Bagby Quik Pak (Waco, Texas)

Picture courtesy MCAD from 2003. As I continue to change things around in Carbon-izer, it's time for another Waco story (originally seen on this page). Quik Pak opened its gas station and convenience store at 5601 Bagby Avenue and Loop 340 sometime around 1997-1998 when this was a somewhat isolated area, and I have fond memories of the store being here (looking like the picture above) from when the way to get to my grandfather's new house (he lived in Waco before, but he moved over five miles away as I got to see a different side of Bagby Avenue en route to the new place, an emptier, newer side, as it was before the major developments Central Texas Marketplace or Legends Crossing, or reconstructing the interchange at I-35. By late 2007, it was a Chevron/CEFCO. Quik Pak had switched brands to Chevron by 2006 (when Citgo pulled out of Waco) and they sold most of their stores to CEFCO that year. (1702 West Spring Valley Road was the exception and was sold later).

In December 2021, CEFCO opened a new store at 6201 Bagby Avenue less than a mile away. By early 2026, this was Waco's first Casey's, while Casey's has kept this CEFCO here for now (likely staying as such since it's a smaller store).

Bear Creek Inn (Houston, Texas)

Picture by John Williams, April 2009. Much like the Copperfield McDonald's this is another picture from John Williams of Vintage West Houston, the Bear Creek Inn at 4204 Highway 6 North. He says this used to be a Travelodge, which old archives do confirm, but I'm not sure when it switched it over. It was Bear Creek Inn even as of 2008 but that leaves a lot of ambiguity as to when it changed over. (The old West Houston Archives webpage implied was more recent.)¹ During Hurricane Harvey (I'm guessing), the main sign was blown out but it continues to operate.

1. "this motor lodge used to be Travelodge, which was built over 30 years ago. It is now the Bear Creek Inn [as seen] in this April 2009 photo"

Another photo of the premises (taken from a car).

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).

Target on Sanger Avenue (Waco, Texas)

Picture courtesy McLennan CAD
This is from Carbon-izer from a page that is soon to be revamped. Former Target store opened in October 1981 (T-155) and closed in 2003 with a new Target Greatland about two miles away. It has since been renovated into a variety of medical offices (Six West Medical Center).

Copperfield McDonald's (Houston, Texas)

Modern McDonald's buildings don't have flags anymore. (Vintage West Houston, 2007).
Courtesy John Williams of Vintage West Houston (who, back in the mid-2010s operated a great site called West Houston Archives) we have the McDonald's in Copperfield...before its rebuild! This incarnation lasted from 1986 to 2009 when it was rebuilt from the ground up.

There continues to be a McDonald's at 7302 Highway 6 North, of course, but it's not the same.

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.