Episode 148: The Ghost of 85B

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share,

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_01]: send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. Trust. Believe.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: The Ghost of 85B by TrueEmergency5150

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_00]: This is more my dad's story than mine, but I think it needs to be shared.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_00]: In August of 2006, my family was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: We moved into this gorgeous duplex at the end of a horseshoe-shaped neighborhood.

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The house was built in the early 1900s and had an unfinished basement,

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: with those pole lights that only light up the small area around you.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_00]: In the basement, there were also the smallest boot prints in the cement

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_00]: that looked like they belonged to a child. Irrelevant but still strange information.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: The house had a grand staircase that only went from the ground floor to the second floor,

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: and a back staircase that went to all four floors, originally intended for servants.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_00]: The ground floor held the main living areas, and my brother and I stayed on the second floor.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I snagged the primary bedroom, which had its own doorbell.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: For a six-year-old, this was wholesome, but probably obnoxious for everybody else.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: My parents stayed on the top floor, which had an unfinished attic that held pieces

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: of original furniture. A babysitter once joked that vampires lived in there.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: About a month after moving in, a woman knocked on the door and introduced herself as part of

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_00]: the Fort Riley Historical Society. She asked for my family's permission for the home to be featured

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: in the annual Halloween Ghost Tour, informing us that it's usually a stop on the tour.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: She let us know that the home was host to a spirit called the Buckskin Ghost,

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_00]: as he appears as a man in buckskin clothing.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: We informed her we were new, and hadn't had any paranormal experiences.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: She asked how long we had been living there. My dad said about a month, to which she replied,

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: oh, he usually shows himself by now. My dad politely declined to be on the tour.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I think my parents either weren't believers or were scared.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: We were still unpacking at this point, mostly boxes that were in the garage,

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: which was attached to the back stairwell near the basement.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Dad noticed the light in the garage was out and went to change it. Completely normal.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: As my dad was reaching up to change the light, it came back on. He made sure it was screwed

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_00]: in all the way, climbed down the ladder, and put it away. When he returned to the garage,

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: the light was out again. Confused, my dad fetched the ladder. By the time he returned,

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: the light was back on. Frustrated, he moved the ladder out of the way, and the light went off

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: again. So, he set up the ladder, climbed up, and was reaching up to change the light. It came back

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: on. By this point, my dad was beyond frustrated, and yelled, stop messing with me! The light stayed

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: on and didn't go out for the entire time we lived there. This was our introduction to the next 10

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: months. Other odd things happened in the home, like the radio turning on to a static station

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: extremely loudly, and there were rooms in the basement that our dog refused to go into.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Anytime something happened, we would refer to Bucky acting up.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: While we lived there, we learned more about the base's haunted history. We even purchased a book

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: of ghost stories, which included our home. This book also featured a story about a little girl

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: who befriended a ghost and would play dolls with them. When that family moved out, the girl left

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: her doll at the house for her friend. Remember the original furniture in the attic? When we first

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: moved in, we looked in all the drawers. In one of those drawers was that doll, something I didn't

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: learn about until months later. I don't know what happened to the doll, but I only saw it once.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: For the most part though, nothing too terrifying happened in that house.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That was until my dad stayed there by himself. My dad was a night pilot, meaning he usually slept

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: during the day. One day, he was woken up by the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: from the base level. My dad got up, opened the door, and asked if anyone was there.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Immediately, the noise stopped. He went to check the window overlooking the street

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: to see if a service van was at the house. For those who haven't lived on a military base,

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: they occasionally send people to the home to do things like change the air filters.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: My dad didn't see anything and went back to bed. He was woken up again by the sound of heavy

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: footsteps, this time on what he perceived to be the second floor. My dad shot out of bed

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and went to the door, but as soon as he opened it, the noises stopped. He yelled again,

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: is anyone there? No response. So he laid back down. My dad then heard furniture moving in the

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_00]: room opposite the wall from the bed, the one with the original furniture. He jumped out of bed

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: and left the house without a second thought. It wasn't until he was at work later that he

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_00]: realized he'd be going back home alone and began questioning what was in the house with him.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I was six when all this went down, and for years we've talked about these experiences

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and others that happened there to friends and family. We've continued to check for more stories

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: online about this house. Others have also experienced a friendly but mischievous ghost,

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: affectionately called Bucky. I've had other strange experiences throughout my life,

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and I believe this house is what opened me up to them. I'm now dating a man who is a skeptic.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: While visiting my home in Florida, my dad told him this story. The light in the kitchen was

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: flickering throughout his retelling. Jokingly, my boyfriend yelled, stop messing with me,

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: when it flickered off. The light immediately turned on and stayed on for the rest of our visit.

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Look up Ghost of 85B, Sheffield Circle, Fort Riley, Kansas. There are plenty of other stories

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: from this base that deserve to be heard. I encourage others to do some research on this

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_00]: military base. And if you live in this house, please let Bucky's story be told on the ghost tour.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Intruder by singlejoke7888 This happened when I was six or seven.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_01]: While this happened quite a while ago, I remember the incident very clearly.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_01]: My family and I were living with our grandparents at the time as they had a very big house. They

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_01]: had a five story house, but only the second floor was occupied while most of the rest of the house

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_01]: was unused. The only other floor that was used was the first floor as we had to enter and exit

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_01]: the house from there. The rest of the floors were empty with long sprawling hallways and old wooden

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_01]: doors. The house was located in the middle of a busy neighborhood in my city. It was a really old

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: house with interlocking metal chain gates on every floor, which were locked by my grandfather.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Before 9pm, our neighborhood was full of life and sounds of vehicles. But after 9pm,

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: the place became a vacant graveyard and stayed that way until about 630 in the morning.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: One night as the neighborhood was winding down for the night, as usual, my grandfather started

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: chaining the metal gate outside closed. It seemed like any other normal evening until my family went

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: to sleep at around 1030 or 11. That was when my grandfather heard someone fidgeting with the lock

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and the chain at the door on the first floor. Remember, we also had locks and chains on the

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_01]: doors inside. Assuming that it was me, my grandfather called out in Hindi,

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_01]: don't play with the gate, go to sleep. After that, my grandfather swore that he heard footsteps

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_01]: of somebody running upstairs with the lock loudly hitting the steel from being flung open.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_01]: After hearing this, my grandfather grabbed his torch, walked to the main door on the second floor

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and shined the torch out on the darkness. He was certain that he saw someone's leg, so he screamed,

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_01]: waking everyone up. My mom rushed to see what was going on and found my grandfather scared,

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_01]: leaning against the wall with this torch that had fallen on the ground.

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_01]: He was scared because he used to have a tenant. Someone used to rent a whole level of the house.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_01]: The tenant was a man who lived there for a few years until he killed himself. My grandfather

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_01]: found the body after the man had been dead for three days. That incident shocked him and he didn't

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_01]: want another tenant after that, so thinking that he saw someone in the house really messed with him.

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_01]: This caused his mental health to decline and he was deeply paranoid for the last few years of his

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_01]: life. After this night, sometimes my family swore that they would hear sounds of footsteps

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_01]: dragging and things falling from upstairs in the unoccupied floors of the house.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a period of time after this when my grandfather and grandmother lived in that same

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_01]: huge house all alone, and at night my grandfather would see ghosts and figures slithering around.

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[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Randomly teleporting by Shisario

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Something really strange has been happening lately. And I know I'm not crazy because friends

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: of mine have experienced this with me on two separate occasions. I swear I'm teleporting across

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_00]: town somehow. This has happened to me three times and it's seriously starting to freak me out.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It happened for the third time less than an hour before I started writing these words.

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I was riding in my friend's car, heading back to my place from a movie theater

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_00]: on the opposite side of town. A trip that normally would have taken around 15 minutes.

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_00]: It took us 5. I noticed what had happened almost immediately,

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_00]: but I didn't want to say anything until my friend Eric did, out of fear of sounding crazy.

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_00]: During the drive, we randomly ended up downtown, close to my place, much sooner than we should

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_00]: have. The transition was so seamless that I couldn't tell the difference, until I saw man-made

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_00]: landmarks like buildings. Eric mentioned that he didn't make any of the usual turns needed to get

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_00]: there. We just ended up there. We weren't distracted by conversation or anything, and both

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: of us were stone cold sober. Then, Eric started to freak out a little. I told him about my other

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_00]: experiences, more on those later. We made it to my place and decompressed for a little bit before he

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_00]: left. In the car, I told Eric about the other two events. The very first time I had something like

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: that happen, I was walking to a gas station to grab a snack after work, and somehow ended up

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_00]: walking on a street a mile down the road. No time had passed at all, and I know this because I check

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_00]: my watch fairly often. The second experience was the most drastic of the three that I've had.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00]: I was in the car with another friend of mine, Jay, and we were on our way to Walmart,

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_00]: a 30 minute drive away from his place one morning. We ended up getting there in 10 minutes.

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_00]: He noticed what had happened shortly after we started the drive.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_00]: We had taken a turn onto this more scenic road in my state of Virginia, which leads straight to

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_00]: North Carolina. Instead of heading toward North Carolina, we ended up on a very similar road,

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: much closer to that Walmart within a matter of seconds. The transition was nearly unnoticeable

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_00]: until I saw buildings I recognized from the part of town where the Walmart is.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_00]: That experience freaked me out too. I have no clue what's going on, and to be honest,

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm really scared. I don't know what's happening, and I want to find out. Has anyone else experienced

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_00]: this? Another thing that happens, and this has been consistent all three times, is that I,

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_00]: along with Eric and Jay, get this horrible burning sensation in our lower chests,

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_00]: along with an awful sense of uneasiness. Standing up after an experience like that

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_00]: feels like a burden, and walking around becomes awkward and clumsy.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: All three times I've had this happen, we've been completely sober. Please help,

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I just want to know what the hell is going on.

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Does anyone know the history of Columbus, Ohio in Franklin County by Grape Energy?

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a single mom of two children. I moved to Ohio a few years ago from another state,

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: but I've never been close to, traveled through, or visited Columbus my entire life. In the last

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_01]: two years, I've had a handful of lucid dreams where I know I'm dreaming in the middle of the

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_01]: dream and I call out to the characters. The dreams would get either bizarre or frightening

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_01]: after my discovery. It's getting to the point where I either have no dream at all,

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_01]: or I have a lucid dream. I don't bring this on, in fact, I would like them to stop.

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_01]: A few days ago, the dream I had went from frightening to mortifying. I dreamt that I

[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_01]: woke up and saw three people in my living room. I could see them from my perspective in my

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_01]: bedroom. I immediately hid the kids in the closet and confronted the people yelling at them to get

[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_01]: out of the house. I kept yelling until I noticed that they weren't moving and were laughing this

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: sinister laugh. What's so funny? I asked, gritting my teeth. They said, we're not in your house.

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You're in your house. Go outside if you don't believe us. I stepped outside and the house looked

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_01]: completely different from my own and had a different set of numbers on top of the door.

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: When I walked back in, the house morphed entirely into a different house. They were sitting in

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_01]: different spots but hadn't changed their expressions or the positions of their bodies.

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_01]: They were still facing me. I asked where I was and they told me the street and city.

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: At that moment, I realized I was dreaming but before I could stop myself, I yelled,

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_01]: you guys aren't real, you're demons. Even I was shocked by my abrupt accusation. It didn't feel

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_01]: like I was the one saying it though. It felt like someone else was speaking through me.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I caught myself and said, just kidding and started nervously laughing. The male of the

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_01]: group spoke up and told me that I wasn't dreaming and that this was the end for me.

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I asked for clarification and he said without blinking, ma'am, you're dead. We're the ones

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01]: that are still alive. He then asked in this customer service sounding voice if there was

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_01]: anything else he could help me with. I replied, yes, wake me up. As I woke up, my child who still

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_01]: sleeps with me reached their arm around me. I said, oh, good morning, sweetie. Did you have nice

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_01]: dreams? I can't remember their response but they spoke clearly with no errors. They have a speech

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_01]: delay and I immediately knew that it wasn't them because of this. I tried to get out of their grip

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_01]: but I couldn't. I started freaking out. After what felt like an eternity of struggling, I finally woke

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_01]: up for real. A couple of hours after I took my kids to camp, I decided to look up the specific

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_01]: address I surprisingly remembered. For privacy reasons, I'm obviously not going to share the

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_01]: address. I don't know the people who live there but I will say it's located in Franklin County,

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Columbus, Ohio. The house looked exactly like the one in my dream down to the font and size of the

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_01]: numbers on the door. I don't believe in astral projection but that's the only explanation I can

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_01]: come up with. I've never been anywhere near this house. Does anyone know if anything has happened

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_01]: in this area that could explain this or is it just a coincidence and my brain is playing tricks on me?

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry this was so long but I needed to be precise. If you read to the end, thank you so very much.

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_00]: The property is surrounded by a dense forest so the only thing you could really see when

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_00]: looking out the window is the hill leading down to the lake and boats.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It was maybe 9pm when a bunch of us decided to light a fire down by the lake.

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_00]: My grandparents, aunt and mom decided not to go because it was getting late. We just wanted to

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_00]: look out at the lake, stargaze and chat. We brought two of the dogs with us. After about

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_00]: an hour of hanging out by the fire, the conversation had fizzled out but it was a nice silence.

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly I started feeling a bit off and couldn't shake the feeling of being watched from the woods.

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: We were sitting with our backs facing the woods and the cabin. The feeling was unsettling

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_00]: but I tried thinking about other things when out of nowhere my dad just said,

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_00]: yes I'm good. Everyone turned to look at him in confusion since there was no conversation taking

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_00]: place. He looked back at the cabin and then at my cousin who was sitting next to him and said,

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah I'm doing good. What? She responded confused.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_00]: You asked me how I was doing so I answered, my dad said. I didn't ask you anything, my cousin said.

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_00]: My dad looked confused and then said he had felt someone lean over and whisper in his ear,

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_00]: hello how are you? He even described feeling breath against his neck and felt a hand rest

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_00]: on his shoulder. He thought it was my mom at first and turned around but didn't see anything.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Right after explaining this the dogs started growling loudly while looking behind where my

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_00]: dad was sitting towards the woods. We all freaked out, put out the fire and started running towards

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_00]: the cabin. Ever since that happened we haven't gone outside the cabin after dark. It's a memory

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_00]: that I'll never forget but whatever it was at least it was nice enough to ask my dad how he was

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: doing. Truck stops are either haunted or portals to hell by cake crumbs. I worked in the truck stop

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_01]: industry for about 15 years. All of the following stories took place at the same location. I worked

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_01]: there for less than 18 months. If people are interested I have other stories from other

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_01]: locations but this one had the most frequent occurrences of weird stuff happening. I was given

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the opportunity to help open this brand new location and since it came with a fat raise and

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_01]: a promotion I definitely accepted. It's now been about five years since that location opened. I don't

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: believe there is a single employee left from the over 60 people that we hired prior to opening day.

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_01]: On opening day not long after the ribbon cutting ceremony a woman who was delivering flowers

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_01]: dropped them on her sandaled foot slicing it open and bleeding all over the entrance.

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Within a week of being open we had water and sewage coming up through the drains including

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_01]: the outside sewage ones across the property. It hadn't been raining and it wasn't a flood situation

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_01]: weather-wise. We had no idea what caused it to suddenly happen and just as quickly as it started

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_01]: it stopped. The plumbers were even baffled. A couple of months after we opened we faced a

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_01]: severe storm that destroyed the high-rise interstate sign and caused a seven hour power outage.

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I had sent several people home but kept a couple of employees in case the power came back on.

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_01]: As we sat in the restaurant dining room chatting under an electric lantern an employee who was a

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_01]: local resident mentioned that people were a little worried when this place was announced to be built

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_01]: because the property had been rumored to be a Native American burial ground for years.

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I have zero way to prove or disprove if that's accurate but given the events that kept

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_01]: getting more serious as time went on it makes you wonder. When the power came back on despite the

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_01]: several steps I had taken like unplugging all the equipment to avoid frying anything

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_01]: we lost several pieces of expensive equipment. Some of this equipment was critical causing major

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: operational problems for weeks until it could be replaced. The first winter after we opened was the

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_01]: coldest in years so cold that we had to buy space heaters for the servers in the electrical room so

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_01]: they wouldn't freeze. We had issues with frozen pipes especially in the truck care center and

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_01]: restaurant. Six months after opening was the first death. A truck driver came in to take a

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_01]: shower in one of the shower rooms and we had sensors on the door to let us know how long someone

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_01]: had been in there. If the timer had been going for a couple of hours we would knock on the door to

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_01]: see if they had left so that we could clean it for the next driver. An employee knocked on the

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_01]: door of the shower that had been in use for a couple of hours and there wasn't an answer.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_01]: She used the key to open the door and the driver was on the floor. He had died of a stroke. He had

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_01]: been driving a semi-truck for just 30 minutes before he entered that room. The employee who

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_01]: found him was significantly traumatized. The company did a great job offering their support

[00:29:33] [SPEAKER_01]: but she didn't last much longer after that. A few weeks later was one of the weirdest things

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I had ever seen. I was working on the restaurant side of the truck stop as the restaurant manager

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_01]: had quit after a series of bad things happened to her and they asked me to temporarily take over.

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_01]: The assistant manager on the store side came over because something freaky had just happened.

[00:29:57] [SPEAKER_01]: She pulled me into the office and showed me the camera footage of what went down.

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_01]: A small four-door sedan pulls into the lot but doesn't park on the gas station side. Instead

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_01]: it pulls into the truck stop side where the semi-trucks park. The car stops next to the

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_01]: maintenance shed which is adjacent to the main building and very close to a large trash compactor.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_01]: The driver gets out, opens the car doors and pulls out a trash bag. He throws the trash bag on top

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_01]: of the compactor, gets back in his car and leaves the property. I don't remember exactly how long

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_01]: he was gone as she fast-forwarded the footage but I think it was an hour or two before he

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_01]: returned. He parks back by the trash compactor, climbs on top of it and chucks the bag onto the

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_01]: roof of the maintenance shed. He then climbs down, gets in his car and leaves, never to return.

[00:30:51] [SPEAKER_01]: An employee outside gathering the trash saw him throw the bag. The maintenance shed is more of a

[00:30:57] [SPEAKER_01]: small building or garage about 20 by 20. If the employee hadn't seen him throw it up there,

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_01]: it might have gone unnoticed as the building was as high as a one-story building.

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_01]: The employee got a ladder to retrieve the bag. He then brought it inside to show the assistant

[00:31:14] [SPEAKER_01]: manager. Inside the bag was a ton of paper. There were documents and they listed hundreds or

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_01]: thousands of addresses across the U.S. Under each address was a specific hidden location on the

[00:31:28] [SPEAKER_01]: property where a body could be found. There was no information on who the individuals were,

[00:31:35] [SPEAKER_01]: just sex and location of the body or bodies on these properties. The locations spanned from

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_01]: coast to coast but I didn't get a chance to look too deeply into them. I was really freaked out

[00:31:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and thought that touching them might contaminate something so we put everything back in the bag.

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_01]: The obvious step was to call the police and that's what we did.

[00:31:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Now the thing about truck stops is that they are often in remote locations alongside interstates

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_01]: for obvious reasons. The town where this truck stop is located has three police officers in total.

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a town with fewer than 1,000 people so when I say the police chief showed up, it's because he

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_01]: was the highest ranking officer of the three in town. He hated us because truck stops bring in

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_01]: crime and now he had a lot more work to do. He came in, watched the footage and looked in the bag.

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_01]: The most frustrating thing was that he wasn't concerned in the slightest. He asked what we

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_01]: wanted him to do about it, said that it was probably a prank, etc. He took the items,

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_01]: filled out a form to request the footage and left. I hope that he at least forwarded this to the FBI.

[00:32:50] [SPEAKER_01]: A couple of weeks after this, a body was found. A bound, nude and recently deceased man across

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_01]: the street at a dump. Because it was a dump they had no idea where the individuals originated from.

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometime in the following weeks there was a second death on the property. A driver died in his truck.

[00:33:11] [SPEAKER_01]: In the midst of all of this, we had another severe storm and the interstate high-rise sign

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_01]: was destroyed again. We had another strange incident involving abandoned things but this one

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER_01]: had a resolution. A driver showed us some ratchet straps and small children's clothing

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_01]: folded neatly next to a diesel pump. The combination of the items alarmed me so I got

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_01]: the camera system and called the police. I was able to find the truck that had left the items.

[00:33:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Luckily, this time I got the one amazing police officer in the town and she followed up.

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_01]: She found the driver and called him. He had his kid in the truck with him for a while during

[00:33:54] [SPEAKER_01]: summer break but it had ended so he brought her home to her mom. He was going to see her

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_01]: for a while so when clearing out his truck he left the clothing and straps thinking someone

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_01]: else could use them. He didn't realize that the combination of the two might raise eyebrows.

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_01]: He was honestly very grateful that someone was concerned and followed up. A couple of months

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_01]: after the first year, the state department of transportation had shut down the off-ramp

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and on-ramp to the interstate exit because it started to collapse and they were worried that

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_01]: the overpass might collapse as well. We had nearly no business for weeks as construction crews

[00:34:34] [SPEAKER_01]: rebuilt the ramps and repaired the overpass. During this time, I earned a promotion to

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_01]: general manager and was moved to a different location. I kept in touch for a while especially

[00:34:45] [SPEAKER_01]: with my former boss and the assistant manager but the incidents continued. A couple of months

[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_01]: after I left there were two major incidents but I can't remember which one came first.

[00:34:57] [SPEAKER_01]: One involved an individual who entered the building with a machete. He was aggressive

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and the employees were terrified. I wish I hadn't deleted it but there was footage of state troopers

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_01]: coming in with AKs and dropkicking the guy. I have no idea where he came from as he walked in

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and this location is 10 to 15 miles from the nearest town. The second incident was when a

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_01]: customer attacked a teenage cashier because the cashier didn't get his lotto ticket correct.

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_01]: The customer then got into a brawl with the maintenance guy who came to the kid's defense.

[00:35:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Over time I lost touch with my old co-workers. They both left the location so I stopped getting

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_01]: stories and I don't know if the incidents are still continuing. Haunted? Portal to hell? I don't

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_01]: know but what I do know is that I now avoid truck stops like the plague. So I think I know what

[00:36:16] [SPEAKER_01]: happened with Grape Energy. What's your analysis, dream boy? I've only just started to practice doing

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_01]: this but I've been told that you can actually astral project from a lucid dream. Okay yeah so

[00:36:32] [SPEAKER_00]: you think she projected from her dream into this other house in Columbus? Right and then when she

[00:36:38] [SPEAKER_01]: thought she was quote unquote waking up from the dream she was actually returning to her body and

[00:36:45] [SPEAKER_01]: back to the real dream with the weird kid that wasn't hers. Yeah I could see that. I'm about to

[00:36:51] [SPEAKER_00]: severely hijack things here if you don't mind but I had a very proud father moment this morning

[00:36:57] [SPEAKER_00]: that's worth sharing. Okay. No it's good, it's good trust me. Okay. So my daughter was excited

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_00]: to tell me that she flew around in her dream last night which okay I was just like cool did you write

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_00]: about it in your dream journal? What else happened? Yeah. And she said that in the dream she was at

[00:37:18] [SPEAKER_00]: school and her teachers started handing out cans of soda. She knew this wasn't normal which is

[00:37:23] [SPEAKER_00]: reassuring to me but it caused her to ask herself if she was dreaming. Oh she had a lucid dream?

[00:37:31] [SPEAKER_01]: She sure did at eight years old. That's really cool. Did you teach her about doing reality checks

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and all that? I did, I did. I don't know if I'm more excited over the fact that she was able to

[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_00]: craft a lucid dream so young or that she actually took my advice to heart and finds it as interesting

[00:37:48] [SPEAKER_01]: as I do. Yeah that's awesome. I know a lot of people who have been trying to lucid dream for

[00:37:55] [SPEAKER_01]: years and it just doesn't happen. I wonder if she got it from you? I planted this seed but I don't

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_00]: know if it could be considered a gift if that's what you mean. Yeah. I think anybody who's able

[00:38:06] [SPEAKER_00]: to remember their dreams is capable of lucid dreaming. It's just a matter of time and effort

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_00]: really. But also maybe even being able to remember your dreams at all is some sort of a gift. I've

[00:38:18] [SPEAKER_00]: known people who claim they've never had a dream or at least they can't remember a single detail

[00:38:22] [SPEAKER_01]: which you know same thing basically. What if dreaming isn't some kind of blessing but being

[00:38:28] [SPEAKER_01]: unable to dream is a curse? Oh a dark turn, I like it. Yeah yeah. I'm not actually saying

[00:38:36] [SPEAKER_00]: anybody is cursed though let's make that clear. Yeah to all the non-dreamers tuning in please

[00:38:42] [SPEAKER_00]: don't spiral and think you need to make three easy payments of $99 to have somebody come and

[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_00]: cleanse you. You're perfect. L'Oreal because you're worth it. I remember that one or uh

[00:38:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Tresemme, Tresemme, ooh la la. Yeah yeah but uh circling back to the lucid dream stuff I'm sure

[00:39:04] [SPEAKER_01]: that we have listeners who have been wanting to lucid dream for a while. So what do you find

[00:39:11] [SPEAKER_00]: works best for you? Oh uh probably just regular reality checks to be honest. Really asking myself

[00:39:19] [SPEAKER_00]: if I'm dreaming throughout the day and not just simply going through the motions like saying the

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_00]: pledge of allegiance when we're in kindergarten. Yeah. At this point I think it's just from

[00:39:28] [SPEAKER_00]: exposure and repetition. I don't really set out to do it at this point it just sort of happens

[00:39:33] [SPEAKER_00]: throughout the month. I think my dreamland has just become recognizable or something like that

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_00]: because I'll have a non-lucid lucid dream which I know doesn't make sense but I'll acknowledge

[00:39:45] [SPEAKER_00]: that I'm dreaming which technically makes it a lucid dream but instead of taking advantage of

[00:39:51] [SPEAKER_00]: the canvas that's at my disposal I'll just be like yeah no not tonight and keep things on cruise

[00:39:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Wow well that is good info. So what about you? Any life pro tips for any of our fellow dream

[00:40:06] [SPEAKER_01]: travelers? Well I'm pretty sure I went into a lot of detail in some past episodes so I don't want to

[00:40:13] [SPEAKER_01]: ruin people's time here but I'd say the number one tip I have is to just submerge yourself in

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_01]: dream-related content. Read a book about lucid dreaming, think about it all day when you're doing

[00:40:26] [SPEAKER_01]: your reality checks and just keep it in the forefront of your mind. Watch YouTube videos,

[00:40:31] [SPEAKER_01]: listen to podcasts about it. I don't think it needs to be more complicated than that.

[00:40:36] [SPEAKER_01]: You know I'm very excited for your daughter though she could be the next Charlie Morley or Robert

[00:40:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Wagner when she grows up. Yeah I'm excited to help her on the journey. Yeah it's cool that you at

[00:40:47] [SPEAKER_01]: least have a good understanding of what lucid dreaming is and you can talk to her about it.

[00:40:52] [SPEAKER_01]: When I would try to tell my parents about it they would just kind of smirk and move on with

[00:40:56] [SPEAKER_00]: their day. That's nice Andrew, be a doll and fetch me mineral water. More like a Dr. Pepper,

[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_00]: it was the 90s. So I guess we made up for our previous truck stop story with that

[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_00]: really bizarre one this week by Cake Crumbs. Yeah I was skeptical when I first read the

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER_01]: title thinking oh boy here we go again but I was pleasantly surprised. I really want an

[00:41:23] [SPEAKER_01]: explanation for all of those documents that were abandoned containing all the burial sites.

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah that's the kind of thing you hear about in some British crime drama, super interesting.

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah I was thinking the same thing it's such a good plot device. It's easy to say what you would

[00:41:39] [SPEAKER_01]: have done if you were in their shoes. I hear that kind of stuff all the time about lucid dreaming.

[00:41:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah yeah that made me roll my eyes. Yeah yeah but you never really know especially when you find

[00:41:50] [SPEAKER_01]: something like that it's really scary. Yeah. However I really do wish that they would have at

[00:41:56] [SPEAKER_01]: least tipped off the FBI directly instead of going through their Mayberry Andy Griffith-sized

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER_01]: police department. Yeah. Maybe we would have seen it surface on some kind of true crime show or

[00:42:06] [SPEAKER_00]: something. Well we'll just have to be the next Payne Lindsay and go demand to see those documents

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_00]: so that we can solve the case ourselves. Shout out to the Nome, Alaska Police Department.

[00:42:19] [SPEAKER_00]: No I'm not kidding when I say yes please can we do that. Right after the ghost hunting,

[00:42:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Skinwalker Ranch camping, all the other endeavors we talk about doing, the rap EP we got to start

[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_00]: rapping too. Yeah but this is actually a great idea. No no yeah you're right it would be cool

[00:42:38] [SPEAKER_00]: to dip our toes into some meaningful detective work. The name Odd Trails would actually be

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_00]: really fitting for that. We could have our own reality show on TLC, two amateur detectives who

[00:42:49] [SPEAKER_00]: can't solve any cases so we just resort to being sloppy private investigators.

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Hint hint. For anybody listening yeah let's make it happen. Let's make it happen. Thanks

[00:43:00] [SPEAKER_01]: everybody so much for listening. Make sure you send your stories in to stories at oddtrails.com.

[00:43:05] [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to get access to ad-free versions of all the episodes head over to patreon.com

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_01]: forward slash odd trails to sign up and support the show today. Finally make sure to check out

[00:43:13] [SPEAKER_01]: new episodes of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet, The Old Time Radio Cast, and Cryptic

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Encounters at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see y'all next week

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_01]: everybody stay safe peace out. And the ghouls disturbed you.