Hello,
San Antonio is architecturally and culturally pleasant. Pade Island is recommended as beach, dunes. Stay if possible in the Gage Hotel in Marathon on the way to big Bend, a park along the Mexican border, where the Sierra Madre and Chihuahua Desert come to an end in Texas. Big Bend Ranch in that region is also interesting. The border, crossing the border, are now dangerous if interesting: drug gangs rule, there is essentially no law but the gun on the Mexican side, when push comes to shove. See the film ‚No Country for Old Men‘ or read the book. In English. The entire trip from Del Rio to Marathon-Alpine is extremely scenic, at one point you cross the Pecos River, granite cliffs with Indian carvings. No country for Old Men was shot in and around Sanderson and Del Rio. North of El Paso near the New Mexican border are granite hills with Indian carvings. Nearby in New Mexico is White Sands, also the missile park where two V-2 rockets decorate the entrance (von Braun became our hero, after he was yours). Also nearby: Carlsbad Caverns. The Texas Hill and lake country around Lake LBJ is very pleasant, and Ledernale Falls is very nice. German from the 19th century is widely spoken by older people from Fredericksburg to New Ulm, especially around Roundtop and Lagrange. My wife (Münchnerin) wrote a masters thesis on the migration in 1994.
Houston and Dallas are not so special. Galveston is pleasant if you’re near Houston. The northwest, Abilene-Lubbock is high plains region with some canyons, but in May you have to be alert when walking, poisonous snakes are abundant and like to sunbathe on rocks. Don’t place your hand where you can’t see, just stay alert. As you would lower in the Italian Alps, where vipers are abundant,