The Buc-ee’s Choo Choo
Today is our Alabama day. I’m going to take a wild guess that northern Alabama is not so very different than northern Mississippi. I’ll bet the residents of those two places might vehemently disagree, especially at a college football game between the two states, but to a southern neophyte like me, it all looks green, verdant and rural. We will further test that theory today as we drive from Tupelo. Mississippi, where we are starting our day, to Chattanooga, where we will spend the night in preparation for our ultimate southern experience at Dollywood on Wednesday and Thursday. Today we have no real agenda except for one item. We are splitting our day with a very purposeful visit to Buc-ee’s in Athens, Alabama.
I had never even heard of Buc-ee’s before this trip, but it was a highlight on my daughter, Carolyn’s, trip to the southern U.S. Buc-ee’s is a roadside stop like what we know in the east as a Fling-J or Circle-K. It sells gas and refreshments just like any of these rest stops except it does it in the fashion of its home state Texas, bigger and better. Buc-ee’s was started in 1982 by Texan, Arch “Beaver” Alpin III, who I assume grew up with buck teeth and perhaps carried around the nickname Bucky. With outlets in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Colorado, and with planned expansion to North Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Arkansas, Virginia, Louisiana, and Arizona, Beaver is only missing a few of the really red states in America.
Buc-ee’s holds the record for the largest gas station in the world with its recently opened Tennessee location. Unlike most of the big truck stops, Buc-ee’s does not allow 18-wheeler trucks and is thus really a family attraction. It sports every brand of beef jerky known to man as well as a reputation for extremely clean restrooms. If you know Texas, you probably know Buc-ee’s since there are 34 of them down there, with 14 more locations in the other eight states where it’s currently located. It’s second most popular location is in Alabama, so while we are not going to the mother ship, we are going to Buc-ee land nonetheless.
The things Buc-ee’s specializes in besides clean bathrooms are food (brisket, fudge, Icees and Dippin’ Dots are the specialities), fuel (100 pumps, mop waiting…since that would take away from shopping time), and souvenirs (I’m told that EVERYTHING is branded, so we are likely to come out of there with lots of Buc-ee’s paraphernalia). Buc’ee’s seems to have a desire to stay out ahead of all trends in family travel, so it is also a major installer of Tesla Superchargers. That’s an interesting statement for a clearly conservative Texas operator, but then again, maybe the Beaver has become friend with Texas’ recent convert, Elon Musk. While I have little interest in traveling over long distances with an EV, it Dort of fits the Buc-ee’s business model to have people stop often and for long periods of time while their car recharges so they can spend more time shopping and collecting all of the Buc-ee’s branded stuff.
I am going to stop writing now so that I can give you my honest impressions of Buc-ee’s after I have experienced it in person. Like I said, it’s our big event for today though there do seem to be a few other attractions in Chattanooga, including the Choo Choo.
Right now I am hanging out in the car while Kim and the girls walk up to see Ruby Falls. I was all set to do the walk as well until Kim realized that she did not incorporate the time zone change back to Eastern Time now that we’re in Eastern Tennessee. That meant that they could squeeze us into a more timely your, but only if we got there right away and took no bathroom breaks. Did I mention that despite all the driving I’m doing, I am on vacation? That means that running from the parking area back to the entry just to go see yet another waterfall, was not high on my vacation to do list. So instead, I decided to finish my story about Buc-ee’s in a calm and comfortable place here in the lower parking lot of Ruby Fslls in southeastern Tennessee.
We got to Buc-ee’s just before noon on this Tuesday, so presumably not an especially busy time since most kids are in school and their parents mostly at work. Nevertheless, Buc-ee’s lived up to its reputation by being good and busy, but not overwhelmingly so. The place is huge….probably 53,000 square feet, give or take, and laid out like a big box store. The bathrooms are everything they are billed as being, equally huge and clean as a whistle. Indeed, very civilized, making a stop at Buc-ee’s worthwhile in itself. The grab and go food choices are endless. Not being much of a shopper, I grabbed the first things I found interesting. I decided on a burrito but the. Had to decide which one. I finally settled on a cheese-steak burrito with homemade chips. It was a great burrito, I must say. I chose to go gas up while the girls shopped more to their hearts’ content.
Carolyn said she had spent $170 and wasn’t sure what all she got for that princely sum. I guess that’s all a testament to Buc-ee’s. For someone like me, I liked the bathrooms and got great tasting food with no hassle. For Carolyn, she got the holistic experience and the souvenirs that she wanted. As my son Roger noted on Snap-chat he commented that his sister had arrived in the Promised Land.