I thoroughly enjoyed Beck's road trip video of New Zealand. Beautiful coastal roads, mountains, and plenty of narrow, twisting roads. In contrast, I live in Katy, Texas which is "topographically challenged" in comparison to NZ. An inland coastal plain, the Katy area is as flat as a pool table. However, in areas where the encroaching suburbs of Houston have not arrived yet, the flat fields offer a wide vista, which I've featured in this video.
Once a rural farming community located on the MKT railroad (hence the name "Katy"), Katy now has mailing addresses for over 500,000 people as the suburbs move westward from Houston.
Items of interest in the video:
0:10 "stub out" where a developer has built a road out into a field to extend the Firethorne subdivision westward
0:24 mix of undeveloped farm land with new developments
0:46 "Old Katy" is unchanged, with the white grain elevator as the most prominent landmark
0:55 Downtown Katy
0:59 US-90 branches off from I-10 and is the main arterial road in Katy. This was the main east-west route leading to Houston prior to construction of I-10.
1:24 Katy Freeway (I-10) and Grand Parkway (TX 99) interchange under construction just east of Katy
1:32 From the west I-10 to south TX 99 flyover, looking back to the east along the Katy Freeway. The Houston skyline is visible on the horizon 25 miles to the east. No hills in any direction.
1:35 Formerly a main line of the MKT (Missouri-Kansas-Texas) the railroad is now just a spur and owned by Union Pacific.
1:39 Katy has a subtropical climate, so palm trees are a frequent sight.
2:31 US-90 just west of Katy is a two-lane blacktop road. A few miles to the west, US-90 rejoins I-10.
