little road trip

My friend S., who grew up around here, took me for a sight seeing drive yesterday. To no where. It was wonderful. I saw a horizon of something besides concrete and buildings and expressways. We drove out 35West, through Fort Worth. We made only two stops - Itasca for a photo of the non-concrete vista and West for kolaches. Yes, there is a town in eastern Texas called West.

It was a good drive, only a few hours. It was a hot, humid day, all the better to spend in an air conditioned car.

On the way back into town, S. drove through Grand Prairie - where he grew up. A nice town, but what struck me was his high school. Huge. Frightening, really. For approximately the same size student body as my high school. I know that my high school was large, but I don't remember it being huge. Not to mention that at S.'s school they recently re-built the football stadium - it has boxes. Yes. Glassed-in boxes overlooking the field. He says football has always been important for that school, but even he was surprised when he first saw the new stadium.

Some photos.

Fort Worth's version of Spaghetti Junction:
















The road to Itasca, pop. 1503:

























The Czech Stop. One of the well-known spots for kolaches. I had never heard of a kolach before. They are amazing. Take a yeast dough - like the perfectly fluffy ones you only seem to allow yourself at holiday meals - put in the center a generous portion of your choice of lightly sweented cherry, strawberry, blueberry, or apricot preserves, bake. Mmmmm. Or, the ones I chose, add a cream cheese topping and bake into pastry nirvana. The bakery is attached to the quick stop (which also houses a fabulous deli for the meat eaters). The bakery sign proclaims that Delicious is our Busines: