Jürgen Horn and and Mike Powell are continuing their 91 Days lifestyle experiment, in which they live in a different place for 91 days at a time. They are in Idaho now, and tell us about Hoot's Cafe, run by a lady named Hootie.
No, that’s not a nickname — when she was born, her parents considered her big, protruding eyes and agreed: “She looks like a Hootie”. Hootie has run Hoot’s Cafe for fifty years, and worked at its previous location for eleven years before that. When we expressed our amazement, she looked at us dryly; as though working in the same tiny restaurant for over 60 years was just the most obvious thing in the world, and what’s to be amazed about?
Hootie introduced us to her astounding collection of owls. Wooden owls, decorative owls, stuffed owls, plastic owls, ceramic owls and more. Over 1200 of them line the shelves, corners and tables of Hoot’s. Remarkably, Hootie didn’t buy a single one — they’re all gifts. Friends or returning customers have made it a tradition to bring her another owl for the collection. I was mad that we didn’t have any owl paraphernalia in the car that we could give her. We should always carry owl paraphernalia with us. You never know!
See pictures of quite a few of Hootie's owls at For 91 Days. Link
Previously: Other locations For 91 Days