Truckers do see the strangest things

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The highways and byways are rife with weirdness, and it’s not always of the human kind.

I recently wrote a story for the Disclose TV website about a Big Foot sighting a trucker had in Northern California. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Disclose TV, think “National Enquirer” on acid and you’ve pretty much summed up the general idea. I’m a huge fan, because it’s hilarious and fun, but there are those who take it very seriously. I’m going to leave my opinion at this: you probably wouldn’t want to reference this website in a research paper.

My only personal Bigfoot sightingMy only personal Bigfoot sighting

Anyway, the story brought up a lot of conversation in our family about which profession sees the weirdest things – trucking, nursing or wait staff in a bar/restaurant. Since George and I have done all three of those jobs (he wasn’t a nurse, but he did work as an aide in a nursing home when he was young), our entire lives have been weird.

We both have creepy nursing home stories – anyone who has worked a hospice unit at 3 in the morning has at least one supernatural story. Our son, who is fairly new to the restaurant business and, quite frankly, ain’t seen nothin’ yet, told us about a lady who brought a pet rat into the bar in her purse, and fed it from her plate. I trumped that with my marauding skunk in the bathroom story from a rest area in Texas. George won the round with a story about a restaurant he worked in with store-room rats so big you needed a broom to protect yourself, but there was nothing you could do about the ghost who was fond of shoving people down the store room stairs.

Ghosts and rats, set, match.

We’ve both seen lights in the sky in the desert – there’s definitely something out there. I’m not sure if it’s celestial or manmade, but there are things in the sky of New Mexico and Nevada at night this ol’ Georgia girl ain’t familiar with.

I’ve had my eyes peeled for a Bigfoot since I climbed into the truck the first time. I’ve seen a lot of unexplained things, like a guy in full clown makeup, stopped and arguing with a guy who had a giant snake around his neck, in the hammer lane of 285 around Atlanta. I saw what I’m still pretty sure was an octopus carcass on the side of the road in Tennessee, nowhere near water or a place an octopus would be. I can’t tell you how many nights I laid awake wondering what the yellow hell an octopus was doing trying to cross the highway in the Blue Ridge mountains.

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We saw a woman walking, way out in the desert in New Mexico, 30 miles from nothing on all sides, carrying a Walmart bag like she was just grabbing a few items and popping back to the house, which was either imaginary, or underground, because there was seriously nothing around for miles and miles, and she wasn’t anywhere near the highway. For some reason, that one always creeped me out the most.

It’s definitely a wide, weird world out there, no matter what your profession. Truckers happen to have a great vantage point, so I’m going to have to say, they do see the weirdest things. I’ve adopted the personal policy to just take it all in and attempt to enjoy it, instead of driving myself and everyone around me nuts by trying to explain it. Have fun with the weird today, and don’t forget your tinfoil hat.

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