In Texas they told me to stop at Buc-ee's for gas.
I have been to shrines. I have stood in temples that took two hundred years to build.
I was not prepared for the gas station.
There were one hundred and twenty fuel pumps.
I counted them because I did not believe them.
A man beside me was filling a truck the size of my first apartment, and he was not filling it because it was empty.
He was filling it because he was here, and here is where a man fills things.
Inside was a hall so vast I lost the horizon.
A wall of jerky. A wall of fudge I did not know the country produced.
A brisket sandwich handed to me by a man in a beaver costume.
And I want to be clear, the beaver is not a mascot.
The beaver is a saint.
The people speak of him the way my grandmother spoke of the mountain behind her house.
And the bathrooms.
I had been warned about the bathrooms and I had dismissed the warning as the pride of a loud people.
I was wrong to dismiss it.
The bathrooms are famous across the whole state and they have earned it.
I have slept in worse hotels. I nearly bowed upon entering.
A janitor was polishing the floor with the devotion of a man tending a garden he loved, and when I thanked him he said "welcome in," which I have since learned is what Texas says instead of hello, and also instead of I am glad you exist.
I went in for gas. I was inside for ninety minutes.
I came out with fudge, a shirt printed with a joke I do not fully understand, forty dollars of jerky, and a feeling I can only describe as having been to church.
I did not need any of it.
I needed all of it.
I have walked through the great cathedrals of the old world. I lit no candle there.
I lit no candle at Buc-ee's either.
But I did fill the truck.
And I understand now that in Texas, this is the same thing.
If you’re visiting for a very large sporting event & you happen to discover RANCH while you’re here… pls pack it in your CHECKED BAG on the way home.
Thank you.
Bc nobody wants to deal with people when they’re depressed. People will get sick of you, and quickly, and before you know it you’re losing people bc you’re ’negative’ and ‘draining’. Best kept to yourself if you can keep yourself safe.
getting off of twitter and interacting with real people really makes you realize people on here are INSANE like i promise any normal person does not gaf
I love this trick from baby boomers. Make things insanely unaffordable and do not raise workers’ wages. Then, complain that young people spend too much money on frivolous activities like eating lunch.
if you’re dog is not friendly with other dogs and has no recall when they see a dog, PUT THEM ON A LEASH.
if you’re not a sensible owner, don’t have a dog.
if the same dog attempts to run up to and attack my dog for the THIRD time i’m calling animal welfare.