[00:00:05] Good evening. Im Ben and welcome to the show where you and I gather around this campfire to hear some of our fellow campers scariest experiences. So whether youre a new or returning camper, im happy to have you. The US is a large country, relying on the highway and interstate systems to get around. Many Americans often find themselves on the road. Its no wonder that many of our legends and folklore are built into this infrastructure, as though they are just another exit sign on the interstate.
[00:00:34] Tonight we hear Ryan from Chicago story about the night he saw the infamous black dog. An omen of sorts, mostly known to the long haul trucking community.
[00:00:45] Now, without further ado, do you want to hear a ghost story?
[00:00:52] Growing up, my brother and I cherished all the time we got to spend with our father. He was a trucker and wasnt around much, but when he was home, he was a very attentive father. Between trips, he would love to stay up late with my brother and I to tell us ghost stories not too dissimilar from your show. Perhaps thats why we all like it so much. He would tell us different ghost stories and legends from all over the country. He collected many of those hauntings in your town, county, state, whatever books along his travels. But sometimes he would tell us stories that he just knew they weren't from any book. You could tell that they were from experience.
[00:01:32] It was these stories that scared me the most.
[00:01:35] One of these stories was much more of an urban legend, an omen like the Mothman, I suppose. A harbinger of death. My father would say, if you're on the road and you see the black dog pull over, take a nap, it ain't worth your life.
[00:01:51] According to him, this omen was only seen by truckers who were moments away from a fatal crash. Typical sightings would happen to those who were pushing their limits, teetering on the edge of sleep. But when a trucker sees the dog, they knew to pull over and rest. If you don't, well, it's said you drive right into the afterlife, often leaving a wake of destruction in your path.
[00:02:16] As I know it, the trucking community is both superstitious and skeptical. Most don't care whether this dog is paranormal or psychological. They only care that it means one get off the road. As I grew older, my memories of these stories, along with many childhood moments, faded into the ether of a life long past.
[00:02:38] Until one night I was driving home to see my family when I saw the black dog for myself a little over a year ago. I was driving home to Long Grove, Iowa from where I live now in Chicago, Illinois. I was headed home to see my brother play in the first football game of his senior year. Honestly, it wasnt great timing. I had a huge report due at work on Friday, but I decided to pull ten hour days all week, Monday through Thursday, to get the report done. I figured it would be easy, that is, until it was 08:00 p.m. on Thursday night and I still hadnt finished the report. It honestly was probably good enough, but I made some coffee in the break room before finishing up a few more graphs to really hit my point and doing one more quick read through for grammar. I sent the report to my boss around 10:00 p.m. along with an email letting him know that I would be out the next day and out of town all weekend. A family event. I said I had packed and was all ready for the three ish hour drive home to Iowa from the office, but I was honestly exhausted.
[00:03:47] I guess I could go back to my apartment, sleep, show up at the game, surprising my brother. But I knew his superstition. The morning of a game he had to eat waffles. Something of a good luck charm, he said. But being his big brother, I wanted to be downstairs waiting for him that morning, sitting next to a pile of waffles.
[00:04:07] I gritted my teeth, put my parents address in my phone, and decided that it was just 3 hours. I could do anything for 3 hours. Besides, it was the middle of the night, so there would be no traffic. I could get home, take a nap, wake up, make waffles, then sleep till game time.
[00:04:24] As I headed out from downtown, speeded past the suburbs, I soon hit those familiar looking roads I grew up to love the highway, roads with nothing but corn on both sides. I checked the clock. 1130. It was a quiet night. The rhythmic hum of my tires on the asphalt was the only sound breaking the stillness.
[00:04:46] I fussed with the radio a bit, trying to find a good station, but there's not much to choose from out here during the day, let alone in the dead of night. I found myself constantly shaking my head in an attempt to increase stimulation and maybe wake myself up.
[00:05:12] I kept telling myself that this was nothing. I could fight through this exhaustion. Just a little over an hour left. But as the minutes slowly ticked by, those long hours in the office from this week began to catch up to me.
[00:05:28] My headlights were cutting through the night like a hot knife on butter, illuminating my journey, but the subsequent shadows cast by my brights seemed to grow longer and darker. To some degree, it looked as though those shadows were morphing into figures that were dancing along the side of the road when something more material appeared. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, just a dark shape in the corner of my vision. But as I blinked and focused, there was no mistaking it. A dog, huge and black as the night itself, was standing in the middle of the road, staring straight at me with eyes that seemed to pierce through the darkness. My heart pounded in my chest and instinctively I hit the brakes, the car coming to an abrupt halt. But when I looked again, the road was empty. The dog was gone. I sat there, my hands gripping the wheel tight, trying to steady my breathing. It's just exhaustion, I told myself. Just your mind playing tricks. But I couldn't shake the feeling that this was something more. I glanced back at the clock. 1142. No. No, I swear it had been at least 30 minutes since I last checked the time.
[00:06:46] I sat for a moment, considering, pressing on, just getting this drive over with. But then I remembered my father's words, the stories he used to tell. The black dog is an omen, Ryan. A warning best not be ignored. Those who do, dont make it.
[00:07:06] My hands shook as I reached for my phone. I turned off my gps and set an alarm for 05:00 a.m. i could still make it home by 630 for waffles. I pulled to the side of the road and crawled into my back seat.
[00:07:20] As I lay drifting quickly to sleep, I started dreaming about what id seen. Was it real? Had I really seen the black dog? The same one my father had warned me about all those years ago?
[00:07:34] And then I started drifting into what I think is a dream of what would have happened if I ignored the dog.
[00:07:44] I was in the passenger seat, watching myself drive. I looked in the rearview mirror, but I couldn't see my reflection. I looked back at myself in the driver's seat. My eyes were closed, the car speeding up but slowly drifting off the road. When finally all four wheels made it off, the version of me who was driving quickly jerked awake at the unstableness of the dirt beside the road.
[00:08:10] I looked away from myself driving and instead looked ahead. We were headed right for a tree, the black dog standing right next to it, almost as if watching it in slow motion. We were getting closer and closer.
[00:08:28] I woke up in a jolt from my alarm. 05:00 a.m. i collected myself a little groggy, but at least I had gotten some sleep.
[00:08:38] I continued my drive, reflecting upon my dream, grateful that I decided to stop and get some sleep. When I finally arrived home, everyone was getting ready to sit down at the table for breakfast. My brother and I talked about how he had prepared for the first game of the season over the waffles. That night, as I stood on the sidelines and watched my brother score a touchdown, I couldnt help but glance around at the shadows, half expecting to see the dog again. When my father caught my glance. You okay, son?
[00:09:10] Yeah. The drive last night was.
[00:09:13] It was a lot. I expected you in last night. Guess that means you stopped somewhere along the way. Yeah, I stopped.
[00:09:22] Smart.
[00:09:24] We didn't discuss it any more than that. But there was an unspoken understanding in our words.
[00:09:31] I knew that he knew why I stopped. If there's one thing I've learned from my father, its that some stories, some legends are more than just tales. So if you ever see a black dog on the road, you might want to pull over. It might save your life.
[00:09:52] Thank you Ryan for allowing me to share your story. Ive come across the Black Dog legend a few times actually its one of those interesting ones that like you said, people dont seem to care whether its paranormal, Orlando and hallucination from sleep deprivation.
[00:10:07] They all just care about the implications of seeing it. I have also heard that for many the black dog takes different forms. Some people say its people sitting in the trees for them, but nonetheless the warning is the same.
[00:10:22] I have a patron shout out tonight. I would like to welcome our very first camp counselor, Ricky Velazquez. If you would like your own shout out at the end of an episode and more, check out patreon.com. do you want to hear a ghoststory?
[00:10:36] Did you all hear that as well? The footsteps?
[00:10:40] I apologize. I think I'm going to have to end this episode a bit quickly. It seems there's someone lurking around the woods near our campfire and I want to find out why so quickly. I will leave you here. I'm glad to have you all as campers on this journey. Please keep sharing the show with anyone you think might like these stories. And if you have a story, please send it to do you want to hear
[email protected]? until next time.
[00:11:04] Hello? Who's there?
