October 20, Day 5 - More Ghost Stories

I'm still not writing anything but my blogs. Holding out for revision sheets from my editor on "Far Away Eyes" completing the research for "The Ghost's Story" and going crazy. Ah well, for me,that's a short trip.


Thinking, thinking, thinking about what interesting words of wisdom I can leave here today. Since we are leading up to Halloween I think I'll keep telling Ghost Stories, I got a load of 'em. I have an interesting experience that happened ten years ago,not exactly a ghost story, well may be it is. You decide.


It was something like September 13 or 14, 2001, just a few days after the infamous 9/11/01. My daughter and I had traveled to Billings,Montana to a horse sale. We had been planning on going to this particular sale for a few months and despite everything going on in the world we decided not to cancel. We had TV (cable) at the time (I mention that because for most of my adult life we have had no TV) and my husband could not be pulled away from the constant coverage. If I had to watch those skyscrapers collapse one more time, I was going to scream. A road trip to Billings,Mt seemed like a good idea to me.


We got up to Billings late Thursday night,had a crummy dinner at a all night restaurant and went to bed.  The next day we went over to the sale but there wasn't a lot going on, so we decided to travel on down to The Little Big Horn National Monument. Do you want to talk about a haunted place on the map? Whoa...you could almost hear them screaming. There is a National Veterans Cemetery there also, primarily Native Americans. Native Americans who died in WWI WWII,Korea, and Viet Nam. With what was going on in the nation there was a flag on each grave, all the larger flags were flying at half mast, everything was subdued, except the dead.


When you stood on the hill over looking the battlefield(there is a marker where each man fell) you could feel the fear, rage, blood lust and a whole lot of other emotions. You could almost see the warriors from each side and hear the screams of men and horse. I could only take it for a few minutes. I suppose about now I sound pretty melodramatic, for me this was very real. We read a few of the plaques and got out of there.


On the way back to Billings along Interstate 90 I thought the car was acting funny. I got off at Crow Agency, a small town on the reservation. There didn't seem to be any help there, so I got back on the ramp to the Interstate and the car was acting up again. I got out and popped the hood (I am more mechanically challenged than I am cyber challenged. (Come to your own conclusions there.) I don't know what I expected to find,but I figured two women alone, car by the side of the road, hood up,maybe someone would have mercy. Anyway...we have our heads under the hood wondering what we are looking at and out of nowhere this man comes along, on foot, he appears to be Native American, no big shock there. He looks at me ands says, "You better get on up the road to the next town, you car is going to break down, they can help you there".  Then he gave me some cryptic direction to a garage. He never even glanced at the car. Well, I got on up the road and got off at the next exit, where there was a larger town, whose name I cannot remember for the life of me. I could not find the garage, but as I came around a corner,there was the same man. He gave me the equivalent of an eye roll and told me to go back a block to find the garage.


At first this didn't seem out of the ordinary.  Then my daughter says, "how did he get here before us, he was walking". 


I said, "someone probably picked him up."


She says, "I don't think so. There was no one around when we got on the Interstate and I watched him walk up the road,no cars came by."


I started to think about it and she was right. Not only that, I never say where he went. He just seemed to walk up the road and disappear.


Meanwhile, back at the garage, the mechanic is telling me how lucky it is that we stopped, because there is absolutely no traffic on the Interstate in the evening and the car had about one city block left in it. He is also the only place within however many Montana miles who happens to have the part I need. My next big worry is how I'm going to pay for this. My credit card is always about $.20 under the limit and we had limited cash. Who in the middle of nowhere Montana is going to take an out of state check.


I called my husband and he says, well what do you want me to do. Thanks honey. He thought we should not have gone in the first place. Anyway...the garage owner said I looked honest. He took my check and we ended up only paying about half the original quote. In the end I told him about the Native American who sent us to him. He actually did rolle his eyes at me. Gotta love Montana cowboys.





Not necessarily a Ghost Story,but certainly an unusual experience. I've never been back to the Little Big Horn. I don't wanna go. Always wanted to make the Crow Fair in Crow Agency. It's a big Native American Gathering, a Pow Wow. Real Singers and all that stuff. Now that I live outside the US,it probably won't happen. You go for me. Tell me about it. If you meet a Native American man by the side of the road, be sure to listen to him very carefully.


There were some interesting things that happened at this Horse Sale and on the trip home. Not necessarily Ghost Stories,but interesting reminisces none the less. I'll tell you about them tomorrow on www.babsinparadise.blogspot.com . See you there.