17 Underrated Places In Texas To Take An Out-Of-Towner
Let me set the scene for you. A family member or close friend is flying in from, I don’t know, Germany (aka they know nothing about Texas aside from stereotypes), and you’re freaking out trying to decide where to take them to really show them what our state is all about.
You’re completely justified in your panic – after all, our state is huge. It can be overwhelming just deciding on the next family vacation when you’ve lived here your entire life!
But your worry ends here. We’ve gone straight to the core, leaving off well-known tourist traps and delving into the nitty gritty, no frills, true essence of Texas that will leave your visitor pleasantly surprised. Here are 17 totally underrated places in Texas to take someone who’s seeing our great state for the very first time.
An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment.
The year ahead
As we prepare to enter the third year of the pandemic, we have been hoping for more normality and less Covid disruption by now. Case counts are soaring to all-time highs in some parts of the world, and 2022 is shaping up to be just as uncertain as the last 12 months.
That said, we’ve made huge strides against the coronavirus this year. There are now multiple vaccines that offer powerful protection against the worst effects of Covid, as well as remarkably effective treatments for those who become infected.
Next year will bring more advancements, too, and I’ll be here to keep you updated on the science, and to gather the information and advice you need to live your best life during the pandemic.
Today, in the last Coronavirus newsletter of the year, I’m taking a look ahead. I spoke to Times reporters about some of the big pandemic issues they’ll be tracking in 2022. Here’s what they said.
Living with the virus. This week, Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked whether we had to start to live with the virus and accept some risk of mild infections. His answer was essentially yes.
“We’re never going to stop counting tests,” he said. But we’re going to have to adjust to some controlled spread of the virus, being more sensitive to economic and societal concerns, he said.
My colleague Noah Weiland, a health reporter at The Times, told me that we’d heard comments like this from top officials before, but this time he said it felt particularly notable amid the spread of the Omicron variant. So many people are getting sick, he said, and those who have not may have even resigned themselves to the possibility of an infection sometime in the coming weeks and months.
Goodbye to Betty White, popular culture’s beloved (and saucy) great-grandma
She was a dedicated actress and showbiz personality to the very end. She was also something much more to the millions who loved her.
Oh, Betty! Dear Betty, sweet Betty, saucy Betty. We always knew the day was coming, but you were so good at helping us pretend it would never get here.
And now there you are, all that sparkle and happiness, smiling at us in the checkout line just as we are sad-scrolling through the breaking news of your death on an already bummed-out New Year’s Eve: People magazine, hedging all kinds of bets against the universe, has an issue on the stands touting your 100th birthday in January. It’s so like you, Betty, to get in one last good one. The joke is on them now, along with assuredly terrific newsstand sales. The sorrow, meanwhile, is on us.
Betty White, who was found dead Friday at age 99 in her Brentwood, Calif., home, did not, as the obits are factually obligated to tell us, leave behind any children — or grandchildren or great-grandchildren or great-great-grandchildren.
I-20 TRAFFIC TO BE DIVERTED THIS WEEK DURING BRIDGE WORK
Demolition work on bridge set for night of Sunday, January 9, 2022
DUE TO WEATHER, I-20 TRAFFIC NOW SCHEDULED TO BE DIVERTED NEXT WEEK FOR BRIDGE WORKDemolition work on bridge now set for night of Sunday, January 9, 2022
December 28, 2021
ATLANTA – Due to weather, northbound lanes of the US 59 overpass crossing Interstate 20 in Marshall are now scheduled to be taken down the night of Sunday, January 9. In preparation, traffic over the bridge is now tentatively scheduled to be restricted to one lane in each direction starting Monday, January 3.
“The northbound lanes will be taken down piece by piece and then new lanes will be built. As that work is being done, US 59 traffic will use the southbound lanes over Interstate 20 and be restricted to one lane in each direction with a center turn lane during that time,” said Marshall Area Engineer Wendy Starkes.
Demolition work on the bridge is expected to take place from about 8 p.m. Sunday evening until about 7 a.m. on Monday, January 10. During that time, Interstate 20 traffic in both directions will be diverted onto the US 59 exit ramps in Marshall. From there, traffic can cross US 59 and then reenter the interstate.
This project consists of two phases of construction. New northbound lanes will be constructed first, then new southbound lanes will be constructed during the second phase. US 59 traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction with a center turn lane for both phases. The project is expected to be complete in about 28 months and will raise the new overpass about three feet for more than 19 feet of clearance over Interstate 20.
———– previous announcement —————
ATLANTA – Northbound lanes of the US 59 overpass crossing Interstate 20 in Marshall will be taken down the night of Sunday, January 2.
“The northbound lanes will be taken down piece by piece and then new lanes will be built. As that work is being done, US 59 traffic will use
the southbound lanes over Interstate 20 and be restricted to one lane in each direction with a center turn lane during that time. This change in traffic
pattern is expected to begin Wednesday, December 29,” said Marshall Area Engineer Wendy Starkes.
Demolition work on the bridge is expected to take place from about 8 p.m. Sunday evening until about 7 a.m. on Monday, January 3. “During that time,
Interstate 20 traffic in both directions will be diverted onto the US 59 exit ramps in Marshall. From there, traffic can cross US 59 and simply reenter the
interstate,” Starkes said.
Once complete, the new overpass will be about three feet higher to allow for more than 19 feet of clearance over Interstate 20. US 59 traffic will be restricted
to one lane in each direction on the bridge for the duration of the project, which is expected to take about 28 months to complete.
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Our tech columnists look ahead to electric cars that don’t break the bank, earbuds that gauge your health, a fix for social media’s harms, package deliveries from above and more
EVs on the cheap
The days when people hunting for an electric vehicle had only a handful of choices are over. By the end of 2022, U.S. car buyers could have more than 100 different models to choose from. And many forthcoming models will be more affordable than what was available just a year or two ago.
EVs still make up less than 3% of passenger vehicles on U.S. roads, and research suggests price will be key to their wider adoption.
I am happy to provide you with the following credits, foreword and link, announcing an amazing Christmas gift for the city of Marshall, Texas compliments of singer, guitarist, songwriter and author, the legendary Dale Watson!
Dale Watson Guitar and Vocals / Huck Johnson – Upright Bass / Manny Pagan – Slap Bass Percussion.
Foreword by Alan Loudermilk, owner of ‘The Ginocchio‘ restaurant in Marshall, Texas.”
“A month or so ago, a man came into the Ginocchio with his wife. They headed to the Ginocchio trackside patio, and I went out to introduce myself. While I was familiar with his music, this was my first time to meet Dale Watson and his wife Celine.
As we talked on the patio, we discussed Dale and Celine’s purchase of a historic home in Marshall, his frequent performances in Austin and his music venue in Memphis, and the reason that he chose Marshall – it was a small town with rich history that happened to be roughly halfway between Austin and Memphis. The discussion quickly turned to the fact that we were standing around 10 feet away from the Texas historic marker commemorating Marshall as the Birthplace of Boogie Woogie. Dale noted the important influence of Boogie Woogie in much of his music and also on the music of countless artists in Texas and around the world, playing a wide variety of music. What a remarkable turn of events – Dale and Celine (a singer-song writer who often joins Dale on stage) chose a new town to call home, midway between Austin and Memphis, and they found themselves in the birthplace of a music genre that they celebrate almost daily in their performances.
I connected Dale with Dr. John Tennison, the doctor-musician-film maker-historian whose extensive research indicated that Marshall and the surrounding area is where Boogie Woogie music originated. John and I agreed to meet Dale at the Continental Club in Austin, where Dale was to perform. There was a wonderful gift awaiting us in Austin – the first public performance of a song that Dale had written on his train ride from Marshall to Austin – The Marshall Boogie.
John recorded the performance, and perhaps most interestingly to me – the non-musician – recorded the backstage rehearsal. I was witnessing something special – the birth of a song that celebrates Boogie Woogie, the railroad, Marshall, and the spirit of movement and enjoyment that is the essence of Boogie Woogie. Wow – blown away.
The Marshall Boogie – a most wonderful Christmas gift from Dale Watson to the City of Marshall and to all of us who appreciate how the world of music has been enriched by the ever-widening influence of Boogie Woogie. Thank you Dale, Celine and the band, and thank you John for recording the performance. Enjoy.”
For the next several days, the folks who keep up with COVID statistics are taking off work for the holidays. This comes at a bad time; the East Texas numbers are now going up.
Even vaccinated people should wear masks, space out, avoid crowds — especially indoor crowds in buildings with poor ventilation.
If you don’t feel well, don’t go out. When in doubt, test if you can find a test.
Avoid immunocompromised folks. Avoid sick folks. We still have hospital beds in this area at this time.
Most of the new cases are almost certainly Omicron which is probably less lethal than Delta. In the next six months, we will have several new drugs to treat Covid as well as enhanced and available testing capabilities.
New vaccines will be developed for any and all of the Variants when and if they appear. The situation is improving. It remains prudent to be vaccinated and boosted.
Ever since the Omicron surge began, researchers have been trying to predict when cases might peak. Estimates generally place that event sometime during this month, but some calculations seem to have been too optimistic.
However, a month into the surge, we’re beginning to see some early signs that cases may have begun to plateau in some places and that the Omicron wave may soon start to subside.
“I’m seeing some hopeful signs in the Northeast that suggest that the worst of the case growth is slowing down,” said my colleague Mitch Smith, who tracks the virus for The Times. But he added: “It’s not a well-defined trend yet. It’s a glimmer that it’s slowing down.”
Today, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said that there were signs that the rate of new cases was beginning to plateau in New York City. But with cases still on the rise in the rest of the state, and more hospitals having to limit procedures, the state is still far from turning the corner.
“We’re not at the end,” Hochul said, but she called the numbers “a glimmer of hope in a time when we desperately need that.”
Mitch said there was one place that might even be further along than New York City: Washington, D.C. It was one of the first places to have a huge Omicron surge, and it had “off-the-charts, straight vertical line growth” through last week.
“D.C., though, looks like it may have peaked,” Mitch said. “So that, to me, feels like a new moment of the surge.”
We’ll have to watch to see if the trend continues, and if it’s replicated in other places. Currently, most places in the U.S. are in an entirely different place.
“Most of the country is in the explosive growth phase,” Mitch said. “Cases are rising pretty much everywhere. We’re seeing case levels that are way above anything we’ve ever seen before — every day.”
The wave also seems to be acting on a delay as it surges across the country. The Western half of the country seems to be a week or two behind the Eastern half in terms of case rates.
“We’re continuing to see crazy, several-hundred-percent two-week rates of growth in some of those states,” Mitch said. “And I don’t think we’re nearly as close to a peak in some of those places, just because the heat of their outbreak arrived later than New England and even the urban Midwest.”
While the shape of the case curve may help tell us when virus activity is subsiding, the more important measure of the pandemic’s strength is the hospitalization rate, which has jumped in recent days. Today the number of people in the U.S. hospitalized with Covid-19 exceeded last winter’s peak, underscoring that while Omicron may cause less severe illness, it still poses a serious threat.
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