December 14, 2010

I have very warm feelings for Moab,UT and our friends there - Ron, Dar, Renee and Craig - but true to Modlin tradition, our return was not without incident. I was driving as we entered our site, with Chuck in the passenger seat. "PLENTY OF ROOM ON THIS SIDE," he kept on repeating as I inched forward. But - it was dark. We didn't see the picnic table that made a long scrape mark and broke the molding over the back right wheel. My first collision. Fortunately, we've had so many that it didn't seem all that disastrous.

Like attracts like, I guess because Ron has numerous smart, interesting friends. This time around, we met Chris O'Brien. Chris is a co-host for paracast.com which covers paranormal events. We were fortunate to spend a day with Ron, Dar,Chris and Susan, including a visit to Sego canyon. The Indian writings here are up to 9,000 years old. The only thing that protects them is a fence and a sign. Even the oil from hands can be detrimental to these sacred works so we all got agitated when we saw two boys scrambling up the rocks. Ron yelled out to get down and the father of the boys yelled back "don't pay any attention to him, you're not doing anything wrong." We walked en masse towards the father to confront him and things definitely got heated. I just couldn't believe that a parent would encourage that kind of disrespect. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed - the women's - and the fact that Darlene is a National Park Ranger seemed to persuade them that they were in the wrong.

There are a number of other writings just across the road. Among them, there is a very satanic looking figure. We all stood in silence as Chris took an EVP reading (like they do on ghost hunters) before it. Haven't gotten any feedback on this so assume that nothing came through.

We decided to forge forward on an unpaved road; our Sebring had the lowest clearance so we went first. When it rains there, rivulets of water cause washes and it was these areas that caused the most concern. I got out and looked at a couple of them before we crossed; if too steep, the car could get hung up in the middle. One of these definitely looked dicey to me but Chuck decided to cross anyway. We hit hard on the front bumper but Chuck gunned it, plowing up dirt as he went. When we came to a rest on the other side, a piece of something hung down under the front bumper. A plastic mud guard - Chuck pulled it off and we continued on. We were heading towards a Ute reservation where many UFO incidents occur. Non-Utes are not welcome...very definitely not welcome. The end of the road we were on is the closest you can get by car. WE didn't see anything but Ron said something was probably seeing us - if only the mountain lions. There were two, very old hovels dug into the side of the hill, held up by huge center logs, as well as an ancient community oven. It was easy to imagine the presence of the departed walking alongside us.

We had to return the way we came - so all pitched in to pile small rocks across the wash to lessen the depth of the dip....making the way back far less eventful. Sort of sorry we didn't buy an old jeep for our tow car. A couple of days later, we departed Moab, knowing that we will return.

We stayed one night at Nellis AFB in Nevada, then on to California where we went our separate ways. Chuck traveled on to Chuck Fetterman's(our best man) near Brentwood and I took the tow car down to Charles and Bobbi's place near Burbank. Bobbi's mom has been very ill; Chuck's X-mas present to her was the flight home and my present was staying with the three kids for a couple of days in her absence. Thank heavens I remembered how to make salt dough cookie ornaments - kept the kids busy for hours. Also took them to my first 3-D movie, "Tangled." On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I drove back to join Chuck - through the Central Valley where so much of the produce we enjoy is grown. What should have been a 5-6 hour drive became 8 hours because of all the holiday traffic.

One of the interesting things I did while in that area was to meet with Eleanor Haspel Portner and a woman who claimed to have been abducted by ET's. Eleanor is a psychologist that I met 30 years ago during my Chicago days. The session wasn't particularly compelling but it was great to visit with Eleanor and I know we'll have future connections relating to sightings.

Currently we're trying to do some filming of investigative procedures. Chuck F. lit a huge pile of brush on his property which we used to portray a landing site. The two Chucks have tried to film the use of the: Google Earth maps, thermal sensing device, geiger counter, laser range finder, compass factoring in the magnetic deviation, tri-field meter and grid lay out. At one point, one of Chuck's horses started to wander into the site and we all broke out laughing. We haven't reviewed the film yet but the out-takes may take up more time than the leave-ins.

We'll head back to Charles' home for Christmas. We feel a bit like the Cranks but feel that RVing is the perfect excuse to avoid all the demands of the season - and we're loving it!

Happy holidays everyone! Vicki