Hehe, Texas rocks... you can get desert you can get woods you can get coastline... got a bit of everything here, and so long as you avoid the panhandle you don't get too horrible in the winter... Evidently I've got a Great Great Aunt (? my GGran's sister) in Palestine... we're eyeballing Denton and surrounding areas ourselves for a move in the next 12-24 months since UNT has a Masters/PhD Program in my hubby's field and UTA doesn't... I love the names of some of these small towns... Ponder for instance is particularly nifty.
Of course, if you aren't allergic to pine/cedar (like me) then Arkansas is a beautiful state, with very friendly folks.
Good luck in your search!
Edit... just saw the humidity remark, may want to scratch Arkansas and Louisiana as humidity is BRUTAL in summer for both... also a problem in some parts of Texas, Houston area for instance is always muggy, but up in DFW it's not too awful except this time of year (our rainiest month is May) when the temps and rain rise.