I moved to this crazy place and love it.....

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worldbound4now

Well-known member
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Location
Grapevine, TX
July 3rd I said goodbye to my wife, daughters, and mother-in-law as they took off ahead of me in the AM headed for our new home.... Grapevine TX. At 4pmPST I left my home, empty and silent, locking the door with all keys and door openers at the property manager, and headed off for TX. I arrived in Grapevine at 6:00PM CST and had enough time to unpack basics and watch fireworks over Lake Grapevine. My two year old expected it again the next several nights at "our new house".

The trip over was rather uneventful, with a short stop in Albuquerque, NM for a few hours rest. No pictures... sorry.... I was too busy riding.

We're settled into our home and I started my new job yesterday which involved 6 hours of tests, today were more tests and skills demonstrations (I'm a ED/Trauma Nurse) along with some lecture time, and tomorrow is more time sitting on my ass while someone talks to me trying to teach me all about what I've been doing for the past decade.

While spacing off during the day I began to think a scary thought.....

I live in an area where I can load up the jog stroller with the kids or head out solo and in about two minutes I'm on a quiet, paved, winding lakeside road/trail where I can find a place of serenity. A five minute walk (with a 2 year old) the other direction and we're at a decent park with a pool, large kids play area, and other recreation available. The location is quiet. The neighbors are nice so far, and the heat really is tolerable. I kinda like it here. It's no wonder 9 million people live in the north texas metroplex.

My commute involves a drone down 114 to the center of Dallas to BUMC that keeps me on my toes but the people here drive in quite an oddly polite manner. So polite that it's scary. I'm used to over-aggressive coffee drinking cell phone talking soccer moms who are reaching back to grab their unrestrained litter of children in the back of their f'n gas guzzling greenhouse gas pumping SUV.

Now, the SUVs and large trucks exist here, but people seem to acknowledge others on the road. Most people seem to just mosey along at a steady pace similar to their neighbors. Frustrating if you're in a hurry, but not many people seem to be in a hurry. I have yet to hit my first full-on dead stop traffic jam yet though. I'm sure attitudes will change at that time.

The temp, up in the low 100's, is surprisingly more tolerable here than it was in Las Vegas. The air is so dry in souhern NV that you get no sweat on your body at freeway speeds..... I felt like a baked potato flying down the freeway in NV just waiting to get home. The sweat here starts to evaporate and actually works to cool as designed. Granted, I'm soaked when I arrive home at 4:30 or 5pm but don't feel as hot as I did in the NV sun.

All in all I'm glad to be here and hope my good start-off to our new home continues as it is now.

Just had to let someone know :)

 
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Congrats on the big move! Sounds like a better family situation than Vegas. Thanks for the update.

Sure wish we could replace all the Californians with Texans! That would be cool.

(BTW, I'm a displaced native Floridian.)

 
Congrats on the big move! Sounds like a better family situation than Vegas. Thanks for the update.Sure wish we could replace all the Californians with Texans! That would be cool.

(BTW, I'm a displaced native Floridian.)
Any volunteers to leave...?

I agree. Texan's are awesome folks. :yahoo: I've spent some time in San Antonio/Dallas and they treated me great! Texas friendly! :D

 
When Texas is good it is very very good. When it's bad it's still pretty damn good.

 
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As a fellow resident of the Metromess, welcome to North Texas! I live right down the road from you in Bedford. Looks like we're organizing a get together the first Sunday in August right in Grapevine. Maybe you can make it out?

If there's anything I can do to help out or provide local information don't hesitate.

-Marcos

 
Whoa.........take it easy, tejas.....we don't want to be too nice right off the bat.......

we gotta show some muscle first......then get on with it...........

 
Whoa.........take it easy, tejas.....we don't want to be too nice right off the bat.......



we gotta show some muscle first......then get on with it...........
At least they didn't move to Arkancist....we break them in real slow here..... :D :D

Congrats on the move to Texas. That means you have to come to Eureka Springs, AR for SFO.

Welcome to the South!!!!!!

 
Hey worldbound,

Good write up.

Just one question. Do they have mountains and roads that equal the route we took you on?

Enjoy the good life out there. Congrats.

 
Moutains...mountains...I've heard about those before but I thought they were like Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. ;)

Nope, no maintain roads here. It takes about 250 miles to get to anywhere with nice curvy up and down roads.

Worldbound, my wife is doing a lot of work out at Baylor University Medical Center - she's part of a project to convert doctors to EHR (electronic health records). It's not the greatest drive down there...but it's not too bad. If there's anything you need don't hesitate to PM me.

 
So the adventures continue......

I figured I had better make it legal and headed out to the local state inspection site prior to registering my car and FJR. On the FJR I was quite surprised that they actually inspect the machine. In NV motorcycles are exempt. Then the inspector pulls out this sticker without talking to me and bends over to place it on the bike. "Whoa..... what are you doing" I expressed. He proceeded to inform me that the inspection sticker needs to be placed by the inspector blah blah blah... then informs me that I should purchase a license plate sticker mounting plate. Off to the closest motorcycle shop and for $6 I now have a way to remove the sticker when I leave TX without any evidence that it was ever there. Small surprise but no biggie.....

Then the adventure continues... off to DPS in Hurst to get my license.... the line is out the door. Hell no. So I loaded up the wife and kids into the car and we headed out to the most unpopulated, reasonable drive DPS that I can find to reduce the total time. Lake Worth here we come.....

I was so pleased....

No line.

No odd questions...

I was prepared with all documentation...

they took my NV license... ok fine...

Now it gets a little weird for me. The kind gentleman behind the desk proceeds to hand me a paper card with a stamp on it and informs me that my ID will arrive in the mail in 6 weeks. What????? You take my picture ID and make me wait more than a month for a new one? Hrmmmm.... Uneasy, I left. looks like no trips via air for a while. No trips out of state for a while to avert any LEO encounters who aren't used to this temp license. No use of the credit card for a while because I have no ID to support it. What kind of crap is that.

Oh well. Off to work I go, come home, eat, play with kids, go to bed, repeat. Oh, and learn how to drop the "g" off of any word that ends in "g" so I don't sound so out of place.

Tejas and Fuzzy, thanks for the offer for support.

Raclow, SFO is on the radar, but my priority is my graduate studies... the entire reason we moved out of the country to the independent nation of TX.

Now where is there a reputable Yamaha repair center within a hour drive for the maintenance I can't do at home....???

 
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I'd suggest Stadium Yamaha on Airport Freeway in Irving. They're on your right on the service road as you're headed towards Dallas on 183/Airport Freeway. I think it's the O'Connor exit?

 
Moutains...mountains...I've heard about those before but I thought they were like Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. ;)
Nope, no maintain roads here. It takes about 250 miles to get to anywhere with nice curvy up and down roads.

Worldbound, my wife is doing a lot of work out at Baylor University Medical Center - she's part of a project to convert doctors to EHR (electronic health records). It's not the greatest drive down there...but it's not too bad. If there's anything you need don't hesitate to PM me.
Well... we may not have mountains, but if you head down south of Granbury towards Cranfill's Gap and places beyond you do get some nice elevation and twists and turns which make for some great riding.

Otherwise you're headed down south of Kerrville or out west to Big Bend.

Hmmm... maybe we need to start planning an in-state weekend trip?

 
Welcome to Texas.

The paper ID won't turn out to be as big a deal as you think. Everybody around here is used to it and so far, there are only a handful of places I visit that acutally ask to see my ID anyway.

Hope to see you on the road. Oh yeah, as for the friendly drivers, their true colors will come out soon enough. They do pretty well for a while, then you will experience a day every once in a while that it would appear all of the crazies have come out and are on the road at once. Those are fun days.

Bryan

 
Welcome to Texas.

We have relatives in Garland that do not ride (unfortunately for you and me).

My experience on the freeways in Dallas is different. When I have been on the way through to Garland from Houston, the drivers well exceed the speed limit and you have to be very careful of that.

They do quick lane changes and come very close into your lane. It may be the time of night though. We usually get there after 8 pm or later.

If you have never been to the Hill Country, it is worth the ride. Eureka Springs is even better.

 
Miss you already man! :bye2:

Seriously though, I'm very happy for you and your family. It was a wise decision. Sounds like a dream place for raising kids.

As for riding... How far did we ride to find some decent twistys here? No biggee. Throw a leg over the ballistic missile that most mistakenly refer to as the FJR and ride off in the direction of the great roads.

Congrats on the move and new job.

You've given me yet another excuse for riding to Texas.

 
Lucky you!

Yur purdy close ta some really great roads!

First chance ya git, check out SE OK an western an NW AR. :thumbsup: (the Ouachitas an Ozarks)

But they will grind up yur tires like yuv never seen.... :thumbsdownsmiley:

 
Stadium Yamaha.... got it. Now I'll pray that I never need to use them.

An in-state ride would be nice, but it will be a month or more away. Balancing out a new job and full-time grad school while trying to raise two daughters is soaking up much of my time lately. My place of respite is on my commute.

 
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