US 190: NAVIGATING THE “HEART” OF TEXAS

Now that Texas is my home state, I want to discuss my journey from Southern California to Southeast Texas from April 11th to April 14th. The slightly over 1500-mile journey could have been done in three days and two nights if illness did not ravage the family during the drive. Having written a book about US 95 from the Mexican border through the United States to the Canadian border, it was interesting to take another long drive on an original US highway.

First, the topography of Texas needs to be explained. Think of Texas like a slanted plate with its highest end tilted up in the Agricultural Panhandle in Amarillo which sits at 3662 feet and the Western Desert from El Paso laying at 3740 feet. Both cities in Texas are on the east and south sides of the Rocky Mountains. During the drive down Interstate 10, the elevation does increase east of El Paso to over 4600 feet before the slow downward slide to sea level at the Gulf of Mexico (America?) begins. Once you enter Fort Stockton, Texas, you have driven four hours, 240 miles inside Texas already and are still at almost 4000 feet of elevation. Driving from California to this point, almost the entire drive has been desert topography from Palm Springs to this military town, a length of almost 1000 miles. To avoid the southern drift of Interstate 10, Google Maps recommended a new faster route to reach my destination of Willis, Texas, US 190.

US 190 is considered with its three digits an auxiliary route of US 90 which runs concurrently and rarely strays from Interstate 10 through Texas. US 190 ends into US 90 on the far eastern side of Louisiana after the city of Slidell which is just north of the city of New Orleans after travelling 875 miles. Upon entering the highway about an hour east of Fort Stockton, US 190 goes north for a few miles away from Interstate 10 before reaching a stop sign and beginning its journey east. Not too long after this eastward transition, the first city on US 190 is the small town of Iraan, population around 1000, which is an old, oil town built around the nearby Yates Oil Field which is currently owned today by Kinder Morgan. In 2026, the drilling of oil on this land will reach one century. Iraan is a poor town loaded with shanties and trailers for the oil workers. Passing through this oil town begins the US 190 journey through the Permian Basin, the largest producing oil field in the United States. As you continue travelling eastward, this region has a very Billy Bob Thornton, LANDMAN feel. Ranches besides having cattle are often filled with oil rigs. In this part of Texas, the transition of the land from the desert to a more greenish and sandy brush-filled environment begins.
 
So, a quick evaluation about the state of Texas before continuing. On a personal level, I despise a large portion of the state. Four of my least favorite large cities I have ever visited are all located in Texas: (El Paso, Amarillo, Midland, and Corpus Christi). Lubbock is only appealing due to Texas Tech university. Dallas is like Los Angeles but missing about 99% of the culture. And the people of that city didn’t replace it with anything. But as you move eastward through the state and learn to embrace its environment which is hilly in spots and very flat, Texas becomes very green and lush. This is why the Southern triangle of Austin (Hill Country), San Antonio (Edge of the desert), and Houston (Green Swamp Land) is my favorite section of the state. College Station is also a nice town sitting in the middle of the triangle with a university at its center. Nearby, Tyler to the east of Dallas is also very appealing. So as US 190 continues its journey eastward, the scenery becomes heathier and more beautiful. Upon entering the city of Brady where five major US highways meet in what is called the “Geographical Center of Texas”, all the remaining cities and towns on this highway are worth a visit. Brady has a loop in its downtown that takes US 190 around the courthouse sitting on an island in the center. After Brady, US 190 enters Hill Country, the most scenic part of Texas. Rolling hills filled with trees, open plains with two-foot-tall green grasses, and natural ponds littering the landscape sitting inside green meadows loaded with wildflowers that can be seen to the horizon, the homes and quality of the land gets increasingly impressive on this two-lane highway. The next town is San Saba, famous for being the birthplace of actor Tommy Lee Jones. Upon entering the “Pecan Capital of the World” (A crop that grows all over the hillsides nearby), there are rich communities of homes sitting to the north and the downtown is the nicest one that US 190 will intersect with on this long eastward drive.

After San Saba and passing through a few more small towns, US 190 hits the outskirts of the Waco area with the town of Lampasas. After passing through Kempner and into Copperas Cove, US 190 becomes Interstate 14, a transition that began in 2017. Interstate 14 is like the currently being developed Interstate 11 in Las Vegas, Nevada that runs along the US 95 route. Until reaching Interstate 35, US 190 and Interstate 14 run together where they separate once again inside the city of Temple where the interstate ends.

After leaving the Waco area, US 190 enters the Brazos Valley. This section of Texas is flat with large ranches either loaded with cattle or land loaded with vegetables and nut trees. Much of the land has luxury homes sitting on top of high-quality soil. This drive is also very green and passes by many waterways. Upon entering Bryan and College Station, my journey took me down Texas 6 while US 190 breaks off and begins heading northeast towards Madisonville.

A few days later, our journey on US 190 began again. After settling, my wife and I wanted to look at the city of Livingston near Lake Livingston about an hour northeast of our location near Lake Conroe. Taking a fourth type of highway in Texas (Separate from an Interstate, US Route and State Highway) are Farm to Market roads that are two lane highways that intersect the tree-filled, forested land in this region of Texas. From just east of the college town of Huntsville (Sam Houston State University), US 190 journeys towards Livingston. This drive is scenic but not as impressive as the Brady to College Station drive. Being a little more rural, the towns that US 190 intersects like Point Blank look like their best days were fifty years in the past. Lake Livingston is not as beautiful as Lake Conroe looking very muddy, murky, and apparently loaded with alligators. After stopping our journey on US 190 just east of the new Interstate 69 in the rustic downtown area of Livingston, our drive on THE HEART OF TEXAS HIGHWAY was completed.

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