Heading North out of Austin on IH-35, past Waco, just past a fork in the highway leading to Fort Worth and Dallas, if you take the Dallas route you will see a sign
that says 2 (or 3) miles to CARL'S CORNER. CARL'S CORNER is a truck stop that is situated in a dry county. Carl wanted to serve hard drinks in his bar so
he filed some paperwork with the state and declared his truck stop a city.

Some elements of CARL'S CORNER. For motorist headed South past CARL'S CORNER, there are two bill boards for CARL'S. One is of a giant truck and
trailer with the trucker in the cab waving. THE OTHER is a billboard of a man, presumably Carl or the observing motorist, in a reclining chair. A woman in a tight red
miniskirt is bent over at the hips pulling the reclined Carl's cowboy boots off.

Now, my description is accurate, but I think it does no justice to the actual city of CARL'S CORNER. I was driving south years ago, probably eight years now,
when I first saw the above mentioned billboards. I must admit, I could not believe my eyes. What I experienced surpassed any level of offence I might have felt had
this billboard been in my own back yard--say, on the corner of Guadelupe and 28th street (where currently there is a billboard for a pornographic video store). No
this billboard for CARL'S CORNER caught my curiosity. The anthropologist in me was piqued. So exited the highway.

CARL'S CORNER is covered in a mural of giant images. Large animals are painted on display boards atop the buildings. The CORNER is like an oasis, a watering
hole in the vast (and boring) North Texas prairie and scrub. I pulled up in my own modest white early eighties Japanese pick-up truck with severe front-end damage
and a plastic pink flamingo wired to where the front grill used to be. I parked, got out of my truck, locked the doors and made certain I had my keys before I shut the
door. In the parking lot, the smell of marijuana wafted by with the dust turned up by eighteen wheelers. I crossed the remnants of an asphalt parking lot toward the
entrance to CARL'S CORNER.

Upon entering, I though the place looked normal. There were several isles for candy, chips, trucker supplies, and CARL'S CORNER t-shirts and hats. First things
first, I had to take a leak. I walked around the store and found a sign pointing to restrooms and showers. I found them, but more significantly I found the trophy wall.
The trophy wall has a couple hundred news clipping from years back. The subject is the controversy surrounding CARL'S CORNER's city charter. But there was
another topic.

According to the news clippings, some years ago CARL'S CORNER burned down! It was a catastrophic event for the truck stop. Carl didn't have the money to
rebuild his business. Fortunately the CORNER had by that time established itself in the trucker community. Thousands of truckers passing through every week had
come to rely on CARL'S CORNER as a haven, a place they could pull their boots off and whet their whistles. The CORNER was to North Texas, what Kansas
City was to the mid-West in the early cattle and booze moving days of the early 20th century. What with the North American Free Trade Agreement, CARL'S
CORNER is a necessity hub upon which the backbone of the American economy rests today.

All that served to draw attention to the catastrophe. So how did CARL'S CORNER get rebuilt? How was I standing in CARL'S CORNER at that time? Truckers
weren't the only people relying on the CORNER for a rest. Apparently Willie Nelson, the folk country music icon of Texas had frequented CARL'S CORNER for
years. Willie and Carl were actually great friends. So Willie did for Carl what any great musician would do for a friend in need. He held a benefit concert.

It was thanks to this benefit concert held by Willie Nelson on the shores of the nearby Lake Whitney, that CARL'S CORNER stands today.

I had finished reading the clippings about Willie Nelson and CARL'S CORNER when a waitress walked out of the bar the adjoins the convenience store I entered.

She asked me, "Are you here to see the show?"

I replied, "What show?"

"Willie," she said. My God, I thought, Willie Nelson is here now to play a show?!

"Willie?" I said.

"Yep," she said, "looks like Willie, sounds like Willie, but it ain't Willie."

Wow, I thought. This place is cool. No time for the titty bar though. I had a drinking engagement in Austin in two and a half hours. I exited the trophy hall back into the convenience store. I went to the ice box in
the back and pulled out a Coke (a Dr.Pepper actually) and grabbed a bag of peanuts. At the register, the cashier was a pre-teen girl, twelve probably. I suspect she
was Carl's niece or something. She was nice. I took my roadie and peanuts and headed out to my truck.

Everything was the same as before outside. I panicked for a moment when I thought of my keys, but they were in my pocket where I had put them. I got in my truck,
opened the Dr.Pepper and poured the peanuts inside. Then I got back on the road to Austin, drank my Dr.Pepper and chewed on the peanuts that fell to the spout
of the bottle each time I a swig.