I travel a lot by car. What's the weirdest thing you've seen on the highway, either on the side of the road or on it?
Jul 26th, 2001, 12:18 PM
#22
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Bennie reminds me of when I was kid and we were driving in some traffic at speed going down the highway on a vacation trip. We started laughing when a hubcap passed by us, and we started making comments about the sucker who lost it. Of course, at the next stop, my dad discovered it had been our hubcap (just desserts, I guess).
1 shoe on the highway -- people never through out both shoes, just the bad one.
1 shoe on the highway -- people never through out both shoes, just the bad one.
Jul 26th, 2001, 12:52 PM
#25
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Possible explanation for the shoes:
I grew up in Philly, and it was very common to tie the laces of your old sneakers together and pitch them over the telephone wires, where they would hang forever...our street had dozens. Eventually the laces give out and voila. (Doesn't explain the ONE shoe sightings though)
I grew up in Philly, and it was very common to tie the laces of your old sneakers together and pitch them over the telephone wires, where they would hang forever...our street had dozens. Eventually the laces give out and voila. (Doesn't explain the ONE shoe sightings though)
Jul 26th, 2001, 01:01 PM
#26
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Maybe not that weird but it was funny... a Molson's Beer delivery truck tipped over on Rte 81 in PA and the rear doors had popped open, allowing cases of beer to slide out. The driver had apparently been driven somewhere to get help (this was in the pre-cellphone era. There was a line of pickup trucks and cars parked wiht their trunks open and the drivers running back and forth to load up on their "finders keepers" booty before the police arrived.
Jul 26th, 2001, 01:10 PM
#27
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I grew up outside NYC and we often took out of town guests to see the sights of Manhattan. One time, we were stopped at a red light and my cousin and I (being the youngest, we were banished to the "way back" of the family station wagon) saw a completely and very ugly naked man with a huge afro (can white people have afro's?) strolling down the street in midday. Oh well, it was the 70's. However, everytime I see "Friends" reruns and they see "ugly naked guy" across the alley, I know to whom they refer.
Jul 26th, 2001, 01:15 PM
#28
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I just remembered another one - once while driving up I-95 from NYC area to Providence (going back to college), my passenger and I noticed that way up the highway on the opposite side a nice looking Saab was pulled over. We could see the driver and his passenger looking at something behind their car. As we got closer, we could see that their windshield was completely shattered and that they were still staring at something on the road behind their car. We slowed down a bit to see what it was ... A COW. Evidently, a cow somehow managed to wander out onto i-95 and into the path of this oncoming Saab which hit it, flipped it over the roof where it landed on the ground behind them.
Jul 27th, 2001, 02:38 AM
#30
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We have done a lot of cross-country driving, and had two eerie experiences while driving in the middle of the night. The first was out west, about 2:00 a.m. I was driving a long, flat, straight highway which never seemed to end. The moon was out and in the distance I saw what appeared to be an extremely tall, lanky man with a long face walking toward me in the middle of the highway. As I got closer, he looked like an apparition. I thought I was hallucinating. As I screeched to a halt, I found myself surrounded by a herd of wild horses!
The next was, again, in the middle of the night. I was following at a distance the lights of two eighteen wheelers. Their lights disappeared over a hill. As we came up to the top of the hill, we were suddenly engulfed in thick smoke with no visability. We stopped the car and crept forward to see one of the trucks on it's side in flames. Thankfully, people were already rushing to the driver's aid.
Oh, I thought of a third one. Once a huge owl flew in front of our windshield and for what seemed like a long time, but in actually what probably just seconds, it was in front of the windshield - flying backwards trying to get out of our way. The image of the flapping wings and frightened wide eyes haunts me still.
The next was, again, in the middle of the night. I was following at a distance the lights of two eighteen wheelers. Their lights disappeared over a hill. As we came up to the top of the hill, we were suddenly engulfed in thick smoke with no visability. We stopped the car and crept forward to see one of the trucks on it's side in flames. Thankfully, people were already rushing to the driver's aid.
Oh, I thought of a third one. Once a huge owl flew in front of our windshield and for what seemed like a long time, but in actually what probably just seconds, it was in front of the windshield - flying backwards trying to get out of our way. The image of the flapping wings and frightened wide eyes haunts me still.
Jul 27th, 2001, 04:28 AM
#31
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Maggi, you win the prize for chilling.
My contributions:
1. The big billboard with the giant, buttocks-looking peach at the GA/SC border.
2. Those signs about which watershed/water supply area you are entering. I used to think it was sorta nice, then I wondered why highway depts. were spending the $ on such signs. Then someone told me it was to warn the mob-owned waste trucks hauling chemical waste not to use their usual "disposal" method of just letting the toxic crud leak out as the trucks travel the highway until the trucks are empty. The warning: you're going to fowl up your own water supply.
3. On a much happier note -- just last night: Was traveling along a semi-crowded in-town street when the car in front of me suddenly slowed to a crawl as if looking for an address. Then it stopped altogether in the middle of the road -- people behind me immediately leaned on the horn several times, and the car inched over to side where it was parked tilted up at an odd angle.
As I passed I looked inside expecting to find someone trying to start the car or looking at a map, but what I saw was a couple in a furious, passionate embrace!
My contributions:
1. The big billboard with the giant, buttocks-looking peach at the GA/SC border.
2. Those signs about which watershed/water supply area you are entering. I used to think it was sorta nice, then I wondered why highway depts. were spending the $ on such signs. Then someone told me it was to warn the mob-owned waste trucks hauling chemical waste not to use their usual "disposal" method of just letting the toxic crud leak out as the trucks travel the highway until the trucks are empty. The warning: you're going to fowl up your own water supply.
3. On a much happier note -- just last night: Was traveling along a semi-crowded in-town street when the car in front of me suddenly slowed to a crawl as if looking for an address. Then it stopped altogether in the middle of the road -- people behind me immediately leaned on the horn several times, and the car inched over to side where it was parked tilted up at an odd angle.
As I passed I looked inside expecting to find someone trying to start the car or looking at a map, but what I saw was a couple in a furious, passionate embrace!
Jul 27th, 2001, 04:47 AM
#33
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Well, I didn't actually witness this, but I was a lawyer defending a car manufacturer in a lawsuit. It seems that two people were engaged in some sort of sex act (stinking drunk as well), had a wreck, and died. Their estates sued the car manufacturer and won over $50 million.
Jul 27th, 2001, 06:31 AM
#34
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I think this thread is great!! It's cracking me up and kinda scaring me all at once.
Last May somewhere on I10 in either NM or AZ around 3 am I saw the freakest thing. I pulled over to get gas while my brother slept. The gas station was kinda off the freeway, but looked decent. I pulled up to the pumps and got out and was swarmed by MOTHS and a horrible decaying smell. They were all different sizes, shapes and colors and EVERYWHERE. Thought I would tough it out and just swish them away. I lost it when they all seemed to be darting at my face! I screamed and ran in the store. My brother woke up and finished pumping the gas. It didn't help that there was a greyhound bus stopped there and everyone saw the whole thing.
I felt like I was in a Stephen King novel!
Last May somewhere on I10 in either NM or AZ around 3 am I saw the freakest thing. I pulled over to get gas while my brother slept. The gas station was kinda off the freeway, but looked decent. I pulled up to the pumps and got out and was swarmed by MOTHS and a horrible decaying smell. They were all different sizes, shapes and colors and EVERYWHERE. Thought I would tough it out and just swish them away. I lost it when they all seemed to be darting at my face! I screamed and ran in the store. My brother woke up and finished pumping the gas. It didn't help that there was a greyhound bus stopped there and everyone saw the whole thing.
I felt like I was in a Stephen King novel!
Jun 25th, 2003, 05:19 AM
#37
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A couple of things from a trip from Baltimore, MD to Page, AZ, on the road between Gallup, NM and Tuba City, AZ:
1) Native Americans flagging down cars to give them a ride, waving paper money in their hands. I couldn't decide what the protocol was: Do you slow down to see the denomination on the bill and if it isn't enough, speed up?
2) "Fat sheep for sale" Just there grazing away, waiting to be sold. "Oh, hon, let's get a sheep and put it in the back of the Lexus".
3) In the middle of absolutely NO F-ing WHERE!!!!, a pedestrian crossing sign. Found out later that there is a bar waaaay off the road on non-reservation land, and the locals wander out into the road, drunk, and get hit by cars which infrequently pass.
1) Native Americans flagging down cars to give them a ride, waving paper money in their hands. I couldn't decide what the protocol was: Do you slow down to see the denomination on the bill and if it isn't enough, speed up?
2) "Fat sheep for sale" Just there grazing away, waiting to be sold. "Oh, hon, let's get a sheep and put it in the back of the Lexus".
3) In the middle of absolutely NO F-ing WHERE!!!!, a pedestrian crossing sign. Found out later that there is a bar waaaay off the road on non-reservation land, and the locals wander out into the road, drunk, and get hit by cars which infrequently pass.
Jun 25th, 2003, 05:37 AM
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Driving through Portland, TX in 1992 there was a real estate company's FOR SALE sign in front of the U. S. Post Office.
Driving on the Turner Turnpike in OK many years ago. A car coming the other direction had windows down and a Siamese cat came flying out of the car, which was doing about 70 mph. Cat rolled a while, then stood up and shook it off. Car stopped to retrieve.
Driving on the Turner Turnpike in OK many years ago. A car coming the other direction had windows down and a Siamese cat came flying out of the car, which was doing about 70 mph. Cat rolled a while, then stood up and shook it off. Car stopped to retrieve.
Jun 25th, 2003, 05:43 AM
#39
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While driving out in the middle of nowhere in West Texas, I noticed a funny appearance to the road, and a funny sound, too, so I stopped my car to see if there was some sort of problem. When I opened the door, I instantly saw what was making the road look odd and causing the noise: GRASSHOPPERS! There were thousands of them! Ewww! Needless to say, I slammed the door and took off!
Jun 25th, 2003, 06:11 AM
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Great thread!
A billboard on I75 from Tennessee to Kentucky "Tattoos while you wait" What, are there people who leave their body parts to be tattooed and pick them up later???
Several years ago, we were passed on an interstate by a motorcycle with two riders. Nothing unusual about the man driving, but the woman riding was wearing a pair of Jockey Briefs as her top......the waistband around her ribs, her arms through the legholes, and a larger opening made in the fly for her head. So bizarre we caught up with them again to get a picture!
A billboard on I75 from Tennessee to Kentucky "Tattoos while you wait" What, are there people who leave their body parts to be tattooed and pick them up later???
Several years ago, we were passed on an interstate by a motorcycle with two riders. Nothing unusual about the man driving, but the woman riding was wearing a pair of Jockey Briefs as her top......the waistband around her ribs, her arms through the legholes, and a larger opening made in the fly for her head. So bizarre we caught up with them again to get a picture!
