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Strangeness In Vehicles: Things Experienced While Driving (IHTM)

I've been meaning to post this story in the IHTM thread, but here seems more appropriate.

First, some background. This happened to me when I was in college on Long Island. I was not a Film major, but spent a good deal of time hanging out in the Film department, and took some classes there. When students shot 16mm film, they'd leave it with a payment for developing, and each night a department employee (usually a student) would drive the day's footage over to the nearby home of a film lab employee so he could take it to the lab in Manhattan for processing.

One quiet night I was working on a film I shot when the student manning the department asked if I wouldn't mind wrapping up so she could do the film run. She also asked me to go with her, as the house was on a dark street in a neighborhood with no street lights, and she often felt scared. I obliged (I think a ride home was part of the offer) and we soon departed.

As we neared the house, driving down a narrow tree-lined road, she said "Let me show you why I get scared" and turned off her headlights for a second. It was pitch black. When the lights came back on, I saw a large grey shape, apparently winged, pass from left to right through the trees about ten feet off the ground. We both fell silent for a few seconds until I could bring myself to ask "What the Hell was that?", to which she quickly and nervously replied "I don't know!" We soon agreed that it looked like a pterodactyl.

In retrospect, I now suspect it was a large owl, not unknown in these parts. But the pterodactyl image remains with me to this day.
 
I was driving down an empty quiet rural/farming two lane road very late one dark night when I realized I was passing what looked like an older square-fronted sedan with fins upended at 90 degrees in a ditch parallel to the road. I was past it before it registered and I said to myself "Hm. Strange place for an art installation." Then I went around the next bend and every emergency vehicle in the county was coming at me from the other direction with flashing lights. So I guess it was not an art installation.
 
catseye said:
Yes, I also suspect that the brain 'zones out' when performing a repetitive action like driving at night. Different if there's lots going on to keep it active, but night driving does tend to be boring.

I wonder if there were any such reports BEFORE cars? Driving a carriage or riding a horse tends to involve more concentration, but if you know the road well and the horse is just making its own way...? Did people have microsleeps during late carriage rides?
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lt happens today:

“On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, four frightened female tourists from England, Esther Miles, Debbie Sage, Christine Hogbin and Corrine Hunisette, reported to NYLCASS that they were put in harm’s way after a horse carriage driver fell asleep and kept nodding off, during much of a 45-minute carriage ride that cost them $100 — an inflated price, to add insult to injury.

According to the tourists, the driver was asleep, and not holding the horse reins while he was supposed to be guiding the horse both through Central Park and in traffic outside the park.

The four women expected a midday guided tour of Central Park and the sites, but their driver was silent and offered no commentary. After 25 minutes, a police car stopped the carriage inside the park and questioned the driver about the distressing physical state he was in, and reprimanded him for not holding the horse reins.

During the police intervention the tourists said they came to the horrific realization that their driver had been asleep or nodding off for at least part of their ride.”

https://www.nyclass.org/asleep_horse_carriage_driver_puts_tourists_at_risk_nypd_intervenes

maximus otter
 
Many years ago, late one night after a very long day, I was driving up the M5 and saw this out of the corner of my eye.
Nearly crapped myself.

willow man.png
 
maximus otter said:
lt happens today:

“On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, four frightened female tourists from England, Esther Miles, Debbie Sage, Christine Hogbin and Corrine Hunisette, reported to NYLCASS that they were put in harm’s way after a horse carriage driver fell asleep and kept nodding off, during much of a 45-minute carriage ride that cost them $100 — an inflated price, to add insult to injury.

According to the tourists, the driver was asleep, and not holding the horse reins while he was supposed to be guiding the horse both through Central Park and in traffic outside the park.

The four women expected a midday guided tour of Central Park and the sites, but their driver was silent and offered no commentary. After 25 minutes, a police car stopped the carriage inside the park and questioned the driver about the distressing physical state he was in, and reprimanded him for not holding the horse reins.

During the police intervention the tourists said they came to the horrific realization that their driver had been asleep or nodding off for at least part of their ride.”

https://www.nyclass.org/asleep_horse_carriage_driver_puts_tourists_at_risk_nypd_intervenes

maximus otter
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I would guess that these carriage rides follow the same path every time and the horse would just stick to its regular route and stop when it came to the end. Certainly a lot safer than being in a CAR with a driver who kept nodding off. Horses have got a lot of sense. But also, 'holding the reins' wouldn't be worth a damn if the horse was startled by something...
 
maximus otter said:
lt happens today:

“On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, four frightened female tourists from England, Esther Miles, Debbie Sage, Christine Hogbin and Corrine Hunisette, reported to NYLCASS that they were put in harm’s way after a horse carriage driver fell asleep and kept nodding off, during much of a 45-minute carriage ride that cost them $100 — an inflated price, to add insult to injury.

According to the tourists, the driver was asleep, and not holding the horse reins while he was supposed to be guiding the horse both through Central Park and in traffic outside the park.

The four women expected a midday guided tour of Central Park and the sites, but their driver was silent and offered no commentary. After 25 minutes, a police car stopped the carriage inside the park and questioned the driver about the distressing physical state he was in, and reprimanded him for not holding the horse reins.

During the police intervention the tourists said they came to the horrific realization that their driver had been asleep or nodding off for at least part of their ride.”

https://www.nyclass.org/asleep_horse_carriage_driver_puts_tourists_at_risk_nypd_intervenes

maximus otter
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He was probably drunk.
 
BlackPeter said:
Once when very tired at end of long journey coming down through the Peaks I suddenly found myself driving through an endless tunnel (I knew it wasn't there but could still see it!)
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At that point, it would have been a good idea to stop driving and have a short break.
 
I like this subject, so many times I am driving alone in the dark I see something I think is a person/animal ahead of me and it turns out to be something mundane when I get there.

I sometimes think if I got myself a strange mask and stood still in some bushes at the side of a road on the outside of a bend I could really make some drivers sh*t themselves.
 
One evening heading home along the A55, I saw a guy at the side of the road who looked like Jesus (or how we're told He looked at least), carrying a lamb on his shoulders. I cannot remember whereabouts this was, but he was on the grass verge and then went over/through a wall/hedge into a field (or whatever was on the other side).
 
Floyd1 said:
One evening heading home along the A55, I saw a guy at the side of the road who looked like Jesus (or how we're told He looked at least), carrying a lamb on his shoulders. I cannot remember whereabouts this was, but he was on the grass verge and then went over/through a wall/hedge into a field (or whatever was on the other side).
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Was he heading to Holy Island? May have been a pilgrim.
 
Seeing this thread today was quite apt.

I was driving home from a Bass lesson last night, and decided to take a selfie for a friend before setting off. After taking the picture, my friend told me there was a demon sat in my back seat. I naturally, pulled over to check the picture again, in a state of semi-poop.

Sure enough, two beady eyes sat behind me in the car. In a state of panic I had to look for a rational answer. After a minute or so of desperate searching for a reason, I noticed the two, piercing LED lights, in the headliner of my Mini. Crisis averted.

See attached pic!
 

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Floyd1 said:
One evening heading home along the A55, I saw a guy at the side of the road who looked like Jesus (or how we're told He looked at least), carrying a lamb on his shoulders. I cannot remember whereabouts this was, but he was on the grass verge and then went over/through a wall/hedge into a field (or whatever was on the other side).
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There was an article on a tv show about a man who carried a large cross (with a wheel on the base) along the highways and byways of Britain and then not long after that I spotted the guy walking around a busy roundabout close to the M27, I think he was in a perpetual state of pilgrimage but if I hadn't seen him on the telly it would've perplexed me to this day!
 
Driving my car I have had a lot of “ close calls “ from things falling off of trucks onto the road such as chairs, couches and my car has been struck by golf balls near a golf course, but what I hate the most is “ joggers “ !

Joggers hog the road seemingly wanting to play “ chicken “ with cars.

Joggers seem they are daring you to hit them.

I don’t know if this is true in other countries ?
 
ChrisBoardman said:
I like this subject, so many times I am driving alone in the dark I see something I think is a person/animal ahead of me and it turns out to be something mundane when I get there.

I sometimes think if I got myself a strange mask and stood still in some bushes at the side of a road on the outside of a bend I could really make some drivers sh*t themselves.
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In this cold weather I've been wearing a fleecy dressing gown around the house. When I take the dog out for her walks after dark, I've been wearing the dressing gown under a reflective jacket, with my hood pulled up to keep my ears warm.

There are very few cars that come through our village, but those that do I have noticed seem to come towards us at a fairly steady speed, then about 100 yards out they seem to catch sight of me, invisible in my dressing gown but visible in a reflective jacket, so, to all intents and purposes a walking jacket with a small dog, and the brakes go on.

There must be a whole lot of 'what the hell is that?' going on.
 
charliebrown said:
Driving my car I have had a lot of “ close calls “ from things falling off of trucks onto the road such as chairs, couches and my car has been struck by golf balls near a golf course, but what I hate the most is “ joggers “ !

Joggers hog the road seemingly wanting to play “ chicken “ with cars.

Joggers seem they are daring you to hit them.

I don’t know if this is true in other countries ?
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Before covid there seemed to be numbers of chaps in footy shorts using the road when there's a perfectly good footpath but haven't noticed any for some time. I'm In Australia.
 
During my brief career as a charter bus driver, I drove a college baseball team to Oklahoma, for a long weekend in which three games were scheduled. I liked team and band trips because the groups were well behaved and generally not messy. I usually didn't have to do anything but drive, so it was pretty easy money. We rolled into town, and stopped first at our hotel so we could all check in and get ready for the team to go to the ball field for some practice. We were to be back at the bus in 30 minutes.

Half an hour later, we were loaded up and ready to head out. There was one way in and out of the place, and it was a bit unusual since it required essentially circling the building. About halfway to the road, the coaches were in the front, planning what they would be doing, more or less in a huddle. The rest of the passengers were fairly quiet, which was normal. Then I saw a black cat watching our approach. Just stay put, please, kitty, I thought. Baseball players are notoriously superstitious. I decided not to slow down unless absolutely necessary, so as to avoid attracting the attention of any of my passengers. Just as the cat started walking toward the driveway, a coach looked up and said, "Is that a black cat?"

"Yup."

"Fuck!" The strategy session was derailed as I slowed to avoid hitting the thing. Lord knows what that might mean in baseball world. Things got very quiet in the bus. Practice went okay, but the team got clobbered; lost all three games.

Way back in my late teens, a friend was riding with me in my car. I mentioned that I had seen several black cats crossing roads in front of me in a short period of time and in different areas. Neither of us was superstitious, but we both thought it was odd. Before we could go on to some other topic of conversation, a coal black cat appeared to be awaiting out approach, at the side of the road, and then casually sauntered across in front of us. Neither of us said a word.
 
I've posted this before but I don't know where but I'll post it again here.

In 2008 I was living in Maidenhead. Of a weekend I would spend one night in Maidenhead pubs ending up at Smokey Joe's, the other I would catch the train to Marlow for a night out. It would be decided on which night had the best band at Smokey Joe's, the other I would do Marlow.

It was a summer evening and I got the train to Marlow, the only downside was the last train left Marlow at about 10 minutes past midnight.

A nice evening had culminated into being in The Ship at 11:30 and being in a nice conversation with a few faces I knew. The pub stayed open until at least 1am, another one later and I decided to stay until the end and walk home the 6 miles home. I was a warm summers evening.

So at 1:30 after getting the proverbial 'chucked out' I set off walking. It a moonlit night so not too dark.

I crossed the Bisham roundabout and as I walked up the Marlow road to Pinkneys Green a car coming the other way saw me in his headlights coming round a bend and immediately slowed and stopped.

As the car started doing a 3 point turn I realised maybe it was a taxi seeing me as a potential fare, or maybe it was much worse than that?

So I hid behind a tree as the car turned round and came back. It passed me slowly and a little bit further up the road it did another turn carried on in its original direction.

I'm sure to this day there is a taxi driver in Maidenhead who tells friends of the night he saw a ghost.
 
Iris said:
Before covid there seemed to be numbers of chaps in footy shorts using the road when there's a perfectly good footpath but haven't noticed any for some time. I'm In Australia.
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I run on the road. Mainly because there isn't a pavement where I live, but also roads tend to be salted and gritted when pavements aren't, so are relatively free from ice at this time of year. But I do get over on the verge when the occasional car comes (I mean that cars are very sparse down our way, not that I only get over for, say, one car in ten_.
 
IbisNibs said:
There was a guy like that in California too.
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Arthur Blessitt?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Blessitt
Blessitt came from America and toured all over the world, carrying a huge cross with a wheel attached to it. He toured the UK in the early 70s.

I think I may have met him (or somebody like him). I was forced to attend a Baptist church when I was a kid. Anyhoo, one day this family from America turned up in a huge RV, and the preacher man had a huge cross like Blessitt's. I don't remember what any of them looked like, but I do remember talking to some of them.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Arthur Blessitt?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Blessitt
Blessitt came from America and toured all over the world, carrying a huge cross with a wheel attached to it. He toured the UK in the early 70s.

I think I may have met him (or somebody like him). I was forced to attend a Baptist church when I was a kid. Anyhoo, one day this family from America turned up in a huge RV, and the preacher man had a huge cross like Blessitt's. I don't remember what any of them looked like, but I do remember talking to some of them.
Click to expand...
Did some quick research and Lindsay Hamon is the Brit version...he was interviewed by Simon Reeve on the subject of pilgrimage. I'm guessing the guy I spotted was him (Lindsay not Simon!).
 
Marwood said:
Did some quick research and Lindsay Hamon is the Brit version...he was interviewed by Simon Reeve on the subject of pilgrimage. I'm guessing the guy I spotted was him (Lindsay not Simon!).
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The ones I met were definitely from America, so it's certainly possible that I met Blessitt.
I seem to have heard of this Hamon fellow before. Maybe there are others about?
 
ChasFink said:
I've been meaning to post this story in the IHTM thread, but here seems more appropriate.

First, some background. This happened to me when I was in college on Long Island. I was not a Film major, but spent a good deal of time hanging out in the Film department, and took some classes there. When students shot 16mm film, they'd leave it with a payment for developing, and each night a department employee (usually a student) would drive the day's footage over to the nearby home of a film lab employee so he could take it to the lab in Manhattan for processing.

One quiet night I was working on a film I shot when the student manning the department asked if I wouldn't mind wrapping up so she could do the film run. She also asked me to go with her, as the house was on a dark street in a neighborhood with no street lights, and she often felt scared. I obliged (I think a ride home was part of the offer) and we soon departed.

As we neared the house, driving down a narrow tree-lined road, she said "Let me show you why I get scared" and turned off her headlights for a second. It was pitch black. When the lights came back on, I saw a large grey shape, apparently winged, pass from left to right through the trees about ten feet off the ground. We both fell silent for a few seconds until I could bring myself to ask "What the Hell was that?", to which she quickly and nervously replied "I don't know!" We soon agreed that it looked like a pterodactyl.

In retrospect, I now suspect it was a large owl, not unknown in these parts. But the pterodactyl image remains with me to this day.
Click to expand...

There is a bird called the Shoebill which has a tuft of hair on the back of its head a bit pterodactyl like.

Think that is native to Africa though.
 
Mythopoeika said:
The ones I met were definitely from America, so it's certainly possible that I met Blessitt.
I seem to have heard of this Hamon fellow before. Maybe there are others about?
Click to expand...
Not quite the same but about ten years ago I was on my way home from work on Good Friday and from my bus I saw a tall woman dressed in a hijab and a long black robe striding down the Balls Pond Road, completely alone. Not unusual except she was also wearing a crown of thorns. She had the most intense look on her face and the thorns looked very real, so well she might have. She certainly left an impression on me, I can still remember exactly how she looked.
 
Sogna said:
Not quite the same but about ten years ago I was on my way home from work on Good Friday and from my bus I saw a tall woman dressed in a hijab and a long black robe striding down the Balls Pond Road, completely alone. Not unusual except she was also wearing a crown of thorns. She had the most intense look on her face and the thorns looked very real…
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Tatbir on the Day of Ashura?

maximus otter
 
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