Carbon-izer.com - I-35 in Bell County
Interstate 35 in Bell County
Part of the southern part of the "Waco-Temple-Killeen" area, I-35 winds through mostly Temple (and part of Belton) before going back south again. US-190 continues toward Killeen and Fort Hood (not intended to be covered). Continuing on from I-35 in Waco, Interstate 35 snakes its way through the Temple-Killeen area (though mostly just Temple and Belton).

Version 8.0 is a proper update to the page that adds American Fireworks Superstore, Maco Manufacturing, Best Western Inn & Suites (Temple), Western Hills Church of Christ (featuring a former Del Taco/Carl's Jr.), Los Tres Magueyes, Mac Haik Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, Firestone Complete Auto Care, Tricolor Auto (featuring apartments on Ira Young), Chili's, Hampton Inn, Horny Toad Harley-Davidson, 7-Eleven (at E. Loop 121), and Chevron (near the county line).


OLD BLEVINS ROAD to FM 1237

There's a residential neighborhood to the north of here, but this is where next overpass is. Fixing a decades-old design error, the rebuild of this overpass finally had Big Elm Road continue straight instead of veering north and curving around. This is where Troy, Texas is.

American Fireworks Superstore / 151 E. Big Elm Road
This large fireworks store (5,800 square feet) was built in 2005 but it's only open for four weeks out of the year, just before July 4th, and just before New Year's. Otherwise, it's empty and locked up.

Anderson Auto Salvage / 13683 N. Interstate 35
Like the entries toward the bottom of the Waco page, there just aren't a lot of landmarks between overpasses. There is another overpass just to the south of here, but it doesn't seem to have a name or a dedicated exit/entrance set.

Chevron / 5 North Central Avenue
The I-35 widening made a mess of Troy, taking out a variety of businesses on the north side of the freeway (a row of several whole blocks), but this gas station (with a "Pit Stop" convenience store) opened in 2012, replacing a smaller Shell station on the lot. It was initially a Shell (keeping its larger freeway sign) but converted to Chevron between 2015 and 2022.

One of the destroyed gas stations was an Exxon at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and I-35.

It should also be noted that in the mid-2010s (after the demolitions), an unmanned, four-pump Valero station was built in the block south of where this gas station is, though I can't find a reliable address for it.

Love's Travel Center / 1610 Cotton Gin Road
This Troy truck stop opened in December 2017. The truck stop features McDonald's and Subway as food options. Despite the "Loves Boulevard" crossing the freeway (added in the mid-2010s widening), it is not accessible off of that road.


FM 1237 to WEST NUGENT AVENUE

Somewhere in the northern part of this section, I-35 assumes its name in Temple—General Bruce Parkway.

Mueller Inc. / 7050 N. General Bruce Drive
The Temple branch of this metal roofing company is a modern building, completed in 2012. The old Mueller building, destroyed in the widening, is just south of here.

Lucky's RV Park / 111 Hart Road
RV park. Nearby at, 6278 North General Bruce Drive, is the site of Lucky's Truck Stop (possibly common ownership). The store, an Exxon brand, was torn down in widening but some old, debranded canopies still remain.

Further research indicates prior to the mid-2000s, the truck stop was called "Willies 305 Truck Stop" and/or "W Wheels".

Kyrish Truck Center of Temple / 6043 N. General Bruce Drive
It appears that this was called "Longhorn Truck Center" prior to Kyrish buying them, though the old name still hangs up. The building was built in 1989 and has a driveway connecting back to Hart...past Hart was where the frontage roads ceased being two way and back to one way again (before construction made it continuous one way). Also, just south of here, the railroad peels away again.

Burger King / 4405 N. General Bruce Drive
This Burger King opened in early 2019. It's part of a new development at the northeast section of NE HK Dodgen and I-35.

Taco Bell / 4331 N. General Bruce Dr.
This Taco Bell opened in very late 2019 or early 2020.

Starbucks / 4307 N. General Bruce Dr.
According to StarbucksEverywhere, this location opened in March 2019.

CEFCO / 12310 NW H.K. Dodgen Loop
This CEFCO still features a full truck stop and features Wendy's inside the store. It is CEFCO #43 and anchors the southwest corner of the Loop. It opened in the year 2000. Sometime between September 2019 and spring 2021 it converted to th CEFCO brand from Shell (most other CEFCO stores had converted back around 2016).

While it isn't quite the SW section as we previously covered, it does loop around to it, with the western part connecting directly and the eastern part looping around to intersect it southeast of Temple. The road itself ends in Elgin (as 95) or in Milano (as 36), depending on which direction you're going. At the northeast corner of the intersection, a Diamond Shamrock with Corner Store was here. It was converted to Valero later on (still with Corner Store) but was torn down in 2012.

Buc-ee's / 4155 N. General Bruce Drive
Opening April 1, 2015, the Buc-ee's in Temple is...well, it's a Buc-ee's. It has to be seen to believed. We're talking about a convenience store the size of a grocery store here (but with more space devoted to restrooms).

Texas Inn / 3309 N. General Bruce Dr.
This small motel had to have a special driveway built for it after the construction which completely reconfigured the intersection. Originally, North 3rd Street merged straight into the freeway's frontage road going north with a ramp flyover going directly to it southbound, and shared some ramps with Industrial Boulevard, which crossed over the freeway.

Afterward, North 3rd simply curled and crossed over the freeway into Industrial Boulevard, with the older Industrial Boulevard segment on the east side being cut off. (This is a little confusing, so see the intersection BEFORE and AFTER).

You can see that Continental Inn (3300 N. General Bruce) on the other side of the freeway wasn't so lucky.

Carpenter / 2611 N. General Bruce Drive
As the overpass implies, this part of I-35 is mostly industrial. The Carpenter plant opened in 1966 per their website and does foam pouring for furniture, automobile seats, and other uses.

Maco Manufacturing / 2204 N. General Bruce Drive
Maco's website explains that they moved into their current building in early 2008 but does not mention since then about a third of the building had to be removed for highway construction.

It appears that the highway construction meant that Maco stayed but their parent company Indeco Sales (which had been with them since the early 1970s) relocated.

Quality Suites / 1415 N. General Bruce Dr.
This hotel was originally Comfort Suites, then Baymont, then Quality Suites. It appears to have been built in the mid-2000s with the original hotel assumed to be Comfort Suites but not confirmed.

Rodeway Inn / 1610 W. Nugent Ave.
This hotel (according to an old Six Continents hotel directory I have) has three floors and 61 rooms, and was (originally?) a Holiday Inn Express. It became Quality Inn in 2008, by 2013 was a Motel 6, and became Rodeway after 2019.

Chevron / 1300 N. General Bruce Drive
The former home to Hidden Valley Moving and Storage (also known as Mayflower Storage, as it had a big MAYFLOWER logo painted on the side). Briefly before it was mostly torn down for the widening in the early 2010s, it was the home of Blue Dolphin Diving Center. About 60% of the building was torn down, but in 2020, renovations began on the building, transforming it into the Texstar Travel Center convenience store with a Chevron gas station. Just north of here was the Stratford House Inn, has another location elsewhere in Temple now, but this location at 1602 N. General Bruce was a sacrifice to I-35. The motel had been there under that name since 1988.


WEST NUGENT AVENUE to Railroad Overpass


Days Inn / 1104 North General Bruce Drive
Days Inn Temple has been here at least since the 1990s (gotta love their distinctive signage) but the freeway widening meant they had to compromise. The lobby building and pool area were lost in the widening, so a lobby had to be carved out of some motel rooms (looks to be about 6, three in the front and likely another three in the back) and a new pool hastily added behind the parking lot. Before the freeway widening and room-to-lobby conversion took place, the motel featured 58 units.

American Inn / 1100 N. General Bruce Drive
The I-35 widening bit off the front part of this motel, requiring a new lobby to be carved out of rooms. It looks strange because the first floor of the hotel is about half a story down from the highway around it. During the planning process of widening the freeway (late 2000s?) this was a Motel 6 and remained as such as late as November 2016 before becoming a Knights Inn sometime in 2017. In the midst of all these motels (just to the west of Knights Inn) was a Kettle (though had served as a Denny's in recent years) at 1010 North General Bruce Drive.

The American Inn name came in between 2019 and 2022.

Motel 6 / 802 N. General Bruce Drive
The occupant in the 2000s was a Travelodge and later spent some time as a Knights Inn (c. 2016, after widening; it jumped next door) and is now a Motel 6/Studio 6. Why Motel 6 and Knights Inn switched places is a complete mystery. The brands do not have common ownership.

Econo Lodge / 1001 North General Bruce Drive
This Econo Lodge has been operating under this name since at least the mid-2000s but further information is currently elusive. Perhaps in a future update more will be revealed. (The address here looks like it should be further north, but it isn't, it's actually more south from the Motel 6).

Texas Roadhouse / 624 N. General Bruce Drive
As we approach downtown Temple, there are restaurants along this stretch. Texas Roadhouse opened in April 2005. The widening cut off the front part of the parking lot but otherwise did not affect the business.

Best Western Inn & Suites / 602 North General Bruce Drive
This Best Western hotel opened around 2000-2001. Highway construction in the early 2010s forced a rebuild of the swimming pool in the back property (as opposed to the front).

Pizza Hut / 603 N. General Bruce Drive
Pizza Hut has been at the corner of Jack White Street and I-35 since 1985, but recent construction relocated Jack White Street to the south of Pizza Hut (where it did not have an entrance) on the site of Johnson Bros. Ford (1702 Jack White).

As of 2021 there were some buildings from Johnson Bros. Ford to the north of and behind Pizza Hut that remained since the 2012 move-out of Johnson Bros. Ford, but by 2022 these were razed. The former Jack White Street now serves as a parking lot access, and unofficially there still is access to the new Jack White Street from Pizza Hut.

411 North General Bruce Drive
This restaurant has been abandoned for a decade. I first mentioned the chronology in my old former restaurants page for Shoney's. It was Shoney's from approximately 1993 to 1999, then converted to Jim's around this time (similar to the Waco Shoney's-turned-Jim's), but in 2005 Jim's closed and was replaced with Pancho's Mexican Buffet (an odd choice considering Pancho's was quite dated by that time). Pancho's closed in 2007 and was replaced with "Asian" (a Chinese buffet) until around 2008. Mad Mongo's opened in 2010 but closed in 2012, and it has been vacant since.

Tapa Tapa's / 301 N. General Bruce Drive
From what I can tell, Wendy's was here since the late 1970s and closed here in the mid-2010s, with Tapa Tapa's opening around late 2019 or January 2020. It is just a Mexican restaurant, not an actual tapas bar.

Dutch Bros Coffee / 201 North General Bruce Drive
This was a Long John Silver's restaurant from 1975 and closed sometime in late 2020 or early 2021 (it had the 1980s logo upon its demise). By the end of 2021 it was torn down and rebuilt as a Dutch Bros Coffee location as the West Coast chain multiplied across Texas.

211 N. General Bruce Drive
This operated as a Mr. Gatti's from 1976 to 2006 and later a Texas Car Title & Payday Loan for most of the following decade, but since 2016 has been vacant.

Western Hills Church of Christ / 210 N. General Bruce Drive
This church appears to have been built in the early 1960s (circa 1964, 1965) and just to south of it is a vacant spot at 1908 W. Adams Avenue, which according to BCAD, the church also owns these days. This was a gas station in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1980 it was redeveloped as a Del Taco (for a few years) and later a Carl's Jr. in the mid-1980s (source). Carl's Jr. was already out by 1990 and around 2007 the vacant building was torn down.

Whataburger / 115 North General Bruce Drive
Records indicate that this Whataburger was built and opened in 1993. It also may have been a Taco Bueno in the very early 1990s (it has this address). From 1985 to 1992 it was Taco Bueno, overlapping with Taco Villa's stay in the next spot over, though again, this may be a screwup in records.

Black Rifle Coffee Company / 111 North General Bruce Drive
This opened up as Taco Cabana around 1992 and became Starbucks about a decade later. Starbucks Everywhere shows this Starbucks and the one further north both operating simultaneously (and there are Yelp reviews for this store through 2019), so it's very likely it was a COVID-19 victim and closed in spring 2020. While the design of the building is one of Taco Cabana (built that way, Starbucks even kept part of the highway signage), the article regarding its 2001 opening implies that Taco Cabana was not the first fast food on the site, and Historic Aerials backs this up. It appears it was Taco Villa was back in the 1980s.

In December 2021 it reopened as a location of Black Rifle Coffee Company.

2001 W. Adams Avenue
This used to be an Albertsons (#4222, originally 4242), closed in December 2004 and opened in 1979 as one of the early Albertsons stores opened in Texas after Albertsons broke up their partnership with Skaggs Drug Companies. Later on from the late 2000s up until around 2021, this was a church ("Ministry of Hope").

Future Cues / 102 S. General Bruce Drive
Future Cues, a pool hall and bar, opened here in 2011 (next to a church!). For years it was Dollar General (1995-2008), and was Ray Mart (1990-1995). Ray Mart is the corporate name of Tri-Supply Home Products (still with a store in the area), but it might have gone under the "Ray Mart Building Center" name when it was open here.


Railroad Overpass to SW H K DODGEN LOOP

Prior to the reconstruction of the highway, from this point almost to Loop 363 was an elevated viaduct with no exits or entrances, just a few entrances beneath the freeway. West Avenue H did go under the freeway originally (to Wilson Place) and had exit/entrance ramps to the east of it (for the whole system) but no longer. It still does have stoplights on the frontage road.

2275 West Avenue D
Former site of corporate offices & production facilities of Wilsonart (one of the largest makers of laminates in the world), and had the address of 2400 Wilson Place when it was operating here. They officially moved out around 2014, at which point most of the building was torn down in 2015. This wasn't related to the freeway construction, but the road it was officially located on (2400 Wilson Place) was eliminated, along with an office building next to what is now Best Quality Meats.

A bit of trivia is that Wilsonart was once part of the Kraft foods empire when its parent company since 1966, Dart Industries, was merged with Kraft Inc. in 1980 to form Dart and Kraft, though in 1986 that ended as Kraft spun off the non-food industry and renamed to Kraft once more (before being bought by Philip Morris Cos. and forced into a merger with their existing foods company, General Foods).

It appears that Atlas Storage has taken over the space but I cannot match it up with the address.

Best Quality Meat & Barbecue / 2418 S. General Bruce Drive
This opened around early 2014 replacing their old location down the street. The building formerly was Keg Lounge before Best Quality, and Best Quality had to change their address again. Formerly, this was 2410 Wilson Place but Wilson Place (the road) was eliminated as part of the I-35 project. The parking lot uses 2408 Wilson Place, Temple Towing Service, which moved to Shallow Creek Road in the early 2010s as it was condemned for road construction.

The above description is from Wikimapia again (similar to Fuego on the Waco page), back when I was writing for them instead of writing my own stuff. There's a number of clearances just west of here, including a Shell/CEFCO (2410 S. General Bruce Drive, sitting on a triangular pice of land), Cen-Tex Alcoholic Rehab Center (2500 S. General Bruce Dr.), originally built as a motel, complete with a pool and lobby (it was "Jean Motel" from 1981 to 1985), and the old "Best Quality Meats & Sausage" at 2610 S. General Bruce Drive (opened here in May 2002 and closed in late 2013), Barrell (or Barrel) Inn at 2616 S. General Bruce (actually a bar), and Temple Inn at 2700 S. General Bruce, spread across two buildings.

Los Tres Magueyes / 2801 S. General Bruce Drive
Los Tres Magueyes opened in 2004 in a small walk-up restaurant location (history of which is unknown). An adjacent Texaco station (2815 S. General Bruce Drive) was taken over as Magueyes Tire Shop from around 2014 to 2018, but that went away in 2018 when both the restaurant and the tire shop were torn down for the new full-service restaurant.

Clem Mikeska's Bar-B-Q / 1217 S. 57th Street
This barbecue restaurant moved this large location in 2008, demolishing all but two buildings in the block. The cul-de-sac for West Avenue L took out another building on this block, Central Texas Kitchen Center, at 1201 S. 57th Street.

Triangle Drive In / 2701 S. General Bruce Drive
Also known as Triangle Food Mart, the logo is a T imposed over a yellow triangle. It converted to this off-brand name between 2019 and 2022 (previously a Shell).

Oasis Motel / 2711 S. General Bruce Drive
This motel was built in 1950 and is the oldest motel in Temple. The main sign was replaced at some point, previously smashed out by high winds, but it remains open.

7-Eleven / 2903 S. General Bruce Drive
Opened 2020 as a self-branded 7-Eleven (with gas), the site was once a building that housed the Little Joe y Familia Museum, dedicated to Tejano singer Little Joe. The museum moved out due to highway construction and does not seem to have a new permanent location yet.

Mac Haik Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram / 3207 S. General Bruce Drive
This car dealership was rebuilt in 2013 after it had been here since the 1950s. This article is a good historical overview of the dealership.

Firestone Complete Auto Care / 3450 South General Bruce Drive
This Firestone opened in 2013. Due to the fact that it is north/east of Tricolor Auto, it is placed before it on this list.

Tricolor Auto / 3301 S. General Bruce Dr.
This small-scale auto dealership became Tricolor Auto around 2018 and was formerly DriveTime since 2006. For the 1990s it was Crown Motor Company before it moved.

There's a few apartments back here toward 57th Street (which we briefly covered here) on Ira Young Drive, including Chappell Hill Apartments (3009 Ira Young Drive), Chappell Creek Village (3010 Ira Young), and The Park at Chappell Hill (2803 Ira Young Drive).

Natural Grocers / 3621 S. General Bruce Dr.
Temple-Killeen doesn't have many alternatives to H-E-B as far as grocery shopping goes, but this small grocery store opened in 2011.

Olive Garden / 3625 S. General Bruce Dr.
After closing several years back on Loop 363, this Olive Garden opened in spring 2008.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store / 3687 S. General Bruce Dr.
This Cracker Barrel restaurant opened in spring 2009.

Bird Creek Crossing / 3550 S. General Bruce Drive
This shopping center features a number of restaurants and retail establishments under the same address including Target (T-2278, opened July 2007), The Home Depot, Taco Cabana, BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, and others. Check out the PDF here (archived from this link. (I realize it's technically out of order, but it makes more sense this way).


SW H K DODGEN LOOP to EAST 6TH STREET

We now meet back up with SW HK Dodgen Loop which we have previously written about.

7-Eleven / 3805 South General Bruce Drive
This 7-Eleven (gas + convenience store, gas self-branded) was built in the old partially removed Kmart parking lot (see above).

3809 S. General Bruce Drive
This was a Kmart (store #3217) that operated from October 1974 to April 2003 at 84,180 square feet. After it closed, the building was mostly torn down and rebuilt as a ~24,000 square feet strip center with most of the former space being new parking lot. It has an AT&T store, a UPS store, a nail salon, and a few other spaces.

Chili's / 3810 S. General Bruce Drive
This chain restaurant has had a place in Temple since 2002. Practically right next to it is an IHOP, which has the address of 3913 Bell Drive (Bell Drive is not really close to IHOP anymore, having been reconfigured with a new overpass). The IHOP still has the 24 hours signage despite not being 24 hours since 2020.

McDonald's, Chili's, and IHOP were all redeveloped from a former industrial site.

McDonald's / 3814 South General Bruce Dr.
This McDonald's restaurant opened in 2002 and has been renovated to current prototypes.

Hampton Inn / 3816 S. General Bruce Drive
Hampton Inn Temple opened over a decade after its contemporaries (opened in 2014) but was still carved out of the same piece of land. It sits behind the Chili's and the McDonald's.

Bell County Motoworks / 3925 S. General Bruce Drive
There used to be Luby's Cafeteria restaurant here, opened in 1994 but closed permanently May 2, 2017. For a few years afterwards before renovations began, the marquee sign indicated that the Bellmead store (40 miles away!) was still open. In February 2020 it reopened as a motorcycle dealership featuring the Indian and Triumph brands.

Sol De Jalisco Mexican Restaurant / 4201 South General Bruce Drive
From 1997 to January 2005 (though the catering side of the restaurant lingered on, likely into 2006), this was El Conquistador Restaurant. In 2010, Sol De Jalisco opened here. In fall 2021, the restaurant made national news when an angry customer threw a bowl of spicy menudo at a manager's face.

LongHorn Steakhouse / 4507 S. General Bruce Drive
This chain restaurant opened in 2014 in the parking lot of Gateway Center. Gateway Center, anchored by Ashley and Cinemark, is a little harder to nail down because everything has the same address, making it difficult to find the original anchors, and aerials suggest that it was a mini-mall (possibly outlets) at one time.

Golden Corral / 5101 S. General Bruce Drive
This opened in 2013, a few years after the old Dodgen location closed (see HK Dodgen Loop page). It's not directly accessible from the highway frontage road, instead it's off of Tristan Lane, which connects to the frontage road.

Sunoco / 5421 South General Bruce Drive
A small gas station with the store fitting over the canopy, this used to be a Philips 66 (until 2021 or 2022). For such a store to be branded as a Sunoco (which usually has 7-Eleven stores in this part of the country) is unusual.

Mexicano Bar & Grill / 5509 S. General Bruce Dr.
More accurately, Mexicano Bar & Grill #3, this was likely some sort of chain restaurant but I can't find it.

Valero / 5510 S. General Bruce Drive
This Diamond Shamrock gained the Corner Store/Valero name in the mid-2000s and eventually became a Circle K/Valero.

Horny Toad Harley-Davidson / 7454 S. General Bruce Drive
This motorcycle dealership was built in 2009, relocating from from 720 N. General Bruce Drive, where it had been from 2006 to 2009.

River Forest Inn / 1414 E. 6th Avenue
This motel has been here since the mid-1960s and is spread across several buildings.

1600 East 6th Avenue
This was a stand-alone Sears Parts & Repair store (and until the mid-2010s had the old-school block lettering Sears logo, with "Sears Service Center"). The new-style logo didn't last long, and by July 2019 the building was boarded up, presumably because of SHLD's bankruptcy filing in late 2018. Behind it is a CEFCO gas station and convenience store with a kolache store inside. (The CEFCO, located at 1702 Taylor Valley Road, was formerly a Shell prior to 2016-2017).


EAST 6TH STREET to INTERSTATE 14

At this point, the S. General Bruce name is dropped and numbering resets. The Belton area has a clustering of fast food restaurants.

McDonald's / 1601 East 6th Avenue
This McDonald's was built in 1986 but has been upgraded and renovated a few times, losing its mansard roof in the mid-2010s. Additional parking was built in 2012.

Pizza Hut / 400 Neil Avenue
While Pizza Hut has an official address, Pizza Hut still recognizes by its original non-numerical address of "Neil Street & Highway 35". It has been here since 1976.

Whataburger / 307 N. Interstate 35
Whataburger has been here since 1992.

Schlotzsky's / 1012 East 2nd Avenue
This restaurant space has been a number of things before Schlotzsky's, which has been here since 2008. According to resources currently available, the restaurant's chronology includes the following: Shirley's Restaurant (1979-1980), Spurlock's Restaurant (1981), Wok's Chinese Restaurant (1983), Hallmark Grease Busters (1988-1990), and Great Southwest Restaurant (1992-2007).

McCoy's Building Supply / 212 S. IH 35
McCoy's has been here since the mid-1970s. To the south is an empty warehouse, which has a long concrete platform running the length of it. This used to be a railroad spur (and before the Interstate, the railroad went across into Belton). The rail spur has been inactive for a while now, but as of 2009 the tracks could still be seen on either side of the recently-repaved East 6th Street.

McCoy's also had rail access as well in the past.

Burger King / 206 N. Interstate 35
Burger King was built here in 2001.

Starbucks / 200 N. IH-35
Starbucks Coffee built a store here in March 2013, at the same time as a small retail building next door that currently houses a Jimmy John's. These buildings share a parking lot, but the parking lot is not connected to the Burger King next door.

Arby's / 110 N. Head Street
This Arby's restaurant built new in late 2016 on a vacant lot, with a sign visible from the Interstate.

CEFCO / 912 E. Central Avenue
CEFCO has anchored this gas station since 1997 and it was a Shell as of 2008. Between October 2016 and October 2017, CEFCO assumed the gas brand.


INTERSTATE 14 to SHANKLIN ROAD

Interstate 14 (US 190) continues with limited entries at this link.

CEFCO / 1600 N. Interstate 35
CEFCO (self-branded) has been here since 2004 but it was branded as a Valero as late as July 2019.

It opened as "Southwest Travel Center" in 1985, was Payless Gas from around 1988 to 1991, then became a Diamond Shamrock store after that, continuing as such until the Diamond Shamrock brand was retired in the mid-2000s for Valero.

7-Eleven / 2701 S. IH 35
This former Mobil/Quix (originally opened in 1996) was converted to 7-Eleven in the early 2010s with the acquisition of the Quix chain, but has a few surprises. "Pio's Taqueria" (a locally-owned taco shop as opposed to Laredo Taco Company in these parts) operates inside the store and has been since 2003.

Bell County Expo Center / 301 W. Loop 121
This large multi-purpose arena was built in 1987, and has a Wikipedia article. It has a large "EXPO!" sign visible from the freeway.


SHANKLIN ROAD to COUNTRY ROAD 305

The last section of I-35 in Bell County is here. Interstate 35 is Robertson Road here.

Days Inn / 10825 N I-H 35
This four-story motel was built around 2009 as a Best Western and converted to Days Inn around 2016. Interestingly, despite the Days Inn logos being new, a few years later it was changed to "Days Inn by Wyndham" signage, something that has been "official" according to Wyndham Hotels but I have not seen elsewhere.

Holiday Inn Express / 1991 N. Stagecoach Road
Just south of the Days Inn, I-35 briefly becomes Stagecoach Road. The Salado Holiday Inn Express, according to Wikimapia, opened October 12, 2006.

Bush's Chicken / 940 N. Robertson Road
This Bush's Chicken was opened in August 2010 but disaster struck because it was right on the Interstate 35 right of way area and closed less than a year later. A near-identical new store opened in early 2012 farther off the road.

CEFCO / 1022 West Village Road
CEFCO (self-branded as of 2021) #93 opened here in 2014.

Shady Villa Hotel / 416 S. Main Street
This was formerly Stagecoach Inn (the sign was up as of July 2022) before they reverted to the "original name" (the restaurant is still called the Stagecoach). The site has been a hotel since the early 1940s but the restaurant is reputed to be the oldest restaurant in Texas, built in the mid-1850s.

Inexplicably, around 2018-2019, the I-35 access was permanently gated off.

Chevron / 22612 N. I-35
The legacy of this truck stop (Roady's, featuring Chidos Tacos, Krispy Krunchy, and Huddle House) goes back to the early 1980s, when it was The Matterhorn, a theme park/roadside attraction/tourist trap. It didn't last too long...about a year in its original form, and by the mid-1980s it was being as a filming location for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 and spent time as an RV park in the 1990s and 2000s. You can still find a few ruins (mostly old foundation) of The Matterhorn behind the gas station. Not too long after Salado is where Bell County ends and Williamson County (the Austin metro) begins.


Return to the Main Page | Email
Copyright 2021 Carbon-izer.com, this site is not affiliated with any businesses listed here.

[Return to Temple page]