Truck Driver Stories to Creep You Out - Odd Nugget
Contents
If ice cream truck drivers played the ambulance song they would get much more business.
I digress...
The best truck driver stories are super weird and difficult to forget. Read on for all of that and maybe a bit more...
The Phantom Rest-Stop
Back in the mid-80s we were traveling through Tennessee on way to visit friends in Texas. Mom was driving, I (a teenager) was navigating by using a paper map (these were the days before cell phones and GPS.) Made it past Nashville on I-40 pretty late at night. We're maybe an hour outside the city. Im charting our progress old-school (pencil and paper.) We pass an exit. I mark it. A minute later a summer thunderstorm hit, visibility dropped to nothing, all traffic slows to a crawl, and we decide to pull off at the next possible exit and find motel to spend the night cause theres no way were making significant progress in this storm. Slow, white knuckle driving ensues. An exit looms up on right, no signage we can see in the downpour, and we take it. At top of the exit ramp we turn right towards a brilliantly lit-up gas station (left turn was onto an overpass crossing I-40, no lights from that side of the interstate.) On dinky little road now. To our right, gas station which we're rapidly passing. To our left and back behind some trees was what looked like a motel, but you couldnt make out the sign well in the rain.
Drove past the gas station before we really realized that the road just ended ahead, the gas station was the only building on this side road. It went from one-and-a-half lane paved to one lane gravel to (we could see a short way ahead) tire-track dirt in grass all over the space of maybe twenty yards. Now we were past the gas station there was only one turn-off from this road, it was on our left. We took it and tried to back up and turn around to get back to the gas station. Unfortunately, the paved slope of that narrow drive-way sized turn off led steeply down into a huge mud-pit. No backing up off of it. Mom put the car into low gear, turned hard, and headed back for the gravel road through the mud. We almost made it out but got mired (front passenger tire caught on the corner of an exposed concrete storm-drain maybe three feet from the road.)
Out of car, into the rain and mud. Walked to the gas station. Place was spotless, super bright, and had two young men behind the counter. What sounded like one of Elvis songs is playing on their radio inside.
Attendants first words on seeing us walk in Did you get stuck in the mud?
And they said it as a super enthusiastic, way-too-happy greeting. Like Disney staffer welcoming you as you walk into the park for the first time levels of happy to see you. Also, these night-shift clerks were dressed in suits that looked about thirty years out of date. This place was kind of creepy.
Admitted we had gotten stuck. Asked if there was a tow truck company we could call. They pulled out a phone book (again this was before cell phones or the internet) and started talking to each other. Not a Nashville phone book some little township. Population couldnt have been more than a hundred from the handful of white pages, but the book had dozens of yellow pages of nothing but tow truck companies. Like literally hundreds of tow truck companies for this town too small to appear on the map. Attendants had a friendly debate about whos turn it was to come get a car out of the mud. Decided to skip over the company who was theoretically next because there had been some sort of problem with them last time they were called out for a tow. Made a decision on who to call and let mom use their phone. More weirdness. Creepiness intensifies.
Still storming, though less now. Tow truck arrives maybe five minutes later. Brilliant white. Not a speck of dirt or drop of mud on it. I've seen vehicles in a new car lot that were dirtier. Two young men in the truck are also dressed like they stepped out of the 1950s. Freshly polished patent leather shoes without a drop of mud on them. Starched white shirts. Paper hats. Bow ties.
We hike across the street and next door to the mud pit where our car is stuck.
Tow truck guys are horrified. They almost got out of the mud! they say to each other repeatedly. The subtext from their shocked tone is clear. No one must ever, ever escape the mud-pit on their own. These people will have to take some sort of action to make sure no one else gets as close as we did to escaping. They tow our car out. Easy-peasy.
We all go back to gas station. Pay tow-truck drivers for services. Tow truck drivers let gas station attendants know mom and I almost made it out of the mud on our own. Attendants are horrified and shocked by this.
By now getting huge uncanny valley vibes from all four of these men. And not just them, the whole place is too clean, too brightly lit, and too weirdly out of date. It was a surprisingly good facsimile of a small town rest stop populated by real humans . Almost perfect in fact. We are definitely in creepy-town! If these guys were humans, there was something seriously off about them. If they werent, they almost had their "ordinary human" act down pat.
The tow truck drivers drive off. Attendants turn, all super-friendly again, and ask mom and me if were going to stay the night in the hotel across the road! They're so excited that we might spend the night here. Talk about how great it is.
Mom and I make non-committal noises, return to car.
I tell mom, were not staying here tonight. She agrees wholeheartedly. Rain is finally letting up.
Drive straight back out to the interstate. Did not pass go. Did not even go near creepy-towns motel parking lot. Drive down I-40 to very next exit. It was maybe five miles. Pull off. Spend night in a kind of crappy (but ordinary) motel. At least its not the Bates Motel! we joke.
Rest of trip goes well. Then, several days later, on the way home, mom and I decide we really would like to see creepy-town in the light of day. It couldnt have been that weird, could it? Heading back up I-40. Pass exit where we actually did spend the night on the way down (can see hotel, exit number matches notes I had made on the map.) Start looking for next exit. The exit to creepy-town. Should be about five miles along, with an overpass.
Five miles pass.
No exit.
No overpass.
Five more miles later before we find the next exit off I-40. Its the one I had marked as being right before the storm first hit.
In short: creepy town exit does not exist.
Traveled I-40 many times since. Often remarking that hey, theres the exit where that weird storm hit and we went to creepy-town and theres the exit where we actually did spend the night. Never found creepy-town exit between those two points ever again (day or night, rain or shine.)
TL; DR In the mid-80s mom and I dropped into the Twilight Zone while passing through Tennessee and noped our way out of there as fast as they would let us.
Posted on Reddit by OldSoul72.
More Like This
A scary experience my uncle had in the 1980s
Thought I'd share a strange and creepy experience my uncle had in the 1980s. Hes getting on now but has never forgotten this experience which he says left him spooked for a long time. I've asked him about this experience a number of times to see if he can remember anything else about it.
My uncle was driving through the English countryside at night as he was a long distance truck driver. He enjoyed the job and found the time alone usually peaceful and relaxing. But he told me about one night that he broke down along a road that ran through moorland. It was very late and no other traffic was around. The truck made an odd noise and it sounded bad enough he pulled over and decided to walk to the nearest village or phone box. This was before mobile phones. He said it happened in 1981 in autumn but couldn't recall the month. He walked through the misty roadside and saw a light on in an isolated house by the road. He knocked on the door and a smiling old lady greeted him and invited him in. After he explained what had happened she directed him into a living room in which 4 other old ladies already sat. He said he found it strange and unnerving but they seemed friendly to him. Looking at the clock he said it was about 1.30am. He noticed on the table there were 3 dead ferrets and strange looking bowls. He started telling them he needed to call his company and arrange a mechanic. They said that there was a pay phone a ten minute walk along the road and they had no phone.
What really creeped him out is that the staircase in the house was inaccessible as it had crumbled midway along and was ruined. And the house seemed partially derelict. And some of the windows at the back were smashed. He said it was odd for these old ladies to be there and they had a normal and smart appearance. He didnt want to hang around and said he would leave to go to the phone.
One of the ladies started saying Stay! Over and over and then they all joined in. Hes a big guy but just ran out of the house and could hear then saying Stay! even as he ran along the road. He got to the phone box and was very spooked. He refused to drive through the same area again and changed firms not long afterwards. I've always wanted to go there for myself but live nowhere near part of the country. I've asked him what he thought happened but he says either they were mad or there for some other reason. He said that even though they smiled and were polite their eyes didnt smile. He doesn't talk about it much but says he will never forget it. The moor itself is in northern england.
Posted on Reddit by Garrett8319.
Holding his lance firmly, the knight charged towards the growling giant monster on his horseback without fear.
After The truck driver realized that he couldn't stop the truck before the collision, he could only desperately press hard on both his horn and brakes to try and scare the mandman on horse away.
Posted on Reddit by Mr_Camhed.
My Skinwalker Experience
Sorry it has taken me a while to post this, been extremely busy lately unfortunately.
First off, I have told this story before in a public setting around 2008 I was living in Louisiana at the time and had called into Coast to Coast AM and told this story to George Noory, which was a pretty cool experience. I didn't have a whole lot of time to tell some of the details so you'll be getting the "un-edited" version so to speak.
It happened somewhere between 1997-1999, I was in my late teens and we were living in New Mexico up near the four corners. My parents were Pastors at a local church in a very small town. We had lived outside of town, sort of out in the middle of nowhere and there were a few houses sprinkled around us. Surrounding was, at least where there were no houses, there was some brush and a lot of desert.
Ever since we moved there the locals told us about Skinwalkers, even people in the church warned us about them. One guy in the church swore up and down that when he was a truck driver he saw a Skinwalker in its human form running alongside his truck when we was going about 80mph, but since I didn't witness it I just took him at his word.
I had heard many different tales on the origins of the Skinwalkers, both from the locals and the Native Americans. There was a Native American who went to our church who still held on to his Navajo beliefs who told me what I always assumed to be a more accurate description. He told me that when people of his tribe had a child out of incest the tribe leaders take the baby out into the desert to be raised by wolves. The wolves would raise it and they would become Skinwalkers, having the powers to turn into anything (animals, humans, etc.). The story fascinated me, he just seemed to know for sure that this was the accurate tale. Then he warned me to NEVER whistle at night, which I thought was pretty weird, but I never did, until one night.
It was in the Fall, around 11:00 at night. I was in my bedroom, which was the furthest room from anyone in the house and near the garage, watching TV or playing Playstation. My Mother was in her bedroom, my Dad was at the church studying as he always did til around midnight. My brother had a friend over that night and they were going to spend the night on the back patio, which was a long rectangular room with screen windows all down it.
Like I said, I was in my bedroom minding my business when my brother and his friend come banging on my door. Annoyed I opened the door and my brother, who is four years younger than me, and his friend are both frightened. My brother said as they were in the patio goofing off they heard someone walking around the backyard and saw what looked to be the top of a "white bald head" walk by the screen windows.
Now normally I would believe my brother since he would never make this kind of stuff up, but his friend was a huge liar and had told tall tales about having been to Mars (even showing us the red dirt, which looked an awful lot like the red dirt you could find throughout the area I might add). Of course by this time I had experienced a lot of paranormal stuff, but I was still skeptical. Bravely, and annoyed, I grabbed my jacket and a flashlight and the three of us went out to the patio.
It was always creepy at night because it was always so dark and the only light came from a nearby lamp post a few yards down the street. Our backyard was insanely small except for the right hand side of it, which was a bit bigger but held a trampoline which took up the better part of it.
We stepped out of the patio, my flashlight shining around the yard, but saw nothing. That was when I started hearing the crunching of leaves coming from the front yard, so the three of us went through the back gate to the front yard. Now our front yard was HUGE and had roughly nine apple trees, there was even a large creepy tree in the corner of the yard near the street I always stayed clear of for some reason.
We had a close neighbor, literally on the other side of the wooden fence, it was a nice family that had a daughter about my brothers age and they also had a bunch of chickens and sometimes they would wander into our yard so that is what I thought was walking around our front yard. Shinning the flashlight around of course I couldn't see any chickens, but I did see something white walk behind a tree near the wooden fence, that was when I got very curious.
The three of us walked slowly to the tree, I was being the protective big brother and kept the other two behind me. Before I knew it I heard a loud WOOSH and felt a gust of wind like something flew by us. My brother screamed out in pain. My brother always had his shirt off, which annoyed me because back then I was overweight and very self conscious, but I noticed on his chest he had three long scratches across him. Scared and shocked my brother ran back inside the house, leaving me and his friend. It all happened so quickly, but I ran towards the street where I was sure whatever it was had gone, his friend close behind me. Once we reached the end of our property I could hear the sound of bare feet running down the paved road. I shined my light towards the sound but never saw anything. So I whistled some tune and from down the road I heard the same tune whistled back to me. Intrigued I whistled again, this time a different tune and again the same tune was whistled back. My brothers friend started getting scared and kept trying to get me to go back inside, but I was very intrigued. I whistled for the third time and that was when, very close by, we both heard a male voice say, "Hey kid, come here." There was no hesitation the two of us bolted back inside.
We went to go tell my Mother what happened and she was already frightened because she was tending to my brothers scratches on his chest. We told her what happened and my Mother told us to stay inside. My Mother has had some pretty scary paranormal encounters before, I need to tell those stories soon as well, so she believed us.
I have never forgotten that encounter. My brother brushes it off these days, making out to be not a big deal, but I know differently, as does my Mother. It's one of the may incidents in my life that literally bothers me to this day.
Posted on Reddit by Xandyr101.
Writing on a picture
My friend passed away in July and I am bipolar and went into full-blown mania as soon as I found out she was dying. She was in the hospital for 3 weeks.
Anyways the day she passed away (she was still on life support) I went through our pictures and printed a cute picture of her to remember as she was and not as I saw her in the hospital bed. She died at 34 (two days before her birthday).
She looked horrible. She died of cirrhosis and they tried to revive her 2 times. Her eyes were half opened yellow, swollen, and full of blood and her mouth was bleeding. I guess the nurses didn't get to her on time to clean her before I got there in the mid of the coronavirus.
I tell you all these things because all I saw was her face. All Day Long.
Anyways back to the picture I printed. I taped the paper picture on my room wall and put a candle in front of it because, isn't that what you're supposed to do? Later on (she was still connected to life support and we were just waiting for her to be disconnected) I thought about the fire hazard and moved her picture to the bathroom and left it there just to look at it when feeling scared about her face that I kept seeing on a loop in my head.
That same night I went to brush my teeth and I am staring at the picture just looking at her, trying to make sense of everything when I see these weird lines on it. (She was already gone and unplugged by then).
I had to look at the picture at a weird angle to see the scribbles right. Until I saw what was written. It said help me and it had two scratches on her eyes like if she were crying. Mind you that my husband was not at home. He was gone on a work trip (truck driver) I freaked the #$@$ out.
Remember I was manic so I wasn't sleeping at all. After that, I called my mom to calm me down and I sat in bed with the picture just trying to understand.
I went ahead and printed a second picture just to see if that was there before. It was not. I also tried to write the same thing on the second picture to see if it was written with a pencil but nope. The pencil was too shiny compare to the way the original picture was. The original picture seemed like it was scratch on. So I try to scratch the second picture with my nails and the ink stayed put.
Ok, so I left it alone and went to deal with my crazy @$# somewhere else.
Two days later my husband was home and it was 3 am and we were watching tv since I couldn't sleep because of the mania. And my fan turned the speed up. That fan runs 247 and never has changed. My husband freaked out and said, "she is just saying goodbye."
Since then I always feel someone is here. My other friend came and to help me calm down we saged the house like 3 times in the span of a week. Still feeling watched.
It's been 2 months since then and I am over my mania. I keep seeing shadows with the corner of my eye. Feeling like there is someone behind. Some people tell me that it can't be her that good spirits don't scratch on stuff. Some people tell me she is resting in peace and that is just my mind now playing tricks. I just can't get over the feeling that at night there's always someone else with me in the room.
I tried to google about writings from the paranormal but there's nothing. I just came here because maybe you guys know something I don't.
I am an atheist and didn't believe in anything but I experienced this $#!# and I cannot rest. I am always angry and tired. I keep telling my psychiatrist that I am just depressed but I always have this burning feeling in my shoulders and stressed out. I have 4 kids and that could be it but I am not myself.
Help? Advice?
I will post a picture if I can figure out how to post to Imgur.
Posted on Reddit by apeculiarexistence.
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