kepdawg
08-09-2006, 10:06 PM
Landmark Carl's Corner to get a makeover
02:02 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Associated Press
CARL'S CORNER - Carl's Corner is getting spruced up, Willie Nelson-style.
The country music star is among a group of investors involved in a $5 million project to add hotels, a saloon and even a golf course to the Texas truck stop on Interstate 35 south of Dallas.
"We're looking at a Branson, Missouri, concept out here," said Carl Cornelius, a longtime Nelson friend who incorporated the town in 1986 so he could sell alcohol in an otherwise dry part of Hill County. He's been mayor ever since.
Nelson began selling biodiesel at the stop, which features giant dancing frogs on the roof, in 2004.
The truck stop will be closed for about four months during construction and will reopen as Willie's Place.
A grand opening is planned for New Year's Eve with a concert featuring Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and others, Cornelius said.
"We've been friends and gambling buddies and drinking buddies for a long time," Nelson said. "I won a place in a poker game with Carl and now I'm trying to lose it back."
Nelson recently formed a company called Willie Nelson's Biodiesel that is marketing the fuel to truck stops. The product -- called BioWillie -- is made from vegetable oils, mainly soybeans, and can be burned without modification to diesel engines.
02:02 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Associated Press
CARL'S CORNER - Carl's Corner is getting spruced up, Willie Nelson-style.
The country music star is among a group of investors involved in a $5 million project to add hotels, a saloon and even a golf course to the Texas truck stop on Interstate 35 south of Dallas.
"We're looking at a Branson, Missouri, concept out here," said Carl Cornelius, a longtime Nelson friend who incorporated the town in 1986 so he could sell alcohol in an otherwise dry part of Hill County. He's been mayor ever since.
Nelson began selling biodiesel at the stop, which features giant dancing frogs on the roof, in 2004.
The truck stop will be closed for about four months during construction and will reopen as Willie's Place.
A grand opening is planned for New Year's Eve with a concert featuring Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and others, Cornelius said.
"We've been friends and gambling buddies and drinking buddies for a long time," Nelson said. "I won a place in a poker game with Carl and now I'm trying to lose it back."
Nelson recently formed a company called Willie Nelson's Biodiesel that is marketing the fuel to truck stops. The product -- called BioWillie -- is made from vegetable oils, mainly soybeans, and can be burned without modification to diesel engines.