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subject to change - Rain of Turklor
STC found the following transcript at an online bulletin board in 2007.
This is definitely the strangest thing that ever happened to me. I've told this story to many of my friends and it remains one of the strangest "happenings" anyone has ever heard of. I went on a road trip to (desert location) to camp and do a little hiking, and anyone that's been in the Southwest during middle August knows that monsoons pass through in the middle of the day, almost everyday. Well, I didn't know. After I set up camp I went on a "hike" even though there was no trail, I just wanted to go explore the area. There were smaller Mesas that gave way to colorful gullies and I wandered around aimlessly, looking at rocks and lizards, for what seemed like an hour. If you've never been in an Arizona monsoon, they come on suddenly, and if you're not paying attention, or are unfamiliar with the area (i.e. ME), you could get caught in the rain. So, it started raining before I could make it back to my camp. The strange thing was that I couldn't seem to find my campsite even though I thought I knew exactly where it was, everything started to look the same in the rain. Then I happened upon A camp, not mine, but it wasn't really a conventional camp. It was nestled in the pointed end of a gully and was essentially a blue tarp stretched across the higher ground making a cozy little encampment - and the most important part, it was dry. As soon as I brushed myself off, I felt kind of strange being in someone else's camp. But then I looked around. It wasn't much of a camp. There was one lawn chair, a rickety radio/tape player, and a few tapes laying around on a door mat (worn smooth but you could still make out the "welcome", even though it looked more like "wehome" or "wecome"). There was also a candle with a pack of matches tucked into a hole in the gully wall. It all looked dusty and abandoned, so I figured it was some kind of "secret spot" for one of the rangers or it was just left for some reason. I sat down and decided to wait the storm out and if anyone showed up I was sure they would understand me sheltering myself. I decided to have a smoke and watch the rain, and thankfully there were dry matches in the camp, as mine were soggy. When I lit my smoke I also lit the candle. Why not? It was a nice touch in the dusk. The rain was nice from the camp, tapping down in little puddles reflecting the setting sun. I started rummaging through the tapes laying around. There were three tapes on the welcome mat, and one in the tape deck. Most of the tapes had no labels, or rather they were scratched off or water damaged beyond legibility. Of the two that I could make out one said "skool rhoom 3K" and the other, the beginning of the label ripped, said "turklor". You can imagine my surprise when the batteries in the dinky little tape deck actually worked. I put the tape labelled "turklor" in the deck and pressed play. The next hour or so went by strangely. I'm not sure if it was the odd conditions of my waiting the storm out, the music, or the candle I lit - but I lost myself in the pattering of the rain and the bizarre music on the tape, which I have had difficulty describing to anyone. All I can say is that I was lost in thought, or imagination for quite some time. When the rain storm finally ended, so did the tape click to a stop, and it felt like I had been sitting there for hours and at the same time a few minutes. Disoriented, I quickly blew the candle out and marched out to find my camp. I scurried up the gully wall and began walking in the direction I thought the campground would be. It was dark, but I could make out open spaces between the brush - so that I could pretend I was on a path of some sort. Within maybe 100 feet from the tarp encampment I nearly ran into my car! I laughed at the idea of me being so close to my camp the whole time and having no idea. I ate a quick meal and went to bed curious to wake up the next day and check out the encampment again. In the morning I made coffee and strolled to the gully where I had waited out the monsoon. Once again, just like the day before, I couldn't find the encampment - I couldn't even find a gully within a quarter mile from my camp spot. I walked in a zig zag pattern for hours looking for the distinctive blue tarp in the 6-7 foot deep gully. I could not find it. Baffled, I went to the ranger station and asked about the spot. The two rangers had no knowledge about this place, which made it even more strange. I went back to the camp and continued walking in all directions from my camp spot and never found it. As the years go by, and the more people I tell about this story the more questions I have. Did I imagine the whole thing? I'm sure I didn't, but the more I think about it the more I doubt any of it, and memory in general. When I look up "turklor" or "skool rhoom 3K" on the internet nothing comes up. I even, obsessively, combed Google Earth to find the topographical area of the gully, and of course it all looks different. I suppose this is one of those mysterious happenings. I'm just so logical, I've tried to figure it out for years now, and can't seem to find a rational explanation. And neither can anyone else for that matter, but if you do have any ideas, let me know! Thanks!
James Gray |