I was fueling up at a Tennessee Pilot a few weeks ago, and as I walked to the building I heard a "SQUACK!" I begain looking for the source of the noise. I walked over to the auto diesel side to fined a Blue and Gold Macaw-a large parriot, setting on the tail end of an old junky flatbed work truck, (WTF?). As I came closer, I noticed that it's wings hadn't been cliped, they had primary flight feathers-this bird can fly. I am aware that this was a very expenesive bird, I figured that it must have excaped it's cage and that there might be a reward for it's return. The parriot seemed friendy, so I got it to sit on my arm. By this time it had attracted a small crowd, and as we were talking, a tall, bearded, rough looking man came through the crowd. The parriot immediately flew to his shoulder, " I've seen youn's met Rocky" he said. Turns out, this man, with rotted teeth and old beat up junky truck, who looked the absolute definition of redneck, owned this beautiful parriot.
He said that he had raised the bird from a chick and that it never ventured very far. After answaring a few questions from on-lookers he got back into his truck with parriot and left. The moral of the story:
Have a nice day!
- You just never know what you might see at a truck stop.