Taking a break at Pilot during rush hour

By Emery Eisner, Hannah Massen, and Elliott Rivette

The Pilot on Jimmie Kerr Rd. in Haw River glowed in the setting sun, a beacon of neon signs and glass windows for the tired, the hungry, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. 

Drivers took a break at Pilot from rush hour traffic on Friday afternoon, Nov. 8, to refuel their vehicles and themselves. 

Gassing Up

Like many truck stops, Pilot was a hive of activity. The front door chimed whenever a customer entered or left. A man and a woman stood silently near the ice machine in 38-degree weather wearing short sleeves and capri pants. An employee in a green hoodie removed the trash from the outdoor cans and loaded the bags into the back of a golf cart. Big rigs were already parked for the night.

A bearded man was price-comparing bottles of lighter fluid. A Vietnam War veteran and his wife were taking a three-hour trip home after a surgical procedure, and a woman in a blue shirt carefully selected a baker’s dozen at the Dunkin’ Donuts stand. A man named Joe Kooley and the rest of his Georgetown Hockey team were on their way to Charlotte for a game.

A redheaded woman named Erica Davis stopped in for a DQ Blizzard on her way to Banner Elk.

“I come here for the bathrooms,” she said. 

Managing Kindness 

Travel Center General Manager Jim Lucas said his three-year stint at Pilot– and three decades in retail– have shown him the power of human interaction. 

In a given day, Lucas says his daily tasks “vary significantly based on the needs of the business,” overseeing Pilot’s travel, fueling, and retail sectors.

While Lucas’s job may change from one hour to the next, he said one constant is the joy he gets from talking to people.

“Every time someone walks through the door it’s different people,” Lucas said. There are regular Pilot customers that “are pleasant to talk to,” but he tends to get the most attention from his taste in music, he said.

“I get a lot of comments on the Grateful Dead,” Lucas said as he held his phone case bearing the band’s famous logo. “That’s kind of a cliché for old people at this point, so the people that come in and see my phone and will make a Dead comment, I love talking to those people and I go off on tangents on that.”

Though Lucas admits there is no shortage of local truck-stop competition, he says this Pilot is set apart by its distinguished guest services.

“Drivers can go anywhere,” he said. “There’s a million mom-and-pops out there … they can buy diesel anywhere, they can buy a soda anywhere, a bag of chips anywhere. It’s up to us to give them a reason to come back here.”

Ultimately, Lucas said he has always enjoyed giving customers a good experience.

“What I’ve found after 30 years in retail is that for the most part, people are pretty cool,” Lucas said. “You do get your upset guests, you get your drunks, but for the most part people are good. It’s not that hard to turn a negative into a positive…You can make someone’s day a lot better just by listening to them and talking to them like they’re a human being, not being condescending. 

“You know, I like people so it’s easy for me.” 

Working for Decades

One of the employees at the Pilot has spent the past year and a half juggling multiple roles. Stacy McMillan, the man in the green hoodie who took out the trash and loaded it on the golf cart, was busy gathering up waste from bins positioned around the building. He loaded up a massive translucent trash bag into the back of his cart. 

It’s not particularly busy today. When the lot is completely packed with vehicles, the inside of the building is usually empty. McMillan explained that it only seems busy, but patrons are either in their vehicles or inside the establishment and the crowds seem to flow in and out quickly. McMillan adds that he has befriended “quite a few” truckers that have been doing the same job for more than 20 years.

In addition to his janitorial duties, McMillan operates various cash registers in the station, except for Dairy Queen. 

While McMillan gets along well with his manager, some coworkers can make things difficult. Using “petty” tactics, he says, some employees are constantly looking over his shoulder and attempting to act as his boss. After nearly two decades of expertise with his work, McMillan does not enjoy having people breathing down his neck.

“I come in and do my job,” he said. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

McMillan is 35 years old and has been working with the Pilot chain corporationsince he was 16. The general manager at this location, Lucas, assigns employees to their various roles. Lucas, he says, is “the best.” McMillan has received three raises during his time at the station.

“I love it here, actually,” he said.

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