Dex-chan lover
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2018
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Native Texan, Puro Mestizo, chiming in here!
AHHHH! TEH CICADA!!!
I live out here on the edges of the Texas Hill Country. Let me tell you, it's something else over here. Some people think Texas is all flat and dry like Oklahoma (which, scientists have discovered, really is flatter than a pancake! Google it if you don't believe me.) but this couldn't be further from the truth.
The reality? Texas is home to some of the most drop-dead gorgeous hill country in the US, covered by vast forests of oak trees and mesquite as far as the eye can see. To wit, one of the most arresting features of the land that the first Spaniard explorers extolled on was the seemingly endless rolling hills of emerald-green forests.
And that's to say nothing about the jaw-dropping beauty of the wildflower season here.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/wildflowers-in-texas-hill-country-1652504
But what all this means is that Texas is the ideal environment for cicadas. The hot summers, sudden torrential rains (the infamous Texas summer shower - here one minute, gone the next!), and abundance of trees... The only place you can't hear them is where there are no trees at all. Like the deepest and most urbanized parts of the Houston and DFW metroplexes.
San Antonio... Muuuuuch different beast over here. It's only been with the recent spate of people migrating here from Florida and California that entire swaths of oak forest have been getting clear-cut to be replaced by cookie-cutter developments. Otherwise, even the Downtown area has its Riverwalk with its plentiful trees.
In other words, the climate and environment here in Texas largely resembles that of mainland Japan, so the cicadas are just as prevalent here. I know this for a fact because I was in Yokosuka for three years while I was in the US Navy.
Any visitors from Japan that come here are going to feel weirdly at-home despite the culture shock and the absence of a "nearby" shoreline. (That said, Padre Island is the world's longest island and a beach so fuck-off huge that on some days you can have an entire kilometer of beach all to yourself. Even if it's not technically true, it nonetheless rings true: everything is bigger in Texas.)
For those considering a visit to Texas, consider placing San Antonio at the top of your list. Houston may have its Space Center, and DFW has its industry, but only San Antonio has a blend of natural beauty, architecture that spans the ages, feats of startlingly subtle-yet-effective flood control engineering, the only UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Texas, and locals so friendly that the metaphor of "killing you with kindness" won't seem like much of a metaphor from how shell-shocked it'll leave you. And yes, people who are LGBTQ will be welcomed - do not let the ultra-right wing conservatives scare you off. Most conservatives here are of the Hank Hill type, and we have a thriving stronghold of an LGBTQ community.
(Common question from the tourists: "Where is the Riverwalk?" Answer: "Where is it NOT!?" Reason: it was originally a drainage system for the downtown area back in the early-1900's. That changed after the San Antonio Flood of 1921 which prompted the construction of the Olmos Dam as a much better flood control, and the need of the drainage system was greatly lessened. Afterward, the system was beautified and things went from there. So you only need to look for stairs descending down from any bridge in the downtown area, and that will put you right on the Riverwalk.)
AHHHH! TEH CICADA!!!
I live out here on the edges of the Texas Hill Country. Let me tell you, it's something else over here. Some people think Texas is all flat and dry like Oklahoma (which, scientists have discovered, really is flatter than a pancake! Google it if you don't believe me.) but this couldn't be further from the truth.
The reality? Texas is home to some of the most drop-dead gorgeous hill country in the US, covered by vast forests of oak trees and mesquite as far as the eye can see. To wit, one of the most arresting features of the land that the first Spaniard explorers extolled on was the seemingly endless rolling hills of emerald-green forests.
And that's to say nothing about the jaw-dropping beauty of the wildflower season here.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/wildflowers-in-texas-hill-country-1652504
But what all this means is that Texas is the ideal environment for cicadas. The hot summers, sudden torrential rains (the infamous Texas summer shower - here one minute, gone the next!), and abundance of trees... The only place you can't hear them is where there are no trees at all. Like the deepest and most urbanized parts of the Houston and DFW metroplexes.
San Antonio... Muuuuuch different beast over here. It's only been with the recent spate of people migrating here from Florida and California that entire swaths of oak forest have been getting clear-cut to be replaced by cookie-cutter developments. Otherwise, even the Downtown area has its Riverwalk with its plentiful trees.
In other words, the climate and environment here in Texas largely resembles that of mainland Japan, so the cicadas are just as prevalent here. I know this for a fact because I was in Yokosuka for three years while I was in the US Navy.
Any visitors from Japan that come here are going to feel weirdly at-home despite the culture shock and the absence of a "nearby" shoreline. (That said, Padre Island is the world's longest island and a beach so fuck-off huge that on some days you can have an entire kilometer of beach all to yourself. Even if it's not technically true, it nonetheless rings true: everything is bigger in Texas.)
For those considering a visit to Texas, consider placing San Antonio at the top of your list. Houston may have its Space Center, and DFW has its industry, but only San Antonio has a blend of natural beauty, architecture that spans the ages, feats of startlingly subtle-yet-effective flood control engineering, the only UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Texas, and locals so friendly that the metaphor of "killing you with kindness" won't seem like much of a metaphor from how shell-shocked it'll leave you. And yes, people who are LGBTQ will be welcomed - do not let the ultra-right wing conservatives scare you off. Most conservatives here are of the Hank Hill type, and we have a thriving stronghold of an LGBTQ community.
(Common question from the tourists: "Where is the Riverwalk?" Answer: "Where is it NOT!?" Reason: it was originally a drainage system for the downtown area back in the early-1900's. That changed after the San Antonio Flood of 1921 which prompted the construction of the Olmos Dam as a much better flood control, and the need of the drainage system was greatly lessened. Afterward, the system was beautified and things went from there. So you only need to look for stairs descending down from any bridge in the downtown area, and that will put you right on the Riverwalk.)
