Living in a small town is weird in a lot of different ways (mostly because of the people). One of the strangest is seeing how the stores here are forced to offer a pretty wacky selection of products. They have to do this because there are so few stores. When we lived in the city, we loved finding the little out-of-the-way specialty stores that sold like two products - usually two fantastic products. But things just aren't like that here. I don't miss the traffic or the noise or the crime....but I do miss the stores. We lived a couple of blocks away from this little Italian food shop - it's been there like 80 years. They make all the sausage right there (spicy Italian sausage made with Marsala wine and big chunks Mozzarella ....OMG)....if you ask for a pound of Parmesan, they whack it it off this big brick of aged stuff. *sigh* But here it's all about----Walmart. I have nothing against the place....we have kids, we shop there, we save money. It's just that there's something so nice about a store run by people who really care about just one kind of product. To me it seems weird that here you can buy a gun in the same store you buy a crib.
Anyway. Someone told me that the local Shell station has a drive up coffee window. This just struck me as bizarre. I know lots of gas stations have that horrible crap coffee machine inside, but this is like a full on cappuccino bar in the gas station. I was very nervous about trying this place because it just seemed so wrong - like buying feminine products at the auto parts store or something. Anyway, I decided to be brave and was very pleasantly surprised. The coffee is actually really good and fairly cheap. My only complaint is that the cups are kind of flimsy (not to mention kind of embarrassing - carrying around a huge coffee cup with the big yellowy-orange Shell logo). I almost wish I hadn't found this place. It's so easy to just drive on up and get a coffee. The funny thing is that I've never actually been inside this particular gas station. There's probably a whole world of strange and wonderful products. Honestly, I'm not even sure they actually sell gas.
8.31.2007
Ethanolatte
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3 comments:
Ah Ha! I knew you would cave and try it. The great NW seems to have little java hut trailers in almost all of the gas station parking lots. I about feel out of my car when I moved here. Some of them are really cheap and really good, but most of them have new owners more often than some folks change underwear.
Yeah I caved. But this isn't a little shack in the parking lot - it's actually inside the gas station. We went there yesterday we had to like maneuver around this big gas truck that was refilling the pumps. Weird.
In order to get a good cup of coffee, I have to make it at my house. Or drive twenty-five minutes to Knoxville to the nearest Starbucks. And even then, I feel guilty for caving in and feeding the evil corporate homogenized coffee giant.
We do not have good take-out anything here in the boonies. We have good biscuits and gravy, yes, but good coffee? Oh, no, you have to make your own. Tasina, you are terribly lucky to have good coffee in a gas station. I am envious.
Also, I can't help but notice that... you still aren't smoking. YAY, YOU!!!
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