Frank and Mia Chiarello saw a familiar buck-toothed face on Monday.

The couple, both Texas natives now living in Daphne, arrived to the Buc-ee’s travel station off Interstate 10, approximately a half-hour east of downtown Mobile. It was opening day for the first Buc-ee’s outside of the company’s home base in Texas.

“We were surprised,” said Frank Chiarello, about when he first learned that Buc-ee’s was opening a location in Alabama. “I’ve been tracking them ever since.”

Mia Chiarello wore a pro-Texas shirt as she arrived into the store. Frank Chiarrello wore a Buc-ee’s t-shirt which said on the back, “Everything is Beaver in Texas.”

“We wanted to make sure we were rooting for them,” Frank Chiarello said.

The Alabama Buc-ee’s is believed to be the largest travel station in the state at 52,235-square-feet or more than 21 times the size of the average convenience store. It features an eye-popping 120 fuel pumps.

Inside the Alabama Buc-ee’s, visitors can find a host of items branded with the company’s cartoon buck-toothed beaver logo: beef jerkey, fudge, candy, and canned foods.

In addition, the store sells merchandise unique to the Alabama Gulf Coast: Mardi Gras-theme t-shirts and wares, crawfish boil items, and beach umbrellas.

Billboards advertising the company’s arrival to the state have disclosed its starting pay range -- $13 to $17 an hour – for the 200-plus jobs that have been filled inside the travel station. Workers greeted visitors early Monday with a cheery, “Welcome to Buc-ee’s.”

Buc-ee’s serves as a gateway to the Baldwin Beach Express, which was opened in 2014 and serves as an alternative route from I-10 to the state’s coastal beaches.

The company’s arrival to Alabama comes without sales or property tax incentives. Baldwin County will spend close to $400,000 on traffic signals at the Beach Express and I-10 and at nearby County Road 68.

The lack of incentives is in sharp contrast to what some of its Texas locations. In Denton, Texas, the City Council approved $8.1 million over 22 years in sales tax reimbursements to lure a Buc-ee’s to Interstate 35 north of Dallas.

The closest Buc-ee’s to the Baldwin Beach Express location is in Baytown, Texas, which is about 470 miles.

Mia Chiarello said she’s been telling her Alabama friends about Buc-ee’s reputation for having clean restrooms, and a spotless parking lot.

“I’m telling them that they have to stop there,” she said. “They have the cleanest restrooms.”