The spooky season is upon us. Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. It is the time of chilly weather, carved pumpkins, costumes and decoration and yummy candy.
If you are spending this Halloween on the road, that doesn’t mean that you can’t participate and have your own Halloween fun.
You can start by decorating your truck. This sight will definitely make Halloween lovers happy and excited. This will also make you feel less like you are away from home, so make this Halloween as comfortable as you can for yourself.
So where to start?
First, decide on a theme. Do you enjoy the spookiness or do you prefer to make people laugh? You can also decide to go the classic way and decorate your truck with pumpkin ornaments, using ribbons in Halloween colors. If you choose the spooky route you can find many different options and you can get very creative. Spiders, ghosts, creepy dolls, witches, vampires and werewolves, there are so many choices. Whatever you choose, you will definitely catch the attention of other drivers, the people you meet on rest stops and the workers on loading docks.
Your truck can be a good conversation topic and it could make this Halloween shift go by faster while you are having fun.
If you are a big fan of this holiday and don’t like to miss dressing up in a costume, there is no reason why you shouldn’t do it while on the road too, as long as your costume doesn’t affect your safety on the road. You can dress up as your favorite movie or tv show character, favorite animal or favorite fellow trucker. Get creative and dress to impress.
The next thing to prepare is your halloween road snacks.
Get creative with the food you will bring. Make some spooky looking food and also bring your favorites, the foods that you associate with Halloween. It will make you feel the spirit of this holiday and stay well fed while on the road. Why not bring some Halloween Rocky Roads or some easy to make Mummy Sausage Rolls? Don’t forget to bring some healthy snacks too, to balance out all the sugary treats you will consume over this weekend.
Last but not least, bring a bag of candy with you, you never know who you will run into on your stops. If you find others dressed in costumes, those rest stop workers working hard on a holiday, the loading deck crew. Giving a small gift will get them in a good mood, and you will represent your company and yourself in the best light possible. As always, showing kindness to others is the best way to go.
As we said in the beginning, it is the spooky season, so let’s mention some spooky roads that many truckers know about.
There are many trucker haunting stories from the roads, but there are some roads and stops that became famous and were visited by paranormal investigators.
The abandoned Tri-County Truck Stop is one of them. It is located west of St. Louis on old Route 66, and it is believed to be haunted. Another Route 66 place that is worth mentioning is the Hotel Monte Vista in Flagstaff, Ariz. This hotel has a ghost devoted section on their website, and they specifically mention room 305 as the place with the most paranormal activity.
Clinton Road in West Milford, NJ, is one more place with mentions of many ghost appearances and phantom trucks appearing suddenly with strong lights and loud horns.
It is not surprising that there are so many ghost stories in the trucking community.
Truckers spend a lot of their time on the countryside roads, often parking in the middle of nowhere and sleeping without the comfort and the safety of a home. Driving long nights and not being completely sure what you saw, and sometimes seeing interesting or spooky things. It is all part of the job, and it is a perfect topic for the Halloween season.
Share a story of your spooky road experience with us this Halloween.
Halloween is a time of spooky fun, eating lots of candy, and telling scary stories, but because your job is one that requires high focus and safety, let’s go through some Halloween safety tips:
–Stay focused and don’t get distracted. Halloween season brings many distractions on and off the road, so be sure to still stay focused on the road.
–Adjust your speed when driving through residential areas. We all know that trick or treat is a big part of the Halloween tradition, so be aware of children trick or treating.
-Be more cautious around crosswalks, intersections, sides of the road. Avoid overtaking cars stopped on the side of the road, since they might be dropping children off. Pay extra attention to your surroundings.
-Don’t go overboard with your truck decorations. Try to decorate so that it doesn’t interfere with your trucks and road safety.
-Be prepared for autumn weather changes. Fog, rain or even snow, depending on the part of the country you are driving through, can surprise you this holiday season. Be sure to pay extra attention, stay focused and adjust your speed accordingly.
We hope that we gave you some ideas on how to have fun this holiday season, especially if you are a big fan of Halloween and still have to spend it on the road. Decorate your truck, get yourself a costume, stack up on Halloween snacks, all while staying safe and keeping others safe. Share your decoration and costume ideas with us, and don’t forget to tell us those spooky road stories.