Xtra Files 1: Gnarly Starry Night

This is the first story in a series of uneXplained events that have either directly happened to me, or someone I know personally.

Big Qush and Fred were excited to come visit us at our home in the desert. It was their first time. We had sent them a home video which contained footage of our home, and lots of desertscapes of the surrounding area... Having grown up in Connecticut, they were somewhat unfamiliar with desert life. In anticipation of their visit, I also provided them with stories of UFO activity in the region, completely tongue in cheek of course. I had never actually seen a UFO, and if I hadn't seen one, they probably didn't exist... at least as far as I was concerned. I certainly didn't expect to see one. I'm a very astute observer, who spends much of the time outdoors... not much gets past me, so if they're out there, I should be the one to see them.

Our house was located on the outskirts of Santa Clara, Utah, with a backyard overlooking the desolate Utah/Arizona border. Nevada* wasn't too far to the West. On their first night staying with us, our guests stepped out onto our concrete deck for a cigarette, since we didn't allow smoking in the house. Mighty Mo and I joined them outside under the night sky filled with stars. I reclined to look at the starry sky. The cool concrete felt good on my back. It had been a hot day. We all caught up on the previous handful of years that we had been out of touch with each other. It was good to see them. As we were enjoying our overdue reunion, I looked into the clear night sky, and observed what I thought was a satellite moving across the sky, and quickly pointed up and exclaimed, "Look a satt..." but before I could finish my statement, the object began to dart about the sky in a way I had never seen a vehicle in flight travel before. It continued for several minutes while all four of us watched in awe. We were all amazed, and Fred continuously proclaimed, "Holy shit, holy shit... over and over. It was truly amazing.

I assume that what we all observed was NOT extra-terrestrial in nature, but rather terrestrial in origin... a high altitude remote controlled test vehicle from one of the many top secret Nevada test sites - Tonapah, Area 51, etc. While relatively unknown, black op government organizations have been conducting tests of experimental flight vehicles in the restricted Nevada airspace for decades.

While we were all previously skeptical, Qush and Fred were amazed by the show, and have since become UFO enthusiasts.

*Back in the good old days, school children were bussed out to Utah Hill to observe atomic detonations that took place at Yucca Flats, and Frenchman Flats on the Atomic Test Range. A brilliant idea. Thousands of local civilians were exposed to radioactive fallout became ill, and died painful deaths.