Saturday, November 30, 2019

The Twilight Zone


Hi, everyone. Happy holidays.

I just had a weird experience. Weird. Let me share it with you and see what you think. I invite you to tell me your thoughts on it.

I went down to Florida this week to visit my dad. Of course I wanted to take my motorcycle but I had to carry several large boxes that wouldn't fit on my bike so I took a car. On the way home today, I headed north on a little-used highway between Washington and Baltimore. I needed to stop so I looked at my GPS for a place to get coffee. GPS said there was a Starbucks a few miles away. Oddly the Starbucks was the only business in the area. Usually on highways, gas stations and restaurants are grouped in bunches.

Now, before I go any further, let me preface this story with salient facts:

- It was the middle of the day
- I had not been drinking
- There is no history of mental illness in my family
- I am not prone to conspiracy theories

GPS directed me to leave the highway at the next turn. There is no sign at the turn. There is no exit number. The area looks desolate and I normally wouldn't have pulled off but GPS assured me there was coffee ahead. I wanted coffee.

The Starbucks was a few miles ahead. The area is strange, like a foreign planet. All the trees are burned down, there is no foliage or green plants, just ugly brown land and swamps. Then I saw dozens of buildings. Huge buildings of unusual shapes. There are strange structures near them that look like scientific equipment. Big spheres, antennas and odd-shaped coils. Electrical systems bigger than I've ever seen. All of the buildings are surrounded by high fences with barbed wire. With no signs. No signs!

Finally, at the entrance of a building I saw a sign saying "NSA Employees Only." Then I saw signs saying, "Area Patrolled By Military Dogs." Obviously I stumbled into a large, secret governmental complex. Entry roads are guarded by large gates.

"NSA" stands for National Security Agency, the intelligence arm of U.S. Department of Defense. NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information for foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. According to Wikipedia, NSA "relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine."

The area I found stretches over many miles. I saw no stores, no restaurants, no houses. Nothing except restricted buildings and strange equipment that look like props in a science-fiction movie.

I wondered why there would be a Starbucks in this area. Nobody lives there. Nobody goes there for any reason except to work for the government which, I presume, has its own coffee-makers. The site has a vibe of being highly-controlled, like prison.

GPS said the Starbucks was a few miles ahead. In the middle of nowhere with nothing around it. I trust my GPS and really wanted a cup of coffee so I pushed on.

Eventually GPS said the Starbucks was approaching. I slowed down and was going about 30 mph. I spotted a Starbucks store with a big Starbucks sign out front. But as I approached, the store suddenly vanished. What the...?! Even though I was driving slow, I guessed I'd missed it so I turned around. I headed back to the same spot where the store was and... nothing. No store. No sign. Not even a parking lot or curb-cut.

I made a U-turn and tried again. I plugged Starbucks back into the GPS and it said it was 700 feet ahead. Then 500 feet. Then 300 feet. I saw the store. I saw the sign and the building. But, again, just as I pulled up, the store vanished. I swear to God, it disappeared. There was no parking lot, no cut in the curb to turn off the road. I reversed course and on the way back, drove 5 mph to inspect the area. Nothing. There is nothing there. I stopped the car to triple-check. No building. No store. No coffee.

This is not the end of the story. The area was creeping me out so I pushed "Go Home" on my GPS. It directed me through some roundabouts. I was totally lost and glad I had GPS to take me home. But it didn't. It steered me into the entrance of a large military building. As I was pulling up to the guarded gate, I realized GPS was wrong and turned around. I went back onto the road. I re-pushed "Go Home" on the GPS. It steered me, again, back to the military site. I gave up and drove around until I found a road leading back to the highway.

What happened? Seriously, what happened there?

Pondering these strange experiences on the rest of the drive home, I came up with this. NSA, our most secretive government organization, conducts a variety of cutting-edge scientific experiments. They spend millions on developing stuff we don't know about yet. I accidentally stumbled into their nest.

I believe they've developed technology to create three-dimensional visual images, like holograms, which can be seen from one angle but not another. I don't believe they made a real Starbucks disappear; I think the store was never there in the first place. I was merely shown an image of one and believed that until my angle of vision changed. Then the projection failed to register on my eyes.

By analogy, I heard the government invented a way to project sound in a narrow path toward a target, like a laser. It is unnoticeable by those outside the target-zone. Obviously, the tech was invented for military use.

Why is this visual technology being used on a public road? Well, nobody goes into this area unless they know it is there. Nobody turns off a highway onto an unmarked road. The tech is probably used to demonstrate to official NSA visitors their scientific capacity to create convincing illusions. You can imagine a NSA engineer bragging: "Hey, look at this cool thing we can do!"

Well, that's my theory. What's yours?

P.S., If I should suddenly go missing, you can infer I was right about this.

21 comments:

  1. That is beyond bizarre. Your theory is as good as any.

    50 years ago on an Easter break my buddy and I decided to drive to Florida. About 8 PM we left LI and headed down to try to get to the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel by sun up. He took the first leg in his new Opel GT. We stopped on some dark road in Md or Va. for a P-stop and to change drivers. We did our business and I took over the wheel and had barely brought the car to speed when I was pulled over. These were not local police. These were the Feds. I was in the back seat of their car for close to an hour while I was grilled. I remember one questions was race and another was color. It was pretty close to the third degree. All of a sudden they just let me go...no ticket of any kind. Very odd experience.

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    1. Thanks for sharing. It's disconcerting when something odd happens and you get no explanation.

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    2. A friend of my son works down in that area. He is an engineer for the government somewhere near the Aberdeen testing grounds and he has never been at liberty to discuss any aspect of this work.
      I can almost cue the Twilight Zone music.

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  2. Sounds a bit like my experience trying to find a Chickfila. I spent a solid 30 minutes trying to follow GPS but just drove circles around Belmont campus. I eventually left.

    I'm more intrigued to know how your GPS picked up the imaginary Starbucks!

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  3. This is freaky. Seriously I would have been losing my ****.

    Makes for a great story though!

    Suzanne
    http://www.suzannecarillo.com

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    1. Yup. I'm following in the tradition of Spalding Gray -- telling true stories that entertain by themselves.

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  4. That is one trippy story! I like your idea of the hologram; maybe the gov was also messing around with being able to add a Starbucks to GPS? and also redirected you back to them as part of the testing of something?? So bizarre! I hope you are not too freaked out by it, Ally!

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    1. I'm okay but it confronted me with the new, possibly unknown aspects of government secrecy. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have been skeptical.

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  5. In the words of Peter Boyle (the Frankenstein monster) “Holy crap!”

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  6. That is seriously freaky, Ally, I got goosebumps reading your story. I agree with Suzanne that it makes for an excellent story, I was sitting on the edge of my chair the whole time! xxx

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    1. You may start hearing a clicking noise on your telephone now...

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  7. Oh how CRAZY! I definitely would've been freaking- especially when it disappeared so many times. Something is definitely up down there.

    -Ashley
    Le Stylo Rouge

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  8. Oh wow. I was totally caught up in this story. I felt I was there. I believe your theory is quite accurate and am glad that you followed your instincts and turned around...

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  9. So creepy! Like a movie, only it's happening to you. Stay safe and keep in touch, so we know you haven't been sucked off the planet! xox

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  10. Your storytelling narrative is excellent- I was really gripped by the way you described your experience AND freaked out! I got worried about how this description would end. That is frankly bizarre! I have no doubt that your theory must be something of that ilk- perhaps you were being monitored as you drove as some sort of experiment- it is so weird!!!!! And I second the comment above- keep writing!

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  11. WHAT THE HELL!?!?!? This is some weird sh*t, man. Definitely Twilight Zone-y. I totally want to try this experiment now and see for myself the non-Starbucks hologram :)

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  12. That is so creepy. I do love stories like this but I'm sorry it was scary for you. Your theory makes sense...I'm also wondering if you temporarily got transported to an alternate universe where things were a bit different? Might explain why the Starbucks disappeared...it exists in this dimension but not in another? Weird and I hope nothing else like that happens to you again! Don't want you disappearing!!

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    1. That alternate universe idea occurred to me. It was the main theme in one of my favorite sci-fi TV shows, "Fringe."

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