As ****** as it was to discover this 12 hours before I was supposed to board a plane I successfully used my big boy auger to cut and pull the roots.

The best way to get familiar with any area is to get on a plane and go see for yourself - I cannot recommend this enough. 

The only thing stupider than what I described above is wearing masks inside a plane.

Read it on a plane.

If you buy me a plane ticket, I'll come down there and talk houses with you lol.

My thinking is along the line fo the day the rent doesn’t show up and nobody answers the tenant’s phone, what’s your plane?

I agree with @Brian Simpson if Texas is a long term play for you it's worth hooping on a plane and visiting a couple of the cities you mentioned above and setting up your local team.

I also told her that it would be worth it when I was done because I would potentially be able to leave my job flying planes for the Navy, not deploy again, and be home to help raise our family. 

If anything, the new floor might be a touch lower than your existing bullnose piece and in that event, you can plane/sand it down and avoid having to build/buy a new one - much easier and nicer to reduce than add.

get on a plane if it is worth it.