"Everythang's big in Texas including thuh bull, thuh boast and thuh dead-right facts frum hair tew chicken-fried steaks tew thuh Texas capitol building in Austin! It's thuh gosh darn truth and ifn' yew don't believe me then jus' read on for thuh proof." -Says, Caddylak Maxy.

The Texas state capitol building in Austin is taller than the United States capitol building in Washington, D.C.

Big Tex is a 52 foot tall statue of a fully dressed cowboy, who has become the official mascot of the State Fair Of Texas. Big Tex wears a size 70 cowboy boot and his hat is a whopping 75 gallon Stetson, measuring five feet high. His weight is 6,000 pounds and he has a 30 foot chest and wears a shirt with a 100 inch neck and 181 inch long sleeves. This is 600 times larger than the shirts sold in stores. The buttons are 3 and a half inches in diameter and the shirt contains 70 yards of blue denim and 80 yards of awning material. His belt is 23 feet long with a 50 pound buckle. His pants are 284W x 185L and the rivets are 3 and a half inches in diameter with an inseam is 200 inches and a fly of 56 inches long and his pants weigh totals 65 pounds. His boots size is 70, measuring 7 foot 7 inches high.

Seguin, Texas, claims to be World's Largest Pecan. The giant pecan that sits in front of the Seguin, TX, city hall was the brainchild of a dentist, who wanted to put his plastering skills to civic use. Erected in 1962, the pecan is five feet long and 2 1/2 feet wide, and weighs approximately 1000 pounds. It was dedicated to Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer who was held captive on the Guadalupe, known then as the 'River of Nuts,' for ten years. He thrived on a diet of local pecans. Seguin began billing itself as "Home of the World's Largest Pecan, " a title it held for twenty years.

The world's tallest statue of an American hero, Sam Houston. The 67-ft. tall (plus 10-ft. base) statue is named "A Tribute to Courage." Sam Houston, celebrated political architect of Texas, towers in concrete above Interstate 45, with walking cane and snappy duds of a 19th century.

Luling, Texas boast the worlds largest watermelon water tower and watermelon festival which is called "Watermelon Thump". Entering Luling from the interstate, the first thing a visitor will notice is an impressive watermelon water tower, poking up 154 feet from a melon patch (or perhaps just a municipal patch). The horizontal green and light yellow stripes, combined with the shape of the 56 ft. diameter storage tank, creates a good watermelon effect.

The world's biggest Roadrunner is Paisano Pete. The 11-foot tall and 20-foot long roadrunner graces the corner of Main Street and Hwy 290 in Fort Stockton, Texas.

The Buckhorn Saloon opened in downtown San Antonio 1881, with owners Albert and Emile Friedrich's enticing promise to customers: "Bring in your deer antlers and you can trade them for a shot of whiskey or a beer." Albert would trade cowboys two free beers for every pair of antlers; Emile bartered a shot of whiskey for every rattlesnake rattle. Albert fashioned elaborate chairs out of the antlers, while Emile made "portraits" from her pile of rattles. As San Antonio grew, so did the Buckhorn's collection of animals and oddities.

World's Largest Urban Bat Colony is in Austin, Texas that has crowds gathering nightly to watch 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats shoot out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge. Standing atop the bridge, or down below, visitors offer the condemned mosquitoes a last meal while waiting for the bats to make their entrance. The Austin American-Statesman newspaper allows the use of their parking lot, and their grass for tourist to hang out on. Wear a hat.

World's Largest Cowboy Boots are in San Antonio, Texas. This Texas size pair of large concrete cowboy boots, 40-ft. tall and 35-ft. wide, loom in front of a Saks Fifth Avenue and parking garage for the North Star Mall. They are decorated with Christmas lights in December and attract much mall business.

Chili: A true Texas invention of the "River Walk City", San Antonio, the city of chili and the home of the chili "queens" of the late 1880's who sold their chili from carts in the town square until health officials closed them down in the 1940's. Early Texas chili did not contain tomatoes but only meat and peppers simmered down to a stew like concoction. Officially known as "Chili Con Carne", it is also known as "Bowl of Red", "Bowl Of Fire" and "Soup of the Devil". Genuine chili is flavorful, spicy, meaty and hot enough to raise the roof of most Texans and all yankees mouths. Texas style chili should have grease in it. The chili should be eaten plain, never garnished with sour cream or cheddar cheese or beans, but it is okay to crumble Saltines. Hamburger meat is not recommended but coarsely ground meat holds the flavor much better. Besides appearing in most Tex-Mex dishes like enchiladas or hyevos rancheros, chili is poured on hamburgers, foot-long hot dogs and Frito pie. Chili is the official grub of Texas and a lot of chili is served in Texas schools, prisons and assorted restaurants from high brow white table cloth establishments to greasy spoon cafes. Reaction to Texas Chili: Your nose runs, eyes water, sinus cavities open, lips blister, cheeks become flush, roof of mouth ignites, heart pumps rapidly, throat sears, breathing becomes hard and sweat breaks out on brow and top of head. All Texans deny that any of the above happens to them when they eat chili, except in private!

Barbeque: The name barbecue is derived from the Spanish word barbacoa for the grill on which meat is roasted and it is used as a verb by the way of preparing the meat and as a noun in the name of a social event centered around eating it. In Texas everyone barbecues, from Texas millionaire ranchers and oilmen introducing their daughters to Texas society via a barbecue at a big spread to inter-city Texas poor folks that are just getting together and barbecuing in their back yards or front porches. Its been said that Texas is a place where they barbecue everything except ice cream. This is true but real authentic Texas Barbeque is beef brisket and is never cooked with a sweet tomatoes sauce like them Yankees and Deep South boys do! In Texas it is dry rubbed with a concoction of salt, pepper, garlic and chili peppers and them slowly smoked over mesquite wood for hours and hours and hours until the beef is tender with a moist texture that never needs a knife. The sauce is optional after the beef is barbecued.

Tex-Mex: Tex-Mex is rarely prepared at home unless you have live-in mexican help, but the genuine Texan does eat Tex-Mex at least once a week. Every town has at least one Tex-Mex restaurant and in big cities every third restaurant listing in the phone book is an El or La something-or-other. The texas refrigerator always is well stocked with pace hot sauce or some local salsa if only to make the after-work beer and nachos taste even better.

Chicken Fried Steak: A depression era holdover, chicken-fried steak reigns supreme as the Texas noontime meal. Eaten as often as barbecue, chili and Tex-Mex, it should never be referred to by any abbreviation such as CFS. An inexpensive cut of beef deep fried like chicken, it is to be found in every small town cafe and restaurant across the Lone Star State. The steak is always accompanied by mashed potatoes or Texas fries and the cream gravy made from milk, flour and meat drippings is poured over both meat and potatoes and flecked with lots of black pepper. Fried okra or jalapeno black-eyed peas are acceptable to be served with chicken-fried steak.

"Texas could exist without the United States, but the United States cannot, except at very great hazard, exist without Texas." - Sam Houston

"Gawd Bless Sammy Houston, The Republic of Texas and The Armadillos!" -"Caddylak" Maxy Gathings

"Remember The Alamo!" - Texas Freedom Warriors after the fall of the Alamo