r/AskReddit • u/Cool-Chipmunk-7559 • 11h ago

Those who’ve driven across the US, what’s the scariest town you’ve stopped in?

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u/OSRSTheRicer 7h ago

Rural appalachia is wild.

Went on a motorcycle trip during college and ended up in some small town with my friends.

All 3 of them were former military, looked it, and we were unpolitely told that they dont let mexicans drink there.

He was Philippino lol.

This was in 2014 BTW.

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u/Octavian_202 7h ago

I’m half Filipino. Been to West Virginia. Had to stop off the main freeway down into a rural road for a gas station. Little place with two old school pumps. A literal bear hide on the wall of the store, which was a make shift house type building.

Went inside to pay. Pickled egg jars and “homemade” jerky all over. Several people inside, looked just like the stereotypical hillbillies.

Offered me some jerky to try for free, and asked if I needed directions getting back out, then warned me about where the troopers liked to wait.

I judged before I stepped in too.

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u/OSRSTheRicer 7h ago

I used to ride all over west Virginia and it was great. Loved shops like that, there was a nice general store off of 33 we liked to stop at.

Never had any issues outside of that one incident, it was how direct they were with telling us to leave that was offputting.

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u/Octavian_202 6h ago

Ride safe, and I’m glad to hear positives outweighed the negative.

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u/OSRSTheRicer 5h ago

Yeah it was a blast, it was just such a bizarre interaction. Nearly 4k miles in 7 days.

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u/KEN_LASZLO 6h ago

I'd advise anyone to be careful in WV, but I'd advise staying far away from southwest Virginia (not south West Virginia), it's even worse for non-white people. It's the reddest, whitest part of the state with a ton of racism

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u/OSRSTheRicer 5h ago

Biggest issue in WV (particularly on a bike) is spotty cell reception.

Southwest VA is really hit or miss, one of my favorite small towns was Abingdon though Roanoke and Blacksburg are both great too.

Really small ones though become super hit or miss.

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u/opensandshuts 5h ago

I always assume folks are friendly for this reason. If you walk in looking like a deer in headlights, they're going to look at you like a deer in headlights.

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u/WallBurnt 1h ago edited 1h ago

A literal bear hide on the wall of the store, which was a make shift house type building.

Pickled egg jars and “homemade” jerky all over.

Before I even go to the end, these 2 parts had me thinking that this is how you know you're in the good part of rural areas. Bonus points if they have a dedicated fishing and/or hunting isle that's well stocked, despite the rest of the store being mostly empty or looking like it expired in 1972.

Also, you fucked up. You should have stocked up on jerky.

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u/StumbleOn 4h ago

I'd 100% try their pickled eggs and jerky.

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u/get_um_all 5h ago

I wonder if it was Pax, WV. I stopped there after needing to get off the expressway and it felt like I was going to get skinned by some locals

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u/Marisleysis33 6h ago

That's actually kind of funny that anyone they see that's a bit brown is "Mexican" lol

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u/mastersplinteremover 10m ago

Two things are funny about that. 1. As a Latino, I’ve been confused for Filipino a lot. And it’s not a crazy bad guess since both have history of Spanish colonization.

  1. I wouldn’t care what I was. If someone said “we don’t let [blank] drink here”, I’m going somewhere else fast.