This morning, I woke up at 6am so I could take the train to Leander. As I may have mentioned on this blog before, the MetroRail Red Line only runs during rush hour. And there is only one train that goes all the way to Leander in the morning and one in the evening. So if you take the early train to the end of the line, then you’re stuck in Leander until evening.
Today I did this. In fact, I am writing these words RIGHT NOW while riding back to civilization.
I will now share with you some of the things I saw on this fantastic journey, beginning at 6:58am.
What does that mean?
I got a seat with a table, then I setup my laptop and perused the web for suggestions of things to see in Leander.
The wifi was a tad slow, but it worked okay. The web however, did not have much to say about sightseeing in Leander.
The suckers driving cars were not in gridlock. Dammit.
I would have preferred laughing at them.
I must have seen a dozen deer on the way up. None of the turkeys that other bloggers have professed to have seen, but the deer were impressive enough. There were bucks with antlers still fuzzy with the spring velvet, and many, many doe.
Stepping off at the Leander station was like entering the end of the world.
It felt a little like when I was in Europe and I stepped off the train to an unfamiliar city, my presence unremarked and unnoticed by people living their daily routine.
There was a building nearby that I thought might have rest rooms, but it only had the saddest break room in the whole world.
And a little cardboard train.
The best thing to come out of Leander is the Leanderthal woman. She’s was a 30-year-old hunter of mega-sized bison who died 10,000 years ago.
The marker is a few blocks from the station.
Leander City Hall! This is where the excitement is!
Then I stopped at Moody’s for some chicken and waffles.
Crunchy and syrupy.
According to everything I’ve read, Baghdad Cemetary in Leander is where they did the filming of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Doesn’t this look like a defiled graveyard?
Actually, I think it’s kind of cute the way the gravestones are leaning up together, like they’re buddies or in love.
At a waterpark/sport facility at the edge of town there’s a bulldozered hill that’s easily the tallest point in town.
I think they made it just so that joggers will have something to run up.
Then I spent five hours at the Leander public library, stealing their wifi and doing work.
The library is located conveniently on a major arterial road with no sidewalks. That way it’s virtually impossible to reach it by foot, and hair-raising to get there by bike.
A typical Leander street with tract housing and no one in sight.
This was the only park I saw in Leander.
At Jardin Del Rey, a Pipian Enchilada, chicken with pumpkin sauce.
It was quite moist and delicious.
Then, because I had an hour and a half to kill, I biked down a narrow Ranch to Market road, with cars and dump trucks whizzing by me, in order to see the mass grave of the Webster party massacre.
They were all killed by Comanches, except for some women and children.
The Leander HEB is like a super-HEB and a Target and a WalMart all rolled into one. They even had an electronics section!
That would explain why the only retail I saw in town was a Goodwill used book store and the library used book store (open for three hours on Saturday).
