It was somewhere outside Barstow when "Max"
wrote:

It's made of Ponderosa Pine. I can't decide on what kind of finish I should
use.

Shellac over oil or wax over oil.

It's not a table, it doesn't need to be enormously hard wearing. It
has large plain doors facing you, so you want to give the timber some
interest and depth (so use the oil first). If the timber is really
well figured, then go for wax over oil, otherwise shellac over oil.
Use blonde shellac, or else pines go a bit too orange.