News

Unique petrol stations found while travelling

4th August 2021, 17:27 by Rahul Nagaraj

When you hear or read the words "Everything's big in Texas", this specific gas station is literally that, and more.

BHPian mmxylorider recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Being petrolheads, one common thing is the all too frequent trip to get the ride refuelled. While the preference on model (COCO v/s franchise), brand (IOC or HP), Service (Shell) or facilities (Reliance) is dominant reason, the gas stations are in themselves all coming from the same template. Nothing overly distinctive or unique in their look and feel from what I have experienced in India.

However, that's not true in the USA. There are huge truck stops that have home-style food, showers, dorms, dentists and more serving the trucking community. Or an Indian restaurant at a gas station or a Dhaba at a truck stop. And then you have Buc-ee's.

When you hear or read the words "Everything's big in Texas", this specific gas station is literally that, and more. I had the opportunity to use the facilities at a Buc-ee's location en-route to San Antonio recently and no amount of words can describe the size of this gas station/convenience store. Below info is from the web.

"The Buc-ee’s location in New Braunfels, Texas is currently the world’s largest gas station and includes 120 fuel pumps, 1,000 parking spots, a 67,000 square-foot convenience store with 80 soda fountain dispensers, 31 billing stations and the current largest car wash in the world at 255 feet long."

They have a huge offering of grab and go tex-mex food, a wide selection of coffee, and shelves upon shelves of snacks for the road. The number of bagged ice storage (60+) is unbelievable. In fact, to my recollection, this is the only gas station where people take selfies with the mascot and getting stuff here or eating from this place is on a must do list for lot of people.

Please share your experience about unique gas stations/petrol pumps from your journeys.

And this one is from the US west coast. Right at the intersection of Santa Monica Blvd and Sepulveda Blvd, is an unassuming gas station. A typical pocket sized one when real estate is at a premium especially the LA area and more so the vanity town of Santa Monica. What is unique is the Indian restaurant inside (more of takeaway). I must say that the idea was a little bold but apparently it is now ranked in the top list for Indian food in LA!

I was working close by during my time in that city when this place opened but soon became the default caterer for team events when Indian food was chosen and the quality was top notch.

LA has a significant Indian diaspora as well as other who enjoy Indian food but a combo of gas station and desi food makes it unique.

Here's what BHPian vigsom had to say on the matter:

@mmxylorider, is this the Buc-ee's you were mentioning? Pretty impressive.
Although nowhere near the scale of the above fuel station, I was quite impressed with the size of a HPCL fuel station at the busy Sripuram Circle in Visakhapatnam. The red, blue and white theme was really eye-catching.
Another one that is loved on the N-S highway to/from Chennai is the BPCL fuel station near the Ulundurpet toll. This had an A2B attached to it when I saw it last over a year ago.
Both these are nowhere close to Buc-ee’s in terms of size or conveniences offered, but I found them both to be popular with users.

Here's what BHPian ABHI_1512 had to say on the matter:

Have come across many excellent fuel stations including the COCO ones but one of my favourite stop is located at a tiny place named Malbazaar which serves as an entry point to Dooars in North Bengal.
The bunk is named Roy and Cousin and the owner is a collector of some brilliant cars and is an enthusiast. The petrol bunk has a tea joint attached which serves varieties of tea plus delectable snacks and savouries and has top notch amenities for travellers. I always make it a point to stop and spend some time, wonderful place. Some pictures: