The state of Texas is, to put it mildly, one heck of a vast expanse of land. To wit, ours is, by a fairly long shot, the largest of the contiguous United States and, among them all, second only to behemoth Alaska. For illustrative purposes, consider that within the 268,596 square miles of Texas that spread out between Perryton, in the Panhandle; Brownsville, in the Rio Grande Valley; El Paso, in far West Texas; and Orange, in the Golden Triangle of southeast Texas, you could squeeze almost fifty whole Connecticuts. And, believe the Texanist or not, the state could also encompass nearly 175 Rhode Islands, though that’s not really saying a whole bunch, as the mighty King Ranch alone is almost the same size as…