I have three young children, and one of their favorite parts of road tripping the vast square mileage of Texas is the predictable pitstop inside at one of the more than 1,100 McDonald's restaurants within the Lone Star State. Sure, you can always chart your journey to coincide with a stop at a Buc-ee's, but when you have three Happy Meal loving, little mouths to feed and one of them has a backside that needs a diaper change, there really is no greater place than McDonald's to make a stop during a Texas road trip.

103.3 The GOAT logo
Get our free mobile app

We are by no means trying to visit all 1,100 plus establishments, and the kids are devastated every time we pull into a McDonald's that still has the PlayPlace sign still up, but no children's area. Now, according to this USA Today article, McDonald's will be ending all self serve soft drink stations.

This is particularly distressing to my 7 year old because he loves mixing his own custom drink, and how will an employee ever know what your definition of light on the ice is? The reason for ending the self serve beverage station according to the article is,

"This change is intended to create a consistent experience for both customers and crew across all ordering points, whether that's McDelivery, the app, kiosk, drive-thru or in-restaurant."

If you notice in the quote, the "in-restaurant," was mentioned last, and that dining areas are shrinking due to the percentage of diners using the drive through, or picking up order made through the app.

LOOK: 50 Beloved Retail Chains That No Longer Exist

Stacker takes a look at 50 major retail chains that no longer exist and the reasons for their demise.  

Gallery Credit: Madison Troyer

The Top 10 BBQ Restaurants in Texas

Turns out you can find some quality BBQ in the least likely of places. You've probably heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by it's cover", that's pretty much the case for several of these top BBQ joints in Texas.

Gallery Credit: AZ, Townsquare Media

Top 20 Restaurants Central Texans Wish Would Come to Temple

A while back, I asked the good people of Temple if they could picture a good restaurant to fill the lot on North General Bruce Drive where the soon to be torn down Long John Silver's stood.

This was before it was announced that a Dutch Bros. Coffee location would open there (which was one of the places I predicted as a contender in our article).

So now Dutch Bros. is open in that spot, but the responses to my survey were interesting because they paint a picture of just how diverse Temple's population is. People recommended some familiar restaurants with locations in the surrounding area, but also a few I'd never even heard of.

Here are the top 20 results of the survey. Let's see what the good people of Temple are craving!

Gallery Credit: Aaron Savage, Townsquare Media