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Speaker 1: I'm from Mississippi originally, but I've lived in Oklahoma, Texas, Pennsylvania,

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West Virginia. Since I've discovered the subject of sisquatch. I'm

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so sure that they're real. I don't need to see

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one believe me. But here is my second hand story.

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My mom and her siblings made up a huge family

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who lived on a plantation in Sunflower County. Mom always

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called it the Patterson Plantation because there were more daughters

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than sons in this family. Mom and her sisters always

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worked with their dad in the field hoe in cotton.

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The boys were too young, The girls were about eight

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to twelve years of age, and they were hard workers.

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Mom would tell us that when their dad was sick,

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the girls would go to the field by themselves. They

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were just carrying on for daddy. The only thing that

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truly spooked them was the fact that something on two

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legs would paste them. The girls would be on a

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dirt road which was flanked on either side by the

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Sunflower River or the forest. This animal would pacete them

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just out of sight in the forest. Mom said. One

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time they asked my grandpa Daddy, what is that walking

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next to us? Mom said that he grinned and said,

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it's just a bunch of squirrels. This went on for

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a while. It never showed its face, And yes, if

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it had been a vagrant or an escapee from parchment,

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surely he would have been seen at some point. The

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girls were not the only ones who heard this noise.

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Mom said other adults in the field would also walk

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the same direction, and they also heard the noises. But

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to top this off, my mom's family all lived in

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a little shotgun house that had two bedrooms, a kitchen,

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and a living room room. The kitchen door was secured

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by a thumb. Look at night, Mom said, someone would

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open the kitchen door walk across the linoleum kitchen floor

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to their bedroom. All the girls slept in one bed.

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They would walk around the bed and stroke the girl's heads.

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Mom says she always wanted to know who was doing this,

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so the next time it happened, she jumped up and

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she hit the lights. She wasn't quick enough, though. Darn

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it anyway, I just thought I would pass this along

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before I forget about it. Keep up the good work,

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signed Cheryl in November of nineteen seventy nine. I was fourteen,

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not old enough to hunt legally in New York. My

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dad was an avid hunter who usually hunted in Naples.

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They call it part of the southern tier of the state.

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My dad worked with a man who owned some prime

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hunting property there. My uncle was supposed to go with

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him that year, but something came up, so my dad

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asked me if I'd like to go in his place

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and push the deer. Of course, I said yes. I

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was so excited I barely got any sleep the night

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before we left. We drove off at four am and

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headed to the dark and frozen woods and our ford

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pinto wagon. Dad explained as we went what my function

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would be. I would head into the woods alone and

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push the deer to where he would be set up

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and ready for them. We got to the gravel road

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that took us into his coworker's property and Dad told

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me to walk about two hundred yards in the woods

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and hunker down for forty five minutes or so, and

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then start walking east. I actually knew a lot about

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the woods even then. I spent pretty much every spare

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moment of my time in the woods around our home. Well. Anyway,

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Dad handed me his twelve gage shotgun. It was empty,

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but I had a couple of slugs in my coat

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pocket just in case. I stood there watching the tailgates

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of the pinto disappear over the crest of the hill,

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and then turned and let my vision adjust to the

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darkness for a minute before I started walking. I wasn't

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afraid of the woods back then. I walked quite aways,

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and I had to scale an old fence line. At

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one point. I remember the patches of snow and how

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cold I was, despite being dressed in three layers of

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clothes and a good pair of winter boots, the kind

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with liners that can be removed. It began to get

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light outside, but the sky was overcast in dark shades

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of angry gray. I went into a deep gully with

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ten to fifteen foot banks, and I followed it until

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it turned east, the direction I had to go to

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get to my father. Then I climbed the tall bank

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and found a good sized tree that had fallen, and

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where I squatted and rested my back against it. And

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by then I was tired. Without a good night sleep,

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I'd been running on pure adrenaline all morning. I guess

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I've knotted off. I woke up to the sound of

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a tree branch snapping, and I panned the area across

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the gully to the opposite ridge, thinking it might have

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been a big buck. And I searched across the area

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and I saw what looked like a large man standing

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next to a tree. Well, I focused in and I froze.

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It wasn't a man. My father was six feet tall,

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and this thing was nearly twice that. It was covered

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in hair, but it wasn't a bear either. I couldn't

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see its face, its long, matted hair covered it, but

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I could see clouds of breath pouring through the hair

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on the cold morning air. Its hair was all brown,

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but a lighter shade on its chest in the front

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of its thighs. Based on its body position, it had

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to be looking straight at me. Well, I figured it

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was standing like this for five minutes or so, which

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felt like a lifetime to me. My heart was pounding

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out of my skin the whole time, but I was

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frozen in place and I couldn't move. And then it

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took one step in my direction, and that unfroze me.

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I turned and started running as fast as I could

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in the direction that i'd come. I had the twelve gage,

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but I didn't think about it at the time. I

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approached the fence line and I chucked the shotgun over

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it and dove over the fence behind it, and then

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I grabbed the gun and briefly looked back to see

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if anything was behind me. And I kept running until

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I got to the gravel road. During that Olympic run,

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I managed to lose a boot. I was only wearing

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the lining, but I didn't care. I got my bearings

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and headed up the road in the direction my dad

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had gone, and I found the Pinto parked on the

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side of the road, but to my horror, it was

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locked there. I was surrounded by heavy woods in the

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middle of nowhere, and now painfully aware that monsters do exist.

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I loaded the gun and knelt down with my back

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against the car and waited and listened to every single noise.

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When my dad finally came out of the woods, he

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was asking, what the hell happened to you, boy? I

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told him exactly what happened. It was probably a bear,

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if anything at all, he reasoned. I told my best

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friend back then, and he seemed to believe me. I'm

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now fifty six and I live in Florida. Dad has

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been gone since nineteen eighty seven, but I can relive

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that morning like flipping a switch. I did some small

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game hunting after that happened, but only in the woods

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where I grew up in Neverden. When I was in

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my thirties, I ran across the BFRO and reported the

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incident to them. A man contacted me about it, and

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we spoke for quite a while. The research I've done

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since then shows that these things migrate from the Adirondack

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Mountains down through the Herkimer Valley and into the Southern Tier,

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as well as northern Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley regions.

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This happened in Brasstown, North Carolina, in nineteen eighty six.

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I was fifteen and staying at my grandparents' place. They

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lived in the Styx, and they had no neighbors close by.

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The wood circle. My grandparents' trailer about eight miles in

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every direction. As an adult, looking back in hindsight, I

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can say it was really beautiful, and being that far

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back in the woods, we, being non hair humans, were

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not in our element. We were only guest actors in

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Mother Nature stage. I always played in the woods. My

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grandfather taught me how to carry and use a gun

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when I was ten years old. He never let me

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leave the house without protection. I've always I wondered if

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my grandpa knew about these beings that dwell in the woods,

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and if that was the real reason he taught me

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how to use and carry a gun at such an

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early age. I once wrote a comment in response to

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a YouTube video that really got me angry. I edited

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it at the time, and I wrote it because I

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wasn't nice. It was making fun of the notion of

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Bigfoot and the people with the courage to report their encounters,

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and that's why people won't step forward about what they

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have seen and what it did to them. Mentally, it's

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not a joke when you're staring down a monster and

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you're the poor bastard who's just stumbled into the domain

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of a predator, when suddenly everything becomes primal and your

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gut reaction is to either fight or flight, and that

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gun that you've brought for protection, it most likely will

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only piss it off before it charges you. It had

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a massive chest, and judging by the size of its

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head hands, it was a fit specimen that reminded me

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of those barrel chested men you see on those tough

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man challenges, except this thing was four times as big,

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and if it didn't duck its head, it would have

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clocked it on a tree limb. It had shiny hair

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that seemed unusually well groomed. More than anything else, I

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was fascinated by its face. It had a wide jawline

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and a mouth set lower than a human, with a

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wide gap between its nose and top lip. I would

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compare its brow to a Neanderthal, except a little more evolved,

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and it didn't protrude as far. Its hairless face was

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framed by a beard, and I could understand someone not

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wanting to shoot at it because of the human characteristics.

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I could sense intelligence, but when we made eye contact,

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there was a feeling of something sinister, like nothing in

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the realm of goodness. Have you ever walked into a

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room of people you don't get along with. Nobody says

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anything nice, They just stopped talking and look right through you.

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It was humbling times ten that instantly put my world

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into perspective and crushed my soul. This monster made me

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feel like a shell of a man. Now was nothing

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more to it than pray. The beet stared me down

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with its greenish red eyes, letting me know who the

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boss was in our stand off. It was unreal to

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me to see something so gigantic be so agile. It

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walked with no jerk to its step, and its head

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did not bob up or down. Its attitude was all, Hey,

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you're lucky to be alive. You punk human. For lack

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of a better word, it took the fifteen year old

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boy right out of me. Other people like me have

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had similar encounters and won't say a word to anybody,

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partly because we don't want to be laughed at. I

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don't know which screws you up more mentally the encounter

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of the doubters that hang labels on you. There are

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a lot of fake videos on the internet, and to

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those uploading them, I would say, please, don't insult my

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intelligence by claiming these stage clips are real. They always

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missed the mark by about four feet or five hundred pounds.

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In my thirty plus years of digging into this topic,

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with all the cover ups, the lies, and the truth

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that would blow the average person's mind away, it's just

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another day at the office. To me. I've read thousands

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of testimonials and stored thousands of pictures and videos that day,

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the gun and I were both useless in every sense

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of the word. To those who want to find a bigfoot,

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I would say, don't even try to those that have

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I'm sorry, and I mean that. I remember it vividly.

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It was a summer of nineteen ninety eight. Sarah, my

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wife the time, and I had spent a lovely first

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week of our vacation with my parents and siblings in

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Michigan's Upper Peninsula along the southern shore of Lake Superior,

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camping and canoeing near the mouth of the Two Hearted River.

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It is a wild and beautiful place that I have

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been visiting since my childhood, and it always seems to

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call me back. Sarah and I had not spent much

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time in the lower portion of Michigan before, so we

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decided to split off from the rest of the family

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and do some exploring For the remainder of our vacation.

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We spent several relaxing days at Lake Anne State Forest,

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then planned to break camp take a day to hike

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the Sleeping Bear Dunes, which culminates with the breathtaking view

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of Lake Michigan and its many shades of blue. This

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is where the story begins. The day was sunny and hot,

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and by late afternoon the ambient temperature on the dunes

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was probably hovering around any degrees or above, and we

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were ready to be done. Once we completed our hike,

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we planned to find a camp site, preferably by the water,

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and then drive back home to Ohio. The following day,

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we stopped at the ranger station to inquire about nearby camping,

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only to discover that pretty much every campground in this

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part of Michigan was full. In retrospect. I should have

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expected this since it was a Friday in the high

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summer and had a very popular destination for weekend vacationers.

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The ranger told us that we were probably out of luck,

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though he knew of a trail camp some ten miles distant,

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primarily used by equestrian campers. It wasn't much to look at,

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yet would do as an overnighter. I was grateful for

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the tip, and we thanked the ranger and set out

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for our destination, and we followed the directions he had

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written down for us. The site was it's not easy

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to find, since it ended up being on a road

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or off a road off another road, but we finally

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located it and pulled into the entrance. We travel further

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down the dusty gravel course that ended with a loop

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00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:17,600
and a clearing. It was sparse, with trees and hitching

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posts set at regular intervals. To our surprise, there was

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absolutely no one within view, and my first thought was perfect,

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we'll have this place to ourselves. And I turned off

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the van and we got out to look around and

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decide which site to choose. This is when things got freaky.

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As in aside, I should point out that I have

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always considered myself to be somewhat of a psychic brick.

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If anyone is going to hear ghosts talk with their

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spirit guides or have premonitions, it isn't going to be me.

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Not that I'm not open to it. I'm just not

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very sensitive in that way. The sun was getting low

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in the sky and the air was warm, but still

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it was quiet here, even peaceful. Yet I could not

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explain this growing sense of dread. I scanned the area

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00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:14,600
to explain my cognitive dissonance. Where was this perceived danger

266
00:16:14,679 --> 00:16:18,679
coming from? All I saw was an apparently tranquil meadow

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with nobody around in virtually no places for a threat

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00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:26,879
to be concealed. I pushed down the feeling, telling myself

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that I was just imagining things all because I didn't

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want to worry Sarah. She looked at me and she asked, so,

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what do you think. I don't know. I said, something

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feels off. She agreed too quickly, and it turned out

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that she had been sensing the same unease and didn't

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want to mention it to me either. Let's get the

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00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,080
hell out of here, I said, in a low voice,

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without wasting another moment, we hurried back to the van

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00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:56,399
and locked the doors and spun the tires in our haste,

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00:16:56,759 --> 00:16:59,759
leaving a cloud of dust behind all to put some

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00:16:59,759 --> 00:17:05,960
distance between us and a nameless menace. We traveled east

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00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,359
toward home, and we molded over, trying to understand what

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00:17:09,559 --> 00:17:14,079
had just transpired. There had been absolutely no visual or

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auditory que to indicate that anything was amiss in that camp,

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00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:22,039
yet we both had the distinct feeling that something very

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bad was about to occur, and had we stayed, we

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00:17:25,599 --> 00:17:31,440
most certainly might die. Since then, I have never experienced

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00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:35,680
that level of dread for something that didn't happen. More

287
00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:38,839
than twenty four years later, I still think about it

288
00:17:38,839 --> 00:17:42,400
from time to time, and I wonder what did we avoid?

289
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,720
Had there been an axe murderer in camouflages hiding behind

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00:17:46,759 --> 00:17:51,799
a tree preparing to pounce. Was something paranormal about to unfold?

291
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:55,759
I wonder if that feeling of something being wrong precedes

292
00:17:55,799 --> 00:17:59,759
an abduction event or the spontaneous opening of time and

293
00:18:00,079 --> 00:18:05,039
based portals. Only many years later did I discover that

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00:18:05,079 --> 00:18:09,079
the Great Lakes area, particularly Michigan, is known for its

295
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:14,000
unexplained disappearances of people, ships, and aircraft, as well as

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00:18:14,039 --> 00:18:18,680
other paranormal activity. On multiple occasions, I have tried to

297
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:23,079
locate the trail camp that we visited using Internet searches

298
00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:27,759
based on its probable position, but without any success, and

299
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:33,799
unfortunately the original written directions have long been lost. Did

300
00:18:33,839 --> 00:18:37,640
we wander into and out of an unstable pocket of

301
00:18:37,759 --> 00:18:41,519
reality just before it collapsed? I'd love to know the

302
00:18:41,559 --> 00:18:45,519
answer from a distance, though I'm eternally thankful that we

303
00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:53,599
didn't experience at firsthand whatever it was. Back in nineteen

304
00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:56,519
seventy five, while we were in law school, a friend

305
00:18:56,559 --> 00:18:59,799
of mine and I were fishing in Lake Chappaka on

306
00:18:59,839 --> 00:19:04,119
the Canadian Washington border. At that time, the road to

307
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:08,400
the lake was long, dirt, rough and rocky drive. They

308
00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:10,599
may have paved it since then. I really don't know.

309
00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:15,039
We were poor students who didn't have trucks or four

310
00:19:15,039 --> 00:19:18,039
wheel drives in the lake, but instead we had my

311
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:23,400
family's old Volvo. Volvos and rocky roads don't mix well.

312
00:19:24,039 --> 00:19:26,920
But soon he'd lost his steering or transmission or some

313
00:19:27,039 --> 00:19:29,880
damn thing, and I crawled under the car to take

314
00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:33,200
a look. When he fired it up, a stream of

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00:19:33,279 --> 00:19:37,119
fluid came shooting out of a metal tube. Apparently a

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00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:41,119
rock had punctured the line. We had no choice but

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00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,960
to try to make it back to civilization, and we

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00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:46,680
got to the main highway before we could go no further.

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00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:52,599
As we sat there, a huge yellow nineteen sixty Pontiac

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00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:57,559
convertible pulled up. A six foot five inch tall man

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00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:01,039
got out and asked if he could help. The man

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00:20:01,079 --> 00:20:05,200
looked rather strange. He was very pale and long bleached

323
00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:08,960
blonde hair that was combed straight back. He was slender

324
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,200
belt and had bird like features. But hell, he wanted

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00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:14,880
to help and we needed to get to the nearest town.

326
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We explained our circumstances and he said, no problem, I

327
00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:23,440
can help. He walked back and opened his massive trunk,

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00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:28,319
and inside we could see his entire life. Clothing was

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00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,920
deeply folded in the cardboard box, and toilet trees were

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00:20:32,039 --> 00:20:37,160
organized in another. We saw framed photographs, food and water,

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00:20:37,279 --> 00:20:40,799
and tools, and you name it, he had it. He

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00:20:40,839 --> 00:20:43,960
proceeded to pull a long four inch nylon strap out

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00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:45,839
of a box and affix it to the front of

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00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:50,000
the volvough and then towed us into town, which boasted

335
00:20:50,079 --> 00:20:55,200
a gas station and very little else. The attendant put

336
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,400
the car on the hoist and proclaimed that we were screwed.

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He had nothing to place a tube on the volvo,

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and before we had time to digest this fact, our

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00:21:05,759 --> 00:21:10,480
newly acquired friend, who had been standing patiently and knowingly nearby,

340
00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:15,640
again proclaimed I can help. He then walked back to

341
00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,559
the cavernous truck and pulled out a small rubber hose

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00:21:18,599 --> 00:21:22,119
and two small hose clamps, and followed by a hack saw.

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The hose was soon replaced, but the gas station didn't

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00:21:26,559 --> 00:21:29,359
have the fluid we needed, and it should have come

345
00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:32,720
as no surprise when our blonde friend dove back into

346
00:21:32,759 --> 00:21:38,200
his trunk and produced the proper fluid. Our amusement had

347
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:42,799
now progressed a full on amazement. We offered to pay him,

348
00:21:42,839 --> 00:21:47,640
but he refused any form of compensation except for the fluid.

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00:21:48,519 --> 00:21:51,319
He then offered to follow us out of town to

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00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:55,799
make sure everything worked okay. About five miles out, the

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00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,480
road straightened and went uphill. We heard the roar of

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00:21:59,519 --> 00:22:02,400
his huge as he passed us at a high rate

353
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:05,960
of speed, smiling and waving with his blond hair flying

354
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,400
in the wind. It's a side I will never forget.

355
00:22:10,599 --> 00:22:12,960
And then as he screamed up the hill in front

356
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:18,039
of us, he and his convertible vanished. They faded away.

357
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,559
There were no side roads, no turn offs, no brake lights, nothing.

358
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,079
The dude was just gone. My friend and I looked

359
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:30,279
at each other. Our eyes were wide. Where the hell

360
00:22:30,319 --> 00:22:34,119
did he go? I asked. We slowed and looked along

361
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,279
the roadway, but neither of us could find a place

362
00:22:37,319 --> 00:22:40,400
where he could have pulled off the road. He simply

363
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:45,519
disappeared into thin air. My companion has since passed away,

364
00:22:45,799 --> 00:22:48,799
and I'm pushing it, but I will not be surprised

365
00:22:48,839 --> 00:22:52,400
at all if upon crossing over that blonde guy will

366
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:57,680
be there to guide me along. This is a true story.

367
00:23:00,319 --> 00:23:03,079
It wasn't until I listened to you tell other people's

368
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:07,200
UFO encounters on your channel that I decided to share mine.

369
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:09,880
I hope I can put it into words, as I

370
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:13,039
have never told this story to anyone except my husband,

371
00:23:13,599 --> 00:23:16,920
and that was only recently. So in your words, here

372
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:20,240
we go, all right, here we go. Though I'm forty

373
00:23:20,279 --> 00:23:22,759
one now, on the time of my encounter, I was

374
00:23:22,799 --> 00:23:25,799
ten years old and living with my parents in Arkansas.

375
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,720
We were in my father's pickup truck heading home after

376
00:23:29,759 --> 00:23:33,200
a visit with one of his friends. It was late.

377
00:23:33,599 --> 00:23:36,839
It was past midnight on one of those clear summer

378
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:39,240
nights where you can see every star in the sky.

379
00:23:40,319 --> 00:23:42,920
I was tired, and, as I always did on long

380
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,160
journeys at night with my folks, I laid my head

381
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:48,759
on my mother's shoulder so I could close my eyes

382
00:23:48,839 --> 00:23:53,039
and nap. On the way home, we were probably only

383
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:57,000
thirty minutes from our house. I caught glimpses of the

384
00:23:57,039 --> 00:23:59,799
stars as I drifted in and out of sleep because

385
00:23:59,839 --> 00:24:02,920
of the bumpy back roads my father always took to

386
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,240
get us home a little quicker. Suddenly, I heard my

387
00:24:06,319 --> 00:24:10,359
mother call out my father's name, Wane. She said to him,

388
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:13,759
as my father snapped to attention behind the steering wheel.

389
00:24:14,319 --> 00:24:18,000
What in the world is that, she said. I opened

390
00:24:18,039 --> 00:24:20,880
my eyes and I saw my mother steering in disbelief

391
00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:24,720
at something she'd spotted through the driver's side window. I

392
00:24:24,759 --> 00:24:27,799
looked in the same direction and my mouth fell open.

393
00:24:28,799 --> 00:24:32,640
There was a huge cigar shaped object over a pasture

394
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:36,200
just off the road, maybe one hundred yards away, and

395
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:40,599
it was hovering in the air. The trees blocked some

396
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,559
of our view, but the object was so close that

397
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,720
I could see. It had what looked like portholes that

398
00:24:46,839 --> 00:24:49,279
dotted the sides and went around the hall, just like

399
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:53,400
a ship. The moon was bright that night, so I

400
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,680
could tell it was gray or silver in color. And

401
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,480
there was a slight humming sound, but it wasn't loud,

402
00:25:00,079 --> 00:25:02,319
kind of like the hum of a ceiling fan motor.

403
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:06,279
My father started to slow the truck down to a

404
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:10,039
snail's pace, but my mother, shaken by what she was seeing,

405
00:25:10,559 --> 00:25:14,960
hissed it my father, don't shut this truck off. All

406
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,000
of us stared quietly at the object for a minute

407
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:22,400
until my father, suddenly, gripped by panic, pressed the accelerator

408
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:25,799
to the floor and pinned us to our seats as

409
00:25:25,839 --> 00:25:29,039
he fish tailed and sprayed gravel in a mad attempt

410
00:25:29,319 --> 00:25:31,960
to put some distance between our truck and this weird,

411
00:25:32,039 --> 00:25:35,839
metallic looking thing that my folks were at a loss

412
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:41,200
to explain. The vessel stayed in place as we sped

413
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,759
away from it, and my mother and father glancing fearfully

414
00:25:44,759 --> 00:25:47,680
in the rear view mirrors and craning their necks to

415
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,440
see out the back window, praying this thing wouldn't take

416
00:25:50,519 --> 00:25:54,640
flight and overtake our truck. At the time, I was

417
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,559
too scared to look, and I fixed my gaze at

418
00:25:57,599 --> 00:26:00,960
the dashboard. The rest of the way home, no one

419
00:26:01,079 --> 00:26:04,559
said a word, and once we pulled up to our house,

420
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:07,480
we went straight to bed, and in the days that

421
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:13,000
followed we never spoke of our unusual encounter. Oddly enough,

422
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:15,720
once I had time to think about it, I wasn't

423
00:26:15,759 --> 00:26:20,200
scared by the experience. It was more like a strange fascination.

424
00:26:21,519 --> 00:26:24,559
As the years went by, I worried more about what

425
00:26:24,599 --> 00:26:28,720
the naysayers would think of my story. Rather than risk

426
00:26:28,839 --> 00:26:32,720
ridicule from people who wouldn't understand, I kept my experience

427
00:26:32,759 --> 00:26:37,799
to myself. My husband and I were talking about UFOs recently,

428
00:26:37,839 --> 00:26:40,839
and I decided to ask my mother if she remembered

429
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:45,000
that night She responded with a curt yes, and that

430
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:49,880
was it. Decades had passed since that night, but clearly

431
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,480
for my mother, the memory of witnessing something not of

432
00:26:53,519 --> 00:26:57,440
this world on a back country road in rural Arkansas

433
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,920
still lingered. We both left it at that

