Wednesday, April 11, 2012

My UFO Sighting

Notice I didn’t call this my ET sighting. I don’t necessarily think extra-terrestrials had anything to do with what I saw in the sky back in 1959, but I do know that I had never seen anything like it before.

Luckily, I wasn’t alone. In fact, my companion, my then-roommate, Roberta Uzelac (now Nelson), asked me just a few months ago if I remembered the incident. The hair stood up on the back of my neck just thinking about it. Yes, I remembered.

Highway between Kanab UT and Page AZ

We were on our way to Page, Arizona from Provo, Utah. It must have been a Friday night, probably about eleven o’clock. I don’t know why my brother Ron wasn’t with us. Usually we’d have him and a couple other people in the car, but this time it was just Roberta and I.

We had talked ourselves out long before we reached the Cock’s Comb, a sandstone formation between Kanab, UT and Page, AZ. Coming through the cut in the hill, we looked forward to the last leg: a flat, relatively straight, uninhabited, fifty-mile stretch of two-lane highway. A dark, sparsely traveled, lonely . . . you get the idea.

It wasn’t long after the Cock’s Comb that we noticed a large, bright light in the sky. It traveled from right to left in front of us. Years later, when my husband was flying out of general aviation airports, I thought that landing lights on small planes as they were coming straight at you were similar to that light we saw in the sky. Only it wasn’t coming straight at us. It was crossing in front of us. Even at that, one could have made the case that what we saw was a light on a general aviation aircraft, except that its last maneuver was something no aircraft I ever saw could do.

The light had crossed in front of us, as I said, from right to left, going at a speed that we could ascribe to a known aircraft. Suddenly it changed directions, zipping up and to the right, crossing in front of us again, in an arc so fast that it seemed it must be a shooting star. And then, like a shooting star, it disappeared.

We were left in the dark, alone, on that uninhabited road with fifty miles still to go before we reached the cozy safety of my house and my daddy’s protection. My knuckles were still white when we got there.

I was so grateful that I had my roommate with me to corroborate my story. However, a few years later when I mentioned the sighting to Addy, our neighbor across the street, she said she had seen something very similar on that same stretch of road late at night.

Here’s how she described it to me a month or so ago when I asked her about it again:

In the early 70's, I was driving with a friend one night from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona on a lonely strip of highway in the high desert. As I reached the top of a hill I saw a large glowing ball hovering over the desert to my left. The light could be described as hot pink or light red. My passenger and I both exclaimed, "What is that?" We watched for several seconds and then it quickly disappeared. We wondered if it could have been an oncoming car's headlights, but there was no road in that vicinity and it definitely was the wrong color of light. I still remember it vividly, though it remains a mystery.

So, there you have it. I still hear the Twilight Zone theme song deedle-deedle-ing in my mind when I think about it. It was over 50 years ago. My hair is gray now, and I didn’t want to leave this world without documenting it—my gift to UFO research.

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15 comments:

Monique said...

That's creepy. I once saw a crazy thing flying in the air when I was driving from Amarillo, TX to Lawton Ok. It was about 3 am. I was right at Altus, the air bast out that way. I know now that what I saw was a B2 Spirit. It looked extremely strange flying directly over my car, coming in for a landing. I didn't figure out what it was for many years. They declassified pictures of it about 10 years ago and I knew right away that was what I saw flying over me. Still, it was freaky.

Pam Williams said...

Twilight Zone indeed! Or Star Trek.

Liz Adair said...

I'm glad you found an explanation for your sighting, Monique. There weren't any air bases anywhere around the Northern Arizona area where we were.

Thanks for your comment, too, Pam. I never watched Star Trek, so it didn't occur to me.

G.G. Vandagriff said...

Diddle Dee Dee , indeed! How creepy!
And freaky, etc.

Liz Adair said...

Yes, GG. Creepy and freaky--and probably with a logical explanation. I just never have discovered what it was.

Theresa Small Sneed said...

Wow! Chills! My husband has a UFO too... probably just some rebellious teens from a nearby planet breaking interplanetary rules of surfing earth! hehe

Joan Sowards said...

Fun story. Wish I had a personal experience to share. My uncle claimed to see a UFO fly over his backyard. It was an open-ended cylinder and a man standing inside waved to him as it went by.

I drive the Page/Kanab road once in a while. Next time I'll keep a better watch for strange lights.

Kimberly King said...

As I'm reading this, feeling very nervous for you, my cat starts growling and hissing at something out the window! Not the best way to wind down for the night! I love this story, Liz. Thanks for sharing!

Tanya Parker Mills said...

Fascinating. I can't understand why you don't try your hand at Science Fiction or Fantasy.

Shirley Bahlmann said...

I'm fascinated by the concept that fear is born of ignorance. Bronze age tribes think a lighter is a sign of God-like powers. To us, it is a sign of having enough money to buy a lighter at a convenience store. There may be a logical explanation for your sighting from the perspective of a different race of people, or at least people who live on a different planet...logic we have yet to understand. It was a deliciously creepy, well-written account. Thanks for recording it for history!

Shaunna said...

Your photo reminds me of Extraterrestial Highway in Nevada. I take great pains to only travel that stretch during daylight hours.

Julie Wright said...

That happened to me once driving home to Oak City. Luckily I had a couple people in my car to prove that I hadn't just been imagining things. CREEPY STUFF

Liz Adair said...

Thanks to all of you who commented! I'm interested in all the sightings that come to light when a venue is given to explore them. Julie, we should compare notes. Theresa, I see your fantasy mindset coming through. Joan, your story is wonderful and starts the creative juices flowing about a man with an eccentric neighbor.
Shirley, I loved your philosophical notes, and Shauna, I'm driving across NV this spring. Hmm. I wonder what highway we're taking.
As for your suggestion, Tanya, I never say never, but my prosaic mind could never stretch to scifi.

Susan G. Haws said...

I was just talking to a friend the other day about their UFO sightings and how it could be experimental aircraft. Years ago I also had an associate that told me of their UFO experience.
I appreciated reading your experience and your friend's.
I also enjoyed reading Joan's uncle's story and Monique's experience. I loved all the other comments.
I would be scared if I had a UFO sighting. But if turned out to be extraterrestrials and I were offered the opportunity to travel the universe I would hop aboard. (As long as the promised not to dissect me.)
I like Theresa's explanation.

Liz Adair said...

Thanks for your comment, Susan. I agree, I think it's interesting how many people have had an experience similar to mine. It would be fun to collect them all in one place.