Westphalia wasn't even on my map, so I was surprised when I got there. There's a sign outside of town saying that it's an historic rural town, or something like that, so I looked around and spied this huge church. There was also a schoolhouse museum which wasn't open at the time, but I probably wouldn't have gone in anyway. A gravestone in front of the church, a memorial to the aborted, had left a bad taste in my mouth, both ethically and aesthetically. Besides, I was hungry and wanted to get some thing to eat. The thing was, I couldn't find anything to eat.
Some of the towns I thought would be around weren't there, which didn't help, because I'd planned a lunch stop in one of them. I stopped and got some peanut butter crackers, but that didn't do it. I finally stopped in Groesbeck at a Dairy Queen that was advertising a $19 HungerBuster on the sign outside. I ate there, but my lunch was unsatisfying and made me grumpy. And my headache was worse.
I stopped and got gas in Corsicana ($1.49 a gallon), and even bought some apricots from a farm truck parked at the gas station. I had planned to find the cemetery there and look for the grave of a woman killed by a circus elephant, but traffic was bad and I couldn't be bothered. I was in such a bad mood that I drove all the way to Kerens before I stopped again.
© 2000 E.V. Hobbs