Reply #61: Here's another great site on Texas...

[kentauros]

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/">The Handbook of Texas Online (catchy title, eh? ;))

It's a great resource for the historical story on any of the placenames mentioned so far and any others you can think of. That includes from the smallest, least populated town to the largest metropolitan centers as well as valleys and waterways. It's kind of fun just to put in a name and see what hits they give you and sift through them all. I've even used it in mapping for lat/long coordinates since they give such details, too. It's not accurate enough for maps but it gets you in the general area.

As for the Trans Texas Corridor, TxDOT has their "info" on the subject here http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/">TxDOT - TTC and from a cursory glance through their faq, I see they're looking at finalizing a 1200' ROW (right of way) from an intial 10 mile-wide research swath :(

On a more positive note, if you are worried about getting water, consider setting up a rainwater collection system. My parents live in Dripping Springs (a few miles west, really) and have two 5000 gallon tanks that supply more than enough water for them even through this drought. Pretty much every time it rains, however little it may seem, they manage to collect enough to drink and use instead of well-water. It's a growing business in The Hill Country, so you should be able to find a lot of info on it. The system my parents use is from here: http://rainwater.org/">Richard's Rainwater

Hope that helps some from this native Houstonian :) (still here as I love the humidity and this is where I can find good drafting work! lol)

namaste