i don't think i've ever been at a rest stop where another person actually acknowledged my existence. normally people are in travel mode and pretty much ignoring everything else. i have to assume you were doing something to draw attention to yourself.
Here in uk barefoot is not the norm. You see kids barefoot but parent are not. Our nabours gradaughter is always barefoot. I have seen a woman barefoot pushing a pushchair regularly who lives around the corner. Only yestarday I was in town when a mother and her three daughter were walking barefoot had been for ages as there feet were completely black. She came and spoke to me as I was barefoot. She said that they go barefoot all the time her girls and her go every where barefoot. She wanted to swap number after having a costa together.