(From Brian Vike’s UFO Files) Posted by Brian.
Date: Summer, 1996
Time: Approx: 3:00 p.m. (Afternoon)
Location of Sighting: One mile west of Clayton, New Mexico. Number of witnesses: 1 Number of objects: 1 Shape of objects: Silver cigar shaped vessel.
Full Description of event/sighting: Hi there, Brian Vike, I hope I'm not wasting your time because this sighting happened in 1996. I am only now investigating the possibilities because a friend of mine in California, after I told him my story, encouraged me to do so. He feels I should at least explore it.
Image Left: A welcome to Clayton.
I never have looked into it because I'm quite skeptical of UFO sightings in regard to the sightings being alien in nature. I don't know what I saw that day, but I was content to accept it as experimental aircraft of some kind. That said, for what it's worth, here's my story (and thanks for listening, for investing the life, time and energy into reading this--always a costly investment, life, time and energy, and so of course deeply appreciated).
Mid-summer, 1996, a mile west the town of Clayton, New Mexico.
Back in 1996 I was living in New Mexico, in the northeast corner of the state in a tiny cattle town called Clayton, the CO2 capital of the world, or so they claim. We owned a Mom and Pop motel there, about a mile west of town. The name of the motel was (and still is) The Holiday Motel. You can drive through Clayton, New Mexico to this very day and spend a night at the motel if you want. The motel is open for business and it looks almost exactly the same as it did when I ran it back in '96.
Anyway, the motel is pretty isolated, a mile from town with only cows and flies to keep you company, lots of wind to make you feel alone, and long, long, long and cold blue skies to make you wonder. I ran the motel alone most of the time. I did have my best buddy, Thor, by my side, my old Rotti, the best dog I've ever had, but other than that, I was alone for long periods of time.
I walked Thor every afternoon. It was 3:00 pm that day, a little windy, a nice and warm summer's day and not a cloud in that long, cold blue sky. Thor and I stopped walking and I sat my butt on the motel's wooden fence, facing north but looking west, looking over my left shoulder into the soon-to-set sun. Thor sat next to me, leaning his big head and muscled upper body on my left thigh, something he often did.
North of the motel there's a mountain called Rabbit Ear. It has an enormous amount of recent human history imbedded in its soil, named after a Native American Chief who fought the settlers wagoning-by on the Santa Fe Trail. A lot of Native Americans and early American settlers died on the mountain and around it's wide base. It's also a holy site for some Native Americans and shamans. For those reasons, and whatever other reasons there may be, it's a powerful place. I've hiked all over it and always felt it's power, the presence of it, its memory perhaps.
On the day I saw my UFO, I was just hanging with my dog on a beautiful summer's day in northeastern New Mexico, didn't have a lot to do, not a lot on my mind, relaxed, at ease, pretty darn happy. And then I turned to look at Rabbit Ear Mountain. I saw this silver cigar-shaped thing in the sky, floating over Rabbit Ear, floating over the top of the mountain, one end pointing west, the other end pointing east. It didn't magically appear. I originally looked west and then turned and looked at Rabbit Ear, and that's when I first saw this thing.
It moved over the mountain, casting a shadow, moving slow, slow, slow. I remember frowning when I first saw it because it was so close, so big, moving so slow, and I didn't immediately recognize it. I mean, I knew it was an aircraft right away. I didn't even question that, not initially: Aircraft. I knew I saw technology. But when I look at a plane or a boat or a car I immediately recognize the technology-why, that's a jet plane or a racing boat or a sports car, you get what I mean, and that didn't happen when I first saw this thing. And that continued not to happen. I kept on seeing an aircraft, I was sure, but one I didn't recognize, which I found a little strange.
I thought, "Well, okay, that's a blimp. Has to be." Because it looked like a blimp, right? A big blimp. A cigar-shaped blimp. And then I wondered, "What the heck is a blimp doing out here?" And then I started to give the thing a serious look-over because at that point my curiosity was piqued, mostly because it didn't look like a blimp at all. It looked like a silver cigar. It looked just like the UFOs I've heard about, those silver cigar-shaped UFOs. I crossed my arms and went all steely-eyed skeptical.
"No way. Nope. That's no UFO. That's a blimp. Has to be." I laughed, maybe a little too much, too strongly.
You have to realize that the mountain and the UFO were not very far away. Rabbit Ear Mountain is a few miles from the motel, right across the street to the north. You could cross the highway, hop the fence, hop a couple more fences, cross another distant road, walk to the base and hike to the top in an afternoon, and you wouldn't be winded either because the slopes are so gradual. You'd make it home before sunset.
The mountain also rests in the wheat-coloured grass of the high planes, so: no trees to block the view, just mellow, easygoing high and empty planes. You can see cows stroll along the rocky top from where I sat. Rabbit Ear Mountain isn't very big, but even so, at the top it's at least 800 feet across from edge to edge, west to east. I've walked it. About 800 feet, maybe a 1000, but that's pushing it, I think. The thing is, the aircraft I saw floating over the top of Rabbit Ear stretched the entire top-length of the mountain. That would make it nearly 1000 feet long. That's a whole mile. That would mean the aircraft was about one mile in length and that couldn't be possible.
"Optical illusion," I told myself. And again I said, "Has to be." And then the thing turned north/northeast, turned slowly, just like a blimp would, and began to head away from me, Thor, the motel and the town of Clayton and all those people who lived there.
It had no markings. Not one. Not one that I could recognize, at any rate, not one that I could see. Not a single number, letter, nothing. Just totally silver. No propellers. No jet engines. No engines that I could see and/or recognize. No engine noise either--silent as the grave. All I could hear was my breathing, my thoughts, and the gentle breeze, and Thor's snorting ('cause he didn't believe it either). It didn't have carriages suspended underneath with a captain and crew like you see on blimps. No tail fins. No windows. No nothing. Nothing that I recognized as ancient and/or modern aircraft technology was on that thing. I couldn't recognize anything about it other than it was a vessel of some kind.
I turned to Thor and asked him, "Well, that the heck do you think about that, good buddy?" And he and I just sat there and watched that silver cigar-shaped thing fade away into the horizon. We watched it for 45 minutes. I studied it for 45 minutes, going over it and over it, trying to figure it out. It never took off like all the other UFOs take off, shwoop! and they're gone in a second, in the blink of an eye. Nope. It just meandered away like an old cowboy on an old horse until I couldn't see it anymore. Just like a blimp would.
I've been told I witnessed an air bubble. Possible, I suppose, some kind of natural phenomenon that I misinterpreted. But I've often asked myself that had it been an air bubble or some kind of natural phenomenon, wouldn't I have understood, wouldn't I have recognized on some basic level, that what I was seeing was natural and not technology, not built, especially after studying it and studying it intensely for 45 minutes? This thing looked built, like a plane or a boat or a car looks built. I've seen air bubbles. I've seen big silver air bubbles. And none of them look built as I understand built to look.
The thing that bothers my friend now is this: okay, so I watched this thing, whatever it was, watched it move slowly over Rabbit Ear Mountain and then turn away and disappear slowly. I watched it for 45 minutes, trying to figure out what the heck it was. And then I shrugged, turned to Thor and said, "Ready for dinner?" and hardly gave it another thought. I returned to the motel's office with my dog, gave him dinner, turned on the TV and as I watched the X-Files I giggled with my hand over my mouth, giggled about the silver cigar-shaped thing I saw in the sky over Rabbit Ear Mountain.
That's about as far as I ever went with it. I never thought to get the binoculars and take a closer look. I never thought to get the camera and take a photo. I never went to town and asked anyone there if they saw the big silver cigar-shaped UFO in the sky. Never even crossed my mind to do so. This bothers my friend a lot, part of the reason why I'm writing this now.
You might wonder why I behaved like that, think it strange behavior that I reacted so coolly, but I think I simply accepted the fact that what I saw was something I didn't understand, be it air bubble, UFO or experimental aircraft and I was, truly, cool with that.
I tend to lean toward experimental aircraft, something governmental, secret, all that. That's what I tell myself it probably was. That's what I tell myself. Experimental aircraft. Had to be. But I'll never be sure. Air bubble? Experimental aircraft? Alien space ship? Hallucination? If Thor could only talk!
That's it.
Thanks again for reading this, and if you have any insight into my UFO experience, please send it my way. I'd love to know what you think.
All the best to you and yours.
Thank you to the witness for an excellent and very interesting report, plus an excellent diagram.
Brian Vike (Retired)
Box 1091
Houston, British Columbia, Canada.
Email:
sighting@telus.net
The Vike Factor (Brian Vike)
http://the-v-factor-paranormal.blogspot.com/
