Long Haul Truckers Reveal The Creepiest Thing They've Seen On The Road
Being a long haul truck driver requires serious grit and a sense of adventure. You never know what you might come across on a route, like seeing random people in the middle of nowhere walking along the side of the road.
DirtyPancakes asked, Long haul truckers of Reddit, what's the creepiest/ scariest/ paranormal thing you've ever experienced while on the road?
Submission have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
NOPE. NOPE. NOPE.
Creepiest is seeing people walking along the shoulder of the highway when it's pitch black out and there hasn't been a town for miles and miles and there isn't one coming up for miles either.
Ball lightning? Or...
I was driving though Kansas on I-70 at night once when I hit one of the craziest thunderstorms I've ever seen. It was so bad the road started flooding a bit and I had to pull into a service plaza and wait it out, when the creepy part happened. As I was sitting in the truck watching the storm, there is a series of lightning strikes followed by a blackout. Suddenly a massively bright light starts moving behind the clouds, too slowly to be an aircraft but too fast to be part of the storm system. It moves up over the hills/trees before crossing directly overhead then disappears a bit behind the service plaza. The transit from tree line to plaza took maybe 5-10 minutes tops, and while it was overhead it cast everything in an eerie blue glow and lit up the parking lot. I seriously thought aliens were invading or some sh*t. Anyway, I shit you not within 10 minutes of the creepy light disappearing the rain completely stopped and the parking lot lights came back on, like someone flipped a switch. I got the f*ck outta there while looking in my mirrors for spaceships or those alien walkers from war of the worlds.
If anyone has any thoughts on wtf that might've been I'm all ears. The memory still bugs me as I'm not prone to conspiracy theories or crazy outlandish beliefs or anything. I've considered stuff like ball lightning, refracted sunlight (it wasn't long after sunset), or even military aircraft (it was somewhat near an airbase), but none of those seem quite right for how massive the light behind the clouds was, how localized to a specific part of the sky it was, and the speed at which it moved.
HELLUR!
Driving home from a trip one night, something told me to merge over, so I did. About a quarter mile later there was a guy sitting in the middle of the lane I was just in, freaked me out like nothing else had.
The poor fireflies :(.
Smashed fireflies on your windshield will leave a glowing splatter if you hit them after they light up.
The dog seemed good.
I was driving cross country once, coming into Louisiana it started getting spooky. Lots of cars on the side of the road near a swamp. Kinda felt the swamp calling to me, wanted to pull over for some reason. Going about 60 I cross over a short bridge and there's a golden retriever puppy in a dog bed looking clean and not scared, right on the side of the bridge. Freaked me the hell out, and I'm a dog lover but I'm not stopping there for a damn thing.
Oh wow yikes.
I used to work with an ex-trucker who once had a woman commit suicide by jumping in front of his truck. He hasn't driven since, and now spends him time working with troubled/suicidal people. He was never quite the same after that happened.
Edit: she had left a suicide note in her house, she had a history of depression. The family didn't want to sue or anything, they said they felt terrible for him that she chose to go that way and didn't want to put him through anymore. They actually said they were glad she was no longer in pain.
The deer was waiting for you.
I was driving at night on California hwy 168 near mono hot springs when I saw a deer on its hind legs on the side of the road. It's eyes glowed in my headlights. I nearly sh*t my pants.
Truck stops at night are sketchy af.
Not a trucker, but I remember seeing a TV show or something where this trucker said in the 80s or 90s (I can't remember) he pulled off in a rest stop in a Southern state at like 3am. He said truckers stick together like a family, especially if one needs help with their gear/truck, they help each other out whenever they can. Anyways, he said he's getting ready to sleep and some guy starts knocking on his truck door, so he rolls the window down and this guy says he's a trucker that is having some engine problems and was able to park his truck way down at the other end of the lot. This guy at his door then asks if he can come help have a look at his truck. The trucker on the show said he thought it was odd because truckers usually just call their 24/7 roadside mechanic service that will try to fix your truck wherever you are and if they can't, a new semi will pick up your load and your truck will be towed to the nearest diesel repair shop.
He said that was the first red flag. He told the guy at his door, sure, I have to get some things and I'll meet you over there, so just start walking back (basically to get the guy to get lost). The guy at his door says okay thanks and disappears down the lot. The trucker on the show said he then realized he was the only truck in the entire lot and that this guy wasn't a trucker, so he turned on his rig and hauled ass out of there. He then notified other truckers in the area to avoid that stop and gave a description of the guy. I don't think the guy was ever caught, but his intentions were obviously bad, and apparently this was a common thing at the time...basically psychos making shit up at truck stops to take advantage of unknowing truckers just trying to have a rest.
Outside of that, I think it's pretty basic knowledge that rest stops are shady as hell to begin with though lol.
Getting darker... damn.
My dads a trucker/logger. I remember when I was about 12 he came home early covered in blood and did not talk to anyone. He looked horrible. Later that day my step mom told me this. It was early that morning and foggy when he heard someone screaming on the CB about an accident up ahead going the opposite direction. When he came upon the scene he saw this, A woman and her kids in a station wagon that had broken down. The 1st trucker saw it and stopped to help. He was standing between his semi and the station wagon, when trucker 2 came along and could not see, he had drifted off the road. He slammed into truck #1 pinning the truck driver #1 between his own semi and the station wagon. My dad came along within seconds. He ran across the highway and saw the carnage in front of him. The woman and the kids screaming and the truck driver #1 alive but pretty much cut in half, and truck driver #2 almost having a heart attack and in severe shock. Dad held truck driver #1 hand until he passed.
Biker rave!
15 year driver here, and people covered the creepy things already, so here's my coolest thing.
Coming into Albuquerque, NM at night from the west is amazing. You're driving through dark desert, then you come over the top edge of a hill, and the entire city is laid out below you. There is a long stretch of downhill to get to the city, like miles.
So I come over the hill, cruising down at like at 2 A.M., when motorcycles all start passing me. Not just a few, like dozens and dozens of them. They are all lit up in neon ground effects, guys are standing on the seats, girls have their tops off flashing me, they are doing wheelies and swerving back and forth around my semi.
There must have been over 100 of them. After this goes on for about 10 minutes, they all take off probably doing 150 mph.
The entire thing was completely surreal and I'll never forget it.
Advancements in science happen every day in every way.
But often it feels like we are still so far behind.
How have we not cured so many diseases?
Shouldn't we know more about space?
What is Jello really made of?
So much to ponder and understand.
Maybe one day.
We all have a bucket list of what we'd like to see cured or invented before our last breaths.
Let's discuss...
Redditor yoda2060wanted to discuss all the science that needs to be devoured before the sand runs out of the hourglass. They asked:
"What scientific achievement you would like to see before you die?"
Life is infinite and we'll never know everything that is possible. But let's dream of what could be...
New pieces...
"I want to see us grow hearts, kidneys, livers, etc... In labs and end the need for donations and waiting lists for transplants."
IMadeThisBullS*itUp
"I waited for a heart/bilateral lung transplant for over a year and I spent 8 months living in the hospital waiting for it. You’re basically waiting for someone to die."
"Which feels all kinds of wrong… but my therapist (all transplant patients sees a transplant therapist) kept reminding me that me needing a heart and lungs doesn’t cause someone to die…"
"And what made even harder was that my mom died of Covid about 5 weeks before my transplant happened. So while I was praying and hoping so hard my mom wouldn’t die… I was also praying for my transplant to happen. I had a lot of mixed and confusing feelings. My transplant happened last November."
Junebug1515
"Idiot Bottom Line"
"To build an environment friendly world."
deadprotocol_
"That depends entirely on how far you want to go with 'environmentally friendly.' Some amateurish pseudo-intellectuals will say that humanity itself is devastating the planet by it's very existence so we'll call that the 'Idiot Bottom Line."'
"So you have to find an acceptable level above that to declare environmentally friendly. For example can we still have hear exchangers? Space debris? Artificial Electromagnetic radiation? There has to be a level before you can declare such and so far no one agrees."
PoorPDOP86
“20 years, tops”
"Viable nuclear fusion."
AlterEdward
"Nuclear Astrophysicist here. I know the joke is that we been saying '20 years, tops' for 50 years now - who do you think came up with that joke? But seriously, we are really close."
"We need a reaction that is self-sustaining and puts out more energy than we put in. We can easily do a reaction that’s one or the other, just getting one that’s both is hard. And with recent updates to the Greenwald limit we found some relatively minor tweaks that doubles previous theoretical max output."
Gleeful-Nihilist
Deep Within
"Figuring out what Dark Matter is, solving the mysteries of black holes. Proper thorough investigation of our own oceans."
fIumpf
So far, so interesting. We have so much to learn.
let me dream...
"Prosthetic limbs and organs that can work just as well as real ones. Affordably too. A cure for total nerve damage. Carbon neutral liquid fuel. FTL travel (let me dream)."
idonthaveanaccountA
Contact
"Making contact with another intelligent species in another solar system."
Pigs100
"That's probably not going to happen. I'd be overjoyed though if we discovered even just microbial life in the oceans of Europa or Enceladus. They'd be the first true extra-terrestrials ever encountered."
Cybyss
Going Places
"If we had teleports then we might also have other technologies integrated with it like instant dental work, instant food, instant surgery, things just unthinkable without the technology but before the steam engine travel was by horse so they could not imagine traveling cross country in any other way besides ships. Maybe with teleports we wouldn't need energy, just an infinite loop of the first spark."
Stickerdan
Sickness be gone...
"Cure for all cancer forms."
Kal-El1994
"I approached a nursing assistant with the question. They could describe it as trying to go after the stick of a lollipop. The treatments are mostly concerned with favors, not sticks. If they can discover a way to deal with the stick, then you may be able to treat cancer from there."
MissSara101
"I think it is important to add that there won’t be ONE cure to all cancers. Cancer is such a broad spectrum of diseases that sometimes have next to nothing in common. But hopefully we will keep getting the survival rates up with different medications for different cancer types."
TastyConsideration82
Simplicity
"Solve back pain please. We can do crazy sh*t like nuclear bombs, new fancy vaccines and space exploration, yet we don't have a solution to one of the biggest and most common ailments that existed though all of humanity."
inksane
I want to see all of this happen! Fingers crossed.
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Fast fashion is terrible for the environment, one of the largest polluters of clean water globally because of its all too common use of cheap, toxic textile dyes.
It also places producers under more and more pressure to manufacture more and more clothes on masse–the people working in the factories that make this stuff are being paid a pittance, contributing to much of the wealth inequality in less developed nations.
Additionally, it's estimated that the textiles industry produces 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 per year and that just two percent of all fast fashion emissions can be reduced through recycling. Ouch. Time to change habits, right?
People shared their thoughts on this and other topics after Redditor urmomsucked asked the online community,
"What should people seriously stop buying?"
"Pets..."
"Pets they can’t take care of."
WonderfulShop888
I have known several people who got puppies, decided they couldn't handle them, and dumped them. It's rage-inducing.
"Nestle products."
"Nestle products. Literally the most evil company currently in business. Unfortunately it's really hard to tell what brands they own."
I_used_to_be_hip
Nestle is responsible for the deaths of babies in undeveloped nations. It's sick.
"Designer clothes..."
"Designer clothes and accessories with logos slapped all over them. It wastes your money and makes you look idiotic."
Botryoild2000
The funny thing is, the designer clothes/accessories with logos slapped all over them are typically the cheapest options from said designer.
"Simple syrup."
"Simple syrup. It’s sugar water with an $8 price tag."
providentialchief
It's easy enough to make your own. Your iced tea will never be the same again.
"Cheap belts."
"Cheap belts. A quality leather belt will last you decades."
[deleted]
I have a few (quality leather belts, that is) and they've lasted for years and years. Can confirm.
"Cigarettes."
"Cigarettes. To anyone reading this, please just don't start even if it's out of curiosity. I'm 20 years deep into this and it's hell."
SeaSwimmer5386
Smoking is a brutal addiction to break. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed rules prohibiting menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars to stop young people from picking up the habit.
"Garment workers..."
"Fast fashion. Garment workers get paid s*it, the environment suffers and you look like everybody else on the street with no personality or sense of individualism."
SenoritaBrownRecluse
This should be up at the top. The environmental impact is terrible.
"Unnecessarily large vehicles..."
"Unnecessarily large vehicles, which they'll then inevitably complain cost too much to fill the gas tank."
[deleted]
Gas guzzlers need to go. It's far past time that they be phased out.
"Anything advertised..."
"Anything advertised on Instagram. It’s a scam and those influencers are just making it look cheap AF."
megapintt
Or just avoid Instagram in general. That would solve a lot.
"New phones..."
"New phones when their current is just as good."
[deleted]
You've got that right. People buy a new one for the hell of it without even thinking about it.
It's pretty clear that many of us need to change our habits now. Our wallets will thank us later.
Have some suggestions of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
If you make too many funny faces, your face will stay that way permanently.
Watch too much tv and your eyes will fall out.
Break a mirror and it's seven years of bad luck.
These are among the many myths and superstitions we heard as children, more often than not from our parents and teachers as a way of scaring us into behaving.
But while there is not one ounce of truth to any of these tall tales, there are many who still believe them, and many more.
Redditor RedditPersonIf was curious to learn what superstitions people continue to believe are true, leading them to ask:
"What myths are obviously false, yet most people still believe they are true?"
When they fly the coop...
"If you take care of a baby bird, the mother won’t want it anymore because it’ll smell like a human."- GreatXs
No amount of fiber can help you
"If you swallow gum, it'll stay in your digestive tract for 7 years."- stinky_cheese33
It was every other subjects he had trouble with
"Albert Einstein failed math in school."- Nothingreallyend
Though it does make shampooing easier
"Shaving your hair will make the hair grow back thicker.'- RunWithScissorsss
Sleep with your mouth closed
"The amount of spiders you eat while being asleep."- pantsofafatman
Just... No...
"That you are supposed to pee on a jellyfish sting to ease the pain."- Actuaryba
Olé
"Bulls not liking the color red."
"Bulls are partially color blind and can only see yellow, green, blue, and violet."- Rogurzz
Call a Lyft instead
"Coffee, speed, and uppers sober you up."
"Nope!"
"Too drunk to drive?"
"Now you're drunk AND on drugs, you just don't feel the effects of the booze but your motor skills, reaction time and decision making are all still drunk AF."- kirkrjordan
Best let nature run its course
"The damn alpha wolf."
"It was one study under captivity, the poor researcher made it his life's work to try and set it right."
"If you want a brutal hierarchy where everyone pecks down, what you're looking for is chickens."- raxeira-etterath
Give this one some thought
"We can only use 10% of our brain."- UnbearableHuman
A little bit of research will clear up any doubt you have on these old superstitions and beliefs.
And for anyone who helped out a friend who got stung by a jellyfish, no need to be embarrassed.
Who hasn't looked at a scarf someone knitted for a loved one, a flawless homemade birthday cake, or an immaculately planted garden and thought, "I wish I could do that"?
But you'd never dare try to attempt it yourself, knowing that it's well beyond your personal skill set.
But is it?
Intimidating as they may seem, some skills might be deceptively easier than they appear to be, or might come more naturally to you than to many others.
Redditor halfmoon599 was curious to hear what skills people believed to be much easier than they seem, leading them to ask:
"What skill is actually easier to learn than what other people think?"
Everyone can be ambidextrous!
"I'm left handed and and I wanted to learn to write with my right hand."
"it was much easier than I thought and now I can write with it making it look somewhat decent."- JE3V4N_
"Using your off hand skillfully."
"I worked on this when I owned a woodworking business and it has helped so many times over the years."- karg_the_fergus
Should you ever forget your keys...
"Picking a lock."
"It only takes about 1 or 2 hours to learn, contrary to popular belief." - DifficultAd5113
Can't get to the genius stand? No problem!
"Fixing computers."
"It's just a lot of googling and YouTubing."- theassassintherapist
"Basic IT troubleshooting."- usmarine7041
You'll have a blanket done in no time!
"Crocheting!"
"It looked really difficult to me but I was really pleased how easy it was to pick up."
"Especially with YouTube tutorials."- geeltulpen
But do get a license first...
"Flying a small airplane is actually very simple."
"It's everything else like weather and flight planning, emergency mindfulness, airspace and traffic, and confidence in yourself that gets tricky, but any person with eyeballs and a pulse could fly a plane."- Clyde-MacTavish
With practice, of course
"Parallel parking."- Feels2old
Give your arms a rest!
"Unicycling."
"It takes just 10-20 minutes a day for 3-10 days.'
"Find a railing you can lean on to start."
"At some point, you'll be able to let go and ride!'- Vegan_BTW_VR
... Is it though?...
"Driving a stick shift."- fantazja1
Next time you think, "aw, I wish I could do that," rather than keep wishing, why not just give it a try?