Wednesday, November 17, 2010

More Trippy Time Lapse Tales!! (Featuring Special Guest, Stan Williams!)

Tonight's story is a very interesting, (but totally trippy!) time-lapse tale from my friend, Stan Williams. Thanks so much for sharing it Stan! :)

"The year was 1984, and I was leaving Fort Payne Alabama, which is Central time- being an hour earlier there, than in east Tennessee where I was going...
 
I was heading through parts of Georgia, on through Chattanooga, up past Knoxville TN. 

  
My wife and I, (now my ex) had spent Christmas in Ft Payne like we sometimes did, and the trip was a very familiar one (or should have been) for we spent considerable time in Fort Payne back in those days.

I looked at the digital clock just before we left the fan club heading for I-59, to see how late we were going to be, because I had called my sister in TN and said we were leaving for her house. 

No one really had cell phones in those days (or I didn't anyway) but we had stopped by a couple stores, grabbed some fast food, and had spent too much time talking to Mrs. Owen at the fan club and I was thinking my sister would be worried because I would be really late getting there.

The trip began normally, as I got on Interstate 59 north, and I remember going past signs for Rising Fawn and Valley Head, headed toward the Georgia state line, and then... 

We went into a fog bank, or at least that's what it looked like, and I remember seeing a vertical wall of fog in front of us. The edges seemed sort of wavy- or "wispy" is the better term, and I remember seeing the white station wagon in front of me seeming to disappear into the "fog" until I didn't see it's lights anymore. 

Then we were surrounded by thick fog, but it felt really weird somehow. Nothing I can put my finger on, or even describe with words, but I vaguely remember seeing the lane markings (sort of) and I was going really slow.  Everything seemed strange somehow...like I didn't really see anything until I came out of the fog a few minutes later.

Then as suddenly as it began, the fog was gone.

I was really glad, for I was starting to feel nauseous and sort of sick and wanted to stop somewhere. 

After the fog stopped, I saw a convenience store/truck stop, so I took the exit and for some reason, I was nauseous and felt really faint. I had to lie down in the car seat for what seemed like at least a half hour while my wife went inside.

I was literally sweating and took my jacket off, then laid back with the window open.  It was cold outside.  

Eventually, I felt better and had stopped perspiring so profusely. My wife came back out to the car and I realized that I was really cold, so I went inside to get warm and get a drink. (I found out later that I was allergic to the medication a dentist had given me) and that's when I realized that I was somehow in Tennessee already! 

The attendant must have thought I was crazy, because I remember asking, "Are you sure this is Tennessee?!" 

Sure enough, we were in Tennessee and really, just a short drive from my sister's house. 

I never saw any of Georgia or the places in between, and neither did my wife... just the fog.

We got to my sister's house and the first thing she asked was, "How did you get here from Alabama so fast?!"

I asked her what time it was. (By the way, it got 1 hour later on the way there, because of the time change going from Central time in AL to Eastern time in TN) but any way we figured it, we got there way early considering all the time I wasted. Yet somehow, we still got there over 2 hours earlier than we should have, from the time I originally called her from Alabama. 

I looked at my car clock and it had somehow lost almost exactly 1 hour-though it still kept correct time after that. 

None of that explains the missing space or places that usually took a while to drive through Georgia to TN.  Coming into TN just below Chattanooga, that portion of the trip that always took a while. We never saw it at all that night...just the fog.

I have no clue what happened, or how we actually gained like, 4 hours total that night. 

We have talked about it many times since then, but it still remains a complete mystery how we got there over 2 hours early, when we should have been 2 or more hours late at normal speed! Especially considering I was going so slow in the fog.

By the way, I do not remember seeing any other vehicles while I was in the fog, and my ex didn't either...just a sort of grey nothingness- and I have driven in fog many times.

I remember the fog getting so dense on the mountains in east TN that I would creep along and follow the yellow line until I got out of it, but it never failed... Going slow in the fog has always made me later... never earlier!

Except for that one strange time in Alabama, in 1984...

It would be really great to hear if anyone else out there (like perhaps whoever was in the white station wagon in front of me that night) has ever experienced anything like this. 

Lost time, (or perhaps, gained time, or however you look at it) defies logic... almost breaks the laws of physics... considering that the little 4 cylinder car I was driving, ran pretty good.

But nowhere near approaching the speeds that Einstein proposed for achieving time travel...especially in a dense fog! ;)
-Stan Williams


Wow...Beware the fog!

Well Stan, I think there just may be something very peculiar going on in Alabama, because one of my best friends told me a similar story. Her name is Sandra, and she and her husband Eddie, were leaving Alabama to move back to Georgia. This would have been around 1993 or so.

Here is her story...

"Eddie and I were driving back to Georgia from Alabama, to live with his mother because she was very sick and would soon require constant care.

We'd been packing all day, and by the time we got in the car for the 7 hour trip ahead of us, I was totally exhausted. I thought about going to sleep, but that didn't seem fair since Eddie would be left driving with no one to talk to, so I kept myself awake by fiddlin' with the radio, and rollin' the window down from time to time, to let the cool air in.

I read a couple magazines with a flashlight, and managed to stay awake about four hours before my eyelids started to become very heavy. I asked Eddie (jokingly) if we were there yet, and he said no, that unfortunately, we had (give or take) about three more hours to go. We talked a while about our plans for the coming week, and then Eddie mentioned that he was hungry. I said I could eat a bite too, so we decided that when we reached the next town, we would stop and grab a burger or something.

I then told Eddie that I was gonna crawl in the backseat and smoke a cigarette and rest a little, but if I fell asleep, to wake me up when we got to the burger place. He said he would.

So I crawled in the back and laid down. I lit up my smoke and we chit-chatted back and forth as the Allman brothers played in the background on the radio. As I smoked my cigarette, I gazed out the window at the night sky and though I didn't really think much about it at the time,  looking back, I do seem to recall thinking that something about the stars that night, just seemed "off" for some reason-but I was tired, so I didn't pay it much attention.


Now here's where it gets really weird...


Remember I told you we had three hours to go?

Well, by the time I flipped my cigarette out the window... we were crossing the Georgia line!!!! 

 Eddie was like, "What the hell?!"

I couldn't believe my eyes!

Needless to say, we ended up gettin' our burger in Brunswick, GEORGIA, our destination.

We sat at McDonalds for a long time, (very disturbed) tryin' to figure out just HOW IN THE HELL we managed to make a 3 hour trip in under 10 minutes...but to this day...we still haven't figured it out.

We've talked about it many times over the years, and have come up with all kinds of off the wall theories...but nothing solid. It still remains a total mystery.

I don't think we'll ever know for certain."


Trippy huh?!

This is normally where I would give my insight on the matter, but I'm at a loss on this one...I just don't know what to think about it! 

The only conclusion I can come up with, is that either they passed through some sort of "time warp"...or aliens swooped down upon them, took them (only aliens knows where!) and then brought them back and flashed one of those little thingys like on "Men In Black" in their eyeballs to make them forget everything? 

I mean, that is ALL I can come up with, coz it's just so strange! 

How do you lose (or as Stan said, gain time like that?!)

I've just gotta quote Mr. Owl on this one...


"The World May Never Know".....

Thanks again Stan!

(And by the way)...



Glad ya made it back! ;)





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