 This all began with a family trip to Las Vegas. The year was 2009 And we decided to go on a little vacation for my 20th birthday. Now that I think about it Why couldn't my parents have just waited a year and made the Las Vegas trip at my 21st birthday? Going to Las Vegas as a 20 year old is going to an amusement park when you're too short to go on all the good roller coasters I'm a single child So it was just my mother my father and myself as residents of Southern, California We decided to make the drive out there in our minivan instead of paying for airfare Not to mention avoiding the horrifying experience of the Los Angeles International Airport anyone who's made that drive before Knows there's not much to look at nothing, but desert and hot asphalt We stopped in the small town of Baker, California for a little bit of food at a del taco That was rated C by the FDA some ridiculously overpriced gasoline and a glance at the world's largest thermometer It happened to be a hundred and eight degrees that day Which is about average for early summer since the town is so close to Death Valley The conversations on the road trip consisted mainly of my dad and I making Simpsons jokes None of which my mom mother stood by the way or my parents talking amongst themselves about family matters that I didn't really care about I had an old Game Boy with me at that time So I wasn't bored out of my mind while my parents were talking the total drive time was about six and a half hours We got to the strip and found our hotel. We were staying at Circus Circus Not the most luxurious hotel on the trip, but I had no complaints It was a nice little four-day three-night vacation where we did all the usual Las Vegas kinds of things But that's not what I'm here to talk about isn't it? It was the third day of our vacation and we didn't really have anything planned out for that day At first we were just going to wander around the strip and see if anything interesting caught our eye But my mom had a migraine headache that day So my dad and I decided to go out on our own and leave the city while she rested We were both very fascinated by the whole UFO phenomenon And we knew that the legendary secret base known as area 51 was about 85 miles north of the city of Las Vegas So we planned a little adventure to go up that desolate Nevada Highway 375 Otherwise known as the extra terrestrial highway and head north We just plan to look around a little bit and get some pictures at the borderline of the base I find the concept of a legendary secret hilarious by the way We knew that there wasn't really much to see other than signs telling you that this was government property And that they have the right to shoot on site if you try trespassing But we felt that that alone would be a good photo opportunity and then it would just be cool to be able to say Hey, I've been to area 51 So we drove for about an hour and a half seeing literally no traffic Which honestly was a little unsettling though not unexpected We got as close to the base as we could got out of the car and found that it was exactly as we expected There was a dirt road that was blocked off with those aforementioned signs on a locked gate The peculiar thing was that there weren't any fences or walls blocking entry to any of the forbidden Areas just these orange markers sticking out of the ground marking the territory I guess they just felt that since no one has the balls to go in there Why build a fence? We could see all the equipment they have for spotting curious onlookers such as ourselves There were strange devices sticking out of the ground that I'm sure are used for things such as detecting oncoming vehicles Thermal surveillance and all sorts of video cameras before we knew it I noticed that there was a white truck sitting on top of the hill with two men equipped with binoculars inside Watching us. I'm sure they were just there to make sure we didn't do anything stupid And to show us that this was serious business I bet they get people out here like us all the time needless to say we didn't do anything stupid We just took pictures of ourselves in front of the will shoot on site sign looked around for a little bit And decided to get heading back because it was starting to get dark The problem was that it shouldn't have been getting dark and it was getting dark fast unnaturally fast When we got to the border of the base it was about 3 p.m So we should have had at least five hours of light But it felt like we'd only been there for about 45 minutes My dad looked at his watch and saw that indeed the watch said it was 3 43 p.m The only thing wrong with that was that his watch had stopped ticking We discussed this strange occurrence briefly, but then just decided to get in the car and get going We got into the van sat down fastened our seatbelts and my dad turned the key in the ignition The engine started fine. However, every electric component of the car was not functioning We couldn't get the lights on the radio wasn't working and the digital clock face was completely blank At this point we were starting to panic the car was in perfect driving order But we had no headlights and the sun was quickly dipping below the mountaintops The decision we made was just to drive as fast as we possibly could for as long as we had visibility If we got pulled over by the cops that would be our best case scenario because then we'd at least have some help Getting a speeding ticket even a big one would be a small price to pay We of course thought to try our cell phones, but just like all the electronics in the car They were completely dead Let me give you a little recap of our situation My dad is now driving like a bat out of hell going at least 110 miles per hour down a completely abandoned highway in a minivan Trying to get back to civilization before the sun disappears below the horizon at what we think is around 355 p.m My dad is completely focused on the road at this point But i'm starting to see things out the window to the right side of the car I don't want to tell him because if he looked he'd probably flip the van and kill us both Honestly, I can't tell you what I was seeing There were streaks of light of varying color things that looked like fireworks Imploding instead of exploding in utter silence Some very large pulsating lights that were just kind of teetering back and forth in the sky and other things my vocabulary Simply cannot convey These were definitely unidentified flying objects But not the types of things that I think would constitute any kind of alien spacecraft It was at this point that another strange occurrence started The sun that was so quickly disappearing behind the mountains Seemed to stop just below the horizon It was odd the sun was completely obscured by the mountains, but we could still see its glow behind them We were in some kind of endless twilight As strange as it was It was beneficial to us because at least in this situation We had the visibility to continue moving on and hopefully get back to the city So we could just put all this craziness behind us Something else I found comforting was that those strange lights that I was seeing earlier Had vanished Our new found optimism was however short lived We'd been driving twice the speed limit for over an hour now But we hadn't seemed to have made any progress at this rate We should have at least seen some sort of buildings or other motorists Actually when I think about it at the rate we were going we should have already reached Vegas Instead all we were seeing was the same abandoned highway in an eerie orange tint That we'd been looking at this entire time with no recognizable landmarks for bearings It's not like we could have made a wrong turn or anything like that either the entire trip was a straight line Something was seriously wrong and we both knew it We just kept continuing down this seemingly endless road with no real semblance of time But then we finally saw something that was different Way off in the distance we could see something large blocking the road in both lanes As we got closer we identified the obstruction as several large vehicles parked sideways It was an apparent military blockade There were two large Humvees and a single canopy topped troop carrier As we approached my dad began slowing down When we started getting close the men manning their peculiar post started shining their incredibly bright Spotlights in our direction from the tops of the vehicles We then heard a loud deep voice over a loud speaker Shut your engine down and keep your hands where I can see them We obliged of course my dad turned the car off and both of us stuck our hands out of our respective windows It was at that point that we started seeing the soldiers They seemed to be wearing normal military uniforms though with the bright lights It was hard to tell because they all were heavily silhouetted One thing I did find strange was that they were all wearing gas masks Something about this just didn't seem right Why would they be blocking off the road going away from the base? Why has the sun apparently been frozen just beyond the horizon? And what were those lights I'd been seeing I counted six soldiers of varying height and build They all seemed to be carrying standard m4 assault rifles as one would expect But there was just something about them that seemed off That point accentuated by the gas masks We were approached by one soldier on each side of the car Each of our windows was met with a soldier and the one on my father's side asked in a stern Somewhat warped sounding voice What business do you have being here? My dad answered nervously. We're just trying to get back to our hotel The soldier in an even deeper more warped sounding voice Replied hotel. I don't know of any hotels around these parts It was at this point that I started feeling strange Time and space seemed distorted I looked at the soldier on my side of the car and noticed that he had no skin exposed whatsoever I looked him dead in the eye and all of a sudden I was having images appear in my mind's eye Thousands of them all at once and with an accompanying cacophony of sound bombarding my ears from within I'd never experienced anything so intense and overpowering in my entire life And I doubt that I ever will again I used all my energy just to try and stay conscious But I couldn't hold out for long The next thing I knew it was early morning the next day The sun had apparently set and risen as it always does and my father and I regained consciousness together We were still in our car However now all the electronics were functioning properly We were turning down the street that leads to our hotel It seems as though my father had driven all the way back with no memory of it He told me that he had a similar experience to what I did and also lost consciousness around the same time as me The clock radio in the car said it was 6 18 a.m My dad checked his analog watch to confirm it, but it read out 115 is the time it was off by over five and a half hours But it was ticking again We didn't know what to say to each other neither of us could come close to comprehending what had happened that night We made it back up to the hotel room with my mom worried sick And us not knowing where to start to explain what the hell had just happened to us We ended up just telling her that our car broke down on the highway So we were stuck on the road all day waiting for help and had forgotten to charge our cell phones So it wasn't until early that morning that a generous trucker stopped and helped us get our car in working order again She was incredibly pissed as she had every wreck to be but she believed our story It didn't feel right telling her what actually happened since we weren't even sure ourselves My father and I still don't talk about it to this day I'm not going to try to speculate on what exactly happened. Maybe we saw something we shouldn't have Maybe the desert sun just does strange things with your mind I will leave you with this small word of advice If you pursue the mysterious you've got no one but yourself to blame If you find it