Midland Self-Guided (GPS) Audio Driving Tour, Texas - Where to live in Midland, Odessa, & surrounding counties

We’re starting off the tour today in the Urbandale neighborhood, located mid-Midland if you will, adjacent to downtown and its ever-growing entertainment options.

Urbandale is known for its mid-century ranch houses, with much of the real estate here dating to the 1950’s. Urbandale is a great spot for families, with Sam Houston Elementary, San Jacinto Junior High and Midland High School within safe and easy walking distance.

The low, ranch-style homes of Urbandale are mostly four-bedroom, four-bathroom houses, with a few three-bedroom options available. The median listing price in 2022 was $397,000.

Things are moving and shaking in downtown Midland as city managers are turning it into a destination for music, shopping, and nightlife, complete with designated open-container areas in which patrons may carry alcoholic beverages in “to-go cups.”

Additionally, the newly created Centennial Park has made downtown Midland a whole lot greener. It’s a “must visit,” modern, urban gathering place that serves as a catalyst for growth.
Lining Centennial Park, we see clear signs of this growth. The Midland Micro Market, begun in 2020, is both trendy and forward-thinking. It consists of 80-plus entrepreneurial clothing boutiques, wine bars, ice cream shops, and so forth, that are smaller and less expensive than your traditional brick-and-mortar locations .
Keep an eye on your GPS and head toward our next stop. The rest of our journey today will take us through the communities that line the western and northern edges of the city, so it’s a bit of a drive to our next stop. Along the way, I’m going to tell you a little more about this charming West Texas town.

“Permian” is an ever-present word in this part of Texas. Aside from the Jurassic, how many people can even reference another of Earth’s geologic periods? Around these parts, it is found in names from storage facilities to abstract companies, legal firms to electronics stores. There’s even the University of Texas Permian Basin, with its two campuses in Midland and nearby Odessa, established in 1973 by a Texas oilman.
So what’s the connection to this prehistoric period? Well, the Permian marine basin that existed 270 million years ago now produces one- fifth of America’s total petroleum and natural gas output!
The Midland-Odessa Combined Statistical Area, known informally as the Petroplex, is one of the fastest growing groups of counties in the nation.
Midland was founded as the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso on the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1881. It is the hometown of former First Lady Laura Bush, and the onetime home of former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as former First Lady Barbara Bush.
Midlanders, as they are called, enjoy their climate, one of the most pleasant in the state. Yes, it’s hot in the summer, and there are cold waves during the winter months, but rarely are there extended periods of below-freezing temperatures.
The city is known for having ambition, resilience, and grit. For a mid-sized Great Plains community, it has an impressive skyline earning it the nickname “The Tall City.” Its impressive downtown, rising in a dense cluster from the arid West Texas plains, can be seen from miles away when approaching the city on Interstate 20.
“The sky’s the limit,” has been a city motto for decades, while the water towers of Midland encourage residents and visitors to “Feel the energy!”
At an elevation of 2700 feet on the southern edge of the Great Plains, Midland is one of the most isolated urban areas in the lower United States. The modern and wealthy oil capital is a well-planned community offering many of the creature comforts of much larger cities. Inside its 71 square miles, elegant and comfortable residential areas display ample evidence of the city’s oil wealth along wide and well-landscaped streets.
Here the traffic jams of Houston, Dallas, and El Paso are almost nonexistent.
Given its relative isolation, aviation is of course an important transportation component for Midland, and it’s long been a regional air transportation center.
While MAF is its location identifier, the full appellation— “Midland-Odessa International Air and Space Port,” is pretty much the most far out airport name there is. That’s because in 2014 it was licensed to serve commercial spaceflight, making it the first airport to be given a space port designation.
Without leaving the ground, however, let’s launch forward and continue onward toward our next stop!

Adjacent to the Scharbauer Sports Complex near Tradewinds Boulevard and Champions Drive
lies Midland’s newest community. Legends Park is situated in lively west Midland with its
outstanding lifestyle offerings. With energy-efficient homes ranging in size from 1,600 to 2,500
square feet and priced from the $275000s, Legends Park is the perfect place for growing
Families. The area is served by Barbara B. Yarbrough Elementary School, located on your right side, as well as Goddard Junior High and Midland High School.

The Scharbauer Complex, directly ahead at the next intersection is a baseball park, football, and soccer stadium with a pavilion for concerts and other shows. It is named for a philanthropic, sheep and cattle-raising family that has been a major contributor to Midland growth and improvement since the 1800s.

Take a left at the T-intersection.

The complex is home to the Midland RockHounds, a minor league baseball team, which plays in
the Texas League, and is the Double-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. The RockHounds play
in Momentum Bank Ballpark, which opened in 2002 and seats over 6000 fans. The complex is
also home to the Midland-Odessa Sockers FC, an American soccer team.

Another philanthropic civic endeavor is an ultramodern performing arts center, named after the
major donor– Lissa Noël Wagner, of an established Midland oil and banking family. Part of the
vision for the Noël Wagner Performing Arts Center is to attract people of all levels of income,
ages, and artistic taste to its performances – there are over 150 scheduled shows a year including country singers, rock bands, Broadway shows, children’s programs, and comedians.

Up for some Beethoven or Mozart? The Performing Arts Center is also home to the
Midland-Odessa Symphony. Each season consists of a Masterworks series, Chamber
Series, or a Grand Series that includes all performances. There are also community
performances by the Midland Festival Ballet, as well as Broadway in the Basin – hosting
professional Broadway-show touring groups.

Pay Close attention to your Navigation – this next maneuver is a little tricky, getting you across the highway to the next stop.