10 Differences Between Texas and Iowa

In Iowa, restaurants and bars don't allow smoking, and as a non-smoker I really appreciate it. In Texas, we visited one restaurant that sold cigars. Smoking was allowed in outdoor seating areas and in nightclubs, there are designated smoking sections.

In Iowa, it's 70 on the interstates. In Texas, you're looking at 70 or 75 for the most part. However, one tollway had an 85-mile per hour speed limit. I tried it for a few miles and then it began to rain, which slowed me down. That was fine, 85 seemed a bit fast to me. The off-ramp speed limits on that road were 65 miles-per hour. That's just crazy.

In Iowa, we see far too many deer that have been hit by vehicles. If it's not a deer, it's a raccoon. In Texas, it's armadillos. Julie and I began to say, "Dillo down," each time we saw one.

I quickly realized that everything is bigger in Texas because there are SO MANY people. The restaurants are massive but what was most astonishing of all was a chain of convenience stores known as Buc-ees. When I asked one of the clerks if they were only in Texas, she said she didn't think any other state could handle them. She's probably right. They're the size of Walmart's and employ more than 200 people. One of the craziest things I've ever seen.

Texas loves their sports cars. We saw a ton of them and they were typically not just one you'd grab off the lot... not in Iowa anyway. No salt in Texas and they go all out with the sports car bells and whistles. One thing you don't see that many of us is motorcycles. I can't blame them. I think it would be very dangerous.

I don't know how everyone in Texas doesn't weigh 500 pounds. Their restaurants, while not cheap certainly don't cheat you on the food. Julie ordered a taco salad at one restaurant and it took her three days to eat it.

We have ants and ant hills, but not like Texas. The fire ants build hills that approached a foot tall in several places. And their bite? Just ask my sister-in-law about that.

My niece and her fiance got married at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens on Friday. They were just one of 50 couples that got married there from Thursday thru Sunday. They had a two-hour block of time Friday afternoon and the next group was ready to swoop in. Crazy

Julie got hit not once, but twice by bird dropping at the Fort Worth Stockyards. Large black birds don't make small messes either. Check out the photo gallery for the aftermath of the first splat.

I quickly realized my phone GPS was useless in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Too much construction, too many roads... I don't know what the problem was but "she" got us lost many times. Two different people who've lived in both Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth told us that the traffic in Dallas is kindergarten traffic compared to Houston. I'm NEVER going to Houston. EVER.