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A Strange Ride

 

I was always a skeptic when it came to the paranormal until I had my own encounter. Up until that point I was just a somewhat normal teenage girl, always curious, and always looking for an adventure.

Ten years ago, myself and 2 friends were just 3 young adults out looking for a good time. It was the 5th of July around 3 am and we were out driving looking for a party. My friend, who was driving, was told that she should take the "3rd fork in the road" to get to the house the party was being held at. Incidentally, we either missed the turn or never got to it, but we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere unsure of how to find the house we were trying to find.

Out of nowhere a clear July night suddenly became foggy and we were surprised to see several houses boarded up just a few feet from the road we were driving on. The really weird part was seeing a man or what looked like a man checking his mail at 3 am!

The whole atmosphere spooked us out especially an old church which seemed to be in the midst of all the fog. It was more than what 3 teenagers could take so we immediately took the next road to turn around.

As we drove back, everything, the fog, the houses, and the man was gone. The only thing that remained was the creepy looking church. I don't know what I saw or why I saw it, but ever since that experience I have become a believer of the paranormal.

Even 10 years later and moving on with our lives we still share this story with each other to confirm what the other saw and to confirm that maybe there's something else out there after all.

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, chria29, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

spiritwaiting (42 stories) (843 posts)
 
8 years ago (2016-05-13)
Chria29,
I've just read this experience of yours.

It's very interesting!
How awesome it would be to have known after all these years you experienced something so incredible.

It to me from what you say could be like a lot of the others, a time slip.

Or a residual haunting of some type.
You happened to watch a replay of a particular day in the past.
One that maybe the man you saw checking the mail, that early in the morning remembers, and is continuing to repeat.

Thanks for sharing
Spiritwaiting
chria29 (3 stories) (25 posts)
+2
8 years ago (2015-11-07)
I haven't replied prior to now because I didn't get any sort of notification letting me know I had comments. We were all 18 year old girls... Young adults...teenagers...whatever you want to call them at that age. As someone else said saying a different wordage doesn't discredit a story. I have read other stories up here from around the world and their english might be horrible, but I don't discredit their story for attempting to dissect every detail. It happened as I stated on July night and out of nowhere fog appeared and within the fog there were houses that were boarded up and a man checking his mail. After we turned around the fog and houses were gone only the church remained. I have no explanation for it and for years i've pondered what happened and I posted my experience up here in hopes of getting someone elses advice or outlook as to what I saw. It's incredibly rude to just accuse me of making it up. You don't know me at all nor I know you.
chria29 (3 stories) (25 posts)
+2
8 years ago (2015-11-07)
I was a teenager. It was the summer before we went off to college. I don't remember what day of the week it was but it was July 4th (well July 5th) around 3 am.
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-23)
Mimi, I saw that and hope she comes back to talk. I'm not throwing her story out with the bathwater, as it were. It's an intriguing idea (time slips), and I only wish I could experience one myself, it'd be incredibly interesting even if scary.

The only thing I could disagree with in her story, prima facie anyway, was her finding it strange that a guy was checking his mail at 3 am. I don't think that's strange, but that could be because I do such things myself (as an insomniac). But that's a very minor point given the totality of the story.

What may be strange to others is not necessarily strange to me, and vice versa of course. One of the best things about this site is how it has expanded my cultural knowledge and acceptance of different perspectives, already, and I'm relatively new here.

Lady-glow, I didn't mean for my smiley face to come across as [SMILE]. I didn't realize capitalizing a formatting command rendered it useless. Sorry about that! Here you go for real: ๐Ÿ˜Š And I hope you'll forgive any infelicity of language in my attempts at Spanish. Creo que es una lengua hermosa.
Mimi81 (203 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-23)
WillowWaly, OP's still around. She's made a response to a comment on her other story. Maybe she'll come back to this one when things settle down.
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2015-10-23)
Hi lady-glow, you said, "Willow: Uh?...does my simple comment mean that much? Really? Surprised" --- I don't know about simple, or that it meant that much; it was just a comment, one I responded to with my thoughts like I would with any comment. No more, no less. Espero que esto sea claro. [SMILE]

Hi RedWolf, you said, "Why didn't they call someone AT the party to find there way back unless there was no signal. In which point they could call as soon as there was a signal." --- I wondered about this too. I assumed maybe cell service was sketchy in a rural area 10 years ago (even now, I lose service if I drive just an hour east or south of my city!), and/or that maybe they knew of the party by word of mouth rather than knowing the hosts personally, since it didn't sound like they'd been there before. Maybe they just didn't have the cell #s of any attendees there? Or maybe they did reach out, but people were, y'know, partying and not paying attention to their phones? Just speculating.

OP, OP, come back and talk to we! ('us' didn't rhyme)
Mimi81 (203 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-23)
RedWolf, how do you account for the missing buildings if it wasn't a time slip? The church was there, but Chria said the houses were missing after they turned around and came back down the road.
RedWolf (31 stories) (1292 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
Willow
My point would be that it's too difficult to determine if it was a time slip because they didn't actually talk to anyone. Boarded up houses and creepy looking church. No problem it was in disrepair. Why didn't they call someone AT the party to find there way back unless there was no signal. In which point they could call as soon as there was a signal.
There is a whole town in Pennsylvania named Centralia that most of the people were evacuated from because years ago they used the mouth of a coal mine as a dump and a fire broke out and lit up the coal vein under the town. It's been burning for at least 30 years or more
Mimi81 (203 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
WillowWaly,very well said. It bothers me that people, who really may need help with a paranormal problem, might not post their story because of the way others have been treated
lady-glow (16 stories) (3157 posts)
-1
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
Willow: Uh?...does my simple comment mean that much? Really? ๐Ÿ˜ฒ

Like we say in my country "Hablando se entiende la gente" (talking is the way people understand each other), I don't think the O/P's silence is helping to clarify what happened or didn't happen during her experience.

And since chria29 seems to have nothig to say, I refuse to participate in further speculations about this story... It takes two to tango!

See you around.โค
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
+2
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
"WillowWaly: I'm just trying to explore other possibilities..." -lady-glow

I understand that, and applaud it, at least in theory. However, making a wholly subjective judgment about the dividing line between teens and young adults, and also assuming what teens might do in a situation (calling their parents), is not quite the same thing as exploring other possibilities. To me, it sounded like you were shutting out possibilities that I, and others here, regarded as entirely plausible. That is not at all the same thing as exploring other possibilities.

BTW, in a larger sense (not applying solely to this story by any means), I agree with Mimi that quite a few posters here have been treated with skepticism based on the commenters' ignorance of the OP's culture and/or religious affiliation. I don't think that's fair.
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
WhiteWolf, after fast-forwarding through more episodes of BB:FF than I care to admit, I found an episode with a time slip: Ghost Town. Nothing about it resembles the OP's story except the possibility of a time slip. (It was deemed 'Fiction' by the show's creators.)

It takes place in the American West, with a male military person whose vehicle breaks down. He walks for hours, finds a saloon complete with swinging doors, and apparently steps into the Wild West in the 1840s. They don't have cold beer, don't recognize his currency, etc. He finds his way back, and someone tells him that saloon has been closed for over 100 years.

This story much more closely resembles the story I linked to (the two English couples vacationing on the Continent) than the OP's story. I doubt this is the source of her story, because it shares no particulars except a somewhat predictable time slip. (I mean the episode was predictable, not the OP's story.)
lady-glow (16 stories) (3157 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
WillowWaly: I'm just trying to explore other possibilities... Still, it would be nice if the O/P decided to participate and put an end to our speculations.
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
+2
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
lady-glow, honestly I think it makes more sense that teenagers looking for a party at 3 am would *not* call their parents if they were lost. They weren't far from home. Their car didn't break down. They weren't on foot in the woods, or something perilous like that. It wasn't an emergency situation. They were just driving around, got temporarily disoriented on back roads (or *temporally* -- see what I did there? Heh), then later found their way. This part of the story is perfectly legit to me.
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
No worries, WhiteWolf. I don't see your comments as starting an argument at all. I don't even think a healthy debate is an argument, per se. ๐Ÿ˜Š

I glanced through some episodes last night, and which stories they declare 'fact' on that show is pretty sketchy. One of the supposed true ones was actually a modern retelling of a short story by, oh, I think it was Henry James. Anyway, it turned out that the two I suggested (based on title alone) were not similar to the OP's story, nor were any of the others I saw, but that doesn't mean it's not out there somewhere.

I agree with you, it's possible Chria had an experience (getting lost and disoriented late at night) that her memory later conflated with a story she'd heard or seen on TV.

Who knows? Maybe it's possible the 'time slip' thing is more of a folkloric institution than I realized, like the phantom hitchhiker, or the bridges with supposed tragic histories where you hear a baby crying, or see people hanging, or what have you.
Mimi81 (203 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
lady-glow,wouldn't you agree that how something is being asked can set a negative or positive tone for the conversation?
lady-glow (16 stories) (3157 posts)
-2
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
Mimi81: asking if the O/P and friends were teenagers or young adults may look ridiculous but knowing the answer would make it easier to understand her story.

I agree that people in their late teens can be considered young adults, but their situation could be different from 'younger' teenagers since at that age they probably would have moved out and it would make sense not calling their parents.

It would be great to hear (read) from chria.
Mimi81 (203 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
WhiteWolf, if I were Chria and people had started attacking my credibility because of rather ridiculous things, I wouldn't be responding either.

Here's the thing. Many people have around the world have reported similar experiences. Some were going to work, some were just driving around, some were going to parties.So, it wouldn't surprise me if a TV show had a similar story line.

I have never met Chria. I can't say with 100% certainty the story is true, although I think it is. But I do know that ripping apart a story because of wording, different values, or just trying to appear clever accomplishes nothing except making YGS look bad.
WhiteWolf (4 stories) (147 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
WillowWally
I might have been wrong about it being made up, it has been awhile since I have watched it. Not to start an argument but chria might have seen one or both of these stories and decided to write a similiar story. I just wonder why chria hasn't made any comments to defend the story. Probably doesn't care.
Whitewolf
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-22)
WhiteWolf, here's a list of episodes:

Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Belief:_Fact_or_Fiction

Maybe it was 'Stitches in Time' or 'The Wrong Turn'? Both of those are marked as segments that were supposedly true, though. I've never seen the show but it looks like at least some of the episodes are on YouTube.
WhiteWolf (4 stories) (147 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2015-10-21)
My mother is right this story WAS on a T.V. Show called Beyond Belief. They show several stories but only one is true. I can't remember what they titled the story but at the end they reveal the true story. The story written here made a few subtle changes but at the end of the show it was revealed that that story never happened, it was one of the writers imagination
Whitewolf
Tweed (35 stories) (2494 posts)
+2
9 years ago (2015-10-21)
I for one never grew up and never will. Socialising at 3am is normal if I don't have to get up early. When I was a teenager/in my 20's a work/school day never meant an early night.

Err with regards to my earlier comment I wanted to post it about a week ago when I read this story, but I was busy (too many late nights, see)...and well, yeah I didn't get a bs vibe from it. But I didn't mean to upset you Red, sorry if I did... The recent comments bumped the story and reminded me I hadn't posted on it yet. ๐Ÿ˜Š
Mimi81 (203 posts)
+2
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
I've always considered people in their late teens to be young adults.
lady-glow (16 stories) (3157 posts)
-1
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
TIME SLIP, it was definitely a time slip... Has anyone noticed that at the beginning of the story they were "...just 3 young adults out looking for a good time..."
And two paragraphs later they were "3 teenagers"?... They not only traveled back in time but became YOUNGER! ๐Ÿ˜† ๐Ÿ˜†
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
Oh, the whole thing could be a hoax. ๐Ÿ˜Š What a fun story, though. I haven't looked at anything else on that site, it's just where I found a copy of the story, which I originally read in a book.
dreamer01 (1 stories) (117 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
willowaly, thanks for the link. Interesting story but I too wondered about why the modernality of the travellers was not questioned by the people from the past, that makes me a little suss about it. Anyway, I will check out somemore of that site and thanks again.

dreamer01 ๐Ÿ˜Š ๐Ÿ˜Š ๐Ÿ˜
WillowWaly (2 stories) (97 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
Dreamer01, this is my all time favorite 'time slip' story:

Http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16773
Miracles51031 (39 stories) (4999 posts) mod
+1
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
WillowWaly - don't worry about it. This kind of thing happens all the time ๐Ÿ˜†
dreamer01 (1 stories) (117 posts)
+3
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
I think that it is quite plausible that they were looking for a party at that time of the morning. My friends and I would drive to the other end of the state at 3-4 a.m. Just for something to do. Having said that I think I will find a comfy perch on the fence for now.

The dimensional slip is an interesting theory. The is a well documented report of it happening to someone staying at a hotel in a country town in my state.

In the 1930, s there was a mine disaster where many people died after a major flood. The person staying in the hotel claims to have seen the victims in their room but the room had changed to another room.

They thought it quite odd but when they went down to the bar for a drink they perused all the old photos on the barroom walls and hey presto, there where the people they saw in their room.

Does anyone else know of any similar happenings?

peace everyone,
dreamer01.
Mimi81 (203 posts)
 
9 years ago (2015-10-20)
Rook, when I was in my teens the mere fact I had to work the next day would not have stopped me from going to a great party.

The way the comments are going has caused me to wonder about something. I know of several people who, when teens, had paranormal encounters when they were somewhere they weren't supposed to be. Besides those people I know in real life, I've read many real life stories of the same thing. I wonder if a combination of excitement of over breaking rules combined with the fear of being caught create a mental state that makes us more open to the paranormal.

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