On the road horror stories!

[sephson]

I lost a trim piece off of the rear bumper on my old Frontier driving through Texas about ten years ago. Granted, the truck had been rear ended four times in the years leading up to this, each time at a dead stop.

 

[TMG51]

More deets! This is just a teaser!!!

Okay.

I arrived in Portland, ME, parked downtown, and set out on foot to learn the lay of the land. Admittedly, this was after dark, around 10:30, and not in the best area of town. But it was the only place I could find to park (Portland hates vehicles - HATES) and I'm rarely afraid to handle myself.

After a short time walking, I realized I had seen the same sedan pass me a few times, circling around the block. A crappy-looking 90s beige something. The car pulled ahead and stopped. I'm not a paranoid person, but it did occur to me to wonder if the driver was watching me. To test the theory, I adjusted my course such that line of sight was obscured by a tree. The driver pulled ahead and stopped again. Shit. He is watching me.

Immediately I ducked down a pedestrian foot path between some buildings, where a car could not follow. His car met me on the other side, as he clearly knew to drive around. This continued for the next 30-40 minutes, with me ducking into alleys, parks, paths, etc, and each time his car would find me back on the road. Finally I thought I'd lost him and I headed back to my van. Got in, closed the doors, peeked out the curtains, and saw his car pull in the parking lot and park next to me. The guy got out, walking all around my van, trying to peek in the windows. I had no lights on and was looking only through slits in the curtains so I knew he could not see me. But he was trying. He was a middle aged black guy and he was holding a cell phone. I was inside, holding my cell phone in one hand and a baseball bat in the other, wondering whether I should call police or simply jump out and brain the guy.

Eventually he went away. I stayed parked in the same spot. Several hours later, his car returned, watched me for a bit, and left again.

To this day I have no idea if he was trying to rob me, buy/sell drugs, or if he was gay and wanted to give me flowers, or what.

I've had other incidents such as breakdowns or times I had to deal with sketchy people, but those were all partially my own making - the above stalker dude is the only time while on the road I've had someone creep on me out of the blue.

 

[Boyntonstu]

I was once chased by a black bear but he could not catch me because he kept slipping on the brown trail that I left behind.

 

[Wabbit]

... or simply jump out and brain the guy...

You have some great discipline, I would prob have jumped out, brained him, and then sat 5-10 because he thought he recognized me from college and just wanted to say hi.

 

[RVtrek]

I broke down while driving through Phoenix and was in a bad part of town. It was with my current truck, and I had the camper on the back and I was towing my giant cargo trailer. The truck stopped, dead, in a traffic lane, and wasn't going anywhere, no way no how. So I opened my hood, put my hazards on, and hopped back in the camper while I was waiting for the tow truck. Apparently I forgot to lock the doors on my truck (silly me, I was only stressed out about being stuck in a traffic lane, broken down, had just spent $6,000 on a major repair, and the tow guy was going to have to deal with my truck + camper + cargo trailer). So anyways, I forgot to lock the doors on the truck and someone stole my backback from the truck cab. It had an iPad and various other electronics and adapters. I was able to reset the iPad remotely (thank you apple!), and I was *really* lucky I didn't have my laptop in the bag, it was after all a specialized laptop-carrying-backpack. I'm still ticked that they stole something from me when I was only a few feet away, but it could have been worse. Ever since then I'm a lot better about locking everything all the time.

 

[Van Man Dave]

If you are wondering what to carry in your van to "protect yourself", I recommend two pistols, a shotgun, an AR-15, a machete, a baseball bat, and a roll of barbed wire.  And as a last resort, a W-80 warhead with a 200KT yield--it's the only way to be sure.

This last part is pure gold Lenny, thank you brother!

 

[TrainChaser]

When I first arrive, I usually drive through the campground and look it over. If there are a bunch of guys drinking, I usually move on. They're not usually dangerous, but they sure do get LOUD!

If you HEAR something walking around your camp, it's likely either a person or a deer. I've had a bear walk 20 feet past me, in fall, on forest debris, and didn't hear a thing; I didn't know he was there (headed for a garbage can) until I raised my head from the post card I was writing.

Agreed, the road part of your trip is the most dangerous. In UT, I was run off the main road and into a gully by a guy passing on the curve. The couple in the car/TT that he was passing stopped and ran over to me, slowed down traffic, and helped me get the car out of the gully.

I had a flat tire in CO, and man stopped, took the tire iron out of my hand, jacked it up, changed the tire, put everything back, smiled and went back to his car, all w/o a word. I thanked him and felt like I was babbling all over the place.

A man walking past my truck in a regular campground in OH, stopped and said it looked like I had a leak in my radiator. I did.

Outside Fresno, CA, I had a flat tire on the LF. Pulled as far off Hwy. 99 as I could (not very far) and got it changed by flashlight. A man stopped in the dark, checked my work, said I did a good job, warned me that there was a bad accident ahead so don't go too fast, and crossed back over the center divider and went on his way.

Anyway, no real horror stories. Sorry.

 

[Queen]

Two scary road encounters, one concerned a ghost, the other a group of young men in a car, they were scarier.

We were on a deserted bit of highway in Arkansas and had a car full of guys pass us very slowly, then drop back and ride our bumper for a mile or so, then they pulled alongside and tried to nudge us over. They pulled in front and starting slowing down while they weaved back and forth in front of us so we couldn't pass. They dropped back beside us with their windows down and one of them decided to show us his junk while they they all hooted and motioned for us to pull over. I decided I'd had enough and it was getting scary, so I asked my honey to please hand me my .357, I showed weiner boy my six inches, they all panicked and took off like a bat out of hell.

 

[user 15722]

When you can't see what is making all that scary noise beyond the bush that blocks your view, It's usually a bird.
wheels

 

[Gypsy Jane]

Or something. Sitting by campfire in Florida, we heard a lot of crashing around in the woods. Sounded like something big. Could have been a wild boar? Flashlight showed nothing. The racket continued and stayed in one place. My curiosity got the best of me and I went to look. LOL. Armadillo!

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

[Wabbit]

...I showed weiner boy my six inches...

Some guys have all the luck...

 

[TMG51]

Some guys have all the luck...

Is six inches lucky? :huh:

 

[Wabbit]

Is six inches lucky? :huh:

No idea, I was talking about the first part...

 

[user 15722]

lol

i have never seen a live armadillo...

Are they ok for tacos & burritos ?

wheels

 

[TrainChaser]

Leave armadillos alone. They carry leprosy. NOT A JOKE!

 

[user 15722]

OK

Yah, think I heard that somewhere...
wheels

 

[Lisa Truck Gypsy]

lol

i have never seen a live armadillo...

Are they ok for tacos & burritos ?

wheels

I heard one in Texas last week and it sounded like a wild boar crashing through the bushes.

 

[Lisa Truck Gypsy]

My scary incident happened just 2 nights ago...and I have the video to prove it...
I am on the 4th week of a 3 month cross country trip and I'm sleeping in the truck topper and something big bumps my truck. So I start moving around back there to shake the truck back and let whatever it is know that I'm back there. This thing is climbing on the hood, roof and the roof of the topper over my head and I can tell it's big! Well my truck cab is locked but I hit the car alarm twice to try to scare it away. Didn't work....but now my cab is unlocked. So it's quiet for a few hours but then I awaken to a bump and noise again and now I'm freaking out. I get enough courage to move my stuff off the shelf below the pass through window and come face to face with a huge raccoon that has gotten into the cab of my truck! Here is the link to the video of what I saw

and here is the video link to how I got him out in the morning and all of the damage he did

 

[lenny flank]

lol

i have never seen a live armadillo...

Are they ok for tacos & burritos ?

wheels

In Florida they are known as "poor man's pork".

 

[Gypsy Jane]

Wow! So he got in through where the weather stripping was? Ninja Coon.

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