Barefooting Bulletin Board

From what I've seen, Pilot Travel Centers (aka truckstops) are barefoot-friendly. I've been in several over the past couple weeks and never had a confrontation, even when I knew my feet had been spotted.

Other similar facilities are hit and miss. Both the Flying J travel centers I visited requested me to put on shoes.

The TA on Milliken Ave. in Ontario, CA posed no problem during the 36 hours I spent stranded there. I walked all over the place, spent quite a few hours interacting with other drivers and the staff and was not hassled once.

The TA in Redding, CA however did hassle me. I'm starting to notice that it's more about which manager sees you than the facility itself. I "snuck" into the TA in Redding and had my dinner without incident. It wasn't until I went back in the morning that I was confronted. After the confrontation I went back outside to fuel my truck. Of course, I kicked my boots off when I got outside and left them off even when I went back in for the receipt. I just dodged the one who confronted me, nobody else said a word about it.

I went into several no-name truckstops along the way. None of them had an issue with my feet. It seems the problem is mainly in the big, corporate ones.

What strikes me as odd about it is they only say I have to wear shoes in the store, they don't care if I'm barefoot outside. So I can walk all over the parking lot, covered in all sorts of debris, and they don't mind. But, if I step into the regularly-swept store I need shoes for protection. Somehow, the logic escapes me.