Yeah, there are lots of Chevrons in Rocklin, this one is on the corner of Sunset and Whitney. I was there 9/16/09, and I’m not sure what the deal with the Chevron stations around here is, but they all seem to be kept pretty clean. I’m not here often enough to be able to say with any certainty whether this one is constantly busy, but the couple of times I’ve been here they’ve been somewhere between mildly busy and full-on swamped.

They managed to make this a little bit more interesting than your average white-walled bathroom, utilizing gray tiles to break up the solid white. I found their light “switch” interesting, seems old-fashioned compared to the  modern-day sensors, but it’s obviously better than leaving the lights on all-day long. I’m always interested in what their savings over a standard light switch is (I’m sure it’s substantial), and the actual value (in terms of how long it takes to recuperate the cost of a light-sensor compared to the cost of the different types of switches). Anyway, enough rambling…three-and-a-half rolls on cleanliness and avoiding blasé design (it’s a gas station…) with no idea of how busy they get.

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Wow…

…just…wow…and I mean that in the absolute best of ways.

Now…this isn’t some crazy kitschy bathroom (though it would be a lot more fun if more were…but I think I beat that dead horse to it’s seventh or eighth death last post).

However…it is a gas station bathroom…and usually that phrase “gas station bathroom” evicts terrible horrible thoughts, thoughts that the toilet might eat you (or at least everything living on it) and the fear that washing your hands might be worse for you than not.

This is the nicest cleanest gas station bathroom I’ve ever been in. Ever. If you’ve ever gone with me on a roadtrip, you know I use gas station bathrooms almost more than professional truck drivers/travellers/college students on road trips. Probably more than some of them do. Yeah, I’m that guy. Seriously, these guys should be on the list of bathrooms gas stations should aspire to have.

Now, you’re probably thinking “Big deal…they’re in Lincoln, CA of all places…how busy could they be?) Well…I’ll answer that for you. With 12 pumps (no, not quite as big as the superstations on Interstates and freeways, but bigger than a lot of gas stations I’ve seen in major cities), they’re almost always packed. They stock the counter with two employees throughout most of the day—and still have a line. They’re right off Highway 65, which is a connector freeway between CA70 and I-80. Nonetheless, they manage to keep the restrooms clean. Much cleaner than many of the smaller and similar sized gas stations I’ve seen do. I was literally shocked walking in…I’ve been to the station before but never had to use the restroom, so I never noticed (gotta buy gas, silly!).

So this is my first-ever four-roll review. You might be asking yourself “Why would a plain gas station bathroom get the first 4-roll review? That’s just silly…” Fair question, I suppose…and of course I’m going to answer it. Like I said earlier…this should be what other gas stations aspire to. In any public place, you have to work hard to keep the restrooms looking nice, even harder at gas stations and fast food places because you tend to invite a greater range of people, including those who care less about what they do behind closed (and locked) doors. The nearly complete lack of grafiti (there were some words scratched on the mirror) and the overall cleanliness of the bathroom means the hard-working people at Chevron at Twelve Bridges Lincoln deserve four rolls.

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