[Eric]

Hi all, I bought a Lonely Planet 'Texas' guide book the other day as we are reading up.... trying to decide how we can include a ride into Texas on our big trip..... We just did a quick comparison of the state of Texas to the size of our state here in Oz. Our state is a little bit larger in terms of size...... but the wow factor is the population. The total Australian population is around the 23 million. The Lonely Planet guide says the population of Texas is about 24.5 million..... so more than the total population of Oz.... the state of South Australia has a population of just over 4million.
The population of South Oz is concentrated to the coastal areas as the Outback is quite inhospitable especially in summer (which is now) with extreme temperatures and the lack of available water. You may have heard that the state almost ran out of water after a serious national drought a couple of years ago..
in our recent high temperatures we had a death in the lower part of the outback when their vehicle broke down and they weren't carrying any water or food... and then committed the worst mistake of the outback... they left their vehicle.... daily max out there on those days was 57C (sorry cant work out the fahrenheit, just believe me it is hot!)
Keeping in mind that places with interesting geology are the draw card for us.. The Guadalupe Mtns are interesting.... but after someone posted pics of a ride through Big Ben Ntl Pk, which were awesome, that is a draw card as well... but a bit concerned about its proximity to Mexico..(Eric just said to say he's not carrying... if you get his drift).. and they are a long way from Allen. We think we will just run out of time to see all that we would like. [sigh]
But thanks all those who post photos... Eric always shows me photos which he thinks would interest me... geologically that is..
all the best from Vanessa

 

[Ron Robertson]

Ah Lady Vanessa; welcome to the forum. Wish you two had enough time to come visit the Northwest corner of the U.S., we would enjoy showing you our corner of the world. Enjoy your visit.

 

[Chopin]

Don't forget us over here on the east side. Our mountains are older.

 

[Ron Robertson]

Don't forget us over here on the east side. Our mountains are older.

Yup; Sun Rise is 3 hours ahead of us here on the West Coast.

 

[Scooter1]

Did a 2500 mile ride this summer to Big Bend and any worries about Mexico are unfounded regarding one's safety. I had thought about getting a gun for that trip but called the National Park and they said they have no issues with violence and besides you have to have a permit to carry one or separate the ammo from the gun in separate areas. I decided to not pack. It's the larger border towns that are of concern not the open desert. Big Bend and the Davis Mtns. are a must see if coming to Texas.

 

[budoka]

Hey there Vanessa, sorry but somehow I missed this post when it went up. Really hope you can get in as much as possible during your stay in the USA. That leaves us up North still on the bucket list I reckon. Oz, USA and Canada share almost equal land area, but yes the US has the trophy for the amount of peeps. Just about any of their major cities has more population than Alberta does California has more folk than all of Canada does!
I don't have an exact conversion, but 57*c is close to 130*f