here's one for you Panzer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dXR5Dk8YNw

this is where we are thinking of retiring .... the German town of Fredericksburg, TX - and also the hometown of Admiral Nimitz

Couple from out of State looking to buy a house in Texas. Real estate person is showing a house to them, the guy says 'Oh an indoor pool'. Real estate person replies, 'No, that is the bathtub'.

true enough houses can be plenty big and well priced in Texas but prices are rising/have risen a lot in popular places like Austin.

Our house is 2,650 sq ft at the end of a cul-de-sac in a master-planned community and we have about 10 months of payments left on it. Original price was $160,000 in 2002. We put down $40,000 on it from the sale of our first house which we bought for $72,000 and it was 1,500 sq ft.

There's lots of history in this area. As Haggart mentioned, Adm. Chester Nimitz was from Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg was part of the German land grant in the 1850s. The last Union command of Robert E. Lee (before he joined the Confederate Army) was Ft. Mason just north of Fredericksburg. Spaniards established a mission in Menard (Mission Santa Cruz de San Sab�) in 1757. Gen. Ira Eaker was from Eden. Major General Earl Rudder who lead the Ranger's assault on Pointe du Hoc on D-day was from Brady. Also in Brady during WW II was a large German and Italian POW camp. Brady's airfield was a major training base for the Army Air Corp during WW II. The first man to complete his 25 mission tour in bombers in the 8th AF was from a small community near Brady. There was a hill near Llano that Edison and Westinghouse had a feud over around 1900. It was supposed to be one of the richest sources of rare-earth metals in north America. It's now under Lake Buchanan.

There's lots more, but that's all just within about 75 miles of where I live.

Edit:

I nearly forgot this: Fredericksburg, Texas is also the place where man first flew an airplane in 1865 (at least according to local legend).

https://drtlibrary.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/was-a-texan-the-first-man-to-fly-in-an-airplane/

http://texasescapes.com/CFEckhardt/First-to-Fly-Jacob-Brodbeck.htm

Heh, 160k barely gets you a one bedroom condo where I live.

thanks Vocatx good info

.... Panzer ..."Heh, 160k barely gets you a one bedroom condo where I live"

wow! well being from Texas i would have to insist on a two bedroom condo with a nice view and private swimming pool

We bought our first house for $130k in 2001. It was 2000 sq ft, in Florida, but not South Florida. It would've cost us $170k for about the same sized house but on a much smaller piece of land (so-called zero lot line with one edge of the house on the property line) down there at the time, so we moved.

Sold that house last year for $250k, wanted a bit more but we needed to sell it already, and a 3/2 with no pool or water view in our area is hard to move.

Bought a 5/4 w/3000sq ft and a water view (but still no pool!) for just under $400k last year. Slightly less land, because we were on an inside corner before so the lot wasn't 4 right angles like the new one. We put down I think $80k, maybe $90k? I forget exactly. We definitely exceeded the 20% down. Then we sold the old house and got almost that exact amount back in profit.



The Jedi Master

Mexican accordion music is actually Texan.

The German and Polish settlers in Texas hired musicians with accordions for their parties, and the Latino musicians turned the polka they were paid to play into something a tad different on their off hours.





[edit]

I was also informed by a Texas Native that contrary to popular belief, the State Tree is of a particular type, and not in fact one single tree in glass at the capital.

Having driven through parts of Texas, I remain doubtful of any native trees ever having grown there.

You knew this was coming... {NSFW}

Does the best chicken fried steak really come from Texas? When I lived there it seemed every restaurant made that claim.

That is my Wife's Holy Quest�, to find the Best Chicken Fried Steak.
Have tasted some really good ones over the years.

Fredericksburg is fantastic. Great little place to get away to, in the Hill Country, with gorgeous weather.
It is a very small town, but they have the most Vineyards in TX, and it is trying to rival Napa in production.
There is over 950 B&B locations in the area!!

Here is my recent pic back in October.

Panzer ..."When I lived there it seemed every restaurant made that claim"

Nothin's changed in that regard - they still do

"Does the best chicken fried steak really come from Texas?"

i would answer your question this way - if you step into a eatery in Florida and they make the best damn CFS's you ever ate - then as far your concerned that's who



That's where I hope to retire Bill - wife and I don't care for large cities, Fredericksburg has an abundance of doctors and we enjoy hiking so some of our favorite hiking spots are not too far away ..... Lost Maples State Park and Big Bend National Park.

I love that Hill Country area. New Braunfels is a nice quaint little town as well.

The only food that Florida does better than Texas is Cuban food and Key Lime pie. Everything else Texas wins hands down.

Well yes, but when "everything else" is Texas' grills and BBQ, there can't be much room for improvement there.

And no, Texas' Mexican food is not the best either. But it is the biggest in portions, that's for sure.

I don't recall being impressed with Italian restaurants in Texas.



The Jedi Master

Texas and Florida are equally bad in that category. Once you've had Italian in NYC, every other place in the US seems crappy by comparison.

Also, Texas rescued me from that hell that was chili with beans and tomatoes...to a true heavenly bowl of "meat and heat".

Lubbock sucks. One big cotton field (Reese AFB dependent 1980-1983)

Might not be the only state that has these badges, but it sure does sound big and bad...