Chapter 1 : Dreamland

My Close Encounters : Chapter 1 : Dreamland

Trip to Area 51-November 3, 1995

~ Are you sure this is the place? Asked Mike as he pulled his rusted old station wagon down a narrow gravel road. I'm positive, this is what my map shows- many others have traveled down this same road, including news reporters. We are here. This is Area 51.

~ Are you serious that the government has UFOs here? Mike questioned. Well, take a look for yourself. Mike and I looked over the desert valley 120 miles north of Las Vegas about 10:30 at night. It was a nice clear sky, but it was getting extremely cold. Mike turned off the headlights to get a better look at what just appeared in the sky Now, would you like to tell me what the hell that thing is Mike? Mike had no idea, though he was in the Air Force and flew many types of planes during his life but had never seen anything like this before.

~A bright orange orb almost as bright as the sun was hovering in the night sky slowly advancing towards our vehicle. I excitingly jumped from the car out onto the gravel road. I'll tell you one thing Mike, that's no plane, its flying too slow and it is way too bright. Damn, I wish I had a better camera, all we brought is this crappy 35 mm and I don't have any flashbulbs. Mike groaned.

~ We watched this strange object for at least 10 minutes. We would probably have watched it longer, but it seemed to be coming close to us. Mike jumped into the car and flicked on the headlights and when he did that the object completely vanished. It did not fly away. It did not fall to the ground. It was just gone.

~ I began to hear a loud hum in my left ear as I often had heard before during my other experiences with UFOs and my abductions. I hopped back into the car, and we continued to travel a way down the gravel road. We soon came to fork in the road, and I told Mike to take the left break-off. We then drove about 5 more minutes until we came to a group of signs. We got out to read them with the headlights. NO TRESSPASSING: RESTRICTED AREA. The signs continued to say that this was a restricted government test site that was part of the Nellis Air Force base. I wondered why would this base be unmarked, and about 120 miles away from the actual Nellis Air Force base in Las Vegas. The signs also said Deadly force authorized, for anyone who goes past these signs. We got back into the car and backed up a way into a side parking area.

 

~ We started to walk up a path that the car would not climb. It was getting terribly cold. Since neither of us had very heavy clothing on, we turned around and headed back to the car. Just as we started to walk back we saw these headlights coming toward us. A man with two young girls pulled up to us in a four-wheel drive Toyota truck.

~ Any hassle tonight fellas? The man asked. Mike inquired Hassle from whom? Oh, you know the usual armed military guys that guard this place, they like to intimidate people like us. I guess you two aren't from around these parts. There is a guy right up there along the ridge sitting in his white unmarked Jeep with his night vision and his long-range rifle. Sure enough there was a Jeep sitting there with a man inside watching us. We could hear the motor turning on and off as the guy was heating up his Jeep.

~ Mike asked them So are you folks out here looking for UFOs like us. I was thinking, Great move Mike, this guy could be with the government himself. The man replied Sure am. I thought I'd bring out my daughters and hope we could get to see something tonight. Mike then opened his big mouth again and told the man what we had seen. The man chuckled and said, Oh that was probably just a test flare. They shoot those things off all the time- in fact I saw one earlier over the mountain with smoke coming off it. They usually hang there for a few seconds and then fall to the ground. I insisted That was no flare sir. I have seen things like that before. The man said So have I kid. There is a lot of strange things going on here. I put out sparklers at night to confuse the patrols and drive right past the signs. I used to go out on Freedom Ridge, but it has been closed from the public for a while now. I have seen things down on that base you would not believe. Oh, I would believe it, I said interuptingly tell me what you saw. Well, said the man they have this silver disc shaped thing that can appear and disappear into thin air and secret planes that are a lot better than the SR-71 and the latest stealth. I'll tell you what, why don't you guys stop by the 'Little Ale'in' later tonight, its right down the road about 15 miles. I have some pictures there and I am sure they would love to hear what you guys saw. And you would love the 'Little alien burger.' Mike asked if we could see the base. The man told us that Freedom Ridge was where you could see the base from here. Unfortunately since it was recently closed, the only place you could get a good look was on top of the mountains about 23 miles away and it was about a half-mile hike - And dangerous. We decided not to do follow through with that idea - we had to be in California by tomorrow and it was already 11:00 at night.

~Well, good luck to you guys, whatever is down there is definitely not of this world, have a nice trip. We said goodbye and the man drove away. We got back in the car and drove back to the signs. I am getting a souvenir, one of those signs would be great. Mike said. I would not do that if I were you, that army guy is still watching us- he might decide to have some target practice, I warned him. Mike then got out of the car and tried to pull the signs out of the ground. I was imagining seeing him being gunned down in front of the car and I, being arrested and spending the night in some jail in the middle of the Nevada desert or worse. Luckily the signs were cemented into the ground really good. I was relieved. So Mike got back into car disgusted because he did not have any proof we were there. We turned back to head on our way to Las Vegas. On the way out of the gravel road, we decided to take the other fork in the road to see where it led. We went a way and began seeing dead animals mostly rabbits along side the shrubs and bushes. They were all over the place. Whoever put them there either has a sick sense of humor or a lucky shot. We had to turn around because all the roads came to smaller paths that only a four-wheel drive could travel.

~ As we headed back through a small town, I watched the skies. I saw a flare shoot over a mountain. It was only there for a few seconds and then fell to the ground with a tail of bright orange smoke. I then saw two very bright white lights hovering in the air above the mountains. As I watched the lights, one sped away very fast into space. The other light twinkled out of sight. I then was becoming tired so I turned my head and fell asleep.

~ "Wake up!", Mike was nudging me, we need gas, do you want to come in and get anything or go to the bathroom? Yea, now that you mention it, I do have to go. So we went into this little no name gas station-store and picked up some things. I got a soda and a candy bar and on the way out I heard Mike telling the cashier what we saw out in the desert, the guy just could not keep his mouth closed. Again we were laughed at. The woman at the counter told Mike that he had just seen a flare. We both knew it was not a flare- the government may tell the local news that story, but once you experience it for yourself it's not the same. We then spotted a booklet on the counter underneath a box of beef jerky. Well, what is this? Asked Mike. The woman just said Oh some guy leaves those here and we sell them. It was a guide all about Area 51, I turned to look up orange orbs and it showed pictures, yet not exactly what we saw. The book said that they were flares also, but that they usually burn out and fall to the ground and usually have planes flying around them. We did not see any planes, and the orb was coming toward us. Mike bought the booklet, and I read most of it but he never gave me a copy. It shown pictures of top secret planes and had numerous accounts of other sightings in the area. It was too bad I did not get a copy since I left Mike on bad terms.

~ We got back in the car and headed into Las Vegas. We were going to spend the night at the Vagabond Inn across the street from a big pirate ship. The lights in Las Vegas were just as spectacular as seeing a UFO, perhaps that is why the aliens show off their bright lights so much, just to amaze us.

~ We got into the hotel, but did not have reservations, we had those waiting in Pasadena. Mike threw a temper tantrum and got us kicked out of the hotel by the security guard. I knew at that time that I made a mistake by coming on this trip with a guy I barely knew.

~ I had been living in Denver, Colorado with a very good friend who found me over the Internet because we both like to research UFOs and had a lot of things in common. I could not find any work in Denver and Mike seemed to be the only job opportunity and a free trip to California would be nice since I had never been there before. I would be setting appointments on the phone every day for Mike and making $200 a week. I was excited, but not for long.

~ So we had to drive all the way to California that night, I slept most of the way. As we passed the final casino I started hearing a hum in my left ear again. I looked over to the mountains and saw another orange orb and it was coming slowly over the highway. When I looked straight up at it as it flew overhead, it appeared to be a large black triangle with a light at each end and a bright orange light in the middle. I did not tell Mike. I am sure he would have wrecked the car...