Petro Travel Center — Attraction in Hammond

I was pleasantly surprised about this Petro.

Like with any truck stop if you don't get a parking space early the spaces fill up quickly before dark. When I arrived here all the free parking spaces were filled. I was tired from driving all day and didn't feel like driving around in circles and stopping and waiting for someone to leave from their 30 min break or whatever. I decided to pay for a parking spot because there were alot of those open reserve spots plus anything you pay for in this business is a tax write-off.

Off subject for a minute. I have to tell you the one thing that irks my nerves is bobtails taking up a sopt for a tractor-trailer!😡😠 when bobtails can park by the buildings, in front closer to the bathroom but no the person's that do this have no common sense about themselves, no common courtesy for guys desperately looking for a spot and take that space just with the bobtail. Something seriously needs to be done about that!! 😉

Anyways, I went to take a shower and when I got in the shower room I was shocked to see how clean the room was. No dust, no smudges on the walls, no dirt spots everywhere just very clean and tidy. The water stayed hot for the duration of time I took because it felt good after the long hot day of work of getting sweaty, and smelling like sweat 😓 yuck!! 😝

After my shower I went to the restaurant to order some food. I decided to sit at the counter and eat (which I rarely ever do) I ordered some grilled chicken with vegetables, it comes with rice (they didn't have rice pilaf) the waitress said it comes with white rice and gravy. I asked if they had brown gravy and she replied yes. And the dish came with toasted bread. When I received my meal I tasted the rice and gravy first and it tasted really good. Then I tasted the rest of my meal and I was very surprised that it tasted good to me because I'm very picky about my food. The cook was a mature woman that made it tast like almost home cooking and I was happy because I haven't had a good cooked meal from one of these restaurants in any of these truck stops in a long time.

I read some of the reviews on here and if the Petro listen to your opinions I got the better part of it.

The clean shower with the long hot water, and the food at the restaurant was the pleasantly surprised part for me. Keep up the good work and glad the Petro is listening to our reviews and making the changes.

I do recommend this place for everyone to come and stay and eat but that is my opinion because everyone's opinions...

Pay through the nose for parking, then pay again to have your alignment fixed after you leave. Somebody set off a bomb in that parking lot for certain. Must have. I can't imagine Petro/TA making millions/billions of dollars off of truck drivers year after year. Charging us to park. Only to allow their parking lots to have holes in them the size of my entire rear axel. But ofcourse, they do. It's all about the money. Especially with this location. The bathrooms in the main building do not work. The fountain drink machine is notoriously down. The staff has told me on multiple occasions they don't even know how to change the liquid out. The coffee station is a wreck and often out of supplies. Only one person working at night, with a security guard. Trust me, that security guard is needed. He is very much needed and appreciated by the staff and the customers. Which makes it horrible if you're a female driver walking from truck parking into the building at night. Because he is only one person and is needed inside the store.

Showers are $16 a pop. We are a married couple team and usually shower together. However, these showers are so small, you can barely turn around. Not the shower stall itself, but the prep/bathroom area. My guest bathroom at home is larger. I mean, I admit, I expect more out of Petro/TA. But this? This was ridiculous. Showers cost us $32 because we don't fuel and there was no way we were fighting for space.

The restaurant, well its fine, I guess, if you can catch it open. We sat there for 1 1/2 days and only caught it open once about 10:30 am and got breakfast to-go. But by 6:30 that night, they were locked up tight. So, what kind of driver only works 10:30-6:00? Or eats at those hours? I mean, really Petro? Is this what you have reduced yourself to?

Anyways, it's a last resort for parking. Bring a cup if you're gonna need to pee and plan on cooking in your truck if you aren't working bankers hours. This place sucks...

My husband and I stopped here for the night. We paid to park. We went in for a shower like we do at many Petro Travel Centers. My husband does most of his business with Petro never had any issues till tonight 10/21//2021. My husband walked up to the counter to ask for a shower for me and him to share. Due to some of my health issues we just share the shower so he can keep an eye on me. Also it helps other driver so we ain’t taken up an extra shower. He ask the cashier on dudy for an extra towel for me. The cashier refused to give us a towel. Told us we had to get a team shower. So my husband said okay I’ll get a team shower. So I can get the towel for my wife. Then the cashier on duty continued to keep saying we had to get our own shower and we couldn’t share. Mind you we did that over just needing a simple towel for me to use. I then asked the cashier her name so I could make a complaint to corporate. She refused to give me her name and made she her identification tag wasn’t seen. Then the night parking Guard came into the game room while we was waiting for our shower turn and started harassing us after we paid to park. Not only would he not leave us alone. He was accusing us of things we didn’t do. The night parking guard reeked of marijuana could barely hold his eyes open. I made sure I let them both know I was reporting them. I also asked him his name so I could make sure corporate knew what was going on at this Location. How they was treating there a professional drivers. Not that I need to disclose my health information or the importance of why I am closely Monitor in certain situations. In 10 years of being on the road never have we had this kinda discrimination against us. I did make the complaint to corporate via email. It wouldn’t go thru so I am calling them the next...