The Kwik-E Mart

Who needs the Kwik-E Mart? I do! So to promote the Simpsons Movie, 7-11 is offering Simpsons merchandise, like WooHoo Blue Vanilla Squishees, Buzz Cola and Crusty-Os, plus they gave about a dozen of their locations around the country a Kwik-E Mart facelift. Lots of big cities and tourist destinations got a Kwik-E Mart; then there is Bladensburg, MD. Bladensburg. It isn't really a suburb of DC or Baltimore. I mean it is close to DC, but not really to the parts of DC you would want to hang around. In short, the neighborhood is a bit sketchy - not terrible, but not great either. I have been meaning to go find it since i first heard about the promotion weeks ago, but finally yesterday I went on the Kwik-E Mart quest. I knew it was in Bladensburg, i knew it was on Kenilworth Ave, and i heard it described as "Kenilworth, right off of 295." Now, if you have spent any time driving anywhere near DC, you know that the simpler the directions are, the more likely they are to be wrong. You always want to believe that simple, clear directions are going to help you, but no, no they won't. Of course, that is what makes it an adventure. "Kenilworth, right off 295"... yep... what you probably don't know is that for a several miles Kenilworth Ave IS 295... yep... i ended up in DC for a little while; i ended up in the parking lot of some bakery with all of its delivery trucks; i ended up in a salvage yard... luckily, a big, big, big man (who i think was a security guard or perhaps a half-giant) at the salvage yard gave me these words of wisdom, "people end up in here all the time, especially at night; back up real quick so this truck doesn't hit ya; then i want you to go around in-between those two trucks and out past the other; turn left at the 'do not enter' and then turn right; at the top of the hill -once it's flat - take your second right; up ahead you'll see a street that'll take you to the on-ramp on the right." Easy-peesie. If you are driving around DC you want the directions to sound as wordy and complicated as possible cause then they are probably right. As i headed back into MD on Kenilworth Ave, there was the sign:

and i was able to quickly dodge traffic to pull into the store:

The facade looked like it had been attached directly to the building and featured some familiar faces: I don't know how in the world 7-11 picked Baldensburg, but i will say that it was one of the nicest convenience stores i've seen - there was LANDSCAPING for goodness sakes. And even if it was in a neighborhood that I would never think to do a national marketing promotion in, I sure am glad it is relatively close to home!