Recognition was given to 11 facilities all around the world

 

Trail’s Travel Center has been named one of the coolest rest stops in the world by the Travel Channel.

The facility’s 10 showers, laundry service, movie theater and church services were cited as contributing factors for its placement as No. 3 in the “Coolest Rest Stops and Gas Stations Around the World.”

Manager Dustin Trail credited the recognition to the 150 employees Trail’s Travel Center has.

“It’s always great to be recognized for something like that,” he said. “We pride ourselves in the people that we have working for us. We wouldn’t be able to attain stuff like that without the right people.”

Trail’s father, Rocky Trail, and his grandfather, Bernard Trail, bought East Side Truck Stop in the early 1980s. The facility at 820 Happy Trails Lane was built in 1998.

Rocky Trail is the owner of the travel center.

“It’s a family that you are working for,” said marketing employee Cathy Purdie. “So it’s very family-oriented.”

The center’s bathrooms and food court were renovated in 2015. Three bays are planned to be added to the rest stop’s four-bay service center this spring. The facility has restaurants and a bar, including Skol Tavern, Iron Skillet Restaurant, Pizza Hut Express, McDonald’s and Cold Stone.

The travel center features a semi truck service center and shop, semi truck wash, more than 300 truck parking spots, a gift store, a fresh to-go bar, gas and diesel dispensers, an LP dispenser and RV dump station.

Dustin Trail said they will be adding a sheltered outdoor patio this summer to Skol Tavern.

An estimated 1.5 million to 2 million people enter the travel center each year.

“I want them (customers) to have a good experience, have good interactions with our people and experience a clean facility — all things which we are very blessed to have,” Dustin Trail said. “A lot of that comes back down to the people that we have working for us. We could not do any of that without them.”

Purdie said she enjoys working at Trail’s.

“Every single day is so different than the day before,” she said. “You really don’t know what you are walking into, but you are going to laugh. There is going to be a situation that you are going to figure out a solution for. You know you are going to come to work working on logistics. But at the end of the day it’s kind of fun.”

The list of the coolest rest stops and gas stations around the world:

• Pops, Arcadia, Oklahoma

• Alzu Petroport, near Middelburg, South Africa

• Trail’s Travel Center, Albert Lea

• Gazoline Petrol, Cuneo, Italy

• Beckley Travel Plaza, Beckley, West Virginia

• Helios House, Los Angeles

• Skovshoved Petrol Station, Copenhagen, Denmark

• Ashigara Rest Area, Shizouka Prefecture, Japan

• Willkomm’s Petro Truck Stop, Racine, Wisconsin

• Orival Gas Station, Orival, Belgium

• Iowa 80 Truckstop, Walcott, Iowa