My recent Rest Stop scenario:

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This past weekend my wife, brother-in-law, his girlfriend, his son and I were on our way back from Irvine, KY. At around midnight we stopped at a rest stop in northern Kentucky to use the restroom. My wife and I were the only ones that got out of the car. I locked my brother-in-law (Jeremy), his girlfriend (Maleah), and their son (Landen) in the car and took the keys with me. Maleah and Landen were sleeping. Landen is 8 weeks old, for clarification.

The parking lot was empty except for a couple semis in the back lot. As my wife and I entered the building, we immediately noticed two 19-21 year olds standing in the corner by the pay phones. I immediately thought there were up to no good...why were they at the rest stop without a vehicle at midnight...I'm sure you might follow my line of thinking.

My wife went into the ladies restroom did her thing and came back out the front door and waited for me in front of the car by the vending machines. I hurried as fast as humanely possible in the mens restroom and came back out the front door and met her. We bought our pop and a candy bar and got back in the car and left.

We talked about the situation for the next hour or so on our way home. I only had my Spyderco Endura 4 in my pocket...no CCW(yet) and my wife did not have any form of self defense (she does now).

After thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that I should have gone into the womens restroom with her. Since it was midnight, presumeably there would be no other women in the restroom...if there was, oh well. I'd rather tick off another woman than have my wife hurt.

I just thought this situation was an eye-opener and I'd like to hear what everyone has to say about it. What would you have done and what are your thoughts on what we did.

Thanks for your time,
Quinten
 
hey just thought i would weigh in and say i am glad everyone is ok and all is well. but i think i would have stood outside of the ladies room and waited for her to do her business and that way you could have heard pretty much anything that went on. then walk her to the car and return for your turn at the porcelin god. pretty much every one of those rest stops that i have been in are tile and sound travels EXTREMELY well. but on the other side i could see going in as well to prevent ANY thing from happening. either way i am glad every one got out without incident.
 
I agree that standing outside her door would have been a very good idea. Sadly enough, I was in a bit of a "bind." I was suffering from a pretty bad stomach ache and for the lack of a better phrase was about to explode.

Couldn't have been a worse time to need to use the restroom that badly.

Thank you for your thoughts. Please keep them coming!
 
I always wait outside the door for my wife at a rest stop.

I tell her to go in and check it out and let me know if its ok that way if she doesn't come out and notify me I know somethings wrong.

We usually travel alone so after she's done I go and depending on conditions strategy changes (i.e. daylight with a state patrol car in the lot = no worry, 2 am with people hanging at pay phone means I'll pee in the grass).
 
Maybe they were up to no good. If so, with no vehicle, they had very low IQ's. (Hey, let's rob some people at the rest area and escape on foot down the fenced interstate.)

Off the top of my head I can think of two reasons to be at a rest stop with no vehicle: 1) my car broke down, I called help from the pay phones and am waiting for assistance to arrive, and 2) I'm hitch hiking, got put off here, used the restroom and grabbed a soda and some chips.

I'm not suggesting you were overreacting. Situational awareness is a prudent course to follow. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Given the time and the situation, using the women's restroom with your wife would probably be appropriate. Might want to do it as SOP that time of night. Let her go ahead and give you the all clear as to other female users of the facilities.
 
Good thing it worked out with no incident, but here in NM you can open carry and carry CCW in your car because it is considered an extension of your home so you don;t need a CCW to travel. I even got pulled over in Texas for speeding, 4mph over in a 60 mph zone....can you say speed trap, anywho, the mounty saw my holster which was unoccupied because the gun was in the center console, easier to get to in the car if I need it and he told me since they adopted CCW that was the correct place for it. Said I was lucky I didn't have it in the holster or he coud have confiscated it since open carry went away with their CCW which I think is a rip off!
 
If you had an emergency,

there was nothing to do but stop there. I'll stop almost anywhere except a rest stop late at night or early in the AM. As someone pointed out, it would probably be a good idea to get a concealed carry license and a gun. Just for those times when you don't have a choice of restrooms.
 
As Joshua C pointed out above, open carry and transporting a handgun in the glove box is completely legal in Kentucky. No permit is required.
 
He's from Ohio. Last I heard rest area carry is illegal there even with a permit. I have like no recommendation since you abviously can't avoid your own state the way I do.
 
Try any open restraunt before a rest stop. If forced to use the rest stop stand watch outside the ladies room. When your partner is finished head back to the car and mark the tires to confuse the dog when you get home. She can stand watch for you.
 
Maybe they were the truck drivers from the parked trucks you mentioned. Then it would make sense that they were using the phone to call home.
 
I try to stop before it is urgent. That way, we have more options (such as waiting outside) and, if anything seems hinky, we can just drive on to the next one.

pax
 
We had a horrible case in MA a few years back

We have these big food court/gas stops along the interstate. They are brightly lit and usually very active and safe appearing.

A woman was traveling to Rhode Island and stopped at one to use the restroom. There was a state police car parked outside. I'm sure she didn't think anything was unsafe.

Unfortunately, some scumbag repeat offender was working in the Burger King and followed her into the bathroom and began stabbing her.

The ironic thing was the cop was on the can next door and heard the commotion but by the time he got in there the woman was dead and the scum was standing there going through her purse.

That's about as bad as it gets and demonstrates that you can't let your guard down anywhere. Although in this case, I doubt there would have been anything she could have done to prevent it.
 
Personally, I think you handled it fine. Sounds like you were aware and knew what you were walking into.

I love road trips. When I moved to Texas from New Jersey, the wife and I drive the entire way down...Tennessee is a 'B'...but I digress. Our main thing was to make sure that we weren't both occupied at the same time. She did her thing and I waited for her, then vice versa. If we needed to make a more involved stop that required more time, then we went to a restuarant or would find a hotel to settle into and just stay there.

Having a CHL now, I don't imagine that I'd do anything. As long as I'm in a position to react and respond, I figure the rest is manageable.
 
Glad everything turned out OK for you.

Here is a story that happened to me a while back, posted it on another forum but not here.

My wife, 2 year old daughter and I are on our way out east a few summers ago and stop in the middle of Ohio at a rest area. It was about noon and a perfect summer day. My wife was driving and I was in the back seat of the van with our daughter.

As we parked I noticed a guy about six cars over staring at my wife pretty hard, She exits the drivers side and I get out of the passenger rear while she walks around to pick up our daughter from my arms ( potty break protocol)

I notice that the guy has a fixed gaze on my wife and daughter at this point and is briskly walking towards them saying something. I step around them and put myself between him and the girls. He never breaks stride and is looking right through me intent on approaching them. I put my hand out and say Stop and he ignores me and keeps coming closer. I say Stop louder and he is five feet away ignoring me.This creep walks right into my hand pushing against it so
I drew my pistol , he takes a look and finally stops.

At this point he started babbling about how sorry he was and how all he wanted to do was show our daughter his dog and how he recently had surgery and thought she might like to walk it with him.

The way he was looking at my wife when we pulled up set off an alarm, he could not have seen my daughter at that time (dark tinted windows) I don't know what he was up to but it gave me the chills. As we drove by his car on the way out, the back door and trunk was open and there was no dog to be seen.

It scared me that my wife didn't notice him staring or approaching her. What also struck me as odd is that nobody at the rest area seemed to see the situation happen. It was very fast.

It didn't dawn on the wife or I to take down his tag number we were just glad to be out of the situation, but we wished we had called him in. He seemed like a predator to us.
 
Byron Quick said:
Maybe they were up to no good. If so, with no vehicle, they had very low IQ's. (Hey, let's rob some people at the rest area and escape on foot down the fenced interstate.)
Click to expand...

Couldn't they rob someone and steal their car? :neener:
 
Originally Posted by Byron Quick
Maybe they were up to no good. If so, with no vehicle, they had very low IQ's. (Hey, let's rob some people at the rest area and escape on foot down the fenced interstate.)
Click to expand...


Bottom feeders rarely use their IQ so trying to figure out the why is attempt at futility.
 
The need to use "Rest Areas" or "Stop and Stabs" as they are known in our part of Wyoming, are the primary reason I always carry when traveling.

I wait outside the womens door while my wife opens the door ALL THE WAY (to be sure no one is behind it), and enters. If it's empty she says Ok and I proceed to the mens side.

Procedure may change slightly, as she just got her CCW.
 
We had a horrible case in MA a few years back

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have these big food court/gas stops along the interstate. They are brightly lit and usually very active and safe appearing.

A woman was traveling to Rhode Island and stopped at one to use the restroom. There was a state police car parked outside. I'm sure she didn't think anything was unsafe.

Unfortunately, some scumbag repeat offender was working in the Burger King and followed her into the bathroom and began stabbing her.

The ironic thing was the cop was on the can next door and heard the commotion but by the time he got in there the woman was dead and the scum was standing there going through her purse.

That's about as bad as it gets and demonstrates that you can't let your guard down anywhere. Although in this case, I doubt there would have been anything she could have done to prevent it.
Click to expand...
I remember that, it was all over the news. It happened on Rt24 (not sure if it was N or S), in Bridgewater MA...hit really close to home because I'm FROM that town, grew up there until I joined the military. It's a VERY VERY low crime area, only other murder I can think of was at a bar with "out-of-towners" from a not so nice ghetto.

That rest-stop is a very nice well lit rest stop with a sundry store, BK, Dunkin Donuts etc. Bizarre.
 
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