What is your guys sketchiest experience on the road?

[Frodo]

me and two other home bums were chilling in cheeseman park in denver at like 2 in the morning. all of the sudden we were surrounded by the silhouettes of like 8 gangsters. they just sat there in silence for a good 10 minutes about 15-20 feet away from us. I think they were hoping to see if we were sleeping, because when we yelled fuck off, they slinked back to whatever hole the crawled out of. heard from a friend they got a 'sodomy' problem at that park. ew. now that's not too crazy of a story, but damn if i didnt have my knife on my chest expecting the fight of my life and its my submission for now. but what about you guys, what crazy gang wars have you been dragged into, scams, jumpings, crazy assholes, fights, crimes, whatever did you end up in the middle of that really made you shit your pants?

 

[kokomojoe]

My first night in Portland I ended up accidentally smoking meth out of a bong for the first time with this one other random homeless dude. I had thought it was weed cause I was drunk sleeping under a bridge near the hop out and he woke me up and was like, "hey wanna smoke?" So I was like "sure fuck yeah" and he sparked the bong and as soon as I exhaled I looked at him like, "dude wtf is that?" He just casually was like, "Oh it's meth!" Not the sketchiest thing but definitely could've gone pretty bad with certain individuals
.
EDIT: Just noticed this song was playing as I was writing this, how fitting lol

 

[HitchTube]

Trying to hitchhike from Haiti to Dominican Republic

 

[wizehop]

we were surrounded by the silhouettes of like 8 gangsters. they just sat there in silence for a good 10 minutes about 15-20 feet away from us. I think they were hoping to see if we were sleeping, because when we yelled fuck off, they slinked back to whatever hole the crawled out of. heard from a friend they got a 'sodomy' problem at that park. ew.

Pretty soft gangsters, to just take off like that...sounds more like you were in a gay cruising park. I have had my fare share of those rides hitching, one of the many reasons why I prefer trains.

 

[Vulture]

I took a ride to the grocery store to get fags. The guy stopped for me. 40 something years old, black and in PJ's. I couldn't pass up a break on my feet. Well, after getting smokes, he asked if there was anything I needed to do. I said no. He asked if I wanted something to eat. Why not? Walk into his house, miles away from camp. He gives me the ingredients to a bologna sandwich. We walk into the basement. He has a room at the end of the hall. I sit in a chair near the door. He''s on the other side of a curtain, so when we are talking, I am facing fabric. He asks me if I mind if he gets high. Why not? I peak over and he's almost naked. The tube flicks on for a moment and gay port is on. It flicks back off, he apologizes. It flicks back on and stays on. He switches the conversation to sex. He tells me I am attractive. Then fortunately, a guy calls him to a drug deal. He smokes some weed, to compliment the meth? And we hit the road. Yikes!

 

[Frodo]

Pretty soft gangsters, to just take off like that...sounds more like you were in a gay cruising park. I have had my fare share of those rides hitching, one of the many reasons why I prefer trains.

yeah, im pretty sure thats what they were, but it was the gang rapist vibe that i didn't like. i mean if your cruising for consensual dick, just ask god damn.

 

[iamwhatiam]

I will have to think on that. ive been in plenty of sketchy situations but I cant remember right now. but I have awoken before to find tweekers just standing there over me staring down. thats for sure pretty creepy. had one crazy guy come up to me in the park shouting that we was gonna bash my fucking head in with an iron rod he was holding in his hand because he thought I was following him. wtf? turns out this was the same guy who had been banned from all libraries in the area after exposing himself to a little girl in the children's section one day.

Almost went home with a cop who offered me place to stay. I declined and later found out that he got off on beating up young homeless guys and then raping them....yea some sick fucks out there

 

[Deleted member 2626]

kokomojoe, how was the meth? I had a friend who got robbed in Amarillo by some black dudes. Stupid things that sometimes paranoia creates. . . with me at times. i walked through downtown denver after a rideshare in november and out of it. wasn't sketchy at all near all the college shit. had some sketchy rides this year, My first homosexual come on. I was walking out of Knoxville on side road 11W which goes North actually and got the ole double take and he came back. Gave me and the pooch a ride up the road to a town I cannot recall and was gonna get food in the store and leave me there. I went in to get my peanut butter and bread and saw him pushing an empty car and he came out with nothing. Back outside he comes up to us and says he'll actually take us further now. Okay. Not long later, we are talking, a lot of just me keeping things easy, and I say something about my unappealing appearance or something and he says he disagrees. then a bit later during like some conversation about whatever he tosses in there real quick, you gay or straight? I'm like what and he repeats. I said naw sorry straight but I'm cool with whatever others do and that i have a gal back home which I do not. And he goes to say he was molested and I'm like damn. . and get him off the sexual stuff quick and all went well and he gave us a good ride a ways to a little plaza and park. I oddly never have too many.
In Scranton, PA i was outside a grocery store kind of listening to this out of it lady and gave her a banana and some junkie shows up shooting the shit. He was a decent guy but tried to give me the story line i never buy. anyway a lady I had noticed came back out and was pacing and looking all over the place for her phone. Her giant husband shows up and they GPS track it and it shows up right in the vicinity of the entrance and where me and my dog and junkie are sitting. He's like guys its no big deal but do you have it. I tell him I'll dump all my shit if I have to. The junky didn't have it either he was sitting talking the whole time. I think I remember them saying something about police but they left and so did I. just a circumstance instance.

 

[Tony Pro]

A guy once offered to sell me weed.
That's the best I got. I guess I'm either blessed or doing something wrong.

 

[Vulture]

Walking around town, West Hollywood at 2AM, I pass a bar. A guy and two other guys stumble out. One asks me if I want to party. Why not? Then if I want weed, apparently 80 bucks worth. I turn it down. He asks if I want the 11inch cock, he knows a guy and can get it to me. No thanks. You smoke meth? No...

 

[Desperado Deluxe]

I was in riverside. And I was with my gf and these two guys roll up on us after a long day of walking and they offer to hang out with us and buy us some weed and beer. After saying they were entrepeneurs who were into selling things... yea first clue to bad news.. anyway my gf says let's hang out with them and I said no. I didn't trust the situation but if I didn't go along with her decision I wouldn't have heard the end of it.

anyways we end up getting in their car they buy us some booze and take us out to shoot some pool. Afterwards we go out and score some weed from some people they knew. We eventually come to a little convenience store to get more beer or whatever and I fallowed the two guys into the store to get smokes they run out of the store jump into the car and peel out with my gf and our gear. All the while the shop clerk is assualting me because I these guys told him I was going to steal from him. I try to get on my phone in front of the store trying to call my gf hoping they might come back. The shop keeper keeps trying to attack me and I try to explain what happened to him to no avail.

Shortly after my phone dies and I go from place to place looking for a charger for it to no avail. (This is back in the day when phones didn't have the standard micro usb set up.) So after a hellish night. I grabbed some cardboard and passed out in a gutter.

The next morning I woke up puked a couple a feet from where I was sleeping and went on a search for a phone store. Finding one I got my phone charged I called my gf and the police. (They didn't do shit of course) shortly after I got ahold of her and found she was in DT LA so I jumped on the metro link without paying and met up with her.

She said she had been arrested for drunk in public last night during the course of her raising hell because these guys had kidnapped her. It happened at the pool hall that we were at earlier while these guys were bullshitting her about how I might be there.

So we ended up going down to skid row and spending the night at a homeless shelter luckily we found some sheets to sleep with and a nice guy smoked some weed with us. Afterwards we went down to hollywood and tried to get our shit together because our gear had got stolen.

 

[Vulture]

I was in riverside. And I was with my gf and these two guys roll up on us after a long day of walking and they offer to hang out with us and buy us some weed and beer. After saying they were entrepeneurs who were into selling things... yea first clue to bad news.. anyway my gf says let's hang out with them and I said no. I didn't trust the situation but if I didn't go along with her decision I wouldn't have heard the end of it.

anyways we end up getting in their car they buy us some booze and take us out to shoot some pool. Afterwards we go out and score some weed from some people they knew. We eventually come to a little convenience store to get more beer or whatever and I fallowed the two guys into the store to get smokes they run out of the store jump into the car and peel out with my gf and our gear. All the while the shop clerk is assualting me because I these guys told him I was going to steal from him. I try to get on my phone in front of the store trying to call my gf hoping they might come back. The shop keeper keeps trying to attack me and I try to explain what happened to him to no avail.

Shortly after my phone dies and I go from place to place looking for a charger for it to no avail. (This is back in the day when phones didn't have the standard micro usb set up.) So after a hellish night. I grabbed some cardboard and passed out in a gutter.

The next morning I woke up puked a couple a feet from where I was sleeping and went on a search for a phone store. Finding one I got my phone charged I called my gf and the police. (They didn't do shit of course) shortly after I got ahold of her and found she was in DT LA so I jumped on the metro link without paying and met up with her.

She said she had been arrested for drunk in public last night during the course of her raising hell because these guys had kidnapped her. It happened at the pool hall that we were at earlier while these guys were bullshitting her about how I might be there.

So we ended up going down to skid row and spending the night at a homeless shelter luckily we found some sheets to sleep with and a nice guy smoked some weed with us. Afterwards we went down to hollywood and tried to get our shit together because our gear had got stolen.

Think that tops everything above you....shit.

 

[wanderlovejosh]

Trying to get to the beach out east...my being distracted by a guy giving us a ride that turned out to be a jesus freak.. instead of going left we went right on a road... it led us to the back roads of west virgina... not some where you wanna me.. they make the movies wrong turn for a reason.. either way.. after a few hours we were walking and all of the sudden we were someone yell "Hey you guys wanna beer"....
of course after walking in the sun for hour we do want one.. so we walk to the house.. its pretty.. "trashy" i guess you would say... they invite us to have food, as they were cooking on the grill, then we could contine our route..

well I thought i would show my greatfullness by offering to buy them some beer.. don't do that for rednecks ...... not smart...

for some reason the guy was threatened by me.. he kept constantly saying .. " just dont' do anyting stupid and there wont' be any problems".
which didn't make sense to me cuz i'm not that stupid and i have no interest in creating issues for me and my wife....
so after him constantly talking about how there was a shot gun loaded on the bedroom bed.. he eventually went and got a 357 magnum and brought it out... proceeded to say some gargen then point the gun at me... i tried to stay calm and ask that he please not point that at me... and he fired it in the air.. at this point i was worried that by leaving it would piss him off and set him off... so after he said we could camp on the side of the house... we tried to go to sleep where they proceeded to be drunk and at one point while i was sleeping fired a shot gun across our tent...

after freakign out waking up.. they chuckled and said.. oh sorry about that...
then did it again about 1 min later.. at that point we packed our sleeping bag and pad in our bag and jetted out of there... leaving our tent behind... going down a dark back country west virginia road.... while on the road we jumped to the side of every car that came by thinking what if its them pissed off... finally coming to a small town where we slept in the park...

not fun.... not fun

 

[kokomojoe]

kokomojoe, how was the meth? .....

It was pretty high quality I suppose, from what people have told me it's typical to find high quality around there. It might've been terrible since I really have nothing to compare it to lol. I don't fuck with hard shit anymore, even if it's free. Weed, occasional psychedelics, and beer is pretty much all I'll mess with nowadays.

 

[awkwardshelby]

me and two other home bums were chilling in cheeseman park in denver at like 2 in the morning. all of the sudden we were surrounded by the silhouettes of like 8 gangsters.

damn all I saw in my head was the silhouettes of the goons from a clockwork orange.

I had a guy in San Francisco stare me down on the subway shouting, "I'm the only superhero in San Francisco! And I'm Gay! But do I have a boyfriend? No! Do I give a fuck? No!" And he went on for about ten minutes, scooting closer and closer to where I was sitting and then proceeded to piss on one of the seats. I got off at the next stop before he got any closer to me.

 

[Dmac]

I wonder why nobody wanted to be his boyfriend.

 

[Wawa]

Nothing actually happened that was too bad, but....A night in bakersfield. Ugh.

Dude follows me around screaming "WHOOOORE!" until I lose him. Gas station guy freaks out when I ask for water. Buses won't pick me up. Watching guys being slammed around and cuffed by cops with dogs next to my sleeping spot.

Slept with my boots and pack on, ready to bolt. Since, I've found much better spots in bakersfield.

 

[Desperado Deluxe]

Nothing actually happened that was too bad, but....A night in bakersfield. Ugh.

Dude follows me around screaming "WHOOOORE!" until I lose him. Gas station guy freaks out when I ask for water. Buses won't pick me up. Watching guys being slammed around and cuffed by cops with dogs next to my sleeping spot.

Slept with my boots and pack on, ready to bolt. Since, I've found much better spots in bakersfield.

Just one of those places that your NOT supposed to get off the train..

 

[iflewoverthecuckoosnest]

Considering that I'm a tiny girl who travels alone quite a lot, nothing too sketchy has happened... at least not yet, and I'd like to keep it that way

So far the only uncomfortable experiences I've had took place in Fort Ross along the Highway 1 in CA. Itsy bitsy coastal town, only a very vintage gas station, a few hotels, some cool parks to hike around, rural houses nestled in the woods, oh, and OF COURSE A FUCK TON OF MISSING PERSON POSTERS FEATURING YOUNG WOMEN RIGHT AROUND MY AGE.

That alone set me on edge. Then this older man with long, gray hair cornered me in the gas station and began inquiring about my pot smoking habits.
"I don't have any right now, sorry," I said.
He followed me out to the wagon and started asking me if I was traveling alone. He tried to get me to go back to his house to sleep in his yard. He could've just been a horny old guy, but I was not about to take my chances, especially since I didn't have cell service, and something about him was off putting.
Later that night I was parked at the same gas station. It was closed. Nobody else in the parking lot but me. I was just sitting in the wagon with a lantern, reading my map, figuring out where I would stop next.
This big SUV pulled up, driven by a balding man in his mid 30's. He motioned for me to roll my window down. Nope. I waved my hand and mouthed, "I'm fine."
He started trying to ask me questions.
Was I lost?
Was I traveling alone?
Did I need help?
Was I sure?
Once it became clear that I wasn't about to roll my window down, he finally left me alone.
I mean, it's not like I was scared for my life, and for all I know they could have meant well, but I don't regret being cautious one bit. Something about it seemed wrong, and I couldn't take any chances. When in doubt, don't.

 

[Rob Nothing]

Technically not been 'on the road' very long. More years spent homeless / outside than traveling at this point. There've been many times I thought it was going to turn sketchy and was prepared for the worst, and then it didn't get sketchy at all but stayed in that grey area where shit just feels strange.

I've already told this one on this board I think but probably the most sketched out I've ever felt was in sacramento, my first week hitchhiking. I was stuck there a while, and one night I was walking toward a truckstop out on the north west side down el camino road at 2 in the morning cause the buses were all out of service and I was coming from downtown. I get to a bridge over the rail tracks and there are no lights or street lamps on the far side, but what looks like a wooded area on either side. I was a few blocks away from the lightrail and there was someone else that had come from the same direction walking half a block behind me. Just before I get to the bridge I hear screaming and yelling behind me and when I turn to look I see a mob of maybe 8-12 dudes come out of nowhere and run down this other ped and apparently start beating him.
I was fairly sure I was next but kept walking at the same speed, maybe slower than before, over the bridge. I hear shouts from down below too... and that was when I felt nearly convinced that I was F***ed. But I just kept walking. And nothing happened to me the next 2 hours all the way out to the truck stop. I felt like a lucky sob when I finally laid down for sleep.