All of us have had to taken at least one road trip in our lives. Whether it was a weekend retreat to a neighboring state or a full-fledged voyage across the country, we were glued to the steering wheel and drove for hours on end.
In that period of time, maybe something peculiar happened. We may’ve met a strange hippy gas station clerk or an intimidating biker couple at a scenic overlook (only to learn that they were the nicest people we’ve ever met). We maybe saw a bear or moose cross the road or a few out-of-pocket billboards along the way.
We quickly learn that a lot of unique stories can amass over the span of a road trip. Stories we’ll likely remember for the rest of our lives.
That said, what us common folk define as a road trip is what truck drivers define as their job. While most of us may only take a handful of road trips in a given year, truckers embark on long-haul journeys like clockwork.
If we shared one of our crazy road trip stories with a trucker, they’d simply reply, “Hold my trucker hat. You all are in for quite the tale.”
The following are some crazy stories shared by truckers, found in the delves of Reddit forums.
“I thought I smelled something…”
Reddit user Immo406 recalls a tanker truck carrying 11,000 gallons of gas pulls up to a truck stop with the back drivers’ trailer brake on fire.
Being a good Samaritan, Immo406 scurries over to tell the tanker driver of the flames and that he needs to get his extinguisher. The driver slowly and nonchalantly hops out of the cab and says, “I thought I smelled something going up the pass 15 miles ago.”
The driver, not in a hassle despite a potential explosion, proceeds to put on rubber gloves, grabs an extinguisher, and puts the blaze out. Luckily, the brakes were the only causality in this story.
Honeybees had the final say at a traffic stop
Reddit user asu3dvl recalls being pulled over one morning by state highway patrol near Stockton, California. As a trucker, they happened to be hauling 350 live honeybee hives.
The officer, who asu3dvl affectionately calls “Ol’ Tubby with his big ol’ hat”, was about write them up for a lane-change infraction. However, the bees had other plans.
For some reason, not elaborated on in the story, thousands of bees escaped the truck. As the officer started “that cop-walk-strut” towards the trailer, the bees swarmed the poor soul. He waved his “big ol’” hat around and fled to back the patrol car.
It appeared our trucker got off with a warning as the officer peeled out of there.
Have you ever seen lights above you on the open road?
Reddit user RedditUndergroundyt recalls a spooky story his father, a veteran truck driver, shared with him when traveling through the desolate stretches of the Mojave Desert.
While on the empty highway, he noticed something bizarre. The trucker could clearly see lights above his rig. Even as he continued to make his way down the road, the lights stayed above and followed him.
Eventually, the user says his father pulled over as the lights became too bright and obstructed his view of the road ahead. As he got out of the cab, the lights oddly went away.
What happens next is the most baffling part of the story. When his father reentered his truck after what seemed like a brief look around of his vehicle, an hour had passed over already.
Was the trucker abducted by extraterrestrials? Is this story just a high tale?
Final Thoughts
Yes, suffice to say these drivers have one-upped likely all of our road trip stories. From goofy to mysterious, most of America’s knights of the road have seen it all.
Please contact us if you have any crazy road trip or trucking stories yourself. In the meantime, follow our Road Map newsletter for weekly updates on all things trucking, rail, and domestic.
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