Odd things on the side of the road :0)....(add your own)

[Renthead Mommy]

An eggplant.  

 

We are in the city.  There is a cross walk there and it goes through the four lane divider island and has 1-2 foot high rocks spaced in it.  One day a big eggplant just showed up on one of the rocks.  

 

The weird thing is there is no where around there to buy an eggplant.  My best guess is either someone bought one at the much farther food store and was walking home with it, or someone was walking somewhere with.  But why???  And it would seem if it someone had left it on a car roof, or it bounced out of a  truck it should have landed in the traffic pattern.  Which makes me think someone was carrying it.  And just set it down as they were crossing the street.  You could even see the produce sticker on it. 

 

We actually watched it for about three months.  We figured someone would pick it up or something, (it is a decently busy crossing)  but no, there it sat.  We could see it starting to decompose.  It darkened and dried out and started to collapse in.  (Every now and then I would catch the light and be parked right next to it.)  Finally it was pretty much just a dried out shell and we had a big wind storm.  Next day it was no where to be seen.  But it sat there for three months.

 

Now I'm not sure which is weirder.  The random eggplant, or the fact that we looked for a random eggplant for three months...

[LifeLovePassion]

We were driving a couple of weeks ago from Custer, SD to Devil's Tower, Wyoming and saw a range with the oven door open and a sign that read "open range".

[ScoutTN]

I saw a truck full of watermelons spill them once. On a 4 lane secondary road.  A pickup with the high wooden sides that look like a fence. The fence broke and watermelons crashed everywhere. Wish I'd been able to video it! The man who was driving the truck was very expressive. ;) Most of the melons fell sideways, onto the shoulder, but it was a big mess for sure.  

[Dmmetler]

We road cruise looking for reptiles and amphibians at night, so we see a lot of bungee cord snakes, fan belt snakes, rope snakes, hubcap turtles, pieces of trim salamanders, and hopping leaves.

 

Oh, and every now and then, an actual living animal!

[foxbridgeacademy]

A tot's car seat

A play pen

I will remain silent about the shoe(s). Thugs.

Wire dog crate.

Camping supplies on the interstate. Called the police about that since the items were all over the fast lane(s). Tent, sleeping bags, poles, cooler. Blankets and other stuff.

Was this in Florida?  We lost a really nice tent and backpack with camping stuff on our way North about 10 years or so ago, lol.

 

 

The shoes.... I see them all the time and I just don't get it.  How do you lose a shoe and not realize it?

 

The strangest is probably a parachute tangled up in a tree.

[KatieJ]

Great thread. We live near 1-10, which just about everyone knows goes directly from Florida to California. Once around Christmas I was driving to a destination and saw clothing all over the highway for 2-3 miles. I imagine a soft carrier gave out or someone thought they got their hardtop closed. I cringed.

That exactly happened to my brother while driving home for Christmas one year! His suitcase was gone. They had stopped for the night, so he had called and checked in with my mom who was waiting for them.

She went shopping and bought him some new clothes.

 

He looked like my dad all week. 😊

Edited May 26, 2017 by KatieinMich

[Barb_]

That exactly happen d to my brother while driving home for Christmas one year! His suitcase was gone. They had stopped for the night, so he had called and ch cud in with my mom who was waiting for them.

She went shopping and bought him some new clothes.

 

He looked like my dad all week. 😊

Oh your poor brother! However I laughed, lol

[athomeontheprairie]

We are in a rural area. Coming home I created a hill in time to hit a full bag of charcoal. Thankfully, It was enough to cause me to slow down,because just past that there was an entire flock of decoy ducks in the road and wading boats.

I stopped (there's no shoulder) and gathered all the pieces up and took them off to the ditch. Likely $500 worth of supplies. Two cars stopped (no others drove by) to see if I needed help.

As SOON as it was picked up, a man stopped. His wife didn't have the tailgate up on their truck on their way to the lake.

 

We've also SEEN a mattress fly off a truck. We turned around and chased him down.

[gaillardia]

Our area is amazingly clean: Just a few dead armadillos, opossums, and a bobcat. :(

no skunks? we see dead skunks frequently.

[gaillardia]

Was this in Florida?  We lost a really nice tent and backpack with camping stuff on our way North about 10 years or so ago, lol.

 

 

The shoes.... I see them all the time and I just don't get it.  How do you lose a shoe and not realize it?

 

The strangest is probably a parachute tangled up in a tree.

no, sorry! it was in kentucky last year, april I think

 

edited to add: google one shoe in the road. What i found states that gang members or drug dealers will put shoes out on the street to show they are claiming a territory or even, abduction. 

Edited May 26, 2017 by Gaillardia

[scoutingmom]

We were driving a couple of weeks ago from Custer, SD to Devil's Tower, Wyoming and saw a range with the oven door open and a sign that read "open range".

A, you beat me to it, although mine was in Alberta. They had another with it with a bird house on it and the sign said "Home on the range". Over the years they got more and more stoves with more signs with puns but I don't remember the other puns.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[scoutingmom]

My husband supplied a couple (he used to drive long-haul). First was a herd of Buffalo. Second was a mountain cliff, with a mountain goat standing on it about half way up.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[Ravin]

I used to ride my bike to work, and part of the route was on a walking/bike path behind an apartment complex on one side, and the back fences (block walls) of single family homes on the other.

 

One morning, I found what looked like might have been all of someone's belongings, including some furniture, some baby things, a few toys, and a woman's clothing. It was all there for weeks. It was strange and sad.

[Guest]

Our area is amazingly clean: Just a few dead armadillos, opossums, and a bobcat. :(

Ours is too! Just a little trash when the snow thaws and the occasional moose, roadkill porcupine, and bears and cubs. We get lots of weirdo hitchhikers too.

[Tanaqui]

It might surprise you to hear that I don't drive very much, but I still have a few stories.

 

A couple of months ago, I got off the bus and sitting on the bus sign (so just above eye level) were eight sour cream containers - a neat stack of two at each corner. I was strongly tempted to open one and see what was inside, but I decided nothing good could come of it and refrained.

 

I frequently have seen, in a park I visit, offerings - bouquets and candles with money. Every time I debate whether it's okay to take the $5 or whatever, but thus far I've always left it for somebody less fortunate to take away.

 

As for people dumping their garbage on the streets, I've got the most shocking story. Here I am, sitting on the train. Some guy is sitting at the other end, eating fried rice. The train stops, he looks at his still half-full container, and then he reaches out and deliberately dumps it out face down on the platform. I could not have been more stunned if he'd pulled down his pants and pooped. Bet the rats were happy, though.

[Barb_]

As for people dumping their garbage on the streets, I've got the most shocking story. Here I am, sitting on the train. Some guy is sitting at the other end, eating fried rice. The train stops, he looks at his still half-full container, and then he reaches out and deliberately dumps it out face down on the platform. I could not have been more stunned if he'd pulled down his pants and pooped. Bet the rats were happy, though.

Gross.

[gstharr]

A, you beat me to it, although mine was in Alberta. They had another with it with a bird house on it and the sign said "Home on the range". Over the years they got more and more stoves with more signs with puns but I don't remember the other puns.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

  The cows were outstanding in their field.

[EMS83]

Day camp however many years ago: an alligator snapping turtle in the road. The counselor tried to pick it up by its tail to move it and it peed at her (it missed). :D

[Dmmetler]

Day camp however many years ago: an alligator snapping turtle in the road. The counselor tried to pick it up by its tail to move it and it peed at her (it missed). :D

 

You should never pick up turtles by their tails-it can injure them. For Snappers, either slide them onto a piece of cardboard so you can slide them off the road or, for small ones, pick them up at the back of the shell, near the tail on both sides. For non snappers, who have shorter necks, you can hold them in the middle of the shell. All turtles are heavier than they look like they should be for their size, and while most species retreat into their shells, even sliders and map turtles and box turtles will sometimes try to take a chunk out of a good Samaritan.  And those claws can hurt!

 

Also, be aware-in areas where ticks are common, turtles are a common host. It is not at all uncommon to relocate a box turtle here that has dozens of ticks attached. Make sure none of them end up on you!

[Spryte]

In the 70s, my mom was with a friend, they were doing an art show, and staying in a hotel together.  On the way to the hotel one night, they found a purse in an intersection, took it back to the hotel to see if it had ID in it.

 

When they opened it, money just poured out.  It had $14K in cash!  They counted it on their hotel beds, and giggled, then called the police.  

 

Turned out it was a little old lady's - she had just sold her house, and come from the closing.  Apparently the buyers paid that amount in cash.  She was so flustered, having never carried that much cash, that she put her purse on the roof of her car, and it fell off in the intersection.  

 

She cried and cried when she heard the purse *and* money was found and being returned.   :)

 

 

 

My strangest on the road find:  A box the size of a refrigerator, on fire, flames everywhere.  I was driving in the middle of nowhere, very late at night.  No one around.

 

 

 

Oh!  Another weird one:  When I was in college I lived in a sketchy area.  It was called (semi-affectionately, mostly seriously) the War Zone.  One night, very late, I was driving home and stopped at a light.  We'd heard gun shots earlier, and there had been helicopters circling.  I was sitting in the dark, at a light, when a man carried a completely limp woman across the street in front of me.   :huh:

Edited May 27, 2017 by Spryte

[Laura Corin]

Makes me nuts. We live down a long driveway that empties onto a busy state road. The end of my driveways often ends up with McDonalds bags, gatorade bottles, water bottles, chip bags and other food trash. It makes me furious.

 

Kids coming home from school walk from the bus stop on the main road up the smaller road that runs along the side of our garden (yard).  Husband does rubbish pick up every now and then - mostly crisp packets and drink tins.

 

David Sedaris lives in Britain and has become such a celebrated picker-up of rubbish that he has had a rubbish lorry named after him:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/shortcuts/2014/jul/31/david-sedaris-litter-picker-rubbish-waste-vehicle-pig-pen-west-sussex

[Selkie]

Makes me nuts. We live down a long driveway that empties onto a busy state road. The end of my driveways often ends up with McDonalds bags, gatorade bottles, water bottles, chip bags and other food trash. It makes me furious.

 

When dh and I were newly married, we lived on a busy highway with a gas station just down the road from us. Our front yard was always full of scratch-off lottery tickets. People would buy the tickets, scratch them, and then toss them out the window. There were so many of them that we had to clean them up with a rake.

[Rachel]

Not exactly on the side of the road but today my husband and I were driving through an upscale neighborhood. There was a hefty man mowing the yard one handed, wearing shorts. No shoes and no shirt. He had a baby about 8 months old in a baby bjorn. As we drove past my husband and I just burst out laughing. I imagine the mom must have thrown her hands up in the air and said, "I don't care if the lawn needs to be mowed, it's your turn!"

[alisoncooks]

We drove from NC to FL (and back) a few weeks ago. To help pass the time, I printed out some scavenger hunts for the kids. One item was to find a pig. We all had a chuckle at that -- who would see a pig on the interstate, right? Well, somewhere between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, we ended up in slow traffic and off to the shoulder of the road, what did we see? A pig! A wild pig, I suppose. Sort of boar-like. We talked about that for miles and miles, LOL.

[Hilltopmom]

We once saw a huge boat in the middle of the highway that had just fallen off its trailer in an accident.

 

Oh, & in a heavy thunderstorm, a kayak blew off the roof of a truck on front of us & just missed us.

[KarenNC]

Neon green clown wig

[Miss Tick]

Driving through West Virginia we saw a chicken inr the side of the interstate (dead), then another, another. Eventually we caught up to an 18-wheeler with a whole load of wire-created chickens. There must have been a loose door somewhere.

 

Once, exiting a highway in St. Louis I looked over toward the apartment complex on the right and noticed that in one of the open garages there were flames coming up from a Rubbermaid bin. We pulled in and discovered someone had discarded hot brake pads in the bin and the bottom of the bin had caught fire. We put out the fire, but I still don't understand what sequence of events must have led up to that.

 

Not on the side of the road, but one time driving home late from work on the interstate I saw a bright green, basketball sized meteor cross the sky in front of my car. Very cool.

[nixpix5]

Years ago...and my older sons have never forgotten it....we saw a toilet on the side of the freeway and a man in his underwear yelling at it and kicking it. It left such an impression it became our standard for when life gets hard: "well that is bad but it isn't kicking your toilet down the freeway in your underwear bad"

[scholastica]

Years ago...and my older sons have never forgotten it....we saw a toilet on the side of the freeway and a man in his underwear yelling at it and kicking it. It left such an impression it became our standard for when life gets hard: "well that is bad but it isn't kicking your toilet down the freeway in your underwear bad"

This is hilarious! That may be a new saying in this house!

[Garga]

A dead raccoon. But the backstory is what makes it interesting:

 

A couple of years ago we had two Chinese exchange students with us for a summer trip. One boy was soooo excited to be in America. Everything he saw, he would say, "So cool!" An American flag: "So cool!" A motorcycle: "So cool!" An oddly painted house: "So cool!"

 

We were out driving and the two Chinese kids were staring out the windows when one saw the dead raccoon and said sadly, "Oh, dead!" The other boy was so used to saying, "So cool!" that as soon as he saw the dead raccoon he excitedly blurted out, "So cool!"

 

The first boy looked at him and said, "A dead animal is 'so cool'?" and then laughed and laughed for the next mile.

 

So, I got to see a So Cool dead raccoon on the side of the road.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Garga

[Rachel]

Driving down the interstate this morning there was a man standing behind his pulled over car peeing. He wasn't trying to hide or anything. We were half mile past an exit, not sure why he didn't take it.

[Anne in CA]

Once I passed a man, very serious and disheveled looking with a long beard, riding one of those very, very high bikes (like what you'd see in a parade) along the side of the road.   I waved at him and he swore at me.

 

I know that wasn't an object, which is maybe what you were asking about, but it's what really stands out for me when I think of odd things I've passed on the road.   :)

I was looking by the road as I drove along for a piece of car from a recent accident.  I saw it, a piece of blue metal that had escaped the tow guy. When I looked up on the other side of the road was a man with a ton of stuff attached to his bicycle. On his head was a helmet that looked more like a combat helmet than a bicycle helmet and sticking out of it was a cut off baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped around it, Neegan style. So, so weird. I almost thought I imagined it but I saw him again when I came back from where I was going. 

[gstharr]

Driving down the interstate this morning there was a man standing behind his pulled over car peeing. He wasn't trying to hide or anything. We were half mile past an exit, not sure why he didn't take it.

 

 

Sorry!!