7 Gas Station Stops Alabamians Plan a Whole Drive Around

The Buc-ee’s in Loxley opened at 6 a.m. on a Monday in January 2019, and by noon, Mobile’s local TV station (WKRG) counted hundreds of people who had already pulled off I-10 to see it.

It wasn’t a holiday weekend.

It was just a Monday, and Alabama had the first Buc-ee’s built outside the state of Texas.

These are the gas station stops Alabamians plan a whole drive around.

1. Stuckey’s of Hope Hull

Stuckey’s of Hope Hull is the kind of stop that keeps the chain’s teal roof and Dairy Queen pairing directly off I-65 south of Montgomery.

A driver can fill up, grab a Dilly Bar, and load the console with pecan log rolls in one stop.

That combination started with a $35 loan.

W.S. Stuckey Sr. used it to open a roadside pecan stand in Eastman, Georgia, in 1937, and his wife Ethel worked out the log roll recipe that turned the stand into a chain.

Stuckey’s history page says travelers watched for that teal roof and sought it out on purpose.

Not by accident.

At its peak the chain ran 368 stores across more than 30 states, enough to make the roof synonymous with the American road trip.

Almost 90 years later, the Hope Hull store still pulls families off I-65 the same way.

Many drivers heading toward Montgomery or south to the Gulf build the stop into the route before they ever leave the driveway.

2. Satsuma Chevron

Satsuma Chevron is a stop that built its reputation on a bowl instead of a burger, right off I-65 at Exit 19 about 15 miles north of Mobile.

The gas station’s spot on that stretch of I-65 is part of why the recipe spread in the first place.

Word travels fast off an interstate exit.

The family that runs the gas station says the breakfast gumbo started around 2010.

Bill Beasley layered cheese grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and smoked Conecuh sausage into one dish and named it.

It caught on fast.

The gas station now feeds hundreds of people breakfast every day, and Christopher Beasley and his wife Lydia run the counter today, keeping the gumbo in the family.

Many drivers who know Exit 19 get off I-65 for the gumbo alone, even on a trip that had no gas stop planned.

3. Buc-ee’s

Buc-ee’s in Loxley became Alabama’s first Buc-ee’s built outside Texas when it opened on I-10 in January 2019.

That was 37 years after the chain’s first store went up back home in Texas.

Nobody in Baldwin County needed a second invitation.

Hundreds of people showed up before noon on opening day, and Baldwin County has kept sending them since.

Two years later, a second Buc-ee’s opened in Leeds off I-20, closer to Birmingham traffic.

It’s stocked with the same brisket sandwiches, kolaches, and wall of fudge that made the Loxley store a habit.

Same habit, closer exit.

Many families build the stop into the vacation itself now, routing toward whichever store sits closest to their exit.

4. Caffee Junction

Caffee Junction pairs a gas station and a burger counter under one name on Highway 11 near the I-20/59 split.

A Sneaky Pete’s counter works out of the same building, serving classic burgers alongside the gas station’s regular shelves of chips and motor oil.

The combination of gas, groceries, and a kitchen keeps regulars looping back through Bibb and Tuscaloosa counties for it, even with closer interstate exits along the way.

Nobody finds it by accident.

The junction sits back from the main interstate exits, so anyone pulling in already knew exactly where they were headed.

5. Mentone Market

Mentone Market anchors the entire downtown atop Lookout Mountain on Highway 117, where the whole commercial strip amounts to this one intersection.

The local tourism office doesn’t hedge on it, saying a visit to Mentone isn’t complete without stepping inside Mentone Market.

Not routine praise.

The store fuels cars and sells groceries, but it also serves fresh pizza, keeps beer on tap, and stocks local art next to the snack aisle.

Anyone driving up for DeSoto Falls or Little River Canyon ends up parked outside it anyway, since there’s nowhere else in Mentone to park.

Many visitors build the market into the trip before they ever reach the waterfall, planning the mountain day around this one stop as much as around the water.

6. Los Compadres

Los Compadres works out of a British Petroleum (BP) gas station on US-231 in Hazel Green, just south of the Tennessee line.

Huntsville’s tourism office lists it among the area’s best-kept gas station secrets.

The taco counter turns out street tacos, a molcajete, and fresh agua fresca alongside the regular gas station shelves of chips and motor oil.

Many drivers headed toward Huntsville from Nashville cross the state line and pull off for it, long before they’d normally stop for gas.

The pumps are secondary.

7. Woodson's Barge-N

Woodson's Barge-N takes over a Chevron on East 2nd Street in Gulf Shores, and regulars treat it as the last stop before the beach takes over.

The kitchen fries its chicken and chicken livers from scratch and builds an original chicken salad.

It also bakes a banana bread that regulars ask for by name at the counter.

That request never gets old.

Many families who've made the Gulf Shores drive for years know this Chevron by name before they know which condo they're staying in.

They gas up at this Chevron rather than a gas station closer to the water.