Paranormal encounter Salt Flats UT?

This might sound crazy. But this really happened to me and I want to finally share it with others.

Some time back in 2010, my student driver and I had an experience that I have not shared with many people. I have told less than five people about this because I didn’t want people to think I was weird or crazy. Here is what happened.

He had been with me for about four months. He was a good driver and would soon be getting into his own truck. We had just picked up a quick load out of Salt Lake City, UT that was going into Nevada. It was a short run that was due the next day early in the morning. The truck it was originally assigned to had broken down so we were picking it up to get it to its destination on time. There was rain and a little wind that night that had a possibility of turning into a bad thunderstorm overnight. I had been driving all day when we arrived in Salt Lake City. It was his time to drive. We picked up the trailer and headed west sometime after it had gotten dark. After getting out of the city I crawled into the back and went to sleep. The sound of the rain on the roof of the cabin and the motion of the wind gently rocking the truck as we went down the highway put me to sleep quickly.

While sleeping I had the weirdest dream. I dreamed that I was the one driving the truck west into Nevada. It was raining and the wind was blowing. As I kept driving the rain and wind got worse. It got so bad I had to really slow down because the wind was pushing me around and the rain was coming down so hard it was difficult to see the road. Especially with it being late at night. As I was driving, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, something to my right. When I turned to look at what it was, there was someone sitting in the passenger seat. It wasn’t my student. I didn’t know who it was. I just looked over and saw someone there. What was weird was I didn’t react. I just kept looking. She had long black hair, and she had a black dress on. She had what looked like white and black and white striped leggings on. Her hair was draped over her face. She looked like she had just gotten into the truck and out of the storm. She was soaked. Her hair was dripping water all over the place. I didn’t remember stopping to pick her up. She was just… there. Strangely, I was not concerned about this. As I kept looking at her, she just sat there with her hands placed on the seat beside her knees. She didn’t say anything. Then she started slowly rocking forward and backwards and giggling. She wasn’t very loud and it didn’t sound menacing.

After a bit, I finally said “Hello”. She didn’t react. I said it again. “Hello”. Nothing. “Hello, are you ok? Who are you? Where did you come from?” She just kept giggling and rocking forwards and backwards. Again, “Hello, Hey are you ok? Who are you?” She then slowly started looking up at me. I could see her eyes, and a smile on her face. She said something but I couldn't really hear her. I couldn't see her full face because of her hair covering it. She reached up to move the hair from her face and as she pulled her hair from her face. BAM! Lightening stuck and then very loud thunder. Right as that happened in my “dream” I was shaken out of my sleep in the back of the truck. My heart was pounding. The truck was rocking pretty badly. The rain was coming down very hard on the roof of the cabin. I got up and poked my head out the curtain. It took me a few seconds to realize the intensity of the storm. I looked at the speedometer to see how fast my student was going. He was doing about 25 mph. I also noticed he was white knuckling the steering wheel. I asked him if he was ok. He just kept staring out the windshield for a few seconds and then with a nervous sounding voice he said he was ok. But the storm was bad. I asked him if we had passed The Tree of Utah yet. He said he wasn’t sure because he couldn’t see much. I told him that if we had not passed it, there was a rest area ahead he could pull into if he needed a break. He told me he was going to make it to Wendover because he really wanted to “get the #### off this highway." Because he didn’t like it much.

I asked him if he was sure and he said he was ok. So I sat in the passenger seat and stayed up front until we made it to Wendover. Strangely, the storm was just rain with no wind by the time we made it to Wendover. The wind was all but gone and the rain was still coming down. But not as bad as it was going over the Salt Flats. We pulled into the Pilot truck stop and took a little break. Grabbed some food and used the restroom and got back on the road. I went into the back to an uncomfortable sleep.

The next day we delivered the load just as the sun was coming up. He still had drive time so we decided to get to an area we could park and both relax for a bit while waiting for our next load. He was uncharacteristically not very talkative the whole time. I just figured he was still rattled from the storm. Then he said, “Hey man, I was fighting sleep for about the first few hours or so after leaving Salt Lake. Until something weird happened.” I asked him what he meant. He told me that he was getting drowsy right before the rain and wind got really bad. And must have been seeing things. I asked him what he meant. He told me I would think he was crazy. I told him that I wouldn’t. He said that when he was driving, he was getting sleepy and may have closed his eyes a few times while driving. One time when he opened his eyes he swore there was a girl sitting in the passenger seat. She had a black dress on with white and black stripped socks on. She had long black hair and she was soaking wet.

I immediately got goose bumps and the hair on the back of my neck and on my arms immediately stood up. I looked at him and said “She was laughing or giggling while rocking back and forth and then looked up at me. All I could see was her eyes. As she pulled the wet hair from her face, a bright lightening strike with loud thunder shook the truck and she was gone.” I finished his story.

My student was a 6’2” black man that suddenly went white in the face. And froze. He looked at me and told me that a few seconds later I poked my head out from the curtains and asked him if he was doing ok.

While I was sleeping in the back, I experienced what he did while he was driving as if I was the one driving the truck. We never spoke of it again and both swore that no matter what, we would never drive that part of the highway again at night.


What happened? What was that? Has anyone else ever experienced this in the same place or somewhere else? Or something like this? If you have, share it please.

 

Yeah, we went team drivers for about 6 months is the only reason he was with me that long. Money was good. But I missed having my truck to myself and getting good sleep.

I still see him from time to time because he lives near where I do. He still to this day will not drive that area at night.