"COOL" THINGS ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE NOW. What you like about where you live, great places to visit, local info, hot spots, backcountry roads, any topic that is great about your area. Cool Thing #5: Beautiful Montana scenery From Louise in Montana The cool thing about Montana is the beautiful mountain scenery. There are many outdoor activities to enjoy--hiking, fishing, camping, skiing etc. We aren't too far from the Northwest Coast and I enjoy visiting Seattle where my niece lives. Cool Thing #4: Texans are proud, great camping in the east Texas. From: huskerintexas of Dallas, TX We are very proud of ourselves, and our state. The people in Texas are very polite. The Texas Hill Country is awesome. The piney woods of East Texas is the best place to camp in the world. Cool Thing #3: It doesn't always rain in Moses Lake, Washington. From: John Polacek of Moses Lake, WA I moved to Washington from Nebraska last summer. When I told people back there I was moving here, they would make comments about it raining here all the time. That's not the case here in central Washington. The town I live in (Moses Lake) averages only 7 inches of rain a year. The summer days are hot but the humidity is low. It's a desert climate during the summer. The winter is pretty mild compared to some of the ones i experienced in Nebraska. We had about 8 inches of total snowfall. The temp hardly ever got down into the teens and the highs were in the 30's and 40's. There are lots of cool places to go visit within a few hours drive (mountains, coast, Grand Coulee Dam, The Gorge at George which is an outdoor concert facility). There also is a large lake right here, hence the name Moses Lake, for fishing, swimming, sunbathing. I thought I would a note about an "uncool" thing about here. Moses Lake is known as having the first school shooting in the U.S. I believe it happened in 1996. A student walked into his classroom and pulled out a rifle and killed his teacher and two students. Cool Thing #2: Summers in Newport, RI. From: RI Husker in Rhode Island Hey jimmyb, you're telling all our secrets! Misquamicut beach is a great beach, I go there often. But now everbody knows. The cool thing about living in Rhode Island is the summer. Love the ocean, and there's plenty of ocean here for such a small state. Newport, RI is a gem. Beautiful old homes, including the one where JFK and Jackie got married. Rugged coast, lighthouses, sweeping vistas...just beautiful. That's just one of the cool things, more to come. Cool Thing #1: Connecticut is close to cool beaches and more. From: Jim D. Berryman, New Haven, CT One great thing about living in Connecticut is summer and the beach. Just a short drive from New Haven is Misquamicut State Beach, just over the Connecticut border in Westerly, Rhode Island. It is a very busy long stretch of beach with waves that are famous for knocking you over. Great boogie boarding in the cold Atlantic Waves. On clear days, you can see Block Island on the horizon. Not many non-New Englanders know about this beach. It is also close to a more private and not-as-busy beach called Watch Hill, right at the very tip of the good old USA. Plus, there are ferries to Block Island within an hour of the beach, plus two of the largest casinos in the world. More on that in upcoming segments on "Cool" Things About Where You Live Now. We welcome you to send in or post your "Cool" item! MissingNebraska@MissingNebraska.com Post It