Arlan's Market of Navasota (Navasota, Texas)

Taken back in January 2016 by author. Just a short post today on Arlan's Market of Navasota. The main page of this post is on Carbon-izer.com and is worth a read. Check it out!

(We'll continue with another H.K. Dodgen Loop post in the near future.)

Shell Express (Navasota, Texas)

Dithered for style reasons and to cover up Google Street View's inadequacies
As previously discussed, this is another "breakup" post, this time tackling this page. The main subject in question of this post is a Shell gas station at 9323 Highway 90.

Opened around 1999 (as Texaco, changed in 2003) with a Popeyes and Domino's Pizza inside the store, and advertising both on the store (a "sign split" with Popeyes, and Domino's located mid-way down), the Popeyes sign has since been removed from the roadside signage (but still exists--likely because they didn't want to change it to the newer "Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen" signage) while the Domino's closed in summer 2012 (I knew someone that worked there--a combination of Pizza Hut being next door and in the area for decades and their location in a back of a gas station was hard to deal with in a small town like Navasota). Next door is the Pizza Hut in question, having moved to 9305 Highway 90 around 2001 from an older location closer to downtown. Next to it is Sonic Drive-In (9249 Highway 90), which also moved from an older location around 1999 (previously at 814 S. LaSalle Street, which is no more—I can't tell what it was afterward, this blurry 2007 view seems to indicate "Market Square" or something like that.

Meanwhile, the Domino's was replaced with Sum-Yum Chinese Food in 2016, but it closed in October 2024 (archive).

Hi-Ho Store (Navasota, Texas)

This picture is taken from Visit Navasota.
Today's post is a slightly souped-up and focused version of this post (permanent archived version). For many years, the State Highway 105 East exit was memorable because if it was taken, it was usually the first big sign that we were on a big trip. Houston and Galveston still continued down Highway 6 and if we were even in Navasota to begin with there was at least something special going on. I had mentioned back at Brazos Buildings & Businesses those points that when crossed meant we were officially on a trip, but even when that line went from Rock Prairie Road to William D. Fitch Parkway, this exit meant that it was some place special—for years, it would be something like a road trip to Baton Rouge or Florida, or even in later years something a bit closer to home, like the Renaissance Festival. (All those things between here and there will be future posts) and even in my last road trip to Florida, I still took Highway 105 (though got off at the 249 exit). Nowadays it makes me a bit sad to see the area increasingly developed with Jack in the Box, Chicken Express, and a Starbucks at that corner (yet Navasota still lacks Taco Bell).

Today's subject is Hi-Ho, a Shell station that originally had the address of 1831 South Loop 6 but changed to 1921 Texas 105. Hi-Ho was there since 1994 but repaved and rebuilt its Shell gas canopy and around 2008-2009 (nearly looked like a new store), and then did a big expansion around 2017 (truck fueling and a store expansion including a back entrance) to compete with the new Stripes (now 7-Eleven) across the street. Other changes, like making the frontage roads one way and adding turnaround lanes, came around this same era.

Hi-Ho predated the gas station at the southeast corner (Circle H, later rebuilt as Circle T, no relation) and was the first thing at that intersection, so it holds some nostalgia value, and seeing the Shell sign after traveling on Highway 105 returning meant that home was one step closer. Hi-Ho survived, at one point in the late 2000s or early 2010s a car ran into the store (this was before the expansion). But things are changing once more, and Hi-Ho may turn into just another gas station consumed by TxDOT expansion.

Courtesy TxDOT
In the future we will be covering the long journey from Highway 105 to Florida (besides what has already been covered)...not all at once, there are a variety of other entries I wish to cover. There won't be a special tag for it, but I'll bring it up and link posts.

Rattlers' Navasota (Navasota, Texas)

I only have Google Maps Street View (this one is c. 2013), so it's a bit distorted. There's a self-serve car wash off to the left that's part of the property.

Rattlers' has previously been a discussion topic of mine, a local convenience store that was later absorbed into 7-Eleven (with the stores still bearing its name cut out of the chain, however), and in 1990 an Exxon was built there (Jim's Express Mart, but listing for "Hit & Run" stores also comes up). By 2004 the store's owner, Kolkhorst Petroleum, unified the convenience stores it owned at the time by giving them a common brand, Rattlers' Country Stores. Despite having the oldest ownership in the chain, outliving a few other stores that Kolkhorst had previously owned including some stores in the Waco-Temple-Killeen area, and of course, being right near Kolkhorst's offices, this location, 1701 E. Washington Avenue, only became Rattlers' #2. Store #1 was sold within a few years. On the Highway 6 side of the store there was a sign for "Rattlers' Deli" but state tax records indicate from 1999 to 2003 there was a Taco Bell Express inside the store (I believe by the time of the Rattlers' rebrand this was gone). In 2016, Kolkhorst Petroleum sold its stores to Sunoco (owner of Stripes) but Rattlers' stores never got rebranded to Stripes because the Stripes chain was sold to 7-Eleven a few years later, and within a few years was branded as 7-Eleven (as did the Stripes an exit down). This was also the first place I saw the new lower-case Exxon logo in late 2017, a sign of things to come. (At least the blue stripe-less version didn't last long before they added back the blue stripe).

This post was split off from this post as part of ongoing upgrades to the site.

UPDATE 12-19-2025: Minor grammar fixes.

Navasota Exit SPUR-515 / TX-105 East (Navasota, Texas)

Street View, 2016. I thought I had photos for this sort of thing but I didn't. I previously covered one of Navasota's main exits previously on this blog and mentions that it was usually the "start of something fun". Unless we were going to Houston, the main star of the show was State Texas Highway 105 East. For years, it would be something like a road trip to Baton Rouge or Florida, or even in later years something a bit closer to home, like the Renaissance Festival. (We'll get to those stories—Conroe, Baton Rouge, Florida, Renaissance Festival, etc. another day.)

Once again we'll be deriving a lot of this information from the Carbon-izer page on Navasota as it currently stands and cover, roughly, from Dove Crossing Lane to Durden Street. Starting from the north and going down south there's La Casita Mexican Food Restaurant (9416 N. Hwy. 6 Loop), Navasota Inn (9460 Highway 6 Loop, sometime between late 2016 and early 2017, this former Super 8 changed names to its current incarnation. I can't find much information on it.), a demolished site that appears to be another motel, The Western Steakhouse & Dancehall (9524 N. Hwy. 6 Loop South; in the early 2020s they added an RV park behind it), Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses (9812 N. Hwy. 6 Loop), a CenturyLink facility (9852 N. Hwy. 6 Loop), T & S RV and Sport (9920 N Hwy 6 Loop, built in the late 2010s), First Hispanic Baptist Church (9970 Hwy 6, this is about where the exit lane is), WCTractor Navasota (10044 Hwy. 6), and finally, Circle T at 10200 Highway 6. Circle T replaced the 1996-built Circle H (no relation), which the gas station chronology I remember being Texaco originally, then a Diamond Shamrock in the early 2000s, then Valero by the mid-2000s, then back to Texaco again, before being demolished in 2019 for "Circle T", a new self-branded truck stop, which opened September 2020.

On the east side (going southbound), there's First National Bank Of Anderson (9501 N. Hwy 6 Loop, built in the late 2000s), MidSouth Electric Co-op (9409 N. Hwy. 6 Loop, built around 2011 with an expansion done in the early 2020s), Christ Our Light Catholic Church (9677 N. Hwy. 6 Loop, one of the few buildings here that was here back in the 1990s), United Ag & Turf (9819 Hwy. 6), Loop Self-Storage (9905 Hwy. 6), 9965 Highway 6 (former Elliott Team Ford, now just a service area), Elliott Team Ford (10059 N. Hwy. 6 Loop, their new location built circa 2023), and finally Hi-Ho. Hi-Ho is a Shell station that originally had the address of 1831 South Loop 6 but changed to 1921 Texas 105. Hi-Ho was there since 1994 but repaved and rebuilt its Shell gas canopy around 2008-2009, and then did a big expansion around 2017 (truck fueling and a store expansion) to compete with the new Stripes across the street.

Now we get to 105 itself. For years, Hi-Ho was it, that was the main sign of civilization as you went through the woods towards Plantersville (which didn't even have a stoplight until 2006). The Sunoco across the street (1930 TX-105) was built as Stripes #2492 and opened here in April 2016 with Laredo Taco Company inside. By June 2021 it had been rebranded as 7-Eleven. That wasn't all. I was somewhat shocked and saddened to see development creep along SH-105 East, noting both a Jack in the Box (2010 Highway 105 E.) opened in December 2022 and Chicken Express (1954 Highway 105 East) which had opened one month earlier (these were connected to 7-Eleven's parking lot). A Jack in the Box? In Navasota?! That was surprising, given the relatively recent arrival of Burger King and the flakiness of those two chains anyway...

UPDATE 09-09-2025: Moved Hi-Ho to this post.

Navasota Exit TX-90 / TX-105 West (Navasota, Texas)

While not a numbered exit (it's just the name of the blog), I wanted to use this post to cover a few things about Navasota's main business exit, which goes to Anderson (to the west, TX-90 starts here), or to the east (TX-105 West) to Brenham.

One reason why this is important to me is that Navasota, growing up, represented something. If we were in Navasota for whatever reason, we were going on a trip, whether Houston or heading out as far east as Florida. Naturally, Navasota had a positive connotation even if there's really nothing to write home about.

This page covers from approximately from Alamo Drive to Dove Crossing Lane and is derived from this page on Carbon-izer.com. All of these are updated as of July 2024.

At the northeast corner (where the photo is taken from) is a McDonald's (8737 N. Hwy. 6) which was built here in 1993 (though the roof may have come later). It has since received a late-2000s/early 2010s remodel. The picture above, taken from me in 2006 (moving car, cheap camera, it's not a great photo), shows how the McDonald's looked just prior to the re-do. Note the original Chevron sign colors next door. Opened around 1988 with Annie's Country Store as the main store. A facade update was done in late 2020 with a minor expansion (soon after altering the roadside signage). Just out of view is Los Cabos Mexican Grill (8731 Highway 6) which it was starting around late 2021/early 2022. This restaurant was formerly Wrangler Steak House and later Las Fuentes Steak & Grill. Indications are it just changed names between November 2016 and June 2017, and started business in 2002.

The northwest corner of the intersection features Herrera's Mexican Restaurant (8734 N. Hwy. 6 Loop, also known as Herrera's Mexican Restaurant #3) which opened in 2019 to replace Erick's Mexican Restaurant (operated here previously since 2011). Various other Mexican restaurants have been here at least since at least the early 2000s and more prominently, a 7-Eleven/Exxon. The store at 1701 East Washington Avenue was previously Rattlers' (originally "Jim's Express Mart" from 1992 to early 2000s rebranding), and was the first time I saw the new Exxon logo (lower case lettering, no blue stripe) in late 2017. By early 2021, with the Stripes (which bought Rattlers) takeover by 7-Eleven progressing, the rectangular sign has both 7-Eleven and Exxon on it, neither very large. Two doors down is a Burger King opened in December 2019 owned by Kolkhorst Foods; the Kolkhorst family used to own Rattlers' (it was sold to Sunoco in 2015 and came under the Stripes family before it was flipped a few years later to 7-Eleven) and promised to build a Burger King at least since the time of the sale.

The southwest corner features a Walmart. Walmart #293 (still a "Division One" store) opened here in May 1980. For years, it kept its "WAL-MART" lettering (no star!) even as it switched to brown paint in the early 2010s. The store finally became a true "Walmart" by the late 2010s with lighter blue paint (it was to be replaced with a Supercenter but plans have stalled). A drive-through only Church's opened in 1984 (it was a prefabricated model that Church's developed) in the Wal-Mart parking lot. This was closed in 2022. Going a bit further down there's a car dealership built in 2019 (Sterling Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, 9030 Highway 6), ErgoGenesis (1 Bodybilt Place, operational since 2002 and likely a former TG&Y Family Center—still looking into that), a closed Aaron's (9310 Highway 6 Loop, 2007-2020), and Tractor Supply Company (store #1130, 9320 Highway 6 Loop), which opened in or around September 2006.

To the southeast is a Shell gas station, Pizza Hut (9305 Highway 90), and Sonic (9249 Highway 90). The Shell gas station (9323 TX-90) was built here with a Domino's Pizza (inside) and a Popeyes adjacent (branded as Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen these days, address of 9319 TX-90) around 1999 (may have been branded originally as a Texaco), the Domino's here closed in the summer of 2012 (apparently, both being located in the back of a gas station and in direct competition with a Pizza Hut in a small market was not good for business). It has since been replaced with (relatively recently) Sum Yum Chinese Food. Both Domino's and Popeyes have been removed from the roadside signage. Going a bit south (which is impossible if driving now thanks to a late 2000s conversion of making the frontage roads one way) has a Days Inn motel (8965 Highway 6, Best Western prior to around 2024), Autotrust Repairs (9309 N. Hwy. 6 Loop), Mallett Brothers Barbeque (9339, built in 2009), and a Comfort Inn & Suites (9345 Hwy. 6) built around the same time.

UPDATE 08-26-2025: While the content of this post hasn't changed, the information on Rattlers' has been spun off as its own page.
UPDATE 01-04-2026: The businesses at Highway 90 have been spun off. Once the new Carbon-izer page goes live, this page will turn into a new page on Wal-Mart.