“Restorative community rest stops”

[Ben]

The New York Times has discovered that people get gas and eat food at the same time. Some of the smartass comments are pretty hilarious. 

They act like they're David Attenborough out here documenting wildlife.

https://twitchy.com/brettt/2024/01/29/new-york-times-discovers-southerners-have-gas-stations-with-restaurants-attached-n2392332

[MechAg94]

This has been a thing for over 20 years.  Someone would need to be pretty insulated in a city center for it to be new to them.

Also funny to me is most of franchises mentioned in the comments don't exist where I am aside from Buc-ee's.  Just about every major fast food chain has locations where the restaurant is one half of hte building and the other half is the gas station.  The only one I have eaten at locally is Carl's Jr. 

I don't remember seeing that much back in the 1980's.  I don't know if I really noticed the change until the 2000's when the big Buc-ee's locations started popping up on the interstates down here.  The large, clean restrooms attracted just about everyone who was on a road trip.  The relatively cheap gas and drinks brought in more.  Either way, it isn't a new trend.

[K Frame]

But but but...

How can one eat at a... *gasp* gas station?

It hasn't any Michelin stars!

I'm feeling faint...

[K Frame]

"This has been a thing for over 20 years."

Just 20 years?

I remember gas stations with attached restaurantettes from when I was a kid in the 1970s.

[WLJ]

    Took this long? We actually wear shoes as well.
    — Chris Broussard (@ChrisBroussard7) January 29, 2024

Went to Community college back in early 90s with a girl from Cali and she said she expected we would all be walking around barefooted. Said she had to explain on the phone to her friends back in Cali that we do actually do wear shoes.
Don't think even with the internet their view has improved much if at all in fact it could be worse now.

[Ben]

I seem to remember them from earlier than 20 years as well. Though I might be mixing things up where there was a rest stop with a gas station and a Denny's or whatever 100 feet away.

Also, NYT might be surprised to know that progressive hippies from outside NYC have even gotten into this. The Mobil gas station at HWY395 & HWY120 (the way to Yosemite's East gate) has been a gas station/gourmet restaurant for a couple of decades. They do the whole "we're a gas station" shtick to draw in the tourists who think it's quaint to eat "gas station food", but then they serve stuff like $25 ahi tacos and whatnot. I will say that the cowboy steak sandwich there is good. I used to eat there once or twice a year when I would fish the Eastern Sierra.

[RoadKingLarry]

Truck stops with attached cafes have been around for 50-60+ years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz86Gjg8Ln0

[230RN]

"This has been a thing for over 20 years."

Just 20 years?

I remember gas stations with attached restaurantettes from when I was a kid in the 1970s.

I remember we had regular, usual, gas and meal stops every time we drove out to Ronkonkoma Long Island from the city back in the forties and fifties.  It was an enjoyable part of the trip.

I imagine there were food and camel rests in the Saharan desert for the nomads and commercial travelers.

"All the news that's fit to print."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-16918787

                              THE SKY IS MOSTLY BLUE
                              Scientists reveal the truth

Pasadena CA 04 Feb 2024  -- Scientists at this famous lab have finally announced the results of ten years' worth of research.   "Yes, it is mostly blue," said Dr. Fred F. Linstone at a press conference announcing the discovery.  "It also gets to be a darker blue the higher in elevation that measurements are taken, until it becomes mostly black."

I'm not signing this one so nobody wll know who posted it.

[Bogie]

North of Washington, DC, travel is sort of seen as an afterthought.
 
And they really dump on truckers. There are not as many truck stops, and they are smaller. There are fewer places to park, and if you hit something like a Walmart, they don't allow it - space is at a premium, and they just want you to deliver, and then go anywhere else. In NY/LI, there are "diners," but they are basically full restaurants, and  you're not gonna see a lot of work boots...

[Perd Hapley]

"This has been a thing for over 20 years."

Just 20 years?

I remember gas stations with attached restaurantettes from when I was a kid in the 1970s.

"Over 20 years" is actually longer than 20 years. Even the NYT knows that. 

[Perd Hapley]

The article doesn't seem to be pay-walled, and it looks like it's basically a promotional piece for a book by a woman raised in Mississippi. Some interesting comments:

Documenting these independent Southern temples of commerce and community has become a singular focus for the photojournalist Kate Medley, who, like most kids raised in Mississippi, grew up eating at rural gas stations.

The book began with a journalist’s curiosity, but ended up as a way for a daughter of the Deep South to make sense of the beautiful, brutal, complicated place she came from.

“These places hold great mystery,” she said. “You’re rolling down the road and they catch your visual attention. Then you wonder what’s behind that glass door when you hear that little bell ring. Is it the MAGA South? The welcoming South?

Small Southern towns remain informally segregated, but not at the gas stations that sell food — or the restaurants that sell gas.

I guess I haven't been down South since my trip to New Orleans about 4 years ago. Didn't know it had become brutal and segregated.

[K Frame]

Went to Community college back in early 90s with a girl from Cali and she said she expected we would all be walking around barefooted. Said she had to explain on the phone to her friends back in Cali that we do actually do wear shoes.
Don't think even with the internet their view has improved much if at all in fact it could be worse now.

Uhm... she might not have been bright enough for community college...

[WLJ]

Uhm... she might not have been bright enough for community college...

Well she was blonde 

She was actually fairly bright just had some very mistaken ideas of what Kentucky was like before getting here

[K Frame]

Well she was blonde 

She was actually fairly bright just had some very mistaken ideas of what Kentucky was like before getting here

Oh, she went to Kentucky to go to college.

Uh....

Whut?

Pasadena City College wouldn't take her?

[WLJ]

Oh, she went to Kentucky to go to college.

Uh....

Whut?

Pasadena City College wouldn't take her?

Don't remember why she was here, maybe her family moved here. Just remember her telling me the above.

[Perd Hapley]

I should do a write-up on the local gun store/range/BBQ joint, and see how much the Times of Gotham will pay me for it.

[Hawkmoon]

North of Washington, DC, travel is sort of seen as an afterthought.
 
And they really dump on truckers. There are not as many truck stops, and they are smaller. There are fewer places to park, and if you hit something like a Walmart, they don't allow it - space is at a premium, and they just want you to deliver, and then go anywhere else. In NY/LI, there are "diners," but they are basically full restaurants, and  you're not gonna see a lot of work boots...

Truck stops in my corner of the northeast have really gone downhill. The ones along I-95 and I-84 in my area of operations are mostly 76 brand, with a couple of Pilots. Years ago, they had real, sit-down restaurants in them. About ten (or so) years ago they got rid of the restaurants. The nearby Pilot has some fast food franchise in it -- don't remember which. The 76 has in place of the restaurant a combo of Starbucks, Subway, and Popeye's Louisiana Chicken. The 76 is convenient for me when I'm heading home from the shooting range -- every time I've stopped there in recent memory the Starbucks and the Subway counters have been closed, and I don't like Popeye's chicken. I miss the sit-down restaurant.

[Brad Johnson]

We took a Yellowstone trip in 1982. On the way we stopped at Little America, at the time boasting more gas pumps than any travel stop in the nation. Nothing compared some current mega-stops, but big enough back then and a far cry from the convenience stores and corner stations most common at the time.

We don't have a Buc-ee's nearby ... yet. One going up on I-40 in Amarillo right now, but that's a solid hour and a half away. With the Ports To Plains corridor finally greenlit, chances are we'll have one in the next 8-10 years, if not by decade's end.

Brad

[Blakenzy]

People still put gas oil into their automobiles? 

[Brad Johnson]

People still put gas oil into their automobiles? 

Coal dust and kerosene.

Brad

[Boomhauer]

The New York Times has discovered that people get gas and eat food at the same time. Some of the smartass comments are pretty hilarious. 

https://twitchy.com/brettt/2024/01/29/new-york-times-discovers-southerners-have-gas-stations-with-restaurants-attached-n2392332

Ah yes the NYT the same morons who think a corner bodega is a magical place that we in flyover country just don’t understand instead of a really shitty, dirty, and overpriced convenience store that doesn’t sell gas.

[MechAg94]

Ah yes the NYT the same morons who think a corner bodega is a magical place that we in flyover country just don’t understand instead of a really shitty, dirty, and overpriced convenience store that doesn’t sell gas.

The only reason I know what they mean by a bodega is because that one owner was able to kill the jerk who tried to beat him up a year or two ago.  Prior to that I would assume it was a sandwich or bagel shop. 

Just more proof that the people who think we are all a bunch of stupid country hicks are a bunch of stupid urban hicks who know little of the outside world. 

[Perd Hapley]

I must have missed the NYT's bodega moment.

I did find this, however.

[Hawkmoon]

Ah yes the NYT the same morons who think a corner bodega is a magical place that we in flyover country just don’t understand instead of a really shitty, dirty, and overpriced convenience store that doesn’t sell gas.

The difference is that in a bodega the people behind the counter only speak Spanish, whereas in other shitty, over-priced convenience stores the people behind the register speak Pakistani or Arabic.

[Doggy Daddy]

I'm not signing this one so nobody wll know who posted it.
« Last Edit: Today at 09:30:01 by 230RN »

Like we're not all familiar with your work!