Last time I visited Texas, I noticed a few things that I hadn't really noticed before. This time, since I'd been gone for longer, I noticed even more differences - so many that I'll have to split it up into two posts. Below is a list of things I noticed when driving around:

• There are so many more big neon signs for restaurants and stores in Texas. There are also tons of billboards, especially advertising home developments and fast food. I hardly ever see big neon signs signs and billboards in Seattle.


• I forgot how prevalent drive-thrus are. I never did use the drive-thrus much when I lived in Texas because I didn’t like spending the gas and polluting the air, but since I was driving a Prius this time, I went through the drive-thru at Taco Bueno. I usually get water wherever I go, but it was easier to get the combo meal this time (and they gave me such a big drink). With all the drive-thrus and fast food areas, I can see why D/FW is considered one of the fattest parts of the country.


• I’ve also never before noticed how many Whataburgers there are in Texas. They’re all over the place.


• Almost everything in D/FW that I saw from the freeway was a chain restaurant or chain store. I saw so many chain restaurants in Texas that I haven’t ever seen in Seattle. When I drove down Camp Bowie in Fort Worth, I noticed a lot of small shops that I always used to ignore on my way to some chain place. Seattle, though, is made up of a lot of those little shops and much fewer chain establishments.


• There are so many gas stations in Texas, they are all over the place.


• There are also so many car dealerships along the freeway in D/FW.


• I haven’t seen that much asphalt and concrete in ages - two months to be more exact. D/FW probably has three times more square feet of asphalt per person than Seattle does. There was also a ton of grass. I noticed that they were always mowing or watering the grass in Texas. It’s as if everyone in Texas can’t shake their farming heritage and they take care of grass as if it were a crop. I guess there are lots of trees here so people don’t pay attention to grass, but I just thought it was remarkable how much concrete and grass there was.


• I forgot about the problem of trying to get to places. When I wanted to go to Taco Bueno, I had to figure out which driveway to turn into, and then when I wanted to get to the street, I had to figure out how to get back - whether I could drive half a mile through the enormous parking lot or if I would have to go back out on the access road. I can’t say I’ve had that problem here, but I remember it being pretty common in D/FW.


• All the types of buildings are so segregated in D/FW. I guess it’s like that in any suburb, but I’d kind of gotten used to Seattle where you’d see an apartment, a restaurant, an office, a condo, and a hotel all next to each other.


• Another thing about the suburbs is that every building is isolated by a moat of parking lot and grass, whereas here you can just walk up to it and it’s right along the street, but it’s kind of crazy that almost every single building outside of downtown is surrounded by parking lot, which is then surrounded by grass, I guess that’s just a specific example of how D/FW is designed much more for drivers than Seattle is.


• Some buildings and stores in D/FW look pretty, with bushes, fountains, and rocks, making for a nice composition, but it’s just to look at, it takes up a ton of space, which isn’t used; you can’t walk around it or interact with it. It just seems to me that buildings there were made to be looked at whereas buildings here were made to be used.


• There are so many traffic lights in D/FW that change for no reason or stay red for too long. I haven’t noticed that as much here.


• It wasn't that late when I flew into Dallas, but when I was driving around looking for food, there was almost nobody out. I drove down a wide three-lane road and I was the only one. It happened multiple times on the trip that I was on a wide road along with very few other people. D/FW is a much more populous metropolitan area than Seattle, but it never really seemed that way since I saw so few people driving around.


• Whenever I saw people out walking in D/FW, it was kind of strange, because walking is commonplace here, but in D/FW, anyone who is out walking is either exercising or assumed to be poor.

I'll post again later with more differences I noticed and some thoughts from the trip.