Commuter Confessions: True Stories from the Road
In Hampton Roads, every commute has the potential to become a story.
Most are forgotten before you get to work. Others become the kind of tales you tell your coworkers, your friends, or anyone who'll listen because they're just too unbelievable not to share.
We asked the goCo team to open their commuter case files and share the funniest, weirdest, and most memorable moments from their travels. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent... or the guilty.
These are their stories.
DUN DUN.
Kayla
I have lived in this area for 2 years now and still have trouble navigating around, so I always use my GPS. But every once in a while, I feel confident that I have figured out some paths whether it be up to Hampton or to the oceanfront, so I'll turn off the GPS. This almost always ends up being a mistake. I have gone 15 minutes out of my way several times because I thought "this is definitely how I get there" or "this looks familiar." Moral of the story: always trust the GPS.
Monique
This happened almost a decade ago. I was living in Ocean View and taking the Route 1 bus home after work with the City of Norfolk. It’s a bit of a long ride from downtown Norfolk to Ocean View, and before my current love of audiobooks, I would almost always have a book in my bag for the trek home.
Well, on this particular ride, I didn't know I also had a silent reader looking over my shoulder until I went to turn the page and he yelled out, "Hold on, don't turn yet! I haven't finished!"
To say I freaked out would be an understatement, but you know me—cool and collected—I stayed on the page until they said, "Okay, go on." Then I closed the book and made a phone call until my stop... or until the person got off. I honestly don't remember which.
Royall
There's a lot of construction on 58/460 out to Suffolk right now, so when traffic backed up onto I-664 one evening, I didn't think too much of it.
Fast forward about 20 minutes, and after crawling toward the executive airport, I did a whole double-take when I noticed people running back and forth across three lanes of traffic to break up a literal fist fight happening between two middle-aged white men in a blocked left-turn lane.
The funniest part was when one took a swing and ended up tripping himself into the ditch instead of landing the punch. 😬
Latwana
One afternoon, traffic came to a complete stop for reasons that weren't immediately clear. As everyone slowly crept forward trying to figure out what was causing the backup, I noticed someone wearing a full-face mask dancing in the middle of traffic like it was a stage instead of an interstate.
Nobody really knew what was going on, but for a few minutes everyone seemed to forget they were stuck in traffic and just watched the show.
Caleb
One of my favorite commuter memories happened on the HRBT during one of those infamous, completely stopped traffic jams that we all know too well.
After we'd been sitting there for a while, the people in the car in front of me decided they were done waiting. They all got out, rolled down the windows, turned the music up as loud as it would go, and started dancing right there on the interstate.
Before long, people in the surrounding cars were laughing, smiling, and cheering them on. It turned a frustrating commute into something everyone around seemed to enjoy. It's still one of the funniest things I've ever seen on the road.
Ariel
I was driving home one day and somehow ended up following the same car for what felt like forever. Every lane change they made, I made too. Every turn they took happened to be my turn.
About halfway through the drive, I started wondering if they thought I was following them. Then I got so in my own head about it that I took a completely different exit just to avoid making it any weirder.
I'm still convinced they went home thinking I was a serial killer.
Tiffany
On my Monday morning commute, my carpool group and I were chatting about all the fun things we did over the weekend when we heard a sharp chirp. Then another. And another every few seconds.
We turned down the radio and listened carefully. I glanced at the dashboard expecting to see a warning light. We all checked our phones. Nothing.
We searched everywhere – putting our ears near the vents, looking in the glove box, under the seats, and in the door pockets. By this point, we were completely obsessed, and the chirping just kept coming.
We finally pulled into the office parking lot and turned off the car.
Right on cue... chirp.
As we opened the doors to get out, a cricket jumped out.
We all burst into laughter. Turns out we had picked up one more carpooler for the ride.
Whether it's accidentally trusting your own sense of direction, discovering an unexpected reading buddy, getting stuck behind an interstate dance party, or finding out your carpool has quietly gained a cricket, every commuter has a story.
If nothing else, we hope these remind you that the next time your commute takes an unexpected turn, you're probably not the only one with a story worth telling.
Have a commuter confession of your own? We'd love to hear it.