SRS: point taken. But, Texas is a special case, innit?

Where I originally hail from, up there among the original 13 colonies, the boundaries and the people are all much closer together.

You could drive from Boston to Baltimore and cross parts of EIGHT states (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland), all within a distance not much greater than the mileage between two consecutive West Texas exits on the I-10 (Ozona / Fort Stockton). Well, that's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but the mileage would definitely fit within the Lone Star State, easily, even if it were to span two or three interstate exits.

The southeastern states may not be Texas-size, but they're pretty dern big, much moreso that in the northeast. Georgia is huge! I'll never forget the first time I drove from Chicago to Miami ~ we got to Atlanta and thought we were "almost there," but when we took a closer look at the map, we realized we were only at the halfway point!

New Orleans to Atlanta is hardly spittin' distance. Two separate universes, really...