Lockhart's Dairy Queen

Lockhart, Texas: the Barbecue Capital of Texas. It's one of those small towns that's facing increasing suburbanization (in this case, Austinitis), with a toll road nearly making a semi-circle around it.

It's also the site of a Dairy Queen.

Every year or so, I had gone with my cousins (taking a break from a family reunion) to seek three things: air conditioning, Wi-fi, and a good frozen treat.

But this was no regular Dairy Queen, with those red roofs and limited seating. This was a somewhat larger Dairy Queen.

It had a variety of cool features, including the humorous (except in this case, they were dead serious) "Medicare Corner", a playground, and a truly retro (or at least retro-inspired) signage bunch.

Sometime between August 2010 and July 2011, it went from this:


...to this:


I didn't weep, but it's SHAMEFUL what they did to it.