This Place Is For The Birds

One of my favorite truck stops in the T/A in North Bend, Washington.  There's nothing really special about it truck stop wise, but the thing I like about it is the way it smells.  And I don't mean inside.

I mean outside.  Yeah, right?  Weird, huh, for me to like something outside?

It's nestled in a hill covered in trees.  OK, so in this shot you can only see like, five trees, it was dusk, and a little overcast.  But they're there.  A lot of them.  And it smells like pine.  All.  The.  Time.   

We've only been into the restaurant a few times.  It's got a weird lot, not a whole lot of parking, much of it's on a hill, so we usually don't stay.  We fuel and leave.  But this time we were hungry, we hadn't done a food shop and I didn't feel like scraping together something from whatever we did have available.  So we went to the restaurant.

They must have done a recent renovation - or I just haven't been inside in a looong time - but it looked nicer.  We got a table by the window - that one right in the middle - and were delighted to see a bird-feeder hanging there with several birds dining at the same time we were.  Next to it was a hummingbird feeder with a hummingbird with invisible wings, hovering in place.

On the table was a small card offering cute little solar powered bobble plants for sale, explaining that the money goes to an employee named Julie, to help augment the birdseed fund.  We were told by our waitress that Julie is the one who set up all the bird feeders outside, the one who maintains them all, the one who buys all the birdseed and hummingbird food.  Or sugar water.  Whatever they eat.  She also purchased the bird feeders and spends about three hours a week of her own time maintaining them.

The birdseed feeders and the hummingbird feeders stretch around two sides of the building, strategically placed in front of the windows so the diners inside have a nice view of the beautiful wildlife.  I was so impressed and I really liked the idea of seeing something pretty out of the window, instead of watching some loser in a backwards baseball cap flick cigarette butts on the ground before he walks away, leaving his Slurpee cup on top of the newspaper machine.

I don't need a solar powered bobble flower, but when we were at the cashier desk paying for our food ticket, I asked if I could leave ten dollars in an envelope for Julie's birdseed fund.  I wrapped my ten dollar bill with a little note expressing my appreciation.

It's a nice gesture and extremely thoughtful to have someone care so much about a driver's dining experience.  Thank you, Julie!



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2013: Get Your Travel On
2012: An Art Deco Tower In The Panhandle
2011: Traffic Might Just Have Saved My Life
2010: Joining The Ranks
2009: The Daily Rant Goes Farther East Than Ever Before
2008: What He Does When I’m Sleeping
2007: Now You Don’t Have To Go To The Ghetto To Get Crack
2006: Satchel Pitches A Great Question
2005: A Night In Yakima