My wife, son, and I visited Texas during Spring Break. We have friends of the family that live out there and wanted to visit. As well as visit, we wanted to sight-see and maybe check out homes/land out there.
I took off a week (5 business days but a total of 9 days including two weekends). We drove from VA. We left on early on a Saturday and couldn’t arrive until Monday, so we took our time. We could’ve arrived that Sunday but the Airbnb we were staying at wasn’t available until Monday.
We stopped in Paris, TX, which was cool…we visited their veterans’ memorial there. We also visited the Texas Ranger museum, which I highly recommend if you’re interested in history or guns. We also visited Magnolia (Two Silos), which is Chip and Joanna Gaines’ place – that was very nice.
Much of our visit was driving and socializing. My son loved both the drive and the visit, as we did some fishing and he was introduced to farm life. He was also able to shoot his first guns (Note: I have not taught him about firearms due to personal reasons, but he has now had a taste and I will begin his firearms education now).
Of the shooting, we shot on my friends’ farm. That’s the first time I’ve ever shot steel. I LOVED it. It was also the first time I shot suppressed. I got the chance to shoot a Ruger Take-down, which was suppressed, and a CZ bolt-action 22 (not sure of it’s name), as well as another Ruger 22 bolt-action.
Before I left, I had a difficult time deciding what to bring with me. I ended up bringing a lot of 9mm and 22TCM9R ammo, and my RIA MS 1911 with both 9mm and 22TCM barrels, as well as my Grand Power P11 and Canik TP9SC. Sadly, I didn’t get to shoot much, since I spent a majority of my time with my son. My friends absolutely loved my 22TCM 1911. They kept referring to it as the hand cannon! Even my wife and son thought it was loud. It shot steel (didn’t damage the plates, though, as it was AR500 steel). One thing of note, the front fiber optic filament was super-bright in the sunlight.
I think I might have to find an outdoor range. There’s only one near me and it’s maybe 50 min away and requires you shoot their reloads, but the lanes are free with unlimited time – they don’t have steel, either. There’s another range further out that has steel, but I’ve never shot there. They also allow you to bring your own steel.
About Texas – I’ve lived there in the past, once as a child while my dad was stationed at Fort Hood, and once when my wife was stationed at Fort Hood. I’ve spent the largest portion of that time as a child, but I was old enough to where I remember everything. We’ve been looking to move somewhere nearer to my wife’s folks (who are in CA). We’ve considered Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. We’d never considered Texas because I never asked my wife about it (I assumed she hated it). Well, we’re now seriously considering Texas as our next home. The home would have to be at least 10 acres so that I can have a shooting range. Our move timeframe is 5 years out, so we will begin prepping our current home to sell. I’ll look again at properties at maybe the 6-12 month mark to see if we can find land/home in Central Texas (between Austin and Dallas, preferably, there’s so much area, that we’ll look well beyond that area too).
I think Texas will gel well with my family’s mindset. I’m glad I visited my friends, as they shared a wealth of information to help us look for our next home. I’m very excited and hope we’re able to visit again in a few years.