A few years ago, I came up with the idea of traveling around Texas and visiting all 34 of the Buc-ee’s stores in the Lone Star State. For those of you not familiar with Buc-ee’s, they are far more than a convenience store with fuel and snacks. Most are massive with at least 50 fuel pumps, but not all of them. Personally, my favorite thing about these Texas-sized stores is the cleanliness of the restrooms, which the company was acknowledged for in 2012 by Cintas in a national restroom contest where the chain was named the World’s Cleanest Restrooms. The fact that they’re open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, according to their website, doesn’t hurt either. They’re like the 8th Wonder of the World, well, at least in Texas.
I mapped out the trip on TrackMyTour, an app I learned about when Morgan, Debra, and I took my first How Big Is Texas quest around the perimeter of the state. You can find the actual addresses of the Texas Buc-ee’s on their website.
I reached out to my BFF, Darla, who went with me in 2021 on my Most Mispronounced Towns and Cities – Part 1 quest to see if she would want to come along for the ride.
Oh, yeah, there’s one other thing I should mention. I decided only driving to the stores wasn’t really enough. I let Darla know we would only be eating things that came from Buc-ee’s the entire 3 1/2 day journey. But like the great sidekick I knew she was, she still agreed to come along. Buc-ee’s or Bust!!!
In 1982, the year Darla and I graduated from Livingston HighSchool in east Texas, Buc-ee’s opened their first store in Lake Jackson, and the rest, as they say, is history. The Lake Jackson store, like many of the first stores in the chain, was what you would consider a normal-sized convenience store. You know, the kind with four to eight fuel pumps, some grab-and-go food items, and a place for a quick bathroom break.
I loaded up my SUV with my How Big Is Texas swag, all Texas themed, of course, and Buc-cee, Jr., a stuffed animal wearing a t-shirt and hat that serves as the official mascot of the Buc-ee’s chain. I had purchased the little guy at one of my bathroom breaks a few months earlier. I headed east from San Angelo, where I lived at the time, to pick up Darla at her sister’s house near our first stop in Madisonville.
It was time to Potty On!!!
