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Gas Station Order
"Are we there yet?"
Dirt contributors and friends share their go-to gas station orders.
In any journey, a gas station is the source of fuel. Both in a literal and emotional sense—whether you’re replenishing a tank or mustering up the will (and snack stash) to survive another few hours on the road without falling asleep. It makes the perfect respite from a never-ending loop of the license plate game or simply sitting in cramped quarters with your family.
Gas stations are both fragments of consumerist dystopias and small moments of disruption. From sea to shining sea, you will find Cheetos, you will find Dasani, and you will find Reese’s Cups. The fluorescent lights and disjunct aisles are copied and pasted across America. But hidden somewhere between the Slim Jims and watered down coffee, pieces of the small highway-side town always peek in. The gas station is where you stop and chat with someone from a town whose name you never knew and will not remember. It is a transient space, yes, but that does not mean it is invisible.
The gas station is where you stop and chat with someone from a town whose name you never knew and will not remember.
On a road trip to West Virginia, my friends and I managed to stop at the exact same gas station twice, once on the way there and once on the way back. It was entirely out of chance, in fact we hadn’t realized our serendipity until the cashier recognized us asking us about our trip, five days later. It was uncanny seeming to bend the rules of gas station interactions. A gas station order is iterative, but spatially displaced. You buy the same thing over and over again, but almost never at the same place twice.
This week, Dirt chatted with contributors and friends about their favorite gas station orders. Their go-to snacks and guilty pleasures that sustain them on the journey from point A to point B
—Norah Rami, Dirt Editorial Intern
Sheetz subs ordered at the kiosk. Italian, double mayo, pepper jack, lightly toasted. Runner-up: Reese’s big cup.
Chex Mix for my boyfriend and Haribo gummy bears for me. Before I was vegan I liked Bugles to make gloves out of them
The gas station convenience store is where the American social contract—silent assent to the exploitation of low-wage workers and the overseas massacres of innocents carried out on our dime, in exchange for an endless stream of cheap and varied snacks—is most embodied. I prefer whichever soda variety is least familiar to me, any flavor or experiment that won’t be on shelves in three months. Lately, I’ve been searching for Starry’s Zero Sugar Cranberry Blizz, an apparent dupe of the departed Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. For food, there’s no substitute for Pepperoni Pizza Combos. Their beige outer ring and chalky pink center make them look exactly like a certain brand of dog treats. Fitting, because it is when I am among the aisles of pacifying snacks, tetchy from hours stuck in a car, that I feel most like a pet.
Editor’s note: Thank you Jameson
Gummy peach rings and Cheez-Its, Arizona Iced Tea
Orange is the most beautiful and most edible color.
Liter bottle of Polar seltzer (a New England girl classic) and something from the Reese’s family
Flamin hot Cheetos + peach rings - perfectly oppositional textures & orange is the most beautiful and most edible color.
Sugar free Red Bull and Sour Patch Kids, which cancel each other out.
‘Pizzeria' flavored Combos. The big bag. Pretzel, never cracker (those are “Pepperoni Pizza” anyway). An almost exotic flavor that’s out of place outside of a moving vehicle. Savory, filling, easy no-look eating on the road.
Chex mix (bold), diet dr. pepper, RIP Roy Rogers at New York State Thruway rest areas.
Gummy worms and a lottery scratcher (I like to be part of something larger than myself).
Gummy worms and a lottery scratcher (I like to be part of something larger than myself).
Cool ranch Doritos and a Diet Coke
Gum is the necessity because it keeps you alert and awake, generally I am a peanut M&Ms person because the peanuts are healthy and the chocolate is delicious, but if it’s the week before my period, I’m eating honey mustard pretzels with a thick, salty, MSG fake flavor powder sprinkled everywhere.
White cheddar pop chips or the absolute wettest looking banana nut muffin I’ve ever seen in my life from a brand I’ve never heard of in my life. And a tall boy can of Diet Coke.
peanut butter crackers, maybe beef jerky depending on if i'm starving, pre-shelled pistachios (i guess i am proteinmaxxing?), and one of those absolutely disgusting starbucks drinks.
Evian, Peanut m&m's, small bag of Cheetos
these! would never buy them at any time except when I'm on the road they are delicious
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