I attended the Church of Buc'ees.

I shall remain atheist.

At Crossville, TN.

This was my statement in Facebook after visiting:

Buc'ees is just a big Cracker Barrel store with gas pumps.

Fight me.

Or if you want another definition, it is an expensive gift shop with a boatload of gas pumps and a food court.

We didn’t get gas there and thank God for my decision to fill up before we began our journey because I would have lost my mind trying to deal with the sea of idiots going in and out of the islands. They had a Tesla Supercharger section which would have been the better option as there were only two vehicles using it. Price of gas was about the same for the area, a couple of other places had it higher and other lower, no true advantage or disadvantage there.

We come to the second important thing a good roadside store/station must have and that is restrooms. I cannot give you a fair assessment because the frigging lines to get in there. I checked with my bladder and agreed we could hold till we got somewhere else. I will take the word of others that say Buc’ees keep the restrooms clean, but I cannot make the same claim.

The third part of the triumvirate is food and for Buc’ees’ reputation and word of mouth, we are talking about the brisket. I got a sandwich and again I will quote myself from Facebook:

I would not call that brisket. It was mostly bbq sauce with a hint of something meaty between the buns.

BBQed meats should stand on their own, without any sauces. This could have been brisket, chicken, rabbit, goat or cat and you could not tell what it because of the flood of BBQ sauce soaking everything up.

The Missus got pecans and liked them, but she is addicted to them anyway. The pastries we got were less than stellar and even a bit dry. But the coffee section was pretty decent for a gas station with plenty of additives to satisfy the most Californian of tastes. The rest of edibles, especially those hanging from hooks or in shelves might have been good for someone who likes that stuff, I am not into it.

The rest of the place is just very expensive beaver merchandise, clothing with and without logos and knickknacks. The only thing that tickled me was the penny presser machine because it is my tradition since I started dating my wife to get her one squeezed penny every time we bump into one of these machines when travelling.

So, other than in case of an emergency or my wife needing her fix of sugar-coated pecans, I do not plan to make Buc’ees into a regular stop on the road.

PS: Shell stations tend to have the most expensive gas, but also the cleanest restrooms.