Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
Filling in for @butter, ...
This place actually sucks now that I've finally had time to run in there for anything other than LED lights for my camper.
The first thing I noticed is that for all the 1000 or so truck parking spaces, as big as this lot is, the building is located in the southwest corner. So the guys who arrive in the middle of the night have to walk about a mile just to get to the building. And to add insult to injury, once you get into the ONLY entrance on the truck parking side, you have to walk diagonally through the chrome shop (past all their overpriced merchandise) to get to the closest bathroom. And there are only 3 crapper stalls in there. I wouldn't want to be here between the hours of 5 & maybe 9AM when all the solar powered truckers get up & need to pop a squat. (I have no idea if they have bathrooms in the little building by the diesel pumps, .. I've never been in there.)
Restaurant: The buffet actually sucks. And what the hell is that stuff that looks like potatoes but tastes like sauerkraut? It's gross.
Coffee: All 18 billion Pilots and every Flying J has a larger coffee area. Oh, .. and this is the "World's Largest Truck Stop", ... it actually still has "truck stop" in the name. They haven't changed it to "travel center" yet but they probably should. The only coffee area I found is all the way over by the entrance for the gasoline pumps, .. the 4 wheeler side. And the largest cup size they have is 20 oz.
Cigarettes: Yeah I know it's stupid to run out of cigarettes in a blue state, but you'd think the "World's Largest Truck Stop" would actually have the same (or better) number of brands than your average gas station, but no. The only Pall Mall's they have are un-filtered.
Stupid crap: Not going to complain too much about the fact they sell all kinds of stupid crap, because they obviously have room for it. But literally HALF the section on the same floor elevation as the restaurant, is nothing but glass figurines, jewelry, Precious Moments stuff, little porcelain statues of penguins & dolphins, ... did they forget that this is supposed to be a TRUCK STOP? (The other half of that section is full of toys, .. but it's mostly toy cars & trucks, so it's ok.)
Retail prices: In the chrome shop, I walked through rather quickly. Since most of that stuff isn't available elsewhere, I can't really price-compare. But I'll just take one single item, .. those little tree-shaped air fresheners in the yellow packages. A 1-pack was $1.89. I have unusually stinky feet, so bad that I carry small plastic ziplock bags to put my dirty socks in when I take them off in truck stop showers so I don't RUIN my duffel bag, ... so I actually know what those things retail for. At an ARAB-OWNED truck stop last week, I got a 2-pack of the "Vanillaroma" trees for 89 cents.
Parking: no problems there, .. but what's the deal with the angled parking in the north lot? (the area on your right when you first enter) It's either "nose-in" or blind-side 45 degrees, which can be a problem for 75% of truckers since there are so many rookies out here. I headed straight for the back, plenty of parking back there. Found a pull-thru open at 10:45 PM. Then when I got up in the AM I found a closer spot.
This place actually sucks now that I've finally had time to run in there for anything other than LED lights for my camper.
The first thing I noticed is that for all the 1000 or so truck parking spaces, as big as this lot is, the building is located in the southwest corner. So the guys who arrive in the middle of the night have to walk about a mile just to get to the building. And to add insult to injury, once you get into the ONLY entrance on the truck parking side, you have to walk diagonally through the chrome shop (past all their overpriced merchandise) to get to the closest bathroom. And there are only 3 crapper stalls in there. I wouldn't want to be here between the hours of 5 & maybe 9AM when all the solar powered truckers get up & need to pop a squat. (I have no idea if they have bathrooms in the little building by the diesel pumps, .. I've never been in there.)
Restaurant: The buffet actually sucks. And what the hell is that stuff that looks like potatoes but tastes like sauerkraut? It's gross.
Coffee: All 18 billion Pilots and every Flying J has a larger coffee area. Oh, .. and this is the "World's Largest Truck Stop", ... it actually still has "truck stop" in the name. They haven't changed it to "travel center" yet but they probably should. The only coffee area I found is all the way over by the entrance for the gasoline pumps, .. the 4 wheeler side. And the largest cup size they have is 20 oz.
Cigarettes: Yeah I know it's stupid to run out of cigarettes in a blue state, but you'd think the "World's Largest Truck Stop" would actually have the same (or better) number of brands than your average gas station, but no. The only Pall Mall's they have are un-filtered.
Stupid crap: Not going to complain too much about the fact they sell all kinds of stupid crap, because they obviously have room for it. But literally HALF the section on the same floor elevation as the restaurant, is nothing but glass figurines, jewelry, Precious Moments stuff, little porcelain statues of penguins & dolphins, ... did they forget that this is supposed to be a TRUCK STOP? (The other half of that section is full of toys, .. but it's mostly toy cars & trucks, so it's ok.)
Retail prices: In the chrome shop, I walked through rather quickly. Since most of that stuff isn't available elsewhere, I can't really price-compare. But I'll just take one single item, .. those little tree-shaped air fresheners in the yellow packages. A 1-pack was $1.89. I have unusually stinky feet, so bad that I carry small plastic ziplock bags to put my dirty socks in when I take them off in truck stop showers so I don't RUIN my duffel bag, ... so I actually know what those things retail for. At an ARAB-OWNED truck stop last week, I got a 2-pack of the "Vanillaroma" trees for 89 cents.
Parking: no problems there, .. but what's the deal with the angled parking in the north lot? (the area on your right when you first enter) It's either "nose-in" or blind-side 45 degrees, which can be a problem for 75% of truckers since there are so many rookies out here. I headed straight for the back, plenty of parking back there. Found a pull-thru open at 10:45 PM. Then when I got up in the AM I found a closer spot.