someplace else. As you go further west it gets more hilly, but your all the way to Colorado or NewMexico before you find any real steep stuff.

DougW did pass the time by typing:

Oh yea.. North of Amarillo are the Helium wells and processing plant. There is also a HUGE meat packing plant there and power plant. Guessing by the lack of stacks it's probably gas fired. Lots of farming too.

Texas is a hell hole. I have been over the whole state, and have yet to find a part of it that I enjoyed or even wanted to return to. By far the worst thing about Texas, is the fact that it is filled with Texans. On my many cross-country journeys, the part that I least looked forward to was crossing Texas. Once you have seen the Alamo and Cadillac ranch, you are done. Go to Montana.

Jerry

does that include the off road trails?

El Paso is a thriving border town, and like all larger cities has it's share of problems. These are exacerbated by the border situation. All that aside, it's a wonderful multi-cultural city with lots to do. Relatively inexpensive compared to the rest of the USA, hot in the summer but mild winters. For a Jeeper, many places to explore and not too far from Big Bend National Park, Las Cruces Jeep events, etc.

Amarillo, well, flat, windy, cold, hot, tornadoes, big snows....and that's on a good day! Relatively cheap to live there and you can watch everything going on in LA and New York at the same time...it's REALLY flat! Not sure what Jeeping opportunities are around there but it's big country so there's bound to be something.

I'm not much of an El Paso fan - border town (or better , city - it's a big place) and too much of a desert for me (and I grew up in West Texas). Can't say about work for you but there are enough military installations there to make it pretty likely. If you add Holloman AFB and White Sands up to the north a bit then consider that it's a fairly sizable transportation hub (rail and truck) I'd guess it was pretty good but pay will likely be a bit low because of the proximity to Mexico. Lots of wheeling in the Davis mountains to the east a few miles but you have to watch out for the illegal immigrants (not real bad), drug runners (bad news) and jumpy Border Patrol (more bad news, but who can blame them?).

Amarillo is a funny town - no obvious reason it should exist but it seems to just plug along. Transportation center (rail and truck), big prison facility NE of town. Ranching and cattle are big business and

- why I'll never know - they seem to do a big convention business. There is at least one really active jeep club there with arrangements to use some areas maybe 30 miles south in the Palo Duro Canyon. It's a huge hole in the ground in the middle of the flatland - no Grand Canyon but it has some real challenges. 25-30 miles North is the Canadian river and Lake Merideth. Every time I go thru there I just itch to jump off the highway and play in those hills along the river. That is, I do unless it's been raining then that red clay is like grease to drive on, like tar to get off. When I lived there the city was split down the middle by the county line. One side wet, the other dry and it was likr two different towns. Interesting place .

As others have said, visit first. Folks are friendly and open - you'll get along fine if you keep your mouth shut until they ask you something so you don't come off as a know-it-all and start off wrong. Your wife may not be too fond of El Paso nursing - lots and lots of immigrants come in for the medical care and Juarez is not a rich city by any means. Too many people, too many of them poor. I expect medical workers work pretty darned hard for their bucks there.

Texas gun laws take getting used to. They are a LOT better than they were for a long time but still a bit idocynranic (or should I say idiotic??). Not state income tax, BTW.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the intense, brain-baking, will-to-live stealing heat. td (you guys in arizona... pipe down)

blah blah blah everything else......_now_ youre talking my language. tell me more! :-)

many tornadoes in el paso?

thanks,

Ever hear of Big Bend National Park? Check it out... EP is close to the Gila, ever hear of that? Terlingua, Lajitas, Davis Mountains... __ Steve from west Texas .

hows the riding? one of the things i fell for in montana was the riding. i have no doubt you could hop on an atv and ride for days. is there riding like that in el paso?

lol.....awesome description will!

please explain?

thanks,

the only benefit i can think of there (and its a BIG PLUS) would be pretty much year round topless jeep/harley/atv riding.

I've never lived in El Paso, but have driven through it a couple of times. One of the dirties towns (outward appearance, of course) that I've ever seen. Not to mention being that close to the border. Get ready to pay some outrageous insurance on those Jeeps!!!