When the wife and I packed up and headed to Carlsbad Caverns with our kids this past summer, I ended up stopping at a place I never thought I would:

Buc-ees.

If you don't know what Buc-ees is, where exactly have you been?

If you head west on Interstate 10 toward San Antonio, there are billboards about every 10 yards or so (OK, I'm exaggerating. It's more like 20 yards) advertising Buc-ees restrooms, food, Beaver Nuggets, etc...

In case you don't know what a Buc-ees is, it's basically a convenience store on steroids. It's huge. Every snack imaginable. Lots of beef jerky. Shirts with cartoon beavers wearing ballcaps.

I'm seeing more and more people wearing Buc-ees shirts. Not me. They may be popular now, but so were those "Dy-no-mite!" T-shirts featuring J.J. from Good Times back in the 1970s. Need I say more?

My kids love the Buc-ees on I-10 in Luling. They love the one in I-45 in Madisonville even more. Why? Because it's even bigger with more stuff.

According to the Buc-ees Web site, it now has 18 locations, most of them in the Greater Houston area. I don't know why I've never seen one before. But, they are around.

So imagine my surprise (and disappointment, which I'll get to in just a bit) to learn that Fort Bend County has its very own Buc-ees.

I found out about it when I saw a billboard on U.S. 59 driving home from work one day a few weeks ago.

The store is off of Crabb River Road, basically right across the street from Greatwood.

Apparently, it's been there awhile, since it's not even listed on the Web site as being one of the new stores, like the ones in Madisonville and down in Wharton.

Unfortunately, it's not one of the supersized versions. More like a convenience store on steroids - after it's stopped taking steroids. It's smaller. But it still has a lot of stuff. Just not nearly as much as the ones I've been too off of the major highways.

Oh, well. I guess you take what you can get.