Traveling Horror Stories

[IronWolf]

About an hour later, I stopped at another wayside rest, this one seemingly deserted except for one car at the far end, where an elderly couple were walking their dogs. Parked right in front of the building, got out and started to walk up.

I hate rest areas. When I was travelling for my walk about out west I ended up sleeping at two or three as they were pretty much the only things around. I hated it. Uneasy sleep and kept my ice axe by my side the whole time. Nothing bad happened of course, but I was nervous anyways. Hate those places.

 

[Renton]

I hate rest areas.

While driving back to school, my sister-in-law had something go wrong with her car. She pulled over and walked back to a rest area she had just passed, in order to use the phone. As she approached, she noticed some police cars in the area, and thought "great, they can maybe help me."

No such luck. As she approached, the cops tried to arrest her for prostitution. Turns out that they had just busted a ring of "ladies" who were offering some "extra comfort" to long distance truck drivers. They were waiting for stragglers to return form the trees or wherever, and picking up the "ladies" and their clients. They assumed S-i-L, looking dirty and dishevveled from her hike in the Texas sun, must be one of them.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

One more...

My wife and I were in North Carolina railfanning (yes, I love trains). We stopped at an old passenger depot where the tracks are about 30 feet below the surrounding streets and station. There is a footbrige to cross over the tracks that is about 40 feet long. We parked alongside the station across the street from the back side of a nice hotel, got out of the car and walked across the footbridge, where I took some pictures. We were standing at the edge ovelooking the tracks watching the beginnings of a beautiful sunset when I got a "bad feeling (TM)." I told my wife we needed to move along and she said that she was staying put to watch the sunset. I looked around and spotted the guy hiding in the bush about 10 feet away, right next to the footbridge, our only way out. I grabbed my wife by the arm and said, "Run." Then I basically pushed her onto the footbridge as the guy leaped out of the bush at us. He chased us all the way across the bridge. As we were about to gain the other side, an employee from the hotel came out to empty a trash bin and I shouted to him. The guy chasing us immediately broke off and went back the way he came. We jumped in the car and got out of there. I am aware that many train stations are in bad parts of town (we travel by train frequently), but have never felt unsafe near one other than that day.

DM