This was the first time I had ever driven across country alone. I had done the trip several times, but never by myself.
I was not afraid of the trip, and was even anxious to get to Maryland to start school right after the new year.
It was the final couple of days of the week long trip. There was a terrific snow storm in the Smoky Mountains. I had been driving all day and it was about 10:00 pm. I started to look for a place to spend the night. I occasionally had slept in the truck, but it was freezing cold and I wanted to stay in warm motel.
I kept passing large motels and there seemed to be plenty of vacancies in the area. I still had some energy so I kept driving.
I actually don't remember just where I was, but I began to notice that there were fewer and fewer buildings around, let alone motels. The divided highway had been reduced to a two lane road with all cars driving on one side. This was typical when there was work being done on a divided road. They would simply close down one half and open the other half, my half, as a two-way road.
The snow continued and it seemed to be fairly windy. I was moving along at quite a clip, probably about 60 mph. The old truck was doing just fine. I had good snow tires and my extra load kept the truck stable.
After driving for what seemed to be an eternity, I finally saw a large sign on the side of the road that said "MOTEL NEXT EXIT". I was tired and hoped I could find a place to spend the night here. I pulled off the road and to the bottom of the exit ramp.
Sitting at the stop sign at the end of the ramp, I remember noticing how dark it was and that there were no other cars on the road. Once in a while I could hear a big truck on the highway behind me, but there was definitely nothing on the road ahead of me.
I pulled out and followed the sign to the right. The road was lined high with trees so there was nothing to see but a wall of trees on either side of the road. My headlights only could be seen about 75 yards ahead of me and the road had about 2 inches of snow on it. I was having no trouble driving so I kept going. My headlights faded away in the streaked spots formed in the dense snowfall. There was a strange light reflected from the snow and my headlights that caused unusual shadows in the trees as I drove past. I remember the picture in my mind vividly.
Sometimes when I drove at night in the desert, I would turn out my headlights for a moment to see how dark it was. I usually only did this when stopped, but this time I was moving. I was only going about 20 mph.
I reached down and hit the headlight control. It clearly clicked off because all the dash lights went off. The strange thing was that the light in the snow ahead of me seemed to stay on. The only change was that it changed color slightly to a soft blue. I flicked my headlights on and off a few times and all that happened was the light in the snow ahead of me changed from white to blue.
Leaving the lights on I slowed the truck to a complete stop. There were no other cars around that I could see in the big outside rear view mirrors.
As the truck came to a stop, the bright light in the snow ahead kept moving ahead out of my headlights and into the snow in front of the truck. No sooner did I stop, my engine died. As the engine died, my headlights dimmed slightly. There I sat, dead silence, my headlights lighting the road directly ahead of my truck and another "light blue" extension of light moving ahead of my headlights.
I am not sure when I first noticed the sound but I heard a low rumble. This was a sound similar to the sound you hear when some car with "sub woofers" is next to you. Back in 1970, nobody had that type of speakers in a car, let alone out on this road.
The rumble got louder and louder. I looked out my windshield and up. All I could see is a bright light in the sky directly ahead of me. Above the light and above the road about 50 feet in the air, there was a dark circular shape. The light seemed to be more intense at small point in the circular shape. I could just make out the shape of what we might refer to as a classic "flying saucer shape". It looked to be about 75 feet in diameter. It was difficult to see how thick it was because of the darkness. I don't think it was vary thin.
I opened the door of my truck, and stood up in the doorway. The snow was falling just as hard as before. The blue light seemed to be some sort of search light from the craft. It was able to move independently of the craft itself, even though at that time the thing just sat there. The light really didn't seem to be classically sourced like a spot light. The snow and ground underneath the craft was definitely lit with the eerie blue light, but there was no beam coming form the bottom of the craft. The whole area seemed to just glow.
The light started to move towards me. The rumble continued then changed pitch slightly higher. I can still hear that sound. I have made it on my synthesizer a few times and it gives me the creeps. The light continued to move towards my truck, then the disk began to move the same direction. I reached down and turned off the headlights. I have never been sure why I turned off my headlights. I do remember thinking that maybe it was coming towards me because of the lights.
I looked inside the cab to find the light switch and when I looked back, the entire craft began to back up directly over the truck. Now I was really scared. It only took a few moments, it seemed, and the craft was directly over the truck.
I was bathed in the blue omni-directional light. The first thing I then noticed was a strange sense of dryness. My hair began to move. Later I theorized that I was being effected form some force like static electricity. I remember noticing that there was no snow falling around the truck any longer and that it felt about 20 degrees warmer. This warm feeling was all around me, not just coming form the craft but completely encircling me. It felt terrific. I felt terrific.
I could then look up and see the bottom of the craft. The light around me even reflected up to the bottom of the craft. This was the best view I had.
The bottom of the craft was mostly smooth. There were many shapes protruding form the bottom but there were smooth and rounded. They look much like they had been more defined at one time but were now worn smooth like rounded rocks in a river bed. The whole color was dark slate. There was a hint of sheen to the texture that reflected the light. I have tried to draw the shapes I saw on the bottom of the craft many times. I have never been satisfied with the results. The more I work on the drawing, the more I think it doesn't look like what I saw.
Basically, the shapes were circular and connected. There was some resemblance to the interlocking circles that the Olympic Committee uses as their logo. There were many more circles that formed the smooth bumby surface. Maybe 15 or 20.
When the craft came to a stop over me, the rumble then lowered in pitch again. A few seconds later, the rumble became more complex. I could hear other pitches in the sound. All the frequencies were quite low. The other sounds seemed like harmonics. The multiple low rumbles tones beat with each other and seemed to move around me.
I just stood there in the doorway, frozen, staring up at this thing. I think I sat there for about 2 minutes though it seemed like forever.
Soon I couldn't take it any longer. I jumped in the truck, slammed the door. grabbed the key, gave it a twist back to off, then turned it clockwise. Nothing happened. I tried it a few times, then just held it full clockwise "on". I waited several seconds, then suddenly the radio light came on and the engine cranked. Once the engine cranked, it started immediately. I turned on the headlights, threw the truck into 1st gear and pulled ahead immediately pulling out of the blue light and back into the falling heavy snow. I could still hear the rumble, but the pitch never changed again, it just faded away. As I pulled away, I saw the whole thing in my large 5 by 10 inch mirrors. I had a clear view of the road, the craft and the light behind me. I still could not see above the thing, but I could clearly see the bottom shape and the blue light on the snow.
I drove as fast as I could, and kept watching behind me. The thing just sat there. About ¼ mile ahead the road turned right and I could no longer see behind me.
I kept driving until I could make a turn. I made a couple of turns to get myself back to the main highway. Sure enough, a few minutes later I could see the highway ahead of me. One more turn and I was heading right towards the highway. I could see it elevated and with a little traffic. I had come full circle and was on the old road next to the highway. Soon I was back at the exit where I had gotten off.
After I got on the highway I drove for about three more hours. At first I was really wired. I couldn't believe what I had seen.
Finally, about 3:00 am, I came to a Travel Lodge or Best Western or some large motel like that and I pulled in. By now I was completely drained. I bought a room, took a hot shower and went to bed. I laid there for a long while before I finally went to sleep going over what I had seen. By the time I woke up in the morning, it all seemed a little more distant and the experience troubled me much less.
To date, I have never told anyone about this. This writing is the first time I have even put the whole experience into words. It's funny how the whole story came back to me so vividly after almost 25 years.
I have always avoided discussing the possible existence of life from other planets. I'm not sure what I saw, but I am completely convinced that it was "not from 'round here".
Only in the last 6 months or so have I made any effort to listen to or read other peoples experiences with UFOs. So far, I have never heard of a story like mine.
Greg McMurry
July 1996
