henry
still speeding
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2005
- Messages
- 3,794
this was a weird collection of events, compressed into a raw couple of hours
towards end august 2019 fortean sidekick and i were staying in greenwood MS ( now basically my second home), we had driven down to madison to catch once upon a time in hollywood, nearest cinema ... after, we met a pal for coffee at a taco bell right by the cinema, then around 10pm or so headed back north on I55
we had not gone too far when i had one of those "not seen my phone for a while" moments ... checking pockets while driving didnt help, checked console and vehicle door pockets etc, floor as best i could ... not anywhere
sidekick calls my number (we re both on uk phones at this point) ... phone promptly answered by a foreign and also strange voice saying HELDO-O-O-O
sidekick passes her phone to me and i try to engage the other party in conversation, i think youve found my phone, where are you etc but only that same response from him
assuming i had left the phone at taco bell and someone there had it, i hung up, sped on to next junction planning to cross interstate and head back ... the junction was for a town called pickens, a bit east of the 55
so we approached the pickens off-ramp quite fast, its dark, suddenly the lights of the highway were gone and there were only my lights ... i slowed down and leaned forward as we hit the ramp up to the road over the highway ... nevertheless i could see clear to the top with only my lights once i was on the incline
still hunched forward and in high stress mode i watched as what looked like a couple of big black dogs suddenly appeared immediately in front of our vehicle, a pickup truck, i only had time to start to turn the wheel before we hit, it felt like the drivers side wheel had gone over an animal and that the other animal had been hit but had got out the way to the passenger side as the truck had veered left ...
we slowed to stop at the top of the ramp, sidekick was in tears, i was shaken, we could hear one animal moving around and wailing behind us
the dogs had seemed big to me, very sleek black fur, and seemed stationary when we hit, no idea how they hadnt been visible sooner
didnt quite feel up to approaching the animal right off the bat so decided to try call my mobile again, phone had all our travel info on, skype etc and wouldve been a nightmare to lose it ... again the HELDO-O-O routine even after i spoke at length describing why i needed the phone, just hit an animal etc etc
sidekick still very upset (mainly upset with me) we decided to go south one junction and come off at the same ramp again and look for the animal from within the vehicle, rather than walking around now, or reversing back
so we drove across and onto the southbound ramp and drove 5 or 6 miles south to the nearest junction ... while driving i asked sidekick what she thought we had hit, she said 2 dogs eating something in the road, i asked if she had seen them from any distance before we hit, she said they just seemed to appear and that she hardly had chance to see them but that she kind of also saw them really clearly at last moment
okay so we came off one junction south and crossed to take the northbound ramp back towards pickens again ... as we were turning onto northbound on-ramp a big sleek black dog, identical to what we thought we had just hit, came padding up the ramp towards us ... it didnt slow or stop but passed right by us looking right at us !
both of us were of the opinion this was the same kind of animal, if not one of the actual animals
approaching the off ramp for pickens for the second time we came in slow ... crawled up the incline, stopped, nothing, spent 10 minutes there, no carcasses or blood stains, no obvious signs and no howling
at this stage i just needed my phone back so yet again we crossed the interstate and took 55 south back to madison, emailed my pal en route who thought we mightve left phone on the table at the bell and that it would now be gone ... i mightve tried to call my number again, not sure
on arriving at the bell i asked the staff but no one had seen my phone ... there were 5 or 6 guys in the back kitchen, kind of interested in what was happening ... so with a clear view of them i got sidekick to call my number ... and heard my phone ringing, first quite distant then getting louder and louder ... it was in my front left pants pocket !
got fuel before heading back, thought to check front of truck, not a sign, no damage, no fur ... asked friendly policeman for advice who said all we could do was report it to pickens police, he thought i wanted some insurance note, when in fact at this stage i was trying to placate sidekick and also see if the night could get any weirder
so we drove back north, took the same off-ramp and went into the town of pickens, which wasnt much more than the police station ... made a report and the cop said he would take a look later out that way, but stray animals get hit all the time ... i asked if the big glossy black dog sounded familiar, he said theres all kinds out there (great horror movie dialog) and said "next time you take the interstate ramp, look off to the side"
mustve been midnight when we rolled down the pickens on-ramp north towards greenwood ... i took it really slowly and as we got to the bottom of the ramp, i watched as the lights from the interstate traffic lit up dozens and dozens of pairs of eyes in the undergrowth and bushes ...
towards end august 2019 fortean sidekick and i were staying in greenwood MS ( now basically my second home), we had driven down to madison to catch once upon a time in hollywood, nearest cinema ... after, we met a pal for coffee at a taco bell right by the cinema, then around 10pm or so headed back north on I55
we had not gone too far when i had one of those "not seen my phone for a while" moments ... checking pockets while driving didnt help, checked console and vehicle door pockets etc, floor as best i could ... not anywhere
sidekick calls my number (we re both on uk phones at this point) ... phone promptly answered by a foreign and also strange voice saying HELDO-O-O-O
sidekick passes her phone to me and i try to engage the other party in conversation, i think youve found my phone, where are you etc but only that same response from him
assuming i had left the phone at taco bell and someone there had it, i hung up, sped on to next junction planning to cross interstate and head back ... the junction was for a town called pickens, a bit east of the 55
so we approached the pickens off-ramp quite fast, its dark, suddenly the lights of the highway were gone and there were only my lights ... i slowed down and leaned forward as we hit the ramp up to the road over the highway ... nevertheless i could see clear to the top with only my lights once i was on the incline
still hunched forward and in high stress mode i watched as what looked like a couple of big black dogs suddenly appeared immediately in front of our vehicle, a pickup truck, i only had time to start to turn the wheel before we hit, it felt like the drivers side wheel had gone over an animal and that the other animal had been hit but had got out the way to the passenger side as the truck had veered left ...
we slowed to stop at the top of the ramp, sidekick was in tears, i was shaken, we could hear one animal moving around and wailing behind us
the dogs had seemed big to me, very sleek black fur, and seemed stationary when we hit, no idea how they hadnt been visible sooner
didnt quite feel up to approaching the animal right off the bat so decided to try call my mobile again, phone had all our travel info on, skype etc and wouldve been a nightmare to lose it ... again the HELDO-O-O routine even after i spoke at length describing why i needed the phone, just hit an animal etc etc
sidekick still very upset (mainly upset with me) we decided to go south one junction and come off at the same ramp again and look for the animal from within the vehicle, rather than walking around now, or reversing back
so we drove across and onto the southbound ramp and drove 5 or 6 miles south to the nearest junction ... while driving i asked sidekick what she thought we had hit, she said 2 dogs eating something in the road, i asked if she had seen them from any distance before we hit, she said they just seemed to appear and that she hardly had chance to see them but that she kind of also saw them really clearly at last moment
okay so we came off one junction south and crossed to take the northbound ramp back towards pickens again ... as we were turning onto northbound on-ramp a big sleek black dog, identical to what we thought we had just hit, came padding up the ramp towards us ... it didnt slow or stop but passed right by us looking right at us !
both of us were of the opinion this was the same kind of animal, if not one of the actual animals
approaching the off ramp for pickens for the second time we came in slow ... crawled up the incline, stopped, nothing, spent 10 minutes there, no carcasses or blood stains, no obvious signs and no howling
at this stage i just needed my phone back so yet again we crossed the interstate and took 55 south back to madison, emailed my pal en route who thought we mightve left phone on the table at the bell and that it would now be gone ... i mightve tried to call my number again, not sure
on arriving at the bell i asked the staff but no one had seen my phone ... there were 5 or 6 guys in the back kitchen, kind of interested in what was happening ... so with a clear view of them i got sidekick to call my number ... and heard my phone ringing, first quite distant then getting louder and louder ... it was in my front left pants pocket !
got fuel before heading back, thought to check front of truck, not a sign, no damage, no fur ... asked friendly policeman for advice who said all we could do was report it to pickens police, he thought i wanted some insurance note, when in fact at this stage i was trying to placate sidekick and also see if the night could get any weirder
so we drove back north, took the same off-ramp and went into the town of pickens, which wasnt much more than the police station ... made a report and the cop said he would take a look later out that way, but stray animals get hit all the time ... i asked if the big glossy black dog sounded familiar, he said theres all kinds out there (great horror movie dialog) and said "next time you take the interstate ramp, look off to the side"
mustve been midnight when we rolled down the pickens on-ramp north towards greenwood ... i took it really slowly and as we got to the bottom of the ramp, i watched as the lights from the interstate traffic lit up dozens and dozens of pairs of eyes in the undergrowth and bushes ...
