West, Texas
Apr. 18th, 2013 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillian13West is a little town at exit 353 (northbound) on Interstate 35, about 100 miles north of Austin. It's one of those cute towns, very proud of their Czech heritage (they hold Czech Fest every year). My car is trained to take that exit--there are several gas stations, it's a good place to stop and stretch your legs.
But what I really stop there for is the kolaches. Either local sausage encased in soft sweet dough or open-faced fruit-filled ones. Poppy-seed-filled rolls. They make an excellent pecan pie. I've even eaten at a couple of sit-down restaurants in town, when time and finances permitted. And I always had to remember to bring extras, either coming or going. (The puppy-dog eyes I would get from family and friends were awful.)
I did not know they had a time bomb inside the city limits. That store to the right in that picture? That's the Czech Stop. It's a 24-hour convenience store attached to a bakery. I've been in there innumerable times; for a while there when I was living in Arlington and desperately driving back and forth to Austin, they even remembered my name. And my order. (Dozen mixed kolaches, corned beef sandwich on rye bread, pickles, iced tea.) Which, considering the thousands of people that come through every week is saying something.
Fertilizer plants are very, very dangerous places. Ammonia is extremely flammable, and remember, the bombing in Oklahoma City was accomplished using fertilizer and diesel fuel. You would think, of all places, Texas would remember this. Why, oh, why, was there one within spitting distance of a nursing home? An apartment complex?
This is horrible.
Here, have some animal babies.
But what I really stop there for is the kolaches. Either local sausage encased in soft sweet dough or open-faced fruit-filled ones. Poppy-seed-filled rolls. They make an excellent pecan pie. I've even eaten at a couple of sit-down restaurants in town, when time and finances permitted. And I always had to remember to bring extras, either coming or going. (The puppy-dog eyes I would get from family and friends were awful.)
I did not know they had a time bomb inside the city limits. That store to the right in that picture? That's the Czech Stop. It's a 24-hour convenience store attached to a bakery. I've been in there innumerable times; for a while there when I was living in Arlington and desperately driving back and forth to Austin, they even remembered my name. And my order. (Dozen mixed kolaches, corned beef sandwich on rye bread, pickles, iced tea.) Which, considering the thousands of people that come through every week is saying something.
Fertilizer plants are very, very dangerous places. Ammonia is extremely flammable, and remember, the bombing in Oklahoma City was accomplished using fertilizer and diesel fuel. You would think, of all places, Texas would remember this. Why, oh, why, was there one within spitting distance of a nursing home? An apartment complex?
This is horrible.
Here, have some animal babies.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-18 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-03 11:02 pm (UTC)