re: What's the most pressure filled situation that you have ever been in?

I a laugh at it now because of the absurdity of it all, but I about shite myself and my adrenaline was higher than any other point in my life.

I was in Louisiana for my first LSU game. I had been at a friend's house in Monroe. Instead of staying the night and heading back to Dallas in the Morning, I decided to get a head start and I booked a hotel in Longview Texas to stay and get a little sleep.

The Hotel was the express in off exit 595 off interstate 20.

To put it into context, here is a review that is posted on the review page from Google maps:

My husband had $200 stolen from him at gunpoint. The front desk said “I don’t care, call the police”. Called the police and were told that we described a wanted felon. I had my husband bring clothes up there to a girl who is NOT doing well in life (let’s just say it that way), and then he is robbed. The motel was basically in on it. Refused to answer the phone afterward and refused to cooperate with police. Terrifying experience. Avoid at ALL COSTS.

Now, I'm not a small easy target of a person. I'm 6 foot 220 LB former athlete. I've never really been in a physical situation where I'd be outmatched, until this.

It was around 10pm when I rolled into the hotel to check in. I go to the front door and it's locked. Over a speaker, I hear a voice asking, why was I here and what I wanted. First red flag raised. I eventually get my room key and a very sketchy attendant tells me to pull around back and go up the stairs in the middle of the back building. My room is on the 2nd floor.

I pull around back in my rental car and notice a lot of activity for a hotel parking lot at that time of night. Red flag raised again. I grab my only bag, hit the stairs and hook a right as my room was the 2nd door to the right of the stairs.

As I hit the top of the stairs the door to the first room on the right is wide open and the window blinds are open. I take a peak inside as I get ready to enter my room. I had made eye contact..

Then reality sets in. My soon to be neighbors are 3 men of varrying ages but they were all massive humans. All 3 were standing in the room. All of them were over 6'4 and hefty built. The biggest was well over 6'6 and 300+ lbs. Imagine 3 characters right out of the Texas chainsaw massacre.

Now, I scramble to enter my room and low and behold, I share an interior co-room door with them.

Something is very off with everything. I put my bag on the chair near the bathroom, as the bed is a no go full of who knows what.

With very thin walls and a shared door, if I get close I can hear everything they are talking about. So I get real close to the door. I can hear them rummaging about their room, clearly they are drugged up and discussing nefarious activities.

About a minute later, I hear, which I can only assume was the biggest fella of the 3. He clearly states, "He's by himself". I process this momentarily.

The next sound I heard I can still hear it clear as day, even now that I write this.

The sound is the slide of a pistol being loaded. At this point I'm probably 30 to 45 seconds from having the interior door opened and I'm going to get robbed/shot or worse.

I grab my bag as fast as I can, hit the door running and take off for the stairs at the very end of the walkway in a full sprint. No looking back, no slowing down. I fly down the stairs, get to my car and book it out of the parking lot as fast as possible. Not stopping I get back on the interstate and head to Dallas.

I've calmed down substantially and am starving for some food but it's late at night in east Dallas so I head to the IHOP. As I enter the door, I'm expecting it to be slow and docile, but the place is jam packed. I also happen to be the only white person there. I get seated and realize that it's almost 5 to 1 young women at every table with a couple of guys spread thin. I order my omelette and have a little small talk with my fellow IHOP customers and recount what had just happened to me a few hours ago. They were all strippers getting off their shifts at the club and it's a common thing they do to get food after they are done with work, as a group

They explain, the smaller towns along the interstate, are absolute hotbeds of drugs and violent crime throughout Texas because of easy access and under staffed law enforcement, and I had just witnessed, first hand how bad it really is. We all laugh at the total clown show of my situation as I find a new hotel to pass out, near the Dallas airport.

The end.