It's a funny thing about time zones. Your body doesn't know it's in another one, and goes on about it's normal cycles as if you're still at home. I live in the Eastern time zone, but as I work for a WI company I have to do my log and pretty much run my schedule on Central time. Over time my body has adjusted to that and pretty much runs on Central time now.
But I'm in the Pacific time zone now. Although I slept late, 8:00 am Central/9:00 am Eastern, the sun has yet to come up here and the people who live in this time zone are just getting up and preparing to start their day even though for me it feels like the morning is already half over.
I'll be glad when the sun does finally rise. This truckstop is situation in what is easily the most beautiful location of any truckstop in the country. It's nestled in between some very large mountains. They surround the place, shooting up several thousand feet into the air on all sides. It's quite an inspiring sight.
Once the daylight has returned to this corner of the world I will try and shoot a couple of pictures that will in some small way do justice to the natural beauty of this setting. It really is quite a sight to see.
I only know the name of one of the mountains. It's the one I am facing and is framed in my windshield. It's Mount Si. I know this because that's also the name of the tavern I visited last evening. I bought a nice long sleeve tee shirt from them, with the name of the tavern and artwork depicting the mountain (and a mountain goat) on the back, as a souvenir of my visit here. It's actually quite a nice shirt with a pocket of the front. Good quality material and only 14 bucks.
The tavern fits this scene quite well. It's a log structure with wood plank floors and a very nice fireplace which they kept roaring all evening. The beer garden area out back was set up to make smokers as comfortable as possible. One can stand or sit outside under a covering and they had a large free standing round fireplace there, also with a roaring fire going in it. After the sun went down that fire felt pretty nice as the cold breeze swept through. One can stand next to the fire and observe the mountains. At least until the sun sets. They even had a dart board set up outside for those who feel like some sport while they smoke.
I can see why people love this area. It really is quite beautiful.