Morning Adventure

As I talked about in my last post, Wawa Mini-Fails, I went for a little adventure this morning to again keep pace with the challenge and to get my Wawa breakfast morning-ritual items. For those who haven't followed the blog too closely those items are: the Philadelphia Inquirer, a 20oz hazelnut coffee, & a sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel.

So I had it all planned out - I would hit 3 different Wawas for those 3 different items. I did the quick research on www.wawa.com for the locations and made quick-written directions for myself. I would hit Wawas #811, 801, & 854.

So I started on my morning adventure, venturing out Darley Road, Chestnut Road, and then down Marsh Road. The next turn was Wilson Road in which the first Wawa would be on. Totally missed the turn. Keep in mind, I have a GPS in my car - thanks to my roommate Steve - but failed to use it. I have a feeling it could have helped.

Anyways - I recognized some of the roads from my directions leading to the other Wawas, righted myself, and got to Wawa #811 without too much trouble. However, on my way into the store I was struck by the other door. I walked in one door, a Wawa employee was walking in the other door and struck me with it. I'm sorry - was I moving too slow for you? Thanks dude. Anyways, I got my coffee and a quick picture of the store and moved onto the next Wawa after the abuse I took.

#12. Wawa Store #811 - Friday, December 3 - 10:34am
400 A Wilson Road
Brandywine, DE 19803
Item Purchased: 20oz hazelnut coffee

I then went to Wawa #801 without any trouble getting there, bought my Philadelphia Inquirer, and continued on. The picture below is from the last challenge during hoagie-fest. It is "hippie-fied" if you will.

#13. Wawa Store #801 - Friday, December 3 - 10:49am
Philadelphia Pike & Parkway Ave
Wilmington, DE 19809
Item Purchased: Philadelphia Inquirer

Next up was Wawa #854. This would have been the Wawa I hit in yesterday's update if I didn't mess up my "needing gas" schedule. So I hit it today, purchased my sausage, egg, & cheese and went on my way. This Wawa is one of my usual Wawas. I like it because it is a super-Wawa with gas and also has 2 entrances. I just realized that I have a lot of different "usual" Wawas. Oh well, I guess that comes with the territory when you blog about a store.

#14. Wawa Store #854 - Friday, December 3 - 10:57am
2621 Philadelphia Pike
Claymont, DE 19703
Item Purchased: Sausage, egg, & cheese on a bagel

I will soon do an overall update blog - highlighting the amount of money spent, items purchased, & any other anecdotes I may have. I will also include a map of the Wawas I have hit thus far.

Day: 10
Wawas Hit: 14
Days Left: 20
Wawas Left: 36

-Ford

Wawa for Thanksgiving

And here we go again. The journey has begun and it started with my local Wawas as you could imagine. The challenge begun on Wednesday, November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving and I only hit 1 because I decided I wanted to take a lazy day as many of these days off around Thanksgiving have been and will be.

So on Wednesday I went up to my usual Wawa to get the paper. This is my usual Wawa because it is in close proximity to I-95 which I hop on to get to work every day. Nothing special about this trip, just doing my old-man thing and buying the Philadelphia Inquirer so I could read the news and do the crossword. And by 'do the crossword' I mean get about 30% of it done and give up because I'm still not good at them. What I fail to do is look at the paper the next day and see the full crossword done. Maybe then I could learn some things and actually end up completing a crossword one day. But nope. Still haven't learned.

#1. Wawa Store #816 - Wednesday, November 24th - 9:31am
Ridge & Naamans Road
Claymont, DE 19703
Item Purchased: Philadelphia Inquirer

Onto Thanksgiving day. Happy post-thanksgiving everyone! I did not get a chance to post yesterday as I spent the majority of the day at my parent's house. On my way I stopped for gas at the Wawa in Parkesburg, PA. So I thought I was done for the day since I didn't think I'd stop for food after a large & wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. However, I still did. On my way back at around 10pm I needed by Mountain Dew fix since I hadn't had one in awhile. I also got Pretzel M&M's. If you haven't had pretzel M&M's yet...get them! They are fantastic.

#2. Wawa Store # 263 - Thursday, November 25th - 2:33pm

3711 W. Lincoln Hwy.

Parkesburg, PA 19365

Item Purchased: Gas

#3. Wawa Store #298 - Thursday, November 25th - 9:59pm

1413 Wilmington Pike

West Chester, PA 19382

Items Purchased: 20oz Mountain Dew and Pretzel M&Ms

Here are pictures from the 2 Wawas - first Wawa # 263 in Parkesburg, PA & then Wawa # 298 in Wester Chester, PA on Rt-202.

 

Black Friday

I was not planning on going out for Black Friday shopping today but when I woke up I realized I had nothing better to do, so I showered and went out to see if I could get a little Christmas shopping done or maybe get a few things for myself. I of course needed my Wawa coffee before I got going, so I stopped at the Wawa on the corner of Rt-202 & Naamans Road for hazelnut coffee & a breakfast sandwich. For anyone who knows me or read the blog before, you know you will be seeing a lot more of hazelnut coffee popping up on this blog. So I hit the ATM for some cash, get my coffee & sandwich and get into my car. While getting into my car, I realized I did not ask for a receipt. Doh. I semi-panicked. I wasn't going to go in and be like - "umm, remember me? I purchased coffee & a breakfast sandwich about 10 customers ago. no? well, can you print my receipt for me anyways?" No, I didn't do that. However - what I did remember was that I hit the ATM and got cash...and more importantly...a receipt! Success. Take my picture of the store and move on.

#4. Wawa Store #826 - Friday, November 26th - 9:13am

3448 Naamans Road

Wilmington, DE 19803

Items Purchased: Cash at ATM, 16oz hazelnut coffee, shorti breakfast sandwich

-Insert unsuccessful black friday shopping stories here-

I will not bore you with black friday shopping. After a couple hours of that, I stopped at the Wawa in Chadds Ford on Rt-202 for lunch & the paper.

#5. Wawa Store #170 - Friday, November 26th - 11:51am

721 Naamans Creek Road

Chadds Ford, PA 19317

Items Purchased: Chicken Caesar Wrap and Philadelphia Inquirer

And there you have it. 3 days in and 5 Wawas hit already. The day is still young too, we'll see if any more get hit tonight. Here are the receipts from the past few days:

Now back to the Flyer's Black Friday game vs. the Calgary Flames. Let's Go Flyers!

-Ford

Catching Up: Part 1

I haven't posted in almost a week now but definitely not due to a lack of going to Wawas. I didn't have much time to blog due to being at Wawa so much as well as Father's Day this past Sunday and then getting a flat tire last night, which hindered my plans to hit a Wawa or 2 after work.

I had a huge day of Wawa in the morning of Father's Day, but before I hit that, I had 1 each day on Thursday, Friday, & Saturday. I apologize as I did not take pictures at 1 of them, but I have the receipt to prove me being there. I will try to get pictures at each of them if I have time to go back to them.

Also - a few people have requested me to take the "Facebook-style" picture of the Wawas with me in them. I will start doing that if it doesn't look creepy for me to do.

Before my big day on Sunday, the 3 Wawas I hit were:

12. Wawa Store #30 - June 17th, 2010

Chichester and Maltesta Ave.

Boothwyn, PA 19063

Items Purchased: Chicken Caesar Salad, Chicken Cheese Steak

I don't remember much about this Wawa and I only have a cell phone picture from it. I do remember that I actually wanted to attempt at being somewhat healthy and buy a salad there. The chicken cheese steak was for the roommate.

13. Wawa Store #86 - June 18th, 2010

1707 Arch St.

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Items Purchased: 16oz hazelnut coffee

This was "my Wawa" when I lived in Center City Philadelphia for 2.5 years. I went right after the height of the morning rush in Center City, but it was still pretty busy. Regardless, was good to get back to that one. I didn't take a picture at this one either because I was trying to navigate the other morning-rushers. I will likely get back to this one though to take a picture.

14. Wawa Store #801 - June 19th, 2010

Philadelphia Pike & Parkway Ave.

Wilmington, DE 19809

Items Purchased: 16oz hazelnut coffee, egg & cheese junior sandwich, Philadelphia Inquirer

This one is an interesting tale. I woke up and drove down Philadelphia Pike, knowing that there was another a couple miles down from my new current Wawa in Claymont, DE. I apparently looked more for the big sign for Wawa than looking for the actual store because I drove well past it. I realized this once I got into the heart of downtown Wilmington and knew I had gone way too far. But by now it was too late. I was stuck for the time being. I tried to maneuver my way out of the city but any road I turned on resulted in a dead-end, ended up putting me on a one-way the wrong way, or just didn't get me in the right direction. I even ended up driving through the Brandywine Zoo. A nice little unexpected tour of a city I didn't want a tour of. I'd throw a map up of the round-about route I took, but I have no idea which roads I was on.

I finally found my way out after navigating through the Zoo and got my bearings straight. Found the Wawa, and got what I needed to. Almost.

Problem is, apparently all sausage has been recalled at all Wawas. I really wanted a sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel but that doesn't work when sausage has been recalled. Sigh. And oh yeah, I guess Hoagie Man visited this Wawa because it was Hippie-fied and, well, just look...

There was also a banner the left of this picture towards the counter. And the sign that is under the window and above the couch said something about Hippies entering through the back door; or something to that extent. It was odd. It was a bad attempt at the Hoagie Fest thing. Oh well, made for something interesting though and out of the ordinary. 

UPDATE (6/23 - 9:03pm): Receipts below for the 3 Wawa visit's above.

Next Up: I'll take a look at the Wawa explosion that was Sunday morning. Spoiler Alert: I hit 11 of them. I'll take a look at the map of my adventure, a list of the random items I bought, a hidden Wawa in Malvern, PA, and tell you why some random guy is staring at me in my picture from the Wawa in Frazer, PA.

#8 and #9

Nothing too exciting today. I got #8 and #9 out of the way however. There is also some talk about my visit #4 not counting because I didn't buy anything personally. More on that in another post.

8. Wawa Store #809 - June 15, 2010
2300 Carpenter Road
Wilmington, DE 19810
Items Purchased: 16oz hazelnut coffee

 

A fairly small, townie Wawa. But had the new upgrade with the new coffee. It claims to be Wilmington, DE - however it was even more north of my home so I don't see how it is considered Wilmington. Oh well.

9. Wawa Store #25 - June 15, 2010
2 East Rhoads Avenue
West Chester, PA 19380
Items Purchased: .5 liter Wawa water

 

I apologize for the cell phone picture, but I forgot my camera when I went out. Another small, old-school Wawa - this time in West Chester, PA.

First off, get used to seeing the 16oz hazelnut coffee. I love it. You will see it on multiple receipts throughout this journey.

Secondly, I need to know more about the store numbers. I thought for awhile that they corresponded to when the store opened up. For instance, store #1 in Folsom, PA being the first Wawa ever opened. #25, the one I visited in West Chester today being the 25th Wawa opened.

There are some concerns with my theory on this. One being that there are gaps in the numbers - there is no #2, 3, 4, or 5. #6 is in Media, PA. Now this could be because 2, 3, 4, & 5 were closed down at some point. The biggest concern with my numbered store theory is that while searching for Wawas on http://www.wawa.com/ there are some stores in the 8,000's. From my knowledge of all things Wawa, there are approximately 500-600 stores. This immediately negates my numbered store theory.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

-Bryan