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The prices may have soared, but stopping for fuel in the USA is certainly less grim at these six service stations.
Pops 66 Soda Ranch, Oklahoma
Get your sugar fix on Route 66 at Oklahoma’s Pop 66 (above). Unmissable from miles around thanks to its gigantic neon soda bottle, Pops 66 stocks more than 700 different flavours of fizzy drinks. There’s a diner, merch store and fuel, of course. More Pit Stop details here or visit https://pops66.com/
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Shell, North Carolina
Winston-Salem was once the home of no less than eight of these splendid Shell-shaped gas stations, when the distributor, Quality Oil Company, built them in the 1930s. Only one remains, after being saved by a local businessman in the 1970s. The colourful pumps don’t deliver gas anymore, but the Shell Station remains a popular landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Teapot Dome, Washington
Not just a useful Pit Stop for motorists, the Teapot Dome Service Station in Zilah was a political statement. Built by Jack Ainsworth in 1922, the pot-shaped building highlights a major corruption scandal when local government official Albert Bacon Fall gave the oil drilling rights of the Teapot Dome reserve in Wyoming to the Mammoth Oil Company, for which he received an appropriately mammoth bribe. No longer at its original location, nor still serving gas, it remains a reminder of dodgy government contracts.
Petrified Wood Gas Station, Texas
This Texaco station in Spring Hill looks like a major fire hazard. It dates back to 1927 and was rebuilt out of ancient timber in 1927, becoming a popular North Texas landmark. The pumps ran dry in 1989, but a local historian thankfully stepped in to save the building.
Hollow Mountain, Utah
Blasted out of the rock face outside Hanksville in 1984, reportedly using 100 cases of dynamite, this service station was, unsurprisingly, the brainchild of a former miner. Inside the cavern, there’s a convenience store, with the fuel pumps under a conventional canopy outside. Thanks to its setting, it is literally a very cool place to take a break from the desert heat.
Harold’s Auto Center, Florida
Originally built to replicate the dinosaur logo of Sinclair Oil, this Spring Hill service station no longer actually delivers any dino juice to passing motorists. However, inside the 110-foot-long, 50-foot-high concrete Brontosaurus, it is still a working repair shop where you can get your fossil-fuelled motor fettled.
The prices may have soared, but stopping for fuel in the USA is certainly less grim at these six service stations.