the town...

One thing I have always enjoyed doing was going out on long drives, with no destination in mind. I think I get it from my dad actually. When I was a kid, before he moved out, he would take my brother and I, or sometimes just me, out on drives and we would usually head out of the city or into the hills around San Jose. We would usually stop and get something to drink(hawaiian punch for me). I don't know how he knew about some of these roads, but he always seemed to know where he was going. This stopped after he moved out.

After I got my drivers license, I started doing this, at night. It was a good opportunity to unwind and listen to music. My first drive took me out of Modesto and I ended up in Atwater. The next time I went down that road(Santa Fe Rd.), I was with friends, but I think that was the only time I did this when I was not alone. I remember shortly after graduating high school I took a drive out to Lake McClure. Of course once I got there I turned around and headed back, and I a barn owl flew right over my windshield and scared the hell out of me. Probably even worse than that time I almost drove into a bear in NE Washington.

I did the same thing when I moved up to Oregon. Even though I was not familiar with the area, I never got lost. I usually did this at night, but there were a few trips I took during the day. One of my daytrips took me into this little town whose name I could not remember, and I stopped there to get gas and I ate at a delicious restaurant. Excellent burgers and very friendly service.

Recently, since gas has gotten cheaper I decided to take another one of these daytrips. I had been driving for about 2 hours and I realized that I had been in this area before, years ago. That town was not far from where I was. I did not have a map with me, so I drove around slowly so that I would not miss the road that would take me there.

About ten minutes later, I saw a sign with a town name on it. The name was sort of scratched up, but I could tell that the first letter was an M, and the sign said it was 2 miles ahead. That rang a bell. I drove on.

About 2 miles later I saw another sign with an arrow pointing to the right. The towns name was on this sign, but again, it was all scratched up. Well, I figured some kids were screwing around and did that to the signs. I did stupid shit like that when I was younger. I turned and drove down this narrow 2 lane road, the same that I had driven down before. I saw a few houses along the way, one was hidden by trees and bushes, the other one looked like the owners had moved out quite awhile ago. Not surprised. These are tough times.

When I arrived at the town, well, it was deserted. I stopped and looked around. There were weeds everywhere. Cracks in the road with weeds coming up through them. I decided to drive on for a little bit. I did not leave the main road, but I looked down some of the side streets as I drove past them. Grass was completely overgrown in all the yards. Plants, trees, bushes, all overgrown. The houses looked like they had not been maintained for quite some time. The cars were rusting over.

When I got to the main part of town, I stopped the car. The gas station was abandoned. The restaurant was also, as were all the stores. Cars and trucks all rusted over, flat tires, cobwebs. I had never seen anything like this.

I was about to get out of the car, and then I stopped. I could see someone. About, oh, 50 feet away. They were standing in the middle of some trees. I got a deep chill up my spine. What struck me about the scene wasn't the fact that there was someone in this abandoned town. No. It was the size of their head. It was almost three times the size of a normal head. And they were looking right at me.

I looked around, and there were more of them, some much closer, coming out of the buildings. They were walking slowly towards the car. They moved in this freakish way, with their arms lying still against their sides and their heads swinging side to side.

I regained my senses and put the car in reverse and hauled ass backwards. There were none behind me. When it was clear, I turned the car around hard, almost running into a tree, and got the hell out of there. On my way down the road, I saw 3 more standing in front of that abandoned house. That was the last I saw of them. Once I turned off that road, I drove as hard as I could for the main highway.

I still can't remember the name of the town. I looked on Google Maps and I found several towns in that area that started with an M, and I can't be 100% sure which one it was. I did a search for them, to see if there were any news articles about it, and there was nothing about a town being abandoned and "overrun", but there was one thing. There was an article from about 6 months back. A Portland woman had stopped in a store in Sweet Home and mentioned that she was photographing old farm houses. She bought some bottled water and a few Snickers bars and left. She has been missing ever since.