Back in 2009, Pam and I were on our way to the Spring National bridge tournament in Houston, Texas. At some point between Dallas and Houston, we began seeing signs for something called Buc-ee's. The signs were weird and obscure and started at least 150 miles away from the actual location. Naturally, my curiosity began to grow as I had two hours to imagine all the wonderful things that could be found at a Buc-ee's. Eventually, we reached Madisonville, Texas and the sign that said Turn Here for BUC-EE's! Unfortunately, Pam was driving and she thought (not unreasonably) that stopping would make us late getting into Houston. 

    I was disappointed and over the next few days I began to tease Pam by describing things I would normally like as, “Well, that was nice but I'm sure it's no Buckys.” Obviously, my attitude was adding nothing to the trip so fate intervened and about a week later we saw signs for another Buc-ee's in Freeport, Texas. We immediately drove in and discovered that Buc-ee's is a (slightly better than average) gas station and convenience store. I was at least as disappointed as I had been when we initially drove by the first Buc-ee's. Pam was amused though and began teasing me by describing things she would normally dislike as, “Well, that was okay but at least it was no Buckys.”

    Eventually, a Buckys became our code for a quirky place that you can look forward to arriving at but in actuality is probably going to be a bit disappointing. Essentially, a Buckys is all about harnassing the pleasure of anticipation and imagination to make a long drive more enjoyable. So, in 2010 when Pam and I were planning our two month California bridge road trip, I ended up creating a list of 80 different Buckys that one or the other of us could look forward to visiting.  For some reason, I made it a rule that I had to take at least one picture at each Buckys we decided to stop at. Those pictures (and a habit that I picked up on the trip called the bridge Hand of the Day) became the nucleus for this website.

    So, if any of this sounds interesting to you then take a look at the Buckys and Bridge trips that Pam and I took to California, Montana, Florida, Alberta, Québec and Arizona. They are in chronological order and I believe that they are also in order of increasing quality so if you are new here then you might want to start in Arizona and work backward. In addition, I have also attached some photos and bridge hands from such places as Detroit, Las Vegas, Houston, Penticton, Seattle, Calgary and Las Vegas. None of these were Buckys trips but it seemed appropriate to include them on this website. Not coincidentally, they might also be in order of increasing quality.

    As a final gesture, I have created a page that features all of the Buckys image links as well as a page that has a massive map and index highlighting the routes we took on our trips as well as the locations of all our Buckys stops.

    Enjoy,
     2016
    Jason