Where is the WORST Truck Stop You've Been?
 

I don't know if it's still around or not but when I was driving I recall RUBES Truck Stop in NJ as being one insane place to spend a night back in the day. I've heard gun shots when I've been there, cops were always being called, a waitress told me they found "another" body dumped out back the week before I was there one time and confirmed by a fuel-jockey. Niiice. After that, I would just get fuel and get the hell out of dodge and take my chances parked on the street downtown at night waiting for my delivery to open up the next morning.

Any other doozy truck stops still around where you have to be looking over your shoulder or sleep with one-eye open anymore?

Walt Whitman's in Philly. Man that place is a scary dump.

anything in the seattle area

Jessup, MD - The TA draws some interesting characters and is a ***** to get in and out of. My dog sat up all night in the driver's seat growling, and while I'm not afraid of being a woman alone on the road, I definitely did NOT get out of my truck after dark.

The USA Truckstop in Dallas,TX is also a rough one... Arrow drivers are prohibited from going to the Pilot in Dallas. We lose our jobs no questions asked if the Qualcomm shows us to be there. I was at the Lancaster Swift terminal one night a few years ago when a driver was shot out at the USA. Of course, that stop is right across the road from Werner's terminal.

The Walt Whitman in Philly has to be the bottom of the barrel.

But

As mentioned, the pilot in Dallas is pretty bad

the pilot in West Memphis Arkansas was pretty rough last I was there

Haven't stopped there in awhile, but the T/A in Gary Indiana used to be pretty terrible.

Most of the "mom and pop" truckstops in New England should have been condemnded by the building department or shut down by the health department years ago.

The Loves in Albuquerque New Mexico is the toughest fuel stop in the world to get out of (as in, you exit to the left of the fuel islands, but if there is a truck pulled forward from the lane left of you, you don't exit until he does... it's that tight.)

Mind you, these things can change (well, except for the Whitman, I can't imagine it ever changing.) In 2002 I was pulling dedicated into GM in OKC. The Pilot in OKC used to be, by default, a whorehouse with fuel pumps. On a bad night you'd see a dozen lizards squirming on a 50 truck lot, on a really bad night you'd have police cruisers all over the lot and a helicopter barnstorming the place. It's no longer a pilot (called BJ's or something now) and last I was there it seemed like it was pretty quiet. h

I-55 Truckstop
 

How about the I-55 truckstop in Bolingbrook, IL. While I was parked overnight there, a dry van about 3 spaces down from me was completely emptied out. Not to be outdone, the thieves also went so far as to remove the doors! All of this for ONLY a $10.00 parking fee. The attendant didn't even look ashamed when taking my money. :D

Re: I-55 Truckstop
 

I can't remember which TA it is on I-44 between Joplin and St. Louis, MO - but I was trucking along one day and saw the entire back line of the stop with doors swinging... easily 20-30 trucks. I ended up calling both the TA and the cops from the interstate.... to this day I can't bring myself to stop there...

Re: I-55 Truckstop
 

tndieselgrl,
I almost commented that they should have had a lock on their van doors. Then, "POW" the proverbial light came on and I realized that some probably did. It probably slowed the thieves down by about a microsecond :x I guess that the padlocked dry van is similar to door locks on a car/truck............Simply there to keep the HONEST person HONEST.................

That was either Strafford or Mt. Vernon MO.

I know those are the two out there, but without looking at the exit, I couldn't tell you offhand.

Hard to guess on that one TN. I never pegged either of them for a crime hot spot. Of course, neither of them is a well paved, well lit paradise either.

San Jon, NM
 

Has anyone had the pleasure of actually finding the toilets working at either of the dumps posing as truck stops in San Jon, NM? :cry:

That TA outside of Nashville. I've never had so many lot lizards wake me up banging on my door. Also saw a truck back right into an expensive bmw hanging off the back of another truck... OUCH!

The Gary IN T/A has to be the worst truck stop I ever had the displeasure of spending the night at. Aside from getting hustled constantly by guys hawking jewelry and "other things", I watched two pimps duke it out in the parking lot.

To give you some perspective on Gary, a member of another forum I visit once worked for a cable provider in Indiana. His crew was assigned to disable illegal cable hookups in the Gary area. They had to wait for Indiana State Police escorts because the residents WOULD, not COULD get violent if they saw you disconnecting their illegal hookups.

The old 76 on top of Mont Eagle... ugh!!! I think it was a 76, I wasn't there for more than a few minutes! LOL I walked in the door and the aroma was basically a cross between a wino's pants and an dry urinal full of cigarette butts... :dung:

Sounds great...
 

You all mention all the time about "keeping the left door closed." I thought you were saying that to "keep the wheels rollin." But after reading these posts, "Keep the left door closed" has a whole new meaning for me. Maybe we need to bring back the "shotgun" job they had on the old stage coaches.

The Bingo ts in Ontario, Ca. What a Sh#* hole. :lol:

Re: I-55 Truckstop
 

Are you talking about Joliet? Same deal, paid 10 bucks to park and it was slammed full, grabbed one of the last places, sad thing was they were still allowing trucks in, and they had to go back out empty handed.
The inside looked as bad as the outside, and it was lit at all.

Thank God they closed that dump.

T/A Jessup, MD. One time only and that was enough for me. Now that they fenced it in and added security it might be better sine the lizards all walk around the back roads now hitting up the drivers parked on the street.

Finally shut down Whitmans huh. About time.

And yeah I agree. Jessup is a disaster too. I hate that place.

Here is a little story for you about Jessup.

Several years ago I had my son on the truck with me for a few weeks over the summer. (He was around 10 at the time). We picked up a load a few miles up the road from Jessup and by the time I got loaded I was almost out of hours and it was pushing 5 pm so we stopped there for the night.

We had been living off of truck food for a few days and a hot meal sounded nice, but when we got inside we seen the waitresses had closed down all but one small section like it was 2 am.

My son took one look at the situation, the full 6 tables that were not closed, and in a loud, matter of fact voice says "Don't these fools know it is supper time and there are hungry truckers out here."

It did nothing for getting the sections open, but it did a lot to send a chuckle through the crowd and to send most of the TA employees into hiding. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Y'all forget about that "hellhole" called the T/A on the southside of Atlanta... :x :x

There are soooooo many nasty t/s out there . There's one in long beach but cant think of the name of it , but it is real bad.

I would have to say that the Aurora Oregon T/A is about the biggest dump I have ever been in, the Wagon Wheel in Klamath Falls Oregon takes a close second!

I have to give them credit though. An employee there found my wallet that I lost there and mailed it back to the Stevens Terminal (the only address they found) completely intact.

talkin about Jessup,the wifey and I was at Mcormmick's in Hunt's vally MD.dropped our load had to do a reset so our best choice yupper's you guessed it Jessup well looked at our trusty little T/S book and found that Elkton MD.Petro wasn't that far away she looked at me and said well Petro it is.So we missed the privilage to patronize the Fine T/A in jessup :lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: I-55 Truckstop
 

The I-55 truck stop is a few miles up the road from Joliet just past the scales. It's next to a Ramada iirc, and yes, it is worse than the Joliet T/S, but Joliet is pretty bad itself. Joliet has nicer staff though.

Milliken TAs
 

I had to chuckle when I realized that not one person has mentioned the Milliken East and West TAs outside of LA. I'm surprised that they don't hand out body bags along with free showers on your King Of The Road card :D

The mobile church right outside of the West side TA adds even more irony to this dump. Anyone wanna take bets that the rafters haven't rumbled a few times in that place of worship :)

Walk softly, and carry a large stick (or whatever you can get your hands on!)

Re: Milliken TAs
 

Funny, I've never had a problem there at all... and been stuck there several times for nearly a week. I always stop at the same one.. I can't ever remember if it's technically the east or west one though... it's the newer one...

That's putting it nicely!

Re: Milliken TAs
 

OK, let's go for strike two!! Anyone ever had the pleasure of stopping by the Three Sister's Truckstop in Fontana, CA. Not too far from the CRST *%$^%$yard.......errr I mean dropyard.

Atlanta
 

I think that I had (conveniently :shock: ) forgotten all about that one Skywalker. You didn't happen to skip on over to the convenient "Tatoo Parlor" and get inked up did ya? :P

Yeah the only truck stop in TX was a PIA to get into, it was the loves off of HWY 10. Nice place, but about the size of the head of a match.

Re: I-55 Truckstop
 

I've been to that one... pot holes the size of VW's! Plus all the interesting characters you get to meet banging on your door. :shock:

There's a TA I think on 301 in Tampa,Florida that could use a make over.

ontario california
 

ontario california

ahhh..where to start lol....lets see...theirs a mom and pop across from waffle house at exit 29 in cincinnati ohio...i actually had a roach walk across my table while waiting for my food...needless to say i didn't eat ....

I've heard mention the truckstop at exit 157 on i-55 in joliet IL...even the fuel islands look like $#!+ and be careful if you do fuel there because they are slick..... some of the food is tolerable though

the truck city truck stop in detroit off of i 94 ...didn't sleep a wink...restaurant closes at 7:00...bums everywhere and if your not alert they steal the steps right off your truck..... they also steal all your chains binders and tarps...

the Gary Indiana t/a is a winner...but i hear they are trying to clean it up a bit...

but a couple i haven't heard yet are the flying j and the pilot on the bottom of the loop in Indianapolis in

or the pilot in Memphis tn

T/A in Montgomery, AL is a dive! T/A in downtown Nashville was pretty interesting the night i stopped for dinner there! Any of the truck stops in Gary and Lake Station,IN can get pretty scary. I run that lane quite a bit along the 80/94 and if I'm bringing a load into Michigan, I'll keep going until I get to the T/A at Sawyer,MI or the J at Benton Harbour(The only time I'll stop at those truck stops in Gary or Lake Station is if i'm on the verge of running out of fuel!!