Sunday, October 21, 2001
31 Off the beaten path
With apologies to William Hurt, there are no accidental tourists in Corpus Christi, except for the occasional South Padre Island-bound traveler confused by South Padre Island Drive.
Interstate 37 and U.S. Highway 181 begin here and end in San Antonio. U.S. Highway 77 is on the outskirts. And the only direct flights from here are to Dallas, Houston and Atlanta.
That means the people here, generally, aren't just passing through. They meant to come here.
That includes Katherine Dain and her husband, Daniel, who moved to Corpus Christi from Dallas a little more than two years ago. They own 26 Domino's Pizza franchises, including 18 in San Antonio.
"In Dallas, we were always on the go," she said. "We had season hockey tickets, so that was a 30- to 40-minute drive. We had friends across town, and it was an hour and a half to see them.
"Now I drive slower and I'm not in a hurry to get places. My mom once called from SPID to ask if there was a different way to go. I told her that by the time we were done with our conversation, she would be out of (the traffic)."