Summer Greetings:

The Paperts recently completed a three-day road trip.  Two thoughts from our drive:

1)  We Live In A Great Country.  A Happy 250^th to ALL!

 2)  Buc-ee’s.

Buc-ee’s is an amazing story!  Fully proving innovation IS possible, even in the most staid, resistant, and surprising industries!  (Hint Hint Nudge Nudge!)

In short …

Someone (in this case, Arch Alpin and Don Wasek) has the idea to morph a traditional gas/convenience location into a Travel Center.  Let’s make Buc-ee’s a “destination” in and of itself; a place travelers’ are EAGER to visit and often include as a stop in their planning.

Make cleanliness a competitive advantage – Have good (oh my!) food, not shrink-wrapped sandwiches or spinning hotdogs from last week – and, go LARGE:

• Your average Buc-ee’s is between 10 and 25 times larger than a traditional gas station.
• There are around 100 pumps!
• A Buc-ee’s Travel Center can be up to 75,000 square feet.   That’s approximately the size of a Walmart Supercenter.
• There are currently 55 locations across 12 states, with more in the works.
• Travelers stop to visit, graze, occasionally fill up, take a bio-break (one that’s not cringe-worthy) and perhaps buy a trinket or two.
• All, without any 18-wheelers.  They ain’t allowed.

Finally, they promote like crazy?!  I can barely make an educated guess, but I bet there are between 30 to 50 billboards “pointing to” EACH location.  The farthest away I can recall during our trip was touting a store 194 MILES down the road.

What a fun retail success story!

New topic…

Some (most?) readers will be familiar with the Common Ground effort by NBC Universal.

It’s a platform-wide editorial franchise launched in December 2025, though it actually started a bit earlier on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker (its first pairing was Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Sen. James Lankford). It's built around bipartisan interviews and conversations — putting lawmakers or leaders with different political views together to discuss shared problems rather than fight about them.

Cesar Conde (Chairman, NBCUniversal News Group) framed it as a response to a moment when Americans are calling for more clarity and civil dialogue. NBC News President Rebecca Blumenstein said their audience research showed viewers want journalism that encourages understanding rather than division.  Imagine!!?

There have been multiple iterations, but I caught Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) and Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) with Savannah Guthrie on political extremism and thought it wonderful.

There was also a live event called "Common Ground Live," at Johns Hopkins this past April, where all four living former presidents sat down individually with Jenna Bush Hager for the country's 250th anniversary.

In my humble opinion, this is a SUPER idea.

Many local newsmedia are trying variations on this theme, yet this type of community conversation should be the Rule and not the Exception.  There are oodles (a fancy research term) of local issues and topics readers, viewers, citizens of all stripes, want to know more about – Provide it and prosper!

Do this NOW!