Road Ranger

This place is fine when we come in our car (we live in town) but when we are in the truck and it’s at night, it’s a pain to get through the parking lot! Trucks parked literally anywhere and everywhere they can fit, seriously if there is not a parking spot keep it moving down the road, the Marathon going south always has spots, just a suggestion! Nobody pulls forward at the fuel islands, I get that it’s at night and not as busy but come on. When you express complaints to staff they don’t give a sh**, which is annoying, most other places will at least intercom announce for people to please pull up.

So I was leery of hopping off the highway and being in the middle of no where, and well, let me be completely honest, everything 30 minutes out of the City is the middle of no where. Anyhow, Road Ranger is a brand name and it is in Champaign, which is a University town, so we stopped.
The Road Ranger is literally two minutes off I-​57. The gas station sells fuel, of course, and all kinds of snacks, books, lottery tickets and beverages. Ladies room is clean and functional, but not posh. But it is free.

Nothing great, nothing bad. Gas is cheaper in Champaign than in the Chicago area so we like to fill up before we leave town.
It gets the job done but if it wasn’t cheaper, I probably wouldn’t bother. However, it’s always pretty crowded here after the football games so it must be doing something right.
Need gas, it will suit your needs. Oh and they have cold bottles of water.

Clean bathrooms! Huge selection of great snacks and healthy ones too!

The store was very clean and well stocked. The womens restroom smelled nice as I walled by, but the mens room was nasty.

Yah, I know. It’s just a gas station/​convenience store. Not something to Unilocal about. Except that it is.
In the last handful of hours on long road trip, a place that is clean and has yummy coffee concoctions is kind of a big deal. They do. The coffee was just from one of those press the button espresso kinds of machines, but the flavors were really yummy. Since they are sweet, I tend to mix them with some regular coffee, and I like places where the regular coffee is also fresh. Here? It was.
Still, none of that would have seemed so Unilocal-​able, except for what happened before all that.
Road trips mean public bathrooms, which few folks think of as enjoyable. I was amazed when I walked in at how *clean* and even *nice smelling* the bathroom was. Even the lighting was just nice. I can’t explain. But this is what made me have to Unilocal it.
Go here, get some gas, yummy coffee, do your thing in a place that’s not as public bathroom feeling as you’d expect, and then come back to tell me I was right about this place.