I've lived here fewer than two months, but I can say with a lot of confidence that this town is the best place I've ever lived, and I've lived in a lot of places in Texas, mostly crummy places such as Odessa, Pasadena and Killeen.
Here are 10 great things about Tyler:
10.) Hills! It might come as a surprise that this part of the state is
almost as hilly as the Hill Country in Central Texas. It's great for running. Our house even sits atop a hill, with every run finishing with a run up it. If there were no trees, we could see for miles and miles in every direction.
9.) The drive to and from work. Instead of taking a freeway or even a major street, I wind my way through the Azalea District, noteworthy for its spring flowers, historic homes and brick streets. It's only about a 10-minute drive from home, too. Our gasoline bill now is just a fraction of what it was. But the best part is that it's just a nice drive.
8.) Discovery Science Place. This science place for kids is almost as good as the one in Houston and in some ways better. You can get a year's family membership for only $50. I gave one to my 7-year-old for his birthday yesterday, and he spent 10 minutes jumping up and down about it.
7.) Caldwell Zoo. This zoo is the bomb. Sure, it's smaller than a lot of zoos, but it's way more intimate and has just about everything you need. Everything is close, close, close. You round a corner to find only a piece of glass separating you from a white tiger, for example. The kids' favorite is the Wild Bird Walkabout, which is open only on weekends. You walk through a series of doors into an area where all these Fruit Loop birds are flying around. For $1, you get a stick with some seeds stuck to it. Birds will then flock to you and peck away the seeds. At any given time, you might have five of them sitting on your hand and a dozen more sitting on your feet and nibbling at the plastic end of your shoelaces, which they like for some reason. During a recent visit, I had one bird sitting on my head and another asleep on my shoulder. I'd never seen anything like this before, but every zoo ought to have one. A year-long family zoo pass is only $70. I gave one to the family for Christmas, and my 7-year-old spent 12 minutes jumping up and down about it.
6.) The water. The water coming out of the taps is as good as bottled water, so much better than that swampy swill that came out of the pipes down in Pinewood. We've saved a bundle on not having to buy bottled water.
5.) The air. It's almost like clean mountain air here, with no industry mucking it up.
4.) Outdoor recreation. There are lakes aplenty around here. As for Tyler State Park, I haven't been out there since the move, but I went there years ago, and it's just about the best mountain biking in Texas.
3.) Free air at the gas station! That's right, if your tire is a little low, you don't
have to fork out 75 cents to fill it.
2.) My job. I'm back to doing mostly writing, and it's been a blast so far. I haven't done this much writing in more than 15 years. One of the things I didn't miss about reporting when I became an editor was dealing with sources that were difficult or impossible to reach. Here, most everybody is cooperative, easy to work with and calls back right away. That makes reporting quick and easy and helps me to blast out a lot of stories. Plus, I can get my stuff done and be home and having dinner with the family by 6 p.m. on most days. The work day is as long or short as I want to make it.
1.) The community. I thought all of Texas in general was friendly, but Tyler is
more so than anywhere else. When the wife first got here, she was a bit stressed after the long drive with the kids in the car, and I told her that she needed to
Tylerize, and the best way to start that was to just go to the grocery store, and she'd understand. She went and returned with a smile on her face. It doesn't take much time here to understand that this place is a little bubble of positive energy. The sour economy hasn't taken as much toll, and a lot of that has to do with people just being positive, which means they have high consumer confidence, which means they're still buying things, filling the stores and eating out at the restaurants. And this is one eating-out kind of town. There are restaurants galore.
Walmart is another consumer-confidence indicator here. While Beaumont, which is larger than Tyler, has only one
Walmart, we've got FOUR.
So there it is. I've been Tylerized. And that's all I'm going to say about that!
