Mystery Solved

Sometime back in August, Jessa and I said that some things were better left mysteries. . . . and then, for more than a month. . . . . we left it a mystery.

Last night, we finally got a chance to solve the mystery. This time, though, we got it approved. . . . . Check mark one: Authorization Acquired! Step Two. . . . fun company required! A friend of mine was having a bit of a rough day, and so, we invited her to come along. She jumped at the opportunity before she even knew what we were doing! *mildly* This CAN be a bit of dangerous thing. . . . . *grins* So, she gets here, and we all laugh, joke, and generally cut up for a bit, and then, I ushered everyone out to the car. We had the obligatory 2 phones, laptop, iPod, GPS, spare battery, inverter, external hard-drive. . . . . we were loaded for bear, seriously. :-D Artax, my friend, happily climbed in the back seat with my 120 pound dinosaur of a dog, and away we went. . . . at 9 o'clock at night. Our destination wasn't far. . . . .just a couple hundred miles or so. . . . a mere fifth of my usual distance. . . . . we set out. About a hundred and fifty miles from our destination, fog began to roll in. Fog always adds such an eerie, mystical feeling. . . . . We were singing as we poked through the fog, "Goin' on a ghost hunt. . . . . gonna find a ghost! Got our camera. . . . gonna take a shot!!" Artax faded quickly. . . . . she, unlike Jessa and I, is not a night person. She did her best to stay with us, and feed off my exuberance and vibrant energy. . . . . it is a rare person who can't catch my joy of being on the road. After long last, we turned off of I-75, and headed down the Cumberland Gap Parkway. . . . the fog was so thick, we could barely see. Creeping down the parkway at 25 miles an hour, an eerie, thick silence settled over the car. 40 minutes later or so, we arrived at the highway we were seeking, and we began to creep along it. The fog settled in, denser, heavier, thicker. . . . . . a chill rolled over us as we passed a small side road. Jessa softly said, "I think that was it." We pulled off the road a little ways past the nearly dirt trail, and stopped. Artax was scared, and tired, and refused to come with us. Jessa and I grabbed a flashlight and started the slow trek up the road back to the trail. As we stepped on the trail, the silence was oppressive, and this sense of heightened awareness settled over us. The first thing I noticed was the SCARIEST tree I've ever seen in my life! Like, as in, jumped back 10 feet, dropped the flashlight kind of appeared out of the fog scary tree.. . . . My heartrate went crazy as I warily examined this wonder of nature. . . . . From that point on, things got very weird, very quickly.

It started with the glowing things. . . . . in the fog, tiny green glowing things could be seen. It looked like glitter, or something along those lines, swirling around. I tried to touch one of them, and it winked out when I came in contact with it. The deeper down the trail we got, the more concentrated it was. The fog was inpentrable, but it didn't muffle sound, much. Jessa's breathing was incredibly loud at my back, her footsteps clear. . . . . as were the scuffling sounds up the trail. I couldn't see a thing, and this is where my resolve broke. This site was well known for the "things moving in the dark" and the "things that follow you". . . . there have been dozens of documented cases of it. . . . . and I wigged. Jessa had a gimpy leg, and I'd promised I wouldn't leave her, so I couldn't bolt. She held me back, as we backed down the trail, since I refused to turn my back. As we came back out on the road, the swirling lights stopped, as did the scuffling over the gravel. I looked down, and realized that I was the only one leaving footprints. Jesssa was BESIDE me, not BEHIND me. . . .she wasn't walking in mine. . . . and her feet were just as wet as mine. . . . . I reached down, touched them. . . .soaked through with the fog. . . . we bolted for the car, and picked our way back through the creepy downtown as we headed back for Louisville. All three of us collapsed once we made it back to the apartment. . . . .