Refueling at the Buc-ee’s Gas Station Marathon

Steve Svoboda is going to run 26.2 miles around a single Buc-ee’s - his favorite all-American gas station - fueled only by their cult-status food.

What do you think of when you think of America? There’s a good chance it’s cars.

As a proud geographer and less proud British person, I have always been fascinated by how the USA has been constructed (and why, of course, but that’s a whole different book). While other nations build high-quality, high-speed mass transit, America is all about giant cross-country freeways. Single-occupancy automobiles, buses, and trucks are the preferred modes of American transport. They all need roads.

Road trips are a wonderful rite of passage, of course, and I’ve done my fair share since moving to the States. Last year, I traversed the West Coast, from L.A. to Portland, and took in a wealth of bland tarmac, leftfield landmarks, and heady clusters of fast food titans and gas station wonders every 10 miles or so.