It's still kind of true within Texas that going to the West takes you away from civilization. The four biggest cities are all in the eastern part of the state,

It's still kind of true within Texas that going to the West takes you away from civilization. The four biggest cities are all in the eastern part of the state, and the western part of the state is a whole lot of very empty desert punctuated with smaller cities and towns that are very far apart. One could even consider it a smaller equivalent of the Australian Outback, another occurrence of the word "out".