Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tourist Trap/ Small town/ Vacation Town Scams

I got a ticket in the middle of nowhere literally going 77 in a 70.....the humanity!

I still whine about it to this day....oh wait....lol no I don't.

Guess I've been lucky, never been taken advantage of while traveling (or maybe I'm not a sucker...or a boomer). I have been surprised by rolling into a "town" that doesn't have a gas station.

Anybody in south Louisiana knows about Golden Meadow on the way to Grand Isle on Hwy. 1

25-30 years ago, it was a little 2 lane highway along the bayou. Went from 55-35 with a flashing sign. It was easy to come around that bend and bammo, you were pulled over. Now it's a 4 lane highway that doesn't run right along the bayou, so you have time to get to the correct speed limit. Still 35 mph though.


Clyde

Stopped recently for 67 in a 45 (passing an old lady going 30 when I hit the radar.) Young kid deputy looked over my docs, told me “We have a policy to always write a ticket for 15 or more above, but my personal policy is to not ticket anyone with a dob before 1955. Have a good day sir, and watch your speed.”

How can you have a thread like this without mentioning Myrtle Beach?
The whole town is a scam!

Not a small town but definitely a tourist trap. Took the wife to Chip and Joanna Gaines place in Waco when it first opened up. Prices were so high she even refused to buy their crap, think we left with an overpriced bag of popcorn. I couldn’t even afford a camp ball cap with there Magnolia Farm logo on it.

In 1966 I was driving home from college passing thru Willow Creek Ca and stopped for gas at the Chevron station in town. A mile or so later as I was pulling the grade east of town the car started starving for fuel and finally stopped along the side of the road. I checked the sediment bowl and it was full of bars leak. I had to empty it a couple of times before I got that crap out of the fuel system. I never stopped for fuel in the town after that little incident.
Around 1982 I was driving thru Montana in a rental car and stopped for gas in Roundup at another Chevron station and continued on my way to Glasgow. The car was no running right so when I stopped for the night at a motel in Glasgow I popped the hood and found a piece of cardboard placed in the air cleaner in such a manner as to restrict the air flow enough to be noticeable.

Branson...

That is all.

Wall Drug. It's cheesy, hokey, and built for tourists. At least they're upfront about it. We stop anyway...

Darwin Minnesota. Home of the Largest Ball of Twine in Minnesota. On a road trip to Duluth with the church youth group and a Weird Al fan had it on his bucket list. A little bit of a route change and we all saw it in person. Just because we could.

I live at the base of the world's largest FIB magnet - Door County. BEAUTIFUL place but watch your speed. WI plates helps but not much.

Here's a true story, involved a warrant for my arrest and a sheriff who told me he'd better not catch me in his county again but it was 35 years ago so I can tell it.

We rented a beach cottage on St. George Island, Apalachicola County FL. My wife was 8 months pregnant at the time and having trouble sleeping so she called up the rental agent and asked some questions about the accommodations, told the agent she was having trouble sleeping and asked about the beds and what condition they were in. The agent said the cottage had just been remodeled and everything including the beds was brand new.

Well, that was BS, the place was OK but not remodeled, everything was old and the beds were some of the worst I've ever seen in a rental property, old, lumpy, springs sticking up, etc.

Well, the more we thought about it, the more pissed we were because the rental agent flat out lied to us. It was a local mom & pop operation and it was the owner my wife had talked to. We had paid for the place with a check, so when we got home we stopped payment on it. We wrote the rental broker a long letter, told them we were stopping payment and explained why. We included another check for $100 less, so we basically short-paid them $100, just on principle.

A couple months later I get a call from a local detective in my home state telling me he has a warrant for my arrest for passing bad checks in Florida. I told him what happened and he said it sounded like a civil matter, not a criminal case and he gave me the number of the DA in Tallahassee and suggested I call him. So I did, and he returned the call within five minutes. I started to explain but he cut me off. Said he was familiar with the warrant because he'd denied it when it first came up but then the locals came back when he was on vacation and got it approved. To say he was pissed is an understatement. He said he'd read our letter, our position was entirely reasonable, and then he told me they'd had similar problems with this particular rental agency. He gave me the number of the county sherriff and told me I should call him, tell him I spoke to the DA, the warrant was cancelled, and I wasn't going to pay another penny.

So I called the sheriff and played dumb. Asked him what I needed to do to make it right. He thought he had me over a barrel, and that's how the conversation went. Told me I needed to send another check for the original amount (which would have doubled the rental fee), and also pay the rental broker for his time and trouble. I asked him how much that would be and I sh*t you not, he said "hold on I'll ask him," they were eating lunch together. So then I spilled, told him I'd talked to the DA in Tallahassee, the warrant was toast, and I wasn't gonna pay another red cent. He went all Buford Pusser on me, started sputtering, and told me he'd better not catch me in his county again.

I told him that wouldn't be a problem and hung up on his sorry ass.

I can think of 2 immediately - Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island.

Ketchikan Alaska. Had a taxi driver try to scam me thinking I was a cruise ship customer. He got lit up pretty good. Probably made good money from the scam.

What about rental car fees, the "Airport tax" in vegas is %30.

Try and rent a car in town. not open Sat or Sun or holidays like the day after thanksgiving and close at 2pm friday

Along those lines...




If you haven't seen it - a very fun, family friendly, lively movie with George C Scott and a very pretty Sue Lyon.

A LOT of character actors you know from the 60's.
Something very endearing about this flick.

Just put 2,200+ miles on a rental Toyota in FL. Came to realize pretty quick their speed limits are more like suggestions.

Talking about speeding tickets, likely 30 years ago me and the family were driving through the Badlands inSouth Dakota. We were not to far into the badlands from the west entrance, fairly early in the morning. Was going on a long flat straight stretch and could see down the road for maybe three miles or so. Speed limit was 45 MPH and I was maybe going about 60. There were no other vehicles on this stretch except for a oncoming vehicle way off. When we met, it was a small pickup type with a rangers logo on the door. As soon as we passed, he dove off the shoulder and did a abrupt u turn even raising a good cloud of dust. Yep, he turned on his lights and pulled me over. He just asked for my drivers license (from Wi.) went back to his vehicle and took forever to come back to my car (which I think was deliberate)as were sitting in about 90 degree sunlight. He handed back my license with a speeding ticket, and sarcastically said here is a little souvenir from the Park. He was lucky my wife and daughter were in the car. He was definitely pissed about something, and took it out on me.

Good deal.

The noted speed trap in Wisconsin is a little town of Rosendale. It is basically a town on a intersection of two major highways, population of maybe 300. The north highway speed drops from 65 to 35 with out much warning distance. The local cops (two) will not give 1 MPH forgiveness. This speed trap has been there for over 30 years. It is so well known, that there are Tee shirts for sale that say. "I have been stopped by the Rosendale Police".

Been through many times.

Been fortunate many times lol.

I h was raised in farm country, and have seen plenty of 800 pound cows, but never a 800 pound yearly calf.