What is the worst truck stop in the US?

The Crown Point Truck stop in New Jersey.

The Pilot in Dallas.

The Loves in Bordentown NJ.

The Pilot in Scranton.

Any Patel family owned truck stop on 35 between Dallas and Austin.

Bells Exxon Lunar Landscape Mania Truck Stop at exit 66 in Brownsville TN.

 

There two of them, one with really bad moonscape. I think there is a third across from them TA probably. And a 4th above the toll road.

TTT Arizona above Nogales would be bigger holes. Not often I would have a entire rig in one of these.

The bad stops for me are mostly gone, Jersey City off 15C would be the tops. But only if you were ever there to see just how it was back in the day.

Amesbury mass would be one on the list long before it burned. Fueling took a hour or so off that old pump and forget the showers. They did have a full bar and diner sort of spot. But it was not much. There was Foxboro on 1 as a alternate if you could stand to walk that far to get into it. That one got rebuilt.

Keep in mind I do not count truckstops rebuilt or built to where there is no full staff restaurant. Serve it yourself or crappy fast food with no place to sit are not truckstops.

Alentown had a couple. Trexlers maybe and Johnnys for undercooked food.

Petro in Atlanta gets a thought. They have been on cops or other similar shows where drivers were arrested across street from eating area trying to get drugs.

Any truckstop taken over by indians I suppose. Or even arab. I would not know what the heck was staffing the place under new ownership so scratch them off the list.

There are many back in the day that could do better but it is what it is back then good for Fuel such as Holbrook and best to just move on.

The old 76 in Calumet would be another. Last tIme I was in there at the fuel line was a very violent time against two. It would be a very near thing if I did not have the mind and body I had back then. I couldnt do it now (Age progressive, Mr Colt would have a say there....) I was not only ahead of them mentally but barely was able to keep them where both could not hit me at the same time. That probably what saved me along with Mr Thumper.

For me it's some of the grocery places and the markets. The one stop near Detriot, called the Detrioter you kept your eyes up but generally no trouble usually. But the potential was there with too many people.

It's easier to think about the better stops again many are gone. And a few spots that would be truckstops because you could fit maybe 5 to 10 in for a meal or two.

And there are a few that were already in the process of being eliminated with I got started it wasnt much longer after I got going that first year its a question of where to get fuel at times. Opal comes to mind, off 17 in VA. They rebuilt that one.

One truckstop would be near Fredericksburg off 133 I-95. We would stop there as children for meals on road trips and little I would know then in them years I would be stopping there to get meals and fuel etc. One morning long ago still early there were 50 seagulls. I had a pack of fries and the car was between me and the gulls. They got the fries. All they had to do was fly by and grab one. When 50 want it... well.. not much good a kid can do but run for the car. I think they were something like .60 cents back in those days. When money had real value. It's always the smallest details.

I can go on but I think enough is enough. Many I passed through once or twice, some I used often. Several I considered home bases.

But if there is any truckstop with the biggest potential for a problem will probably be Jessup Maryland. I no longer get cash at the fuel desk there. Not when 4 black thugs armed (Printing under shirts) are occupying a corner around that fuel desk while loitering. It was also the last time for fueling there too or anything in 2001. And the night time ugh. Baltimore Plaza was not much better (East of McHenry Portal) they had a hard time remodeling and doing food for a while. Probably always has. I usually used one spot there that I would pull in when no one else would because when the daytime show up everyone was gone and it's easy to jack it out of there. Otherwise you had yourself a game of tetris in that odd corner angle spot.

There are many places that had either food, or fuel and had enough of a spot to call themselves a truckstop. But when you understand the over priced food or the poor fueling problems (That would probably have choked the newer low sulfur engines say after 2010 date these days...) By the same token we did not worry about algae growth in the newer fuels either. Shrugs.

In the Gunpowder river bottom near Joppa on 40 you had a large 76 that was a happening place. I think one year the Gov decided to demo the place and turn the land into a swamp to help the river for some reason or other. But there were two more not far south that survived to the end of my OTR trucking little ones that are way past their heyday in the 50's Another 76 styled and a Village across from it. When you were looking for a spot near Baltimore it would be somewhere along that US 40 which remained handy for a while. But the loss of economy of that road to the new 95 and replaced with the hourly rooms and really bad vices... it's not a good place anywhere say between the Hatem Memorial Bridge all the way to Erdman Ave downtown, Post 9-11 barricades were put up to deny vehicle access to the north east corridor where you could stick a truck for a night or two here and there. But that part of the corridor had 125- 150 mph trains that were pretty vulnerable to attack at those speeds back in those days and the idea that a big rig being near the tracks was simply not acceptable.

Our last year as a reefer team, we made our own truckstops. All we needed was fuel once a day, 300 gallons of it. or More. More is better. Otherwise we had everything else in that tractor at a tare penalty to almost a thousand pounds in weight which would come into play when it's necessary to be at say 1/3 fuel to cross Roanoke scales at 80000 a time or two. There would be plenty of truckstops not far from there to splash a bunch more into it.

Dumfries quit being a valid scale when we run either 301 or 15. Usually 15. So we could fill her up as we like it and head up around those scales and not deal with the traffic or Quantico in particular which did not hold good memories for Spouse from those days of her duty station.

 

Johnny's?! Clinton, NJ, correct? Are you kiddin' me? The parking lot was full of craters but the food was fabulous. And how could you beat the ambiance of that place? Haven't been that way in years. Wonder if they're still open.

 

There isn't a Flying J in Redding that I'm aware of. Just the T/A on Knighton Road.

 

Whenever I have deliveries in and around Seattle I always stay at the Cee Cee's truck stop exit 57 off the I-5. It's not worth trying to get into the Tacoma Love's or anyplace else that's closer to Seattle. Just give yourself a little extra time and figure you are a bit over an hour out of the city if you time it right with rush hour traffic. Cee Cee's is pretty big and has decent food.

 

I think there is a pilot there now.

Trexlers is the one I had in mind near Allentown.

The ambience you are correct on and the parking lot was not that great. But Ive had several episodes of bad food and it's treated as a happenstance I generally stopped eating foods in the Allentown area after that last one cost time getting it out the gut.

There are a small number of truckstops I remember with bad service or bad food and what usually happens is we don't stop there anymore and find alternate places to cover those needs. Duncannon Texaco would be one example. A single undercooked spagetti (How is it possible to rush something like that...) ruined about 10 years worth of loyal customer stopping there. I started using a dutch eating place up 15 prior to Sunbury where I usually had room to fit a semi in for a meal. And fuel was either scranton or Ohio Spaceport after that depending on which direction I was going. If it's upper NY state I usually had enough to get back to a very tiny small stop that called themselves Midway off US 6/US15 area and have not been able to relocate that. Or the valley of three bridges either. I think PennDOT rerouted or built new bridges away and straightend out that curve that little stop was on.

Crosskeys is another one. That one had the ambience and good food. It's strictly a counter with about 15 stools, about as many trucks you can get into there anyhow in them days. It's paved under and something else now.

There are two others that were good. Near Strasburg VA on 81, I think that one is gone now and another called Whites further south that's a Petro now and probably not what it was in my time.

Strasburg was replaced by a tiny stop near Ripon VA I believe. Towards the Harpers Ferry and related crossings. It's so small if you did not slow for that curve it's on you done passed it.

In Jersey, there is three more stops I can think of. Brunswick would be one, Foot of Delaware Memorial Bridge is another and a third up in Columbia on 80. All of them were used only when necessary and no other options exist with too little fuel to get into Easton Md, Secondi brothers or towards Williamsport.

When I talk about a stop being good or bad there is a sort of a thinking of a balance. a little good and a little bit. It's not supposed to be a condemnation except for the Jersey City off 15C. Or the Jessup Md. (I usually had no trouble there, but many did in the nights.)

Tacoma washington is a memorable one. Ugh. Redding was a better spot. But Bakersfield would have to be it for that general area besides Salinas. There are two in Salinas I recall. I left a gal in one of them long ago when we had several talks about the possibility of dating, which was probably not going to happen and be good for either one of us. But leaving aside the feelings, the services were pretty good in Salinas.

I don't want to touch Ontario with a ten foot pole. I think there is two there and all of them is a zoo. Anything can and might happen there day or night. I think one of them had a pair of cat scales you had to circle to get onto and it's not fun.

There is a 76 off Exit 7 I think inside Jersey Eastbound that was one of my main bases for the Hunts point SItuation, if I have not used Midway or Frystown first if Harrisburg was full.

 

Oh, maybe you could educate us then?

 

The Pilot in N Little Rock is the worst and stinks. The EPA should get involved because behing the truck parking is a ravine that is full of water and the most trash I have ever seen.

 

Ha!!!!!!

 

Can we get an honorsbho mention for the Love's in Cartersville, GA? Longest fuel lines ever