Wrong exit in South Philly. Re-entry ramp under construction, so driving parallel to interstate trying to get to next on ramp. Ended up at a stop light in worst neighborhood I'd ever seen and realize there is a carjacking happening on opposite side of intersection. Put it in 4 WD, did a U-turn over a center median and headed back to interstate in the opposite direction I needed to be going to get the F out of there.
SW-User
@Stillwaiting That sounds genuinely terrifying. I hope the victims of the hijacking turned up alright.
Oh God yes! It's a long story but to sum it up I was almost completely surrounded by large street gang in Memphis late one night in my car. I got away with literally 2-3 seconds to spare at most.
@SW-User I think I'll tell the long version. It's even scarier. I stopped at a red light light in a really bad hood after getting lost in Memphis. I was the only car in the area moving I soon noticed. It looked like the whole place was abandoned. Within seconds I heard someone pull my door handle to get in and start screaming to get out the car! I had the windows cracked about an inch or so. I had already taken my pistol, a chrome plated .38, out of the glove box and put it on the seat beside me. I picked up the gun and pointed it at him through the window crack. He took two steps back the started yelling "kill me MF, kill me MF. That's when I saw the large crowd on the sidewalk move into the street and move toward me. I glanced to my right and the same thing was happening on my right. They swarmed my car from the sides first and tried to open the doors but all the doors were locked. They were screaming at me and beating on my car windows. Then I realized they were moving around in front of the car to block me in. There were maybe 40-50 of them. I floored it and drove as fast as I possibly could. I looked in the mirror and saw them all crowded In the street were I had just been. It was almost surreal in the semi-darkness. I drove and drove until I came upon what looked like a bigger street and turned West on it. I continued turning onto bigger, more used streets, a few times until I came across one that I recognized as major street in Memphis. I took it to the highway and headed home. I still get a chill when I think about that.
SW-User
@Nitedoc that’s damn crazy. Good that you made it out of there. Those evil bastards deserve to eat some leads.
Near Boston, Nantasket <sp> Beach. BNunch of drunk guys, I was self assigned DD. Turned up a one way street and met a police car coming the other way... Turned out OK!
I do. It was the first big trip we took in the motorhome. We bought it in Florida and went up to Virginia where we are originally from to attend a conference at Virginia Beach. It was the first of December and cold out so we didn't get to visit the beach. After the conference we decided to visit friends that had recently retired and moved to Alabama. We were going out RT 64 to pick up I-81. On 64 we would pass Charlottesville. We use to go there for weekends away. The wife asked if we could stop at one of our favorite places for a late lunch. Of course I said, sure! Now for the rest of the story it is important to know that the motorhome with our car in tow is 62' long. Our height is 12'6". I had never driven anything this big before and I was still getting use to it and I was nervous. I accidentally got off the highway one exit early. That dumped us off in old town Charlottesville. 🤦♂️ The roads were narrow and there was a bunch of one way streets. It took me an hour and a half to get out of there and into the correct part of town. Our late lunch turned into an early dinner. I would love to say the story ended here with a full stomach and a happy ending, but that was not the case. As I said the RV was new and I wasn't quite sure exactly how everything worked, especially when hooking up the car to flat tow behind us. I didn't hook everything up properly. And off down the highway we went. About 10:30 that night we were in the Blue Ridge mountains and stopped for fuel. It was about 28° out cold and windy. We tow a Lincoln MKX. Lincoln says that for every 6 hours of towing we have to unhook the car, start it and drive it for a few minutes. I went to unhook the car and drive it when I found out that in my excitement I hadn't properly hooked up the car. I had made a mistake and the car battery was dead. Worse yet the keys to the car were in the car and before the battery died it locked the car doors. I Googled Lincoln and found a Ford dealership 3 miles away in town. Ford owns Lincoln so I figured in the morning they could get us in the car. We stayed the night in a shopping center parking lot across the street from the Ford dealership. The next morning the Ford dealer got us into the car and jump started us. We were back in business! 15 minutes later on the interstate we ran into a snow storm. Fortunately it didn't last long. That is my wrong turn story.
Here is our motorhome with the car hooked up to flat tow.
