The drive from San Antonio to Houston was enhanced when we decided to deviate off I-10 and take one of the ‘backroads’ to Houston and this week’s Shell Houston Open.

No sooner do your leave San Antonio and your eyes are drawn to a series of billboards promoting Buc-ees.

Buc-ees is a chain of facilities incorporating shops, gas station and boasting the world’s cleanest bathrooms.

Among the goods you can purchase is Buc-ees golf balls and Buc-ees head cover – a must for every golfer!

It was business partners Arch “Beaver” Aplin III & Don Wasek who kick-started the chain in 1982 with the name a mix of Alpin’s Labrador Retriever, and the famous name of ‘Bucky Beaver, the marketing mascot created in the 1950s by Ipana toothpaste.

Buc-ees has stores all over Texas it was the one at Luling, and at the intersection of I-10 and US Highway 90 that we visited on route to Houston.

Here is a selection of photographs from an ‘Un-beaver-able’ visit to Buc-ees.