UFO Extravaganza

On a Tuesday evening, Highway 95 was not quite as bleak as first anticipated. For example, I saw a jackrabbit lope across the highway. In addition, I saw a coyote skulking by the roadside, and a mouse ran halfway across the road before thinking better of it, and ran back.

Entering the southern Nevada town of Beatty, I thought I heard breaking glass in my U-Haul rent-a-truck's load of furniture, so I stopped just to check things out. No problems: maybe someone broke a beer bottle at the roadside just as I passed by? At bit odd, that.

Traffic had been light, but leaving Beatty and heading north, the traffic all but vanished. Even the local traffic had disappeared. I was all alone in the night, half-listening to George Noory on the AM radio.

Suddenly to my left, I saw a light in the sky, heading south. The light looked like a very bright planet - like Venus - but in motion. I did a double-take, thinking it might have been a reflection in the driver's-side window of a stationary light located right of the truck, but that was not the case. Something was flying south through the air, not very high, and not very far away.

Just then, George Noory cut to a commercial. He promised his continuing listeners that after the break he would reward them with a "UFO Extravaganza".

A UFO Extravaganza! That's right! This is where UFOs gather! The Nevada Nuclear Test Site is just over those hills and Area 51 isn't really that far away!

It is quite plausible that the light belonged to a small private airplane. There is a small airport located just south of Beatty, equipped with flashing beacons for nighttime travelers, and the airborne light was heading in that direction.

But still, private planes are equipped with colored blinking lights for nighttime flight. This light was not blinking.

Ooooowwwwweeeeeeoooooo!