26 Comments
User's avatar
Ramona Grigg's avatar

"Shaken" is too mild, Michael. I'm spooked and it didn't even happen to me!

David W. Zoll's avatar

Brings back a similar memory from 1971. I hitchhiked from Cincinnati to Northern Indiana along US 27 with a female friend also heading home from university. I chose the backseat and she was in the front. He left the main road for a “shortcut.” My antennas were vibrating. We came to a somewhat busy crossroads and I whispered to her to bail out. Which we did.

Michael Jensen's avatar

That's definitely the time to get out.

Kim Gunther's avatar

Woah, that’s a spooky story!

Steve Kenneally's avatar

The gift of fear...

Ruth Stroud's avatar

That’s such a terrifying memory! It brings back my own from a hitchhiking experience in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-‘70s. I was hitching solo because I was fearless in those young days and nearly got into some bad trouble on a lonely road.

Michael Jensen's avatar

Wow, you are brave!

KMM's avatar

What a scary, crazy story! I took risks in my 20's that, for the grace of some higher power and my own wits, turned out OK.

Michael Jensen's avatar

Thankfully, most of the time it does. But I’m so sad for those seven backpackers, who were all roughly my age, who never got to live their lives.

Peter Kurtz's avatar

Wonderful timing. Seriously, tomorrow I'm going solo backpacking down where Deliverance was filmed. Now I'm thinking I need a Burt Reynolds type to partner with.

Michael Jensen's avatar

Er, um, sorry about that? The good news is that sociologists say that the number of serial killers have plummeted since the 90s!

Cindy H's avatar

Yikes! That's so scary! It's so important for follow your gut feelings.

Years ago (1985 or so), I was driving from Denver to Aspen with a friend of friends, both women. It was early in the day. We broke down along the way on the side of the road. People stopped and we just asked them to call the rental car company and have them send a tow truck. We did this several times, no tow truck appeared. It was getting later and we decided we'd need to abandon the car and get a ride. A guy stopped and asked something like "need a ride?" The way he said it made me say "no thanks! Someone's coming." Just that gut feeling... Anyway, the next offer came from a family and we stuffed ourselves in their car and got a ride to our friends. And I'm here to tell that story,

Michael Jensen's avatar

I’m glad that family came along!

Matt McMann's avatar

That was a freaking CRAZY story! For what it's worth, I think it was him and you were very wise following your gut. I'm very glad you're not dead :)

Michael Jensen's avatar

I’m glad you’re glad! And also glad I was spared the awful fate of those poor young people.

Matt McMann's avatar

So true. Deeply tragic.

kristen (omventure.com)'s avatar

Thank goodness you were paying attention.

Gavin de Becker, author of The Gift of Fear, reminds us why we should always listen to our gut when it's talking to us like that ... when our primitive self is trying to protect us.

A friend worked with a serial killer. Every single day. His strangeness was evident. But nobody knew what he did until years later. I shiver.

Michael Jensen's avatar

Whoa, that must’ve been deeply unsettling for them.

Toni Brayer's avatar

Your gut feeling was correct. It sounds like the same guy. I’m glad you listened to your inner sense and lived.

Michael Jensen's avatar

Thanks. Me too!

Larry's avatar

Yikes!

Michael Jensen's avatar

Yikes, indeed.

Lorraine Tilbury's avatar

always trust your gut!! it knows...

Michael Jensen's avatar

I'm glad I did.

Coyote's avatar

Wow that’s crazy !!

Michael Jensen's avatar

I guess that's why it's stuck with me all of these years.