The Roadside Saloon | Bus on a Dark Road

We have a bit of a special episode today on True Scary Story with Jim Harold from the podcast Jim Harold's Campfire, who's here with us today to share one of the strangest caller stories he has ever received. But along with that, we also have a short story that's familiar to me because my family is used to the buses along the US and Mexico border where the story takes place. My name is Edwin. Today we'll hear Jim Harold and Daniels True Scary Stories. I've been doing paranormal podcasts for almost eighteen years. On my show Jim Harold's Campfire, I collect real stories of real people have experienced strange things. But this may be the apple salute strangest. It's called the Roadhouse Saloon, and this story is from one of my callers, Ti, and it may be the most kind of chilling and thought provoking one I've ever had. She lives up in Michigan. She called me, Oh gosh, must have been twelve eleven, twelve years ago. This really sticks in my memory. She was going to visit at a campground that she visited every summer with her family and friends and so forth. It was about an hour away from her home. It was up in Wisconsin. So her and one of her friends at the campground said, we're musicians, we're going to go out and see a band one night. So they drove about hour away from their camp in Wisconsin and drove to this bar and saw this band and they closed the place down. It was like two o'clock in the morning. In fact, her and her friend Bob, they went back behind the stage, backstage and talked with the band a little bit and swapped war stories because they were all musicians. So anyway, they're driving back to the campground. It's about an hour away and it's rural and if you've ever been in the rural part of that world with the two lane road can be extremely dark. There are no lights or no anything. It's literally like something out of the Twilight Zone. But the story is about halfway Tea I goes, hey, Bob, I got to stop and go to the restroom. And Bob says, no, unless you want to pull up a tree. We're stuck. And she said, that's okay, just drive fast. Not five minutes down the road, they see this bar, wide open, lights meon. You can hear the music pumping out cars in the parking lot. I thought, that's weird. Everything's supposed to be closed at two am. It's a lot. But they didn't look a gift horse in the mouth. They said, let's go and let's take advantage of the facility. So anyway, they go in and Bob mentions, I'm really glad we stopped here because there's this great old mural and Bob was an artist. It's on the whole wall. It's of the Old West, and I've heard about it many times. I've never seen it, so this is cool. And they walk in. There's this big sign the roadhouse on it. So they walk through these doors and they come in and everybody's blankly smiling, just like an odd bunch of people. But they thought nothing of it. Bob goes to the bar, gets a couple of soft drinks. Ti goes to the restroom. She comes back, and they sit down there talking and they're looking at this painting, and sure enough, it's like a full painting of the Old West of a bar room. They kept looking and they noticed something weird. They noticed, okay, the guy standing in the corner on the painting, he's over here in real life in the bar and there's a woman over here at the bar and she's what they used to call a dance hall girl. In the painting, the people in the painting were actually represented in the bar. Thought that was weird, and they talked about a little bit and they said, ah, I know these people are regulars. So when the guy painted the painting, he incorporated them. It was like a homage to them. Right. So anyway, they talk and this just place seems a little bit off. And they had this big, beautiful Wolleartzer jukebox bubbler with the tubes and with the different colors that I think most people can picture that. And some guy's playing. He puts on Chubby Checkers, Let's twist again, a golden oldie. So anyway, this guy walks over to Ti and he smiles. He has like a mouthful of rotten teeth, and he says, want to dance? And Ti has a cane and she holds up and she says, I don't do much dancing, and she said she was glad she had that cane in this instance. So anyhow, just the people are just strange and blankly smiling and things, and they're talking more and they look at the painting on the wall, and they noticed something they didn't notice before. You know how in the old Western movies they would have the double doors that swing back and forth, right like where the villain would come in and come through the doors and say I want to speak, was I want to have a showdown? That kind of thing that had the doors there, the wooden doors. But they noticed something they didn't notice before. They're like two misty columns in the doors, and one is shorter and one is taller, and they keep telling us, weird, we didn't notice that. They talk some more and they look back and it's a little more developed, almost like a polaroid old school polaroid picture would develop, and one looked like a woman and one looked like a man. They talk some more, they look back, and the features and what they were wearing came into place. One was much taller, one was much shorter. The woman had curly hair coincidentley tick. Then they noticed the woman had boots and TI had boots. And as it developed more in they noticed the woman had a cane and TI had a cane, and it was basically Bob and Ti developing into this picture at that point, I think, like any logical person would do, they said, let's get the hell out of here. So they get up and they're going out, and these people are like, I don't know if you can't see me on video, but they're waving come back and blankly smiling, and they don't. And they go out and they close the door. Everything goes pitch black. Neon signs out, music off plays closed like it was never open. Turn around. There aren't cars plural in the parking lot. There is one car, their car. So they leave. Now, that would be an incredible story if I left it at that, but there's more. Ti is a much braver soul, So she a couple days later decides to go back, and she takes a friend of hers. I don't know if it was a friend or her sister, but they go back, and they go earlier in the evening. It's about eight o'clock at night. They go back to the roadhouse salon and actually is there. She goes in, there's a young lady as bartender. Place is pretty empty. She goes over to the jukebox and there is a jukebox, but there's no Chubby Checker on it. No, let's twist again and oh, by the way, it's not the old Wolitzer jukebox with vinyl as was originally. It is what at that time was a modern jukebox with CDs and again no Chubby Checker. So she walks over to the bar. The mural is still there. They are not in the mural though, Ti and Bob, but everything else is the same about the mural. They talk to the bartender and she says, I was here a couple nights ago and there was this big strap and good look and bartender, where's he joking around? And the woman say, you must be mistaken. The only two people that bartend here are me and my elderly father. And with that Ti leaves and has never been back since. A couple additions to this story, though couple of editions. One the place actually exists. The mural actually exists on my YouTube jel at YouTube dot COM's last Jim Harold, I have a video where right before the pandemic twenty nineteen, I went up and spent a few hours with Ti and had her reaccount that story. It is one of the most believable stories, and she's one of the most believable people that I've talked to in the fourteen years that I've done the Campfire, I absolutely believe her. The place exists. We have photos. Chad Lewis, the great cryptozoologist research Sure, went up there and took photos which I incorporated with his permission into my video. And in twenty nineteen I had called there, reached the place at that point it was open, and tried to get somebody to comment and wanted to incorporate them in a podcast or video. Could not get them. But the point is is that at least as of twenty nineteen, the place did exist, the mural did exist, and having met Ti, I believe her even more than I did on that initial call. And that is my favorite all time story on Jim Harold's Campfire. It's one to remember. Edwin, thanks so much for having me on the show. Now, listeners to true Scary Story. Since you're listening to true scary story, you must love scary stories. And we've got a bunch over at Jim Harold's Campfire, true stories from real people, unvarnished, raw and they come on and share their stories and along with true scary stories, we'd be most appreciative if you would add Jim Harold's Campfire to your weekly rotation and you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and everywhere fine podcasts are heard. And thanks again for the opportunity to be on the great podcast True Scary Story. Thank you very much for coming on Jim. You can also hear one of my personal stories on his show over on Jim Harold's Campfire. I'll link to it, And as promised, we have a short story from Daniel coming up right after this. We have a great deal here. Okay, so you know how I was waiting for the bulgogie bowls from Hello Fresh last time, Well we have more stuff now. Flavor is in full bloom at HelloFresh. So enjoy the taste of spring with chef crafted recipes now featuring ripe, seasonal ingredients delivered right to your door. With Hello Fresh, you get to skip the grocery store and go straight to the fun part. As we celebrate Asian, American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this May, you can try for a limited time authentic recipes created in partnership with Chef Surbisani of New York City's Togmo Restaurants. Anyway, I prove this myself getting exactly what I need to cook a recipe saves money. It's a great feeling knowing that you used up every last ingredient in the box and nothing went to waste. Everyone at home loves trying out new meals and we have our own favorites. You guys don't mind already as promised, here's how you get your free stuff. Go to HelloFresh dot com slash true scary sixteen and use code true Scary sixteen for sixteen free meals plus free shipping. That's HelloFresh dot com slash true scary sixteen and use a code true Scary sixteen for sixteen free meals plus free shipping. Easy, fun and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit. My dad, he was always a buzz driver in New Mexico. He used to work for a company called and they were like really big back then. They were at the top of the line. After a while, the company spear. He used to live in New Mexico City and he always traveled to the border Tijuana, Alo places like that. On one trip to Tijuana almost getting to Tijuana on there's payments highway called Lamosa, it wasn't super late, but he said, I was late at night. He says, from one of the curves, so random naked land disappeared and he ran across the front of the bus. So my dad wasn't able to hit the brakes on time, so he hit the guy. And my dad wasn't the only one seen because the bus he hasn't passengers, and he pulled out to the side of the road and then the guy is flashlight and he started like inspecting to see what happened. He says he couldn't see anything. The bus had no damage. He got a little freaked out. He doesn't know what really happened, so he decided to continue. He says that well he was driving, it just looked like a random like he said, it was a man, but he was like fully new, like no clothes, and he says, he chilling ran with the bus and like the passengers even fell and they saw it. That when like when he ran them over, but he was that he got off and there was nothing there. The passengers like they were like talking about it because I don't know if you've ever been to Mexico and the buzz is basically we're sitting right next to the buzzer. Ever in the front, there's like the passengers like sitting in the front like they witnessed it. And when you hit something like a bump on the road, like you feel it. So not everybody saw, but mostly everybody felt the bump and they got out to check what happened. He says there was no blood, no body, no damage to the bus. He was pretty freaked out. Then once he got to the terminal, like all the passengers down and over there for the bus drivers when they finished the route or whatever, they can get some sleeps like on the terminal, but there's like empty parks where they can just go park and get some rest until for the next trip. After he pulled over and uh parked at the spot, he says that he started hearing keys like jingling and a baby crying, and there was like nobody there. He got a really freaked out, and then he said he kept hearing it all night. He ended up buying his tongue like pretty hard so that he started like bleeding now. But unfortunately for him, one of his up like they parked next to him and they found him, and they ended up calling my mom and she came over and he was already in the hospital, but he was like buying this tongue like really hard, so they started bleeding. Nowt uh. Fortunately for him that somebody found him, one of his co workers, and they ended up taking it to the hospital. What I remember from what he used to say, He says that a lot of the coworkers they would see things, but nothing like that like what happened to him, But they will see like random stuff. One of his brothers, it was a freight truck driver and he used to drive through the too, and nothing you ever happened to him. But he says that her stories about like other truck drivers saying that they would drive by and to see a woman walking there. He knows other people that they say that when they would drive by there, they would see sometimes a woman walking and they drove past her. Like next thing you know, they turn around and she's sitting right next to them. To share your own story, visit true scarystory dot com and tap the button to tell us about it. Thanks to our Scary Plus members, we can offer an ad free version of the show. There's lots more episodes on this podcast, and my other show is on scary FM. If you're up for it. Thank you very much for listening. See us soon.