I laughed a little when you mentioned the one in Jersey City. I used to live there (Jersey City, not the truck stop) so I'm familiar with them. There's one right across from the Kearny jail/Hudson Count jail that is garbage and the one off of 440 that was across from the Duncan projects was 10x's worse. Scary place...
Amen. I was feeling a little nostalgic a couple of months ago hauling down I-95 and decided that maybe I would stop at Pedro's truck stop. The quoted post might be a few years old but the issues are still the same. Still smelled, you couldn't pay me to use those showers and the two young "I hate my life's" behind the counter were anything but friendly. South of the Border manages to get cheesier and cheesier somehow...
Time to breathe some fresh air into this thread again ........ The Vince Lombardi has been the safest and most entertaining place to park for 30 years ..................
Good thread. As a new driver this thread has helped me a lot. Like someone else mentioned I grabbed my very worn truck stop guide and made a + and - near those I want to hit and those I want to avoid. Being somewhat ignorant and new the majority of my 10s are taken at Pilots/J's' or Loves due to the companies fueling plans and subsequent free showers. But I am entirely bored with these corporate truck stop beasts, the food is boring and redundant and I would rather give my money to a mom and pop any day. I've really only stopped for my breaks at the independent truck stops a few times. So this thread has opened my eyes to changing things up. If I must fuel at the pilots, etc. then I will do just that. Fuel. And maybe get my bonus shower. But from now on I'm going to try and spend my personal money and my time at the independents. Thanks to all for contributing.
I've always liked Brintles in Mt Airy, North Carolina. Bummer... it's a Flippin' PEElot starting tomorrow. That totally sucks. I suppose the restaurant will become another stinkin' Subway.
That place is a pit. No food except basic snacks. I don't know if they even have showers, I just stopped there to scale once and get fuel another time.
Yeah that does suck. I really liked that place. It is always packed at night so I wonder why it is becoming a P-Lot. Another good t/s goes down. Don't get me I will park at one of Big 4 for my break but I do like hit up the independents to.
Probably has something to do with Loves at Exit 1 on the VA side. Flying J / Pilot plans on getting a piece of the pie in that area. I'm surprised it took so long for one of the big companies to build in the area. Until Loves went up, there were just a few truck stops between Statesville, NC and Wytheville, VA with no really large ones. I grew up in that area and recall the old gas station on Hwy 69 on the VA side at exit 19 I believe it is near Foster Falls. They knocked it down and in my opinion put up a respectable place to swing in for fuel and snacks. There's a newer Sheetz a few miles down from the Pilot takeover where I often see trucks pulled over on the ramps or swinging in for snacks. It would have been nice to see them put up a Sheetz truck stop by the interstate instead. Seems like it would have the potential to make some decent money. The few Sheetz truck stops I've seen have been pretty spacious.