Estes | Hotels

Had to stay at a hotel in Memphis and it was just plain nasty. Couldnt even shower because it was broken and i wasnt about to sit in the nasty tub. Somebody in room nearby blasting music half the night and the motel owners little kid running up and down hallway screaming. Got very little sleep. I think it was Americas value Inn or Americas Budget Inn on Lamar. Stay away from that place.
Was it run by the Patel’s?
 
The ones that still exist share a common bathroom but they have individual rooms with just a twin bed and a chair normally. None are forced that I know of, some bid lay down drivers have their own rooms that only they stay in at certain locations. I always carry a sheet and a sleeping bag with me if I have to stay at one. On the weekends a lot of times it’s about impossible to find a hotel room in certain locations and unless you want to bobtail 100 miles it’s easier to just set up camp in a bunk room. They really aren’t that bad. Some A little spooky. I swear the one in Jacksonville FL is haunted. I stayed there on a Saturday night once by myself, or so I thought I was by myself and heard some things that I cannot come up with a logical explanation for.
Want to read more about ghost story. The Jacksonville area is heavy into Santeria and heavy into other spiritual beliefs and witchcraft, that area is a breeding ground for the demonic for sure.
 
Very inte
Want to read more about ghost story. The Jacksonville area is heavy into Santeria and heavy into other spiritual beliefs and witchcraft, that area is a breeding ground for the demonic for sure.
Very interesting. I did not know this. I am not religious or superstitious at all, I don’t believe in ghosts and things of that nature but what happened that night I cannot explain.
 
So I arrived in Jacksonville on a Saturday night / early Sunday morning in the first bit of spring this year. Got put to bed per central dispatch. Called the usual hotels I frequent here and of course they were all sold out. So I called CLC support line and waited a bit, they called me back eventually and said no hotels in a 100 mile + radius, so there was nothing left to do but set up camp here at the bunkhouse , luckily they had one or I really would have been poop out of luck.

I park in front of the bunkhouse, it was a clear warm night, no other trucks were parked out in this area. There was a sleeper unit idling way over by the fuel pumps / makeshift shop area they have so he must have not had any luck getting a room as myself. I couldn’t remember the code to get in the bunkhouse and the gate code didn’t work, they had a handwritten sign on the glass section of the door that said something along the lines of “no unauthorized persons are to stay in this bunkhouse without permission from the TM” and some other verbiage talking about disciplinary action up to termination for violating this commandment but I wasn’t shaken by it, because what else am I supposed to do?
I
 
Central dispatch doesn’t have the correct code to get in, so I asked the security guard that was in his little shack on the exit driveway and to my surprise he had it. He acted a bit strange but was friendly enough and actually came over and entered the code himself and told me the handle mechanism was a bit funny to operate to get open. So I finally get in, I have my suitcase which includes my twin sheet and bath towel, rag and toiletries and in my other hand my sleeping bag. When you walk into the front door there’s a commons area with tv and maybe a couch and chairs on one ride and an exercise room with a small bit of equipment on the other side. Keep walking back and there’s the main men’s room complete with toilets and showers, it’s a nice place. I forgot to mention earlier that this terminal belonged to Southeastern Freight Lines prior to Estes owning it. Keep walking back and there’s a solid wooden door with no windows that one walks through to get to the bunk rooms. Behind the door lays darkness, a long dark hallway leading all the way to the rear of the building and I’m guessing maybe 7 rooms on each side of the hallway, maybe 6, maybe 8 but somewhere in that neighborhood. Every room has its own wall HVAC unit.

I took the flashlight from my cell phone and looked around for a room. Some or the doors were shut and locked and some were wide open. Some of the rooms look ransacked, trashy to an extent. I finally found a room where the light worked, I believe it was the third one on the right. I get the wall unit AC going and get settled in. The mattress was severely stained and I wanted to find a more suitable one cleanliness wise so I went on a search throughout the rest of the rooms to find one. In the veery last room at the end of the hall I turned the light on in the room and found one still wrapped in plastic. Bingo, so I took it down to my room down the hall closer to the front and put it on the bed in my room and made my bed with my sheet and sleeping bag and my inflatable pillow.
 
I then proceeded to gather my toiletries and go back into the shower area and got myself cleaned up, brushed my teeth afterwards and all
The usuals. It’s utterly quiet in this place, I mean not a sound. I leave the shower area, I’m in my t shirt and boxers and a pair of flip flops. Dropped my toiletries bag off in my room and I noticed I had left the light on at the end of the hallway so I walked down and entered the room and turned the light off. I turned around to enter the hallway and from the room across me, with the solid wooden door shut, came and awful noise of something, or someone perhaps banging for dear life on the back of the door from inside the room. An undeniable, highly audible, unexplainable knocking or banging that could perhaps been heard from outside it was so loud. And this wasn’t just some tractor banging in to hook to a trailer, this was the sound of something , or someone involving that shut wooden door across the hall. It was loud, very loud.

I ran like a shook birch back down to my room for dear life and shut the door and locked it tight behind me. I could not and still cannot think of what it could have been and no I was not going to dare open the door to find out what it was. I still stayed in the bunkhouse that night. There was nowhere else to go but I didn’t get good sleep, not in the least. About 4 hours. When it was time to go after my 10 I dressed and bolted out the door and haven’t set foot back in since.

One of my former Southeastern coworkers has reported oddities in that bunkhouse years ago when they used it, but I cannot verify these stories but this one above is true I can assure you.
 
Fruitloop, you candy azz truck drivers are scared of your own shadows.
One night in the old B model Mack days, I was going through the S.Ga, swamps, just happy as if I had good sense.
The wind or vibration had turned the right mirror facing in.
I turned on the dome light and saw my reflection in the mirror, it scared me so bad I almost wrecked.
I couldn't imagine how someone had gotten on the truck with me running wide open.
That was better than a 30 min nap.
 
Fruitloop, you candy azz truck drivers are scared of your own shadows.
One night in the old B model Mack days, I was going through the S.Ga, swamps, just happy as if I had good sense.
The wind or vibration had turned the right mirror facing in.
I turned on the dome light and saw my reflection in the mirror, it scared me so bad I almost wrecked.
I couldn't imagine how someone had gotten on the truck with me running wide open.
That was better than a 30 min nap.
I once heard an Ol gal talking about night biking in the Appalachian trail. Said someone with a light on followed her several miles one night. She ran and the light followed just as quick so she jumped into a thicket to hide. Turned out to be the moon.
 
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