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Favorite Gas Station

cornnoleio11

Veteran Seminole Insider
Gold Member
Feb 28, 2007
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St. John's, FL
We are spoiled in The 904 as Daily's and Gates are excellent, but the Busy Bee at Exit 283 is my all time favorite. I stop there every time I'm heading to or from Tallahassee. What are your favorites?
 
Busy Bee hands down for me as well.

Dee on Lex and Terry the other day was talking about one out in Texas that sounded a lot like a Busy Bee. Buc-ee's is the name, said food was excellent with BBQ, jerky, all sorts of things as well.
 
We are spoiled in The 904 as Daily's and Gates are excellent, but the Busy Bee at Exit 283 is my all time favorite. I stop there every time I'm heading to or from Tallahassee. What are your favorites?

Costco.
I sleep well at night knowing the next time a pol declares an emergency and creates a gasoline shortage I can still gas up while plebes hunt on Facebook for stations that have supplies.
 
Main problem with Busy Bee is that it is, in fact, very busy. You could stop at a steakhouse and eat a full meal and make better time than taking the family into that place.
 
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Since they were mentioned in the OP... their billboard advertising is top notch. First is in Cottondale, FL... second one, who cares.

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Daily's is the most convenient for me. I have one near my house off 210. When I'm near work, I usually get gas at BJ's Wholesale.

Our Costco doesn't have a gas station. Can't believe Buc-ee's is opening in Florida. Their beef jerky is awesome.
 
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I was a Gate loyalist that has now turned to Dailys but may swing back to Gate determining on how their new stores are. Their new store concept is set to open up off of San Jose in front of their HQ.

Clean bathrooms, lighting, and friendly staff are all key factors for me.
 
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Wawa. Cheap gas, free air, clean, good fresh made to order and grab and go food, freestyle soda fountains and a nice selection of regular convenience store items.
 
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I like the local Mom & Pops with the fried gizzards and livers. The 301 Petrol near the Hard Rock in Tampa comes to mind...
 
I haven't found any gas stations anywhere that top the main Busy Bee on I-10. The smaller ones aren't that great but the main one is A++.

My second favorite is Wawa. Their subs are at least as good as Publix and usually much quicker plus I like all of the Pennsylvania regional chips and whatnot you can find there.
 
Buc-ee's out here is legit. Have fun with the one in Daytona.

Love my QuikTrip's out here, but Gate was pretty close to it in Jax.

Yeah, Busy Bee is pretty much a rip off of Buc-ee's.

Buc-ee's has a beaver logo. Busy Bee has a bumble bee.
Buc-ee's has beaver nuggets. Busy bee has bee bits. Both are essentially the same thing.
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Both have fresh beef jerky, fudge, clean bathrooms, huge selection of drinks, frozen treats, etc.
Both are almost always busy inside, hard to park and can be tough to gas up, too. Gas also tends to be expensive at them. While Busy Bee is big, Buc-ees is huge. Easily twice as large. Double the number of gas pumps, too.

The main Buc-ees locations (the larger buildings, not the mini ones) are really good. Huge (much bigger than Busy Bee) and offer a lot more local treats (kolaches, BBQ, sausage). Busy Bee has a Burger King and Dunkin Donuts inside it. Not great food choices.


My wife and I drive I-10 a lot for work trips every week or two, she makes it a point to stop at Busy Bee when she gasses up and gets her treats there. It's too close to Tallahassee to really justify stopping there for any benefit when leaving or arriving back from trips.

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Back to OP, I like Wawa stations. Bathrooms can be hit or miss, depending on the age of the gas station. I've had some bad luck in some Orlando locations, but the newer ones are really nice.

Buc-ees will always be a favorite from back before it was as big and popular as it is now. I tend to by-pass them now to avoid crowds.
 
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Race Trac... still with the water in the gas? I've honestly never had food from that place that didn't "end" badly.

The renovated stores are good. Very clean, well lit, plenty of pumps, never under staffed, and the staff is typically clean cut dressed nice good looking folks, and of course gas is cheap.

Other than the boiled peanuts, the food is crap, no argument from me there. Bathrooms are hit or miss, but other than Buck-ee's, all gas station bathrooms are hit or miss.

10 years ago Race Trac were the scumiest of all gas stations...they have turned it around though.

Tom Thumbs along back beach road in PCB and Destin Consistently had clean bathrooms.
 
Damn i lead a boring life

When I stop for gas I get gas,maybe take a leak and get a drink or snack and that's it
I've never looked at or thought of gas stations the ways expressed in this post
 
I'll go QT. But saw a bucc-ees in Texas and couldn't belive it.

It could be because I saw Busy Bee first but I wasn't wowed by Bucc-ees. But they were similar enough I can see where people would say Busy Bee is a ripoff.
 
Costco and QuickTrip. They are cheap and Top Tier. I always look for a Top Tier gas.
 
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As much as you say travel, you saw a Busy Bee before Buc-ees?

Never been a fan of Texas. I've actually gone there a fair amount recently as we drove through it on a long trip, had to go to Beaumont and then San Antonio for my wife's professional testing and went to Austin for the Moontower Comedy Festival, but before the past two or so years it had been a long while.

Here's what I like in Texas. The Big Bend NP, the Big Texan Steakhouse not just in spite of but because of the ridiculous tacky touristy nature, Texas brisket and sausage, San Antonio's puffy tacos and tourist attractions are pretty good and the wines, beers and liquors of the Texas Hill Country. The rest I could easily do without.

Tex-Mex is terrible compared to New Mexican, Arizona/Apache/Navajo-Mex, Cal-Mex and all of the authentic Mexican places. Other than San Antonio puffy tacos the rest of the Tex-Mex places I've been to from super cheap to expensive have been garbage. Texas steaks and "chicken fried steak" usually pale in comparison yet are more expensive than the great steakhouses around OKC and the Oklahoma National Stockyards. And the hipster food in Austin is decent but nowhere near what you get in West and East Coast hipster districts.

So I usually blow right by Texas either leaving it in the dust in my car of flying over it.

Now I am NOT an anti-Southwest snob. I love almost everything about New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada and now that I've had to spend a lot of time in Oklahoma as my inlaws are starting a new medical college on the Arkansas and Oklahoma border, I don't even mind Oklahoma that much. But most of Texas, Arkansas and Missouri (if you count those two) are not my cup of tea.
 
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