Wisconsin's Finest

One of my all-time favorite Saturday Night Live skits centered on two Super Wal-Mart Greeters and their fascination with the massive size of and overwhelming assortment of products sold in their store. (I searched for a video clip of this skit but came up empty handed. I did, however, find the transcript, which confirmed that the main characters were portrayed by Jennifer Garner, who hosted that week, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, and Seth Meyers. Boy, those were good years on SNL…) Though I didn't live at home in February of 2003 which the episode aired, I must have been visiting my family or they had traveled to visit me because I remember watching the skit with my mom and sister and laughing so hard that we nearly…well, we laughed hysterically.

On a seemingly unrelated note, when we first moved to Texas we drove past a billboard advertising the delicious beaver nuggets sold at Buc-ee's convenience stores and travel centers. For obvious reasons, we made no plans to visit Buc-ee's.

As it turns out, beaver nuggets are not actually nuggets made from beavers, but caramel and butter-glazed corn puffs. (You can see where things got confusing though, right?) Turns out most Texans adore these tasty treats, so much so that many seem to regularly adjust their travel plans/routes to include stops at Buc-ee's.

When I first set foot inside one of these convenience-stores-on-steroids I immediately flashed back to the Super Wal-Mart SNL skit. 60,000 square feet, 40+ stalls in each of the multiple bathrooms, a grocery store, and a buffet-style restaurant, as well as clothing, toy, book, housewares, home decor, and weapons departments. I left with a bag of Beaver Nuggets, an assortment of ice cream treats, and an "I mustache you a question" tee-shirt for my nephew, and considered purchasing bananas, sushi, beef jerky, gummy bears, a metal Ferris Wheel, a bow (and arrows), an antique clock, a cell phone charger, grill utensils made out of answers, and a purse shaped like a mermaid. From what I gathered that day, Buc-ee's carries just about everything one could possibly think of or need...including a little taste of home.

Yep, the Super Wal-Mart of convenience stores and travel centers in Texas sells only Wisconsin's Finest Cheese in the form of Fresh, Natural, Cheese Pleasers.

So now I travel like a true Texan (though in a smaller vehicle than most): along a route specifically chosen for its proximity to a Buc-ee's. Except I'm not stopping for Beaver Nuggets…I'm stopping for Wisconsin's Finest.

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