horrible truck stops

Eh, ive been to that one plenty of times. Used to work for Old Dominion and they have their big regional hub right behind that place. It's your typical gut-rot mega carrier daycare center and all the shenanigans that entails but there's nothing truly offensive about the place.

 

The northeast truly has some treasures...

...The one that immediately sticks out in my mind is that Pilot the second you cross into MA--or right before you get into CT--on I-84 at the 1. Sturbridge is the name of that town. IF YOU CAN GET IN THERE, it's a decent place to sleep. The problem, though, is GETTING IN THERE. I still recall lines 10 to 12 trucks long just trying to get to the parking area--bump the fueling. (MA's state law against leaving the fuel pump nozzles unattended doesn't help, although a lot of us got around that by shoving empty plastic bottles into the nozzle handles in place of that little lock lever thing since MA removes them--or at least they did there.)

Another one that comes to mind is that Pilot (anyone noticing a theme here?) on off the 25 off I-88 in Rotterdam NY. The building isn't so bad..but GOOD LUCK trying to park in there. For a somewhat newer building you'd think they'd put some lights in the back of that lot...and then the slots are super tight (in addition to there bring nowhere near enough of them.) That said, sometimes it took circling around for a half hour, but the few times I had to overnight there I always did manage to find a slot to back into.

Some have mentioned the J on Front St in KCMO off I-435...the Pilot down off the southwest side of Des Moines isn't much better. (I still remember that lot looking and feeling like an earthquake had just occurred.) Someone mentioned the Montgomery TA being in their "Hall of Shame"...I concur. Four years of rolling OTR, and I racked up a list of places that unless I absolutely had to, I would NEVER overnight in. That was one. That Pilot on I-65 south of Louisville at the 121 in Shepherdsville is another one...whoever designed that lot was on some exotic narcotics. And speaking of narcotically-induced haphazardness, that Pilot up near Staunton VA at x 234 (?) on I-81--the one where a/ you have to circle around the whole lot just to even enter into the fuel lanes; and b/ WALK ACROSS A BRIDGE AND THROUGH THE TREES JUST TO GET TO THE ACTUAL STORE. I stopped there once, bookmarked it and told myself "never again". Talk about getting tied up by dumbness. That same thing can also be said for the Flying Js in both Tulsa OK (1-44 @ 1-244) and Texarkana AR (I-30 × 7). Don't park in the back...you'll never get out. Folks park all up on top of other folk lIke nobody's business up in there. (The TA downtown Nashville is still bad about that too.)

Far as impossible parking goes, we all already know how it goes in TX...if you ain't parked by sunset you ain't parking, period (unless it's along a shoulder or ramp somewhere, which THANK FULL I never had to do, but came close once.)

 

That pilot on I88 is a joke. I usually try to avoid that place. Last time I had to sit on the shoulder waiting to get in, finally gave up, turned around in the truck lot next to the hotel and continued to the mass/my line. Was nearly out of my 14 and saw a new sign near the entrance that a parking permit was required. 23 bucks without fuel!!! Luckily a new Loves is going up across the street.

The anoting part of the pilot/j and love's stops is it seems like every truck decided to go in for fuel all at once. I've had to wait as much as a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to get into a pump, mostly because of people fueling then going in to eat or shower while people are trying to sleep. (I notice CRST, swift, middle eastern drivers, and other training company pulling that crap. )

 

Another one on the popularity list:
Flying J I-81,Exit 323,Clearbrook,VA
This one needs no introduction as this one is notorious for its tight parking-at least a couple of times I've been there at least one truck has been damaged in some form or another due to other trucks trying to park.

 

Ruther Glen va. All 4 stops there suck. Period, end of story. 2 pfj, one Mr fuel aka pfj, and a loves.

 

As of mid March, 2016, the Flying J, Kingman, AZ is currently all tore up. Half of the pumps near the store are inaccessible. If you need fuel, I recommend you fuel elsewhere for the time being. It was a logistical nightmare to begin with in terms of ingress and egress, now it's that, x3

 

I may have found the worst one of all. Worse than the Jessup, Maryland TA. Worse than the old Jersey City truck stop. Worse than the old Conley, Georgia TA in south Atlanta. It's a little rat hole called the Lucky Seven Quik Stop in Corsicana, Texas. The bathrooms stink like rotting potatoes and the WHOLE lot is made of potholes. Just get an aerial view of it on Google Maps. Then bring it up on Street View. You'll be appalled at what you see. Don't make the mistake of going there like my family and I did. Now I need about ten showers in a row.....BEWARE!

 

There is a Pilot truckstop in the Houston metropolitan area that is pretty crummy. At this Pilot, i was woken up several times in the middle of the night by beggers, squeege men, and (butt ugly) lot lizards. The inside of the truckstop was dirty. This Pilot truckstop is right next door to a Loves truckstop. The Pilot truckstop i am talking about has a McDonalds restaurant inside. I am not 100% sure, but i believe that this Pilot truckstop is in Baytown, Texas, which is a suburb of Houston. If you want a good night's sleep, avoid this place.

 

Unfortunately my company, Schneider decided a couple years ago that we could no longer decide where and when to fuel, they were going to save themselves money at the expense ( literally ) of their drivers. They introduced the "fuel optimizer" program into our nav system. You might guess what happened next - to get a good fuel price, drivers are now routed to all the truck stops that any normal human being would only show up at ONE TIME, before putting on their never again list. like the incredibly small and food and shower starved one in Mahwah NJ, where fuel lines often snake dangerously out into the busy road, and getting there from the highway means a long loop crossing multiple lanes of speeding, texting traffic. The list is very long, like the filthy Flying J off I-80 in PA, the one in VA where you have to snake up a steep narrow hill to return to the Interstate. Safety obviously does not enter into this new $$$ program. And to add hygiene insult to possible injury, we can't shower at any TA or Love's or Petro anymore, because their business model almost never sends us to those locations

 

Anyone with common sense knows to avoid the Pilot in Mahwah,N.J.!lol