Poll: The Beaches of Texas

[alias_sqbr]

Poll #20754 A very important poll about international geography

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 55

View Respondents

Are you aware that Texas has a long coastline and many beaches?

View Answers

Yes, obviously
24 (43.6%)

I guess?
19 (34.5%)

I am now!
11 (20.0%)

What???
1 (1.8%)

I DON'T BELIEVE YOU
2 (3.6%)

Other
1 (1.8%)

If you answered "yes" or "I guess", where do you live?

View Answers

Outside the United States
21 (50.0%)

The United States (but not Texas)
21 (50.0%)

Texas
0 (0.0%)

A Texan beach
0 (0.0%)

Other
0 (0.0%)

If you answered something else, where do you live?

View Answers

Outside the United States
11 (91.7%)

The United States (but not Texas)
1 (8.3%)

Texas
0 (0.0%)

A Texan beach (oops)
0 (0.0%)

Other
0 (0.0%)

Because it turned out I'm not the only person who thought of it as landlocked and was surprised to realise that it very much isn't. Including a friend who lived in Texas for many years.

So I was curious to see how wide spread the unexamined misconception is.

Comments

[flamebyrd]

I knew, but only because I reached this surprised realisation in the last couple of years, much like you did.

[lilysea]

This is news to me also!

[owlmoose]

It's one of those things that I know when I think about it, but it's not an obvious Texas Fact. Even though it should be, because it's on the Gulf of Mexico and susceptible to hurricanes. I definitely don't think of it as a beach destination, or any of the other states that border the Gulf besides Florida.

[gb]

It's true I never thought of Texas as having beaches, but it immediately made sense when I thought about it.

I actually go too far in the other direction: I keep thinking Texas is much larger than it is and takes up the space New Mexico and Arizona are in. International geography and scale: Not things I'm great at. ^^; (Maybe something to do with living in WA and traveling between remote country towns a lot?)

[lizbee]

I knew because I went down a "hurricane disasters through history" rabbit hole around the time Katrina was hitting New Orleans, and quite a few of those disasters hit Texas.

[alias_sqbr]

Ooh, yeah, that makes sense, given my slightly-less-ignorant-than-it-was-yesterday understanding of US geography.

[conuly]

...yes, it's on the Gulf, and it has several of the largest/most active ports in the US or even the world. (In the US, the Port of Houston is only topped by the Port of New Orleans when it comes to cargo volume, and other Texas ports come right after.)

[pedanther]

...although it turns out, looking at that map, that quite a lot of what I'd been thinking of as coastline isn't.

I'm most used to seeing Texas in maps of the US that don't show any of the surrounding countries, so I knew it was definitely on the southern edge of the country but hadn't realised that about two-thirds of its own southern edge is its land border with Mexico.

[fred_mouse]

I don't know if it was news to me earlier in the year, but meteorologist at the next desk tends to track things like hurricanes, and comment on which coastlines they cross.

[princessofgeeks]

Even if people didn't know before, wouldn't Hurricane Harvey have made it clear? That was big news.

[bunny_m]

Texas is so small! It's like, only ~1/6 the size of WA!

;)

I used to hassle my Texan gaming friend about why he chose to live in such a small state.

[rdm]

I knew it had a coast (and presumably beaches) on account of the Grandcamp explosion (see Texas City Disaster) and various hurricanes.

[winterbird]

The realisation was super belated for me. Arna went to live in Texas for a while. And while I'd heard of places like Galveston I'd just really never connected it to the water. It 'feels' landlocked though.

[boxofdelights]

To be fair, most of Texas is landlocked.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah if it was Hawaii I'd have felt much sillier :)

[alias_sqbr]

...I had not heard of Galveston >.>

[alias_sqbr]

One of the lessons I am learning here is that I could stand to pay more attention to the geographical context of news and history >.>

[alias_sqbr]

I was aware of Hurricane Harvey, but somehow didn't realise it involved a coast? Or something? I do not claim my ignorance was well founded.

[alias_sqbr]

haa if I was in your shoes I'd probably spend a lot of time going "Oh that coastline is there?" a lot. Geography doesn't tend to stick in my brain very well.

[alias_sqbr]

Ha! Meanwhile Cam wasn't aware it had any border with Mexico at all. There are many flavours of being wrong about Texas :)

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah I am increasingly aware of how much coast related Texas stuff has apparently managed to just....pass through my brain without leaving a mark.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes I was also very surprised the first time I realised how tiny Texas is, and how in general the US and it's states aren't as big compared to WA as it feels like they "should" be. I haven't travelled that much but still think of WA as "state sized" which has rather skewed my instincts.

[alias_sqbr]

I mean Florida is like 75% beach, that makes everything else look landlocked by comparison.

(Yes, I did just google Florida to make sure I wasn't misremembering it. And I wasn't! Go me!)

[alias_sqbr]

YAY glad it's not just me :)

[alias_sqbr]

In a dream about robot dinosaurs?

[pedanther]

I had heard of Galveston, but until this post all I knew about it was (a) it's in Texas, (b) there's a Dolly Parton song of which the only words I know are "Galveston, oh Galveston".

If you'd asked me a couple of days ago, I'd have been pretty confident it was inland somewhere, because even if I was aware Texas had coastline I still default to assuming that everywhere interesting in Texas is inland somewhere.

...and I've just looked up the song, and learned a couple more things about it, namely, (a) that's not Dolly Parton, and (b) the very next line after "Galveston, oh Galveston" is "I still hear your sea winds blowing". Memory is a funny thing.

[flamebyrd]

Well, now that you mention it...

No, you're right, that was poor phrasing!

[fred_mouse]

I am developing a completely new-to-me respect for the complexities of geography. Also, meteorology in general, because there are sooo many details that need to be kept in mind. Fortunately, my aspect of the job is to go 'does this data look real?' And 'did South Perth seriously get 120mm of rain on one day in January?' (answer, yes, although the actual number might not be exactly right -- I was looking at several sites).

[alias_sqbr]

I did in fact understand you fine, I'm just terrible :)

[alias_sqbr]

Memory is a funny thing.

That does seem to be the takeaway here.