This is something that happened some 35 yrs.
ago on a lonely stretch of the Trans Canada
Highway just east of Winnipeg, Manitoba
This is an incident that happened to my ex-wife (before she was my ex) and myself. We were driving from Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada's west coast) to Toronto, Ontario, that's a 2700mi / 4600km trip. It was November so winter was already gripping much of the eastern prairie provinces....Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Anyway, we had a pretty rough days drive under our belts with snow storms and icy roads by the time we reached Winnipeg, Manitoba, so we decided to just by-pass the city and look for a motel on the outskirts of town. As we got past the city, the gas stations and other businesses and factories thinned out to nothing pretty fast. It took almost another hour driving before we found a motel. By now it was about 10:30 PM
We pulled in and went and got a room. It was quite a large place, lots of rooms but it looked pretty much empty. Anyway, we were so tired by now from 14hrs. of driving that all we could do was shower and go to bed. At about 3:30 AM my wife woke me up whispering "Roger, there's someone in here." I opened my eyes and though it seemed really dark in the room, I could make out silhouettes of people standing around the bed. I slowly reached over and turned on the bedside lamp. As the room flooded with light, these "shadow people" faded away. It's not like they just "poof" disappeared, they actually faded to nothing.
Needless to say, we got up right away, grabbed our bags and left. When we got outside, I was surprised to see that we were totally alone in that place. There wasn't another vehicle to be seen anywhere around there. Also, the parking lot was covered with about 6 inches of virgin snow, no tire tracks or footprints, nothing. I stopped by the office to drop off the key and it too was deserted. The door wasn't locked but there wasn't a soul around. Everything, with the exception of the quiet rumbling of my pick up's exhaust, was deathly quiet.
Well, the following May, we were driving back to the west coast and decided to watch for that motel. When we were just over a hundred miles away from Winnipeg, we started paying close attention to the highway. Mile after mile went by with no motel. Finally, we reached the city but there was no motel on the highway where we had spent that night. I'm pretty sure we hadn't driven by it, there was nothing along that stretch of highway to distract either one of us.
I was only just turning 26 at the time and I don't mind saying, the implications scared the crap out of me. I wish I knew then what I know now. I still get the willies when I think about it now. Because of my relative "youth" and the general mentality of the day, this story has gone relatively untold......until now.
Anybody have any thoughts? Thoughts like "This guy's nuts!" are still legitimate thoughts.
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Comments: 58
Really happened. God. There are more things in this world after all. Beautifully written Roger. What a thing to witness!
A world with attitude
Thanks Ku, I've no idea if it was a paranormal or extraterrestrial thing, or ............... indeed, if there is a difference.
-R.
Hey Roger! When I was about 10 or 12, I went with a friend and her family to their beachhouse to spend the weekend. That night, after we turned off the lights and shared many stories and giggles, we saw what looked like someone passing a lit match or lighter back and forth across one of the windows. We were actually three stories off the ground so it wasn't someone just standing at the window. It continued for a while and we became fairly loud in calling her father. We didn't want to get out of bed, or even move at that point. Her father came in, turned on the lights (gee, brilliant) and we explained what was going on. Her father figured we were just overexcited pre-teens and he flung open the window and looked outside. He actually leaned out of the window and said there was nothing there.
We thought someone could have a ladder and when the lights came on, quickly pulled the ladder away and turned the corner of the house.
He said nothing was there, go to sleep! He shut the window, walked to the door, turned out the light and shut the door. No sooner was the door shut then the flame reappeared. There were no noises from moving a ladder that could reach up to the third floor and it reappeared so quickly!
We ran out of the room and joined her step-sister in another room and the flame never returned after that. The next day we looked around outside. No spent matches, no scratching on the outside of the window sill where a ladder may have been, no markings in the soft ground where a ladder may have been or footprints. Just weird.
So if you're nuts, then I'm nuts, too! lol
Thanks for reading this Cathi. Wow, have you seen anything like that since? How about your friend? Are you still in touch with her?
-R.
No, we haven't had anything of that nature that I can remember. And I haven't been in touch with my friend since my teenage years. We sort of drifted away, which was actually initialized by my parents. Apparently they thought she was the bad one. Go figure! ;)
How easily our parents allow themselves to be blinded. Then, all of a sudden, we're the parents and we have the "perfect" children. LOL
-R.
Oh no! I know I don't have perfect children. But hopefully my eyes were opened wider than my parents. I suppose I'll never know for sure, huh? LOL!
Well told story! And what an interesting, spooky experience. Something Stephen King could have done wonders with.
I'm grateful that very few of S.K's stories, are based on actual events. I mean...............wow, Tanya, could you imagine. As I was writing it out I thought "OMG! is this anything like how Whitley Strieber started getting messed around? Thank God I don't have any of his memories to go along with this experience.
-R.
I read this when I got home and have been thinking about it. It's very odd indeed and I have never experienced anything like it so I can't relate exactly, but it's an eerie story. Thanks for finally sharing it after all of these years. ;-)
ah, I was just saving it for you Janell and all my friends here. Actually, it's just that 'here' I feel more comfortable talking about things that are a little on strange side. Here, other people have had weird stuff happen to them, have said so and seem much more ready to accept, if not exactly understand, the strange things that go on around us. Most folk here aren't so quick to judge or ridicule.
-R.
I think you're just more tolerant of some of the folks here. I have seen some nastiness here - just like anywhere, but on the flip side, amazing conversations and some very tolerant people.
I've always had a penchant for tuning out negative people and zoning in on the more calm, positive folk around me. That's probably why I like you. you're a pretty positive but mellow person. (most of the time anyway)
I said that people here aren't too quick to judge or ridicule because I've made an effort, with some of my posts, to raise the ire of certain people but, nobody wants to play. LOL. I get mostly intelligent opinions and some pretty amazing thoughts.
As for me being tolerant.....who ever heard of a tolerant Scorpio? Must be down to a Cancer moon or something.
-R.
Well, I don't often explode into fits of rage if that counts as mellow. :-) I think I internalize most of my negativity (though I do have seething that I share when I get home from work some days).
Whose ire are you trying to raise with your posts (not that you'll tell me)? I suppose there are a few people out there I can think of, but getting their attention might be your biggest hurdle.
I don't think I've known many Scorpios very well so I can't speak to the tolerant of others. I'm a Virgo myself, but I seem to be close to a number of people who are Pisces, and a really good friend who is a Taurus. Go figure.
Roger, this is interesting at least!
How we perceive certain events in strange places makes life so worth living.
To figure out what makes this universe tick is one thing, to actually HEAR it tick is another.
Shadow people, yes I know about them.
Whitley Streiber did start his journey in such a fashion, but his didnt end with simply leaving the area.
Great story and im sure it has had an impact on you ever since.
Always in the back of a persons mind is the echo of such experiences as this.
And just as we think we have it figured out......
You're right Gary, whenever someone mentioned Winnipeg I'd get a creeped-out feeling. I often wonder if the "lifestyle" of the late 60s and early 70s and all it entailed, had / has anything to do with my sense of perception. If, in this case, it hadn't been my wife waking me up and being a witness to this "phenomenon" I would of probably put it down to some sort of flashback.
Still, when I consider this episode, and then take into account other weird stuff that's happened to myself and other people I know, I begin to understand just how like children we are when it comes to understanding our universe and all it's dimensions.
-R.
It always seemed to me that the entire world was "in tune" back then and as suddenly as it happened, it changed. As if a veil were lifted and then put back in place. Some things we will never know, and others we can only speculate, but thats the fun part of life!
yes .there shadow people, you can google it.
Funny thing is Suzanne, back when this happened........1974, I don't think the term "Shadow People" had been coined yet. It was a phenomenon that was very rarely, if ever, mentioned. The majority people couldn't even say the words ghosts, spirits, hauntings, UFOs, extraterrestrial or inter-dimensional without snickering.
I know but about 7 years ago I took my kids skating & went home for a while till I picked them up & I was setting in the kitchen and all of a sudden 2 shadow people floated in from my bed room turned off my sterio & my dog chased them they went through the wall. So I know they are real. After that I googled them & found out that was what it was. Needless to say I slept in the chair that night.
there the same thing thats in the movie ghost with patrick swazey & Demi Moore
LOL.....obviously, you need to change your music tastes. Animals are amazing when it comes to things of an other-worldly nature. Especially animals that are bonded with you........they're very protective.
Was there anything different that day that could of either caused them to manifest or, caused you to actually see them? Were you down about anything? or, Not feeling too well? Have you seen them since?
Feel free to just send me a message if you'd be more comfortable discussing it elsewhere.
-R.
You said "I wish I knew then what I know now"-end quote
What is it that you know? You can email me if you don't want to tell.
OMG! Did I actually "think" that over-used line out loud? Actually David, if I knew then what I know now, I probably would've given that "motel" a big miss. I would of listened to that inner voice that was trying to tell me that something was "off" about the place. But, now that you asked, here goes.
I don't remember seeing any other cars there although the office and a couple of the units were lit up. There were tire tracks in the snow coming off the highway, up to the office and I guess, out again because mine were the only tracks from the office to a unit. The only person I saw there was the man in the office when I registered.
I guess as we "age" (I whispered that word), our intuitive senses become sharper or......, perhaps we learn to pay more attention and act accordingly.
I have been lucky enough in the past to of avoided a head-on collision on the freeway near Toronto, avoided, by less than an inch, getting my head blown off by my brother-in-law and his careless handling of a firearm, avoided a particularly nasty fire at a house party by turning around half way there and going back home and, most importantly, woken up in the night because my 2mo. old son, down the hall, had stopped breathing when a blanket somehow got wrapped around his face. (No baby monitor then) There have been other, less important incidents, too numerous to mention here.
There was no detrimental physical effect from our few hours at that "motel" but psychologically, it was an awakening. An awakening to the fact that there is more the paranormal, UFO, dimensional or vibrational, levels of existence than what frightened or less enlightened people "snicker" and "ridicule" each other about.
I guess I'm still here because I paid attention to my intuition, gut feeling, 6th sense, Guardian Angel or what ever you might want to call it.
Now I look for rhyme, reason or possible hidden meaning in everything that presents itself. I take nothing at face value because there is a cause and effect for everything and some(one/thing) is pulling our strings.
I just reread what I've written David and now I'm changing my name from Roger B. to Paranoid B. LOL, Man this sounds terrible. What did you go and ask a question like that for anyway?
-R.
FYI, I forgot to mention, my son survived the attempted "self-smothering" with the blanket and has presented me with a grandson born last December..... Still, I listen.
-R.
That's pretty spooky, Roger. This is the first post of yours that I've read, and I look forward to poking around through your archives to see where this experience has lead you.
Thanks Basia, LOL, hopefully the journey is far from over.
-R.
The same trees and hedges but no house. No rubble, no bare spot where a house could of sat.
If I can get a similar story from another person, then I might be on to something. We'll see.
-R.
-R.
-R.
Actually, even now I get the creeps when I think about that night......See? The hair on my arms is standing up and there's an icy chill running up and down my spine. I've seen "shadow people" on a number of occasions but the incident at that motel was the most frightening to me......., so far.
-R
-R.
-R.
I apologize Laura, for replying to your comment so late. I guess I must of by-passed the notification in my inbox. Done that a lot lately.
-R.
-R.
Don't get me wrong, I don't dought your experience. Has it happened other than this one time?
Tammy, don't feel bad, I spent years asking myself the same questions. As for the "motel", if I had been alone it would of put it down to not paying attention, being over-tired or even a bad dream but, there were two of us. We both experienced pretty much the same thing. Three days and about a 1000 miles later, on the outskirts of Burlington, Ont., (where I grew up and our destination) we passed a deserted farmhouse. This farmhouse was on what was, at that time, the main drag of this town but a couple of miles from the downtown area. As we approached the farmhouse I noticed my wife was staring at it, so naturally, I asked her what's up. She said she knows that house which, of course was impossible. She was a west coast girl, never been more than 400 mile from the coast and the style of farmhouses in rural Ontario are totally different from the west coast farmhouses.
Anyway, with only a couple of miles to go to my folks house, I made a mental note of the location with the idea of going back in a couple of days to explore and take some photos.
(I love taking photos of old abandoned houses). Needless to say, after getting "home" and making the prerequisite visits with various family members (I hadn't been home for about 7 years at this point) it was a week before we had chance to visit that old farmhouse. We drove out of town heading for the spot where the should of been and, you guessed it, it wasn't to be found. I drove up and down that stretch of road half a dozen times and accomplished nothing more than wasting my gas.
That's the only times I experienced this kind of phenomenon / spacial warp(?) As for "shadow people", well those I've come across on a few (once is too often) occasions but I'll save that for another day.
One final note about the motel, in those day's we didn't use debit cards and credit cards were rarely used. We paid cash for all our trip purchases, gas, food and accommodations and, we got receipts for everything for our records. When we sat down to add up our expenses for the trip, we had no records of any motel on the highway in Manitoba.
I have a good friend down in Perth, Australia who lives with a constant barrage of orbs and visitations by whatever you may wish to call them. Here's one of the videos he shot in his bed-sitting room. This video has been vetted by a professional videographer and graphic artist and is deemed to be authentic. After you've seen it (probably more than once) you'll have to let me know your thoughts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OXl9wNnrm8
Live, love and laugh......, always Tammy
-R.
-R.
I just wish I would of paid more attention to my English Lit. classes in school, perhaps I could of done more justice to the narrative of these events.
-R.
You might find my first post interesting too. I posted it last May 26th. and again, a "real" eye-opening experience.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977692687
If you get chance to read it, please let me know your thoughts.
-R.
Seriously, it sounds like you had a paranormal experience, even if you missed the motel the second time around. I have co-written a book about haunted houses around the world and believe me, there are thousands of them! There are also many, many haunted motels, hotels, taverns and other sites.
If that was your first experience, how did it affect you? Did you like most people, suddenly realize that those were once living people, now passed over to the other side? Did it change your views on life/death/etc. I feel that everything happens for a reason and I'm sure this must have been a pivitol experience for you.
You can write me privately, if you wish.
Martha