JLWM8609

The comments section says that's Long Beach, CA.

I didn't check out the store, but I stopped at the gas station at the Kroger yesterday. They had diesel fuel for $1.98/gal, 1 cent cheaper than Buc-ee's. Then, with my 3 cent discount with the Kroger plus card, it brought it down to $1.95/gal. If I had made a $100+ purchase at Kroger with the card, I could've gotten the fuel for $1.88/gal, which according to texasgasprices.com would be the lowest price in the state for diesel. $1.95's still good though.

Whoops! I can blame that one on being "tired while typing."

Though Stewart (formerly known as Don Massey Cadillac at that location) filled the void left when Bland closed down in 97-98. So an Olds dealer used to be there? Hmm, I never knew that. Though I do remember someone told me there used to be a Bentley or Rolls Royce dealer in that vicinity decades ago. Do you remember that? I wonder if that would be considered out of place if it were there today.

The Harris County Constable will keep tabs on that.

I've also been told that I'm a cunning linguist.

SH 288 has been planned with a dual freeway in mind since 1963. Of course, the freeway wasn't built then, but A.C. Kyser, the man in charge of designing Houston's freeways inside of the loop until the mid 70s, realized that the freeway would need to carry a lot of traffic. They weren't planned as toll lanes, but free "express" lanes. Of course, at that time, nobody thought of rail as an alternative, and if they did, they likely thought that the Columbia Tap rail line would do the job of serving the future suburbs to be built along 288. I don't think anyone then knew that the rail line would be torn up in 1985.

I don't think there's anything wrong with its location. If anything, it's conveniently located. Say for example, "Carl the Commuter" has a Cadillac, works downtown and lives out in Pearland. It's time to have it serviced. The Cadillac dealership is Alvin is not very far, but you have to drive to the east and away from SH 288 to get there. Instead, Carl can go on his normal morning commute up SH 288, take a detour that's only 1-2 miles out of his way, drop off his car, and take a taxi/light rail/loaner car to the office. If the car is ready at the end of the day, he can take the taxi/light rail/loaner car back to the dealer, get his Caddie, and be on his way back to Pearland without much modification to his commute. My story was probably a little far fetched, but possible. Another, more feasible scenario is for all of the Cadillac owners who live in the surrounding areas. There's quite a few late model Caddies here in the Riverside area, and I've seen a few out in West U, and even River Oaks. Most owners of late model Caddies and original owners of older models prefer to have their cars dealer maintained. Stewart is easily accessible from those points, actually serving the old footprint that Bland Cadillac covered until the late 90s. I think it's a great location. It's not out of place like say, a Bentley dealer located at SH 225 and 146.

My bad!

Stewart Cadillac's location serves it quite well, and it does a good job of serving its clientele. Not all Midtown dealers can be fashionably chic like Momentum BMW, with its 2nd story showroom putting new Bangle-Butt, iDrive disasters (sorry, but I'm more of a Benz guy!) right at eye level with traffic going down the Pierce Elevated. I can already picture the rubbernecking now. "Hey, Bob, take a look at that badass red 7 series in the showroom!" "Wait, lemme slow down, I can't see it well enough!"

Since we're going back and quoting one another, let me try something for a second. Yes, I found a photo of it on historicaerials.com. But why in heaven would camera batteries be needed for a photo found online? Unless... you wanted me to take a photo of it with a camera, like this? The musicman special everyone! j/k Here's a nice screenshot of the complex dating from 1957. That's Scott St. running just to the right of the complex.

My time machine batteries are dead too. I can't go to 1957 and snap a photo of it.

My dad told me about it years ago. I just found a photo of it on historicaerials.com. Holman Street Baptist Church owns the land now and uses it to hold picnics sometimes. I don't know, but it just seems kind of odd that a trailer park would be situated in this part of town back, especially surrounded by the houses that are out here. Unless it wasn't the stereotypical trailer park of today, maybe the 50s trailer park was different. Who remembers it?

Not at the moment. Perhaps I can snap a few when I'm back out there again.

I just noticed it today just north of the I-10 crossing of the bayou. It's the only tree growing straight out of the bayou that's left after flood control took all of the others out decades ago. It's got what appear to be gold bows and red globe ornaments. I thought it was interesting, it's no evergreen, but, hey?

I wonder if the project will be a combination of capacity added to the free mainlanes and an addition of toll roads? I was driving down the 288/59 merge, and it's got a few lane balance issues at the interchange at 59. Hopefully they can sort all of that out when the time for construction comes.

Eh... at least they didn't choose that "Hopes and Dreams" crap. So, will UH-Clear Lake and UH-Victoria be next in line for name changes as well?

You know, I've always thought that "City of Houston Maintained Water Crossing Structure # 2010-2CFBB" had a nice ring to it. Perhaps it'll fit this new bridge better than "Tolerance" bridge.

That monorail looked so cool, like a giant tylenol on a rail. Thanks to pop culture, whenever I think of a monorail, this will always come to mind...

That's great to hear how beneficial the site has been to you! Sounds like Haif has found a new slogan. "TheHAIF; Just what the doctor ordered."

In the newly cancelled "King of the Hill", there's been a few episodes that bring the characters to a cartoon Houston. The skylines didn't look quite right, but I think in one episode, they got the color of the police cars right.

I visited the new and improving Hermann Park today when I took my 2 year old niece to ride the new train. As someone who grew up on the old trains, the new train ride just wasn't the same to me. The shiny new train looked nice, but I missed the smell of the diesel exhaust (I think it was diesel) going through the old tunnel filled with crazy dancing figures. They have a tunnel now, but it's just a warehouse with a door at each end (I kid you not). Except for a few portions, the train follows an all new path, and you can really get a good view of the changes occuring at the park. Gravel walkways, nicer landscaping, etc... Part of me misses the old park, but another part is glad to see new air being breathed into the park.

I pass by where the Luby's on Buffalo Speedway used to be and I miss it dearly. The food seemed to taste better at that location than it did at the others, and I also liked the architecture of that location, it was not your typical run of the mill Luby's architecture that you see today. I'm glad that the Piccadilly is still around on W. Bellfort, I go there sometimes after church. The fried fish and fried chicken there are truly southern style, and side dishes aren't bad. I think I detect more "down home" seasoning in their cooking than in Luby's cooking. And strangely enough, I live about a mile and a half from the last remaining Wyatt's on Griggs and I haven't been there since I was a baby.

RIVERSIDE - I live on the banks of Brays Bayou, but I'm not in an evacuation zone. However, my zip code (77021) borders part of evacuation zone C (77023), and I live about 4-5 miles upstream of the Houston Ship Channel. They've widened the bayou between Ardmore and Calhoun and built some detention ponds upstream in the Medical Center and near Meyerland, and that'll help. There may be a risk of flooding, just not quite sure of the severity. I think the things that are the greatest risk here are tornadoes, heavy wind, and trees falling. The windows need to be boarded up, we have precut plywood leftover from Rita, so it's just a matter of placing it on. The house has been here since 1956, so it's weathered storms such as Carla and Alicia, so it's definately well built. We may ride it out, or leave and go out to a relative's place in 77096, pretty far from the evacuation zones.