Being Aware as a Driver. (Long Post Warning)

California, Chicago,

 

I haven't been inside a truck stop with a lunch counter in ages. Do they still exist?

 

Man this is a great post especially for the young guys that are just getting out here.. Some truck stops can be very very dangerous. Sometimes u have to just stereotype and be a little racist (but keep it to urself) , in order to protect yourself. Its the one of the few things i hate about trucking is we always are in the worst neighborhoods of any big city , picking up, delivering, sometime sleeping. Always look around corners before u cross them. If ur walking between trailers make sure nobody snuck up behind u . keep any eye on littersly everything around u or u will find urself the victim of a robbery

 

Good advice, but I will say I felt MUCH less safe 20 years ago during the middle and late 1990s when EVERY truck stop I stopped at, day or night, would have someone knocking on your door within 30 minutes. I went back to OTR a few years ago and have had 1 women knock on my truck door 30 seconds after I parked and maybe 2 different guys in different places ask either for a ride or some change. Heck, I even regularly sleep at the Petro in Gary, IN when I'm up that way. GARY FREAKING INDIANA. I would have guessed I would win the lotto before I would have done that if anyone asked me back in the 1990s.

 

Reading this stuff makes me like my route a bit more. There is not a single dangerous place to park in all
Wyoming.

I can sleep anywhere in the big WY cities of Cheyenne and Casper or out in the middle of no where on the side of 287 without a single worry.

I do remember all the times stopping at truck stops in Dallas though. It is because of all you "good intention" drivers that give money to these thugs that they keep coming back. If no one gave anything to these beggars, truck stops would be a safe place.

 

Austin Texas - heard on the raido they fixing to open a big new homeless shelter complete with laundry facilities and lockable storage for their stuff. And thwey wonder why they have such a huge homeless problem.

All they gotta do is outlaw the begging and most of em will vanish. The county just to the north, Williamson county, long known as very tough on crime dosent allow begging and they dont have a homeless problem.

 

I wouldn't park at the Atlanta Petro if the fuel was free and the lot was 10 times bigger. It's a crime scene that sells fuel.

 

Until Texans chase out the hippies it's just going to get worse.

 

At last night's Council meeting they decriminalized begging and tenting by the homeless unless they're acting in an "aggressive" manner. Some day, Austin is going to be another San Francisco.