#gasstations

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/anne-and-buc-ee-cast-member.jpgIT’S BUC-EE! IT’S BUC-EE! I KNOW HIM!

When I was a kid, gas fill-ups were just another ordinary errand, like buying groceries or refilling your parents’ prescription or suffering at the dentist: they had to be done, but nobody ever giggled with anticipation or clapped their hands at the sight of those establishments. Sure, groceries got less tedious after WWII when the FDA legalized flavor, but nobody rational ever thought gas stations were fun…least of all during the 1970s energy crisis, when America’s last hundred gallons had to be split 100 million ways. Getting gas was expensive and dispiriting and, worst of all, it was really boring.

Here in the 21st century, everything must be fun now. Any human activity or business that doesn’t entertain us is ignored or shamed, which might explain why so many people in our neighborhood don’t mow their lawns anymore. Gas stations aren’t exempt: we can’t just pull up, pump, pay, and proceed. We’d fall asleep with the nozzle in our hand and spray gas everywhere. We need at least one (1) thrilling moment while we’re there. At some chains, the pumps have little screens showing ads, or music piping through speakers, or apps encouraging customers to come inside for all the snacks and bargains. Years ago, somewhere in Texas, a brilliant entrepreneur figured out a new angle: what if you crossed a gas station with a Walmart and a Disney World gift shop? Because everything’s better with cartoon animals!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: sometimes my wife Anne and I take road trips together — our annual vacations, our frequent comic-cons, our occasional birthday outings, and so on. Three years ago on our way to Dragon Con, we stumbled across our first Buc-ee’s in Sevierville, Tennesse, which had just opened two months earlier. We’d never heard of it and didn’t recognize the smiling beaver on their signs, but it sure looked huge. Obviously we had to investigate.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ees-sevierville.jpgBuc-ee’s: it’s bigger on the outside!

Outside, it had dozens and dozens of pumps lined up toward the horizon, and enough parking spaces for an entire 1980s mall. So far every Buc-ee’s we’ve visited seems to have used the same blueprints, each one a massive travel center large enough to need its own separate OPEC nation as a supplier. Inside was a shopping frenzy — crowds milled around us everywhere, availing themselves of the copious counters selling fresh sandwiches (especially brisket), burritos, bakery pastries, and drinks. Sometimes the sandwich makers also randomly break out in some workers’ chant that I have yet to understand. Or there’re the countless racks of jerky, nuts, and other Buc-ee’s brand snack foods that fit perfectly into the hands of idle passengers.

And that was just one half of the complex; the other half was a department store where nearly every item sported the same head shot of that eponymous cartoon beaver. Well, “cartoon” might be presumptuous — he’s never actually starred in an animated feature, so we should allow for the possibility that he’s an alien from a planet where beavers evolved from men.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/stuffed-buc-ees.jpgStuffed Buc-ees for kids who love random animals in hats!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/inflatable-buc-ees.jpgHalloween-themed inflatable Buc-ees for your front lawn!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ee-collapsible-chairs.jpgBuc-ee’s: the collapsible chairs and tables!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ee-washer-game.jpgBuc-ee’s: the washer game! Whatever that is!

Then we discovered the most magical core of every Buc-ee’s: their Immaculate and spacious restrooms, all the size and design of Fortune 500 executive washrooms. We’ve seen more than our share of the grimy, claustrophobic Jame Gumb murder closets that pass for facilities at most gas stations and roadside restaurants. It was such a relief to use bathrooms that offered ample elbow room and a complete lack of tetanus film all over everything.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bejeweled-bathroom-skull.jpgTheir restroom decor is also noticeably far from dull. How many stations even have restroom decor?

After this initial encounter, I can’t say we “got it” yet. The place was bustling and overwhelming and had way too many everythings for sale. To us it was like the Li’l Sebastian of businesses: it’s…a big gas station? Sure? What else should be blowing our minds?

After we left Dragon Con the following Sunday and headed north back to Indianapolis, we found another Buc-ee’s in Adairsville, Georgia — one of their early beachheads established when the company began expanding beyond their Texas home turf.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/anne-and-adairsville-buc-ee.jpgAdairsville ‘s where we spotted our first Buc-ee statue out front. If Sevierville had one, we overlooked it.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ees-by-the-truckload.jpgAnother truckload of stuffed Buc-ees!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ee-truck.jpgBuc-ee: the pickup truck!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/butt-stop-here.jpgMore Buc-ee’s bathroom decor.

Buc-ee is bound and determined to find every shopper’s weakness. If you’re not interested in their breakfast sandwiches or the Buc-ee appliances or the Buc-ee toiletries, sooner or later Buc-ee will figure out what you do want with his face stamped on it.

Buc-ee figured out Anne’s softest spot pretty quickly:

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ees-smashed-penny-machine.jpgBuc-ee’s: the smashed penny machine!

Sadly our 2024 road trip took us due east of home, which had exactly zero Buc-ee’s in sight. On the way to Dragon Con 2025, that busy beaver bounded back into the byways with a new location in Smiths Grove, Kentucky.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/buc-ee-jazz-hands.jpgI previously posted this one to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

(Notice how the statues now bear their locations.)

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/stuffed-buc-ee-witches.jpgBuc-ee: the Halloween witch!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/world-famous-jerky-sign.jpgBuc-ee: the World Famous Jerky kick-line!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/cattle-skulls.jpgThe cattle skulls were relocated from the bathroom to the home-goods section.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/beaver-tail.jpgThis time I tried a pastry — which they called a “Beaver Tail”, naturally.

As if we needed hints as to whether or not Buc-ee was entering the public consciousness yet, Dragon Con answered that unasked question:

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/buc-ees-fun-barbie.jpgBuc-ee’s: the cosplay!

Whether or not we “got it” by this point slowly stopped mattering. All we know is every time we braked for one, it amused us. Sometimes, yes, they also fed us. On the way home from D*C we cruised yet again into the Adairsville store, where we chanced upon the living Buc-ee mascot in our lead photo. That moment, I think, is when Buc-ee achieved “running gag” status for us.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/anne-and-adairsville-buc-ee-ii.jpgA retake with the Adairsville Buc-ee!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ees-crowd.jpgA typical day at Buc-ee’s. Note the various food counters.

This past July, on the occasion of America’s semiquincetennial, our 2026 road trip took us back to Texas for the first time since 2005. Yet again the clean-cut rodent popped unexpectedly into our path as we were driving through the town of Bastrop. This Buc-ee’s wasn’t even next to an interstate, just a “mere” highway. Not that Texas’ highways should be underestimated — three cheers for their frequent 75-MPH speed limits, frankly. As soon as we spotted the familiar toothy grin on our left, there was no discussion, no exchange of bemused glances, just a shout of “BUC-EE’S!” as I veered across three lanes of traffic and turned into their lot.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bastrop-buc-ee-statue.jpgHi, Bastrop Buc-ee!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/inflatable-buc-ee-singular.jpgBuc-ee: the summertime inflatable! Buy one for your graduation party, your bat mitzvah, or to cover your unmowed lawn!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ee-merch.jpgMusical Buc-ee! Night-light Buc-ee! Bobblehead Buc-ee! Drinking Buc-ees!

After a three-night stay in Austin, we headed north on I-35, this time planning for a Buc-ee’s interlude in the city of Temple to kick off the long drive home. We got there shortly after breakfast was supposed to be officially over, but a couple of us nagged a guy behind the counter to give us sandwiches they were about to throw away out of corporate habit.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ee-sign.jpgBuc-ee: the telltale road sign!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/me-and-temple-tx-buc-ee.jpgTemple’s Buc-ee statue. My turn this time.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ee-merch-ii.jpgBuc-ee waffle makers! Buc-ee desk knickknacks! Buc-ee semiquincentennial mugs!

…and you get the idea. We also noticed their large Now Hiring signs inside, listing some surprisingly competitive wages and salaries — like, well above fast food.

I didn’t even mention their jokey interstate billboards, which count down the mileage to the next Buc-ee’s down the road, often hundreds of miles in advance — just like South Dakota’s Wall Drug, the gold standard of cheery billboard overkill.

As fuel-based tourism goes, they aren’t as colossal as the fabled Iowa 80 Truck Stop, but they’re a silly bright spot amid the occasional dull sloughs through lookalike commercial areas. Never in my dullest dreams did I ever imagine America would see an era of competing gas station fandoms, but here we are. For example, I understand Wawa has its fans in other states, but we haven’t run across one of those yet. They’re currently building one across the street from our church, so we’ll see how that goes.

And we know our Google-Mapped paths will cross again someday, whether or not he’s ever invited to appear in a genuine cartoon — say, if they ever make Ready Player Two and need more IP cameos. The company’s expansion plans aren’t slowing down anytime soon — on that same 2026 trip we passed Buc-ee’s construction sites in progress off I-30 west of Little Rock, Arkansas, and off I-20 in Ruston, Louisiana. They recently opened a new Buc-ee’s in Huber Heights, Ohio, which’ll be right on our way to GalaxyCon Columbus if we return this year.

And most conveniently of all, they’re in the preliminary stages of welcoming Buc-ee’s to Greenwood, half an hour from our house. Should that new beaver bunker be built, I’ll be ready.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/buc-ee-shirt.jpgBuc-ee: the vacation souvenir!