It is tough to sum up a state as big as this one, but here goes: Lone star, longhorns, the Alamo, 10-gallon hats, the oil business and the Dallas Cowboys all provide symbols of the second-largest U.S. state. However, there are quite a few other wrinkles in this fabric.

San Antonio has the Alamo and south-of-the-border charm; Austin has a great university and country western music; Dallas and Houston are on stage as large, modern, commercial cities. Significant parts of American history played out in Texas, and today, visitors have access to many fine museums and monuments that document the past. From Sam Houston to Lyndon Johnson, its heroes loom bigger than life, just as Texas claims to be.

Who goes there? With no clear-cut appeal to any single personality group, Texas is big and varied enough for everyone. And everyone comes.

Unlike some popular destinations that draw mainly from their own geographical region, Texas greets visitors from Maine to California. When do they go? Again, it’s hard to generalize with an area this large. Mostly, Texas is warm, so summers can be uncomfortable, but there is no obvious “season.” Locals suggest March or April, with April being the best for seeing wildflowers in bloom. Be aware, there is a hurricane season on the gulf which falls in late summer/early fall.

Go fishing, or try windsurfing, at the Padre Island National Seashore.

Humor yourself. Attend — even compete in — the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships, held each spring in Austin. Then visit the O.Henry Museum in town.

The style of humor is a little different at the annual Fire Ant Festival, which celebrates the fire ant each fall in Marshall. You will want to participate in events like ANTsmash dodgeball.

Go rock climbing or hiking on the Enchanted Rock, a huge pink granite boulder called Texas’ Ayers Rock. It is 425 feet above ground, 1,825 feet above sea level, and it covers 640 acres. Enchanted Rock is a state park, too.

Go boating, fishing, kayaking or whitewater rafting in Big Bend National Park.

Go tubing on the Medina River at Bandera, or take yourself down the river in a kayak or canoe. Bandera calls itself the cowboy capital of the world. It stages two rodeos a week from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Stay at a dude ranch (www.duderanches.com/Texas).

Listen to the local brand of country western music in Austin’s clubs and other venues.

Visit some of the darndest museums. Examples are Houston’s National Museum of Funeral History and the Devil’s Rope Museum (barbed wire) in McLean. Or, how about the Cockroach Hall of Fame in Plano?

Follow the Wind Power Trail in Texas and Oklahoma. It highlights 23 sites, some working windmills or windmill farms, generating energy every day, and some windmill museums, such as the J.B. Buchanan Windmill Park in Spearman, Texas, and the Shattuck (Okla.) Windmill Museum and Park. Did you know U.S. wind resources are on a par with Saudi Arabia’s oil resources?

Stay at the Prince Solms Inn Bed & Breakfast in New Braunfels, the place with the most haunting (pun intended) ghost story ever, and here it is: A bride was to wed in this inn, but the bridegroom did not appear. She vowed to stay at the inn until he came. She worked there two decades until her death in the late 1920s. In 1930, a man arrived on horseback seeking a woman. Staff saw a woman waiting in a wedding dress. The couple embraced and vanished. No one came to claim the man’s horse. The bride has returned numerous times, it is said.

Attend a Dallas Cowboys football game.

Walk the walk — the Riverwalk, that is, in San Antonio. It is a charming area with restaurants, clubs and hotels lining the San Antonio River, and saved years ago from developers’ plans to use part of the then-rundown area for parking garages. The river is narrow and compared by some with Venice’s canals.

Visit NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, which is open for tours.

Follow San Antonio’s Missions Trail which encompasses four missions built by the Spanish; together they comprise a national park. Round out the visits by touring the Alamo (also a former mission, and a small place, by the way). Attend the noon Sunday mariachi mass at the Mission San Jose, which, as the name suggests, features Mexican-style music.

• Tour the LBJ Ranch, now a national park. Air-conditioned coaches will take you around the ranch. See the LBJ Boyhood Home in Johnson City, too.

Tour the Blue Bell ice cream plant in Brenham northwest of Houston. Then, sample the finished goods. Tours are given on all weekdays, but calling ahead is recommended (800 327-8135 or 979 830-2197).

For more information, consult Texas Tourism at www.traveltex.com

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