My 1980 UFO Sighting near Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant

It was sometime in August 1980 as I recall.

Bill and I were returning home from a long day in Lake Tahoe, CA. It was about 1 a.m. but the evening breeze was still very warm so our windows were down. We were driving on Grant Line Road, which served as a shortcut route bypassing the City of Sacramento proper. The only other vehicle seen on the road was a camper driving ahead of us. At one section it ran rather near to Rancho Seco Nuclear Plant, which could be seen lit up brightly in the distance. As Bill drove, I was peacefully feeling the breeze on my face as I stuck out my head and watched into the darkness around us. The stars were magnificent.

Suddenly, out of that darkness an airborne bright spotlight appeared from near the nuclear plant, as though its pilot had just remembered to turn on a headlight. It caught my eye of course immediately. As I watched it approaching, I was giving a little narrative to Bill about it, speculating that maybe it was a helicopter since it only had one huge bright light. But as it approached what I thought would be within earshot of us, I noted it had no sound…nada…completely silent like the night. At this point, my narrative must have sounded a little shaken because I recall Bill saying in a voice that sounded distant to me, “What? What’s wrong?” I don’t think I answered because by this time, the spotlight had once again turned off and all of a sudden I could barely see a somewhat triangular outline blotting out a section of the night stars that surely was no helicopter….and it was huge. I quickly glanced ahead and behind us for other vehicles and still saw only the camper, but way ahead at this point. My eyes returned to this craft, which was now almost on top of us. Silent and dark as though it were floating on an unseen cloud. No sign of disturbance of the environment below it.

Then, a wondrous light burst forth and bathed the entire craft in red halo. It was a transparent pulsing red, more like a glowing aura than lights. I was mesmerized and tried to absorb as much detail as I could. What I saw then (Bill still could not see it from the driver’s side) were portholes all around it, which were not lit from behind but dark against the red glow. I was amazed that even though we were traveling down the road at about 55 mph that this craft stayed with us. When I say “huge”, I mean my conservative guess would have been football field size. Although it had appeared rather triangular in shape when I first saw its outline, it seemed overall to be more of an oval craft. The bottom of it, which I could now see very clearly, also had portholes in many places. I was continuing my narrative but was not even conscious of how my description of this craft was affecting my driver. I just know that I felt a jerk when he stepped on the gas quite suddenly. I later knew that he had by then seen the craft on his side and was not going to hang around to see more. But it didn’t matter how fast we went; the craft seemed to keep pace effortlessly with us as it “glided” from my side to the driver’s side. The camper ahead was nowhere to be seen. I continued to watch as it passed completely over us very, very slowly and definitely as though floating. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished–either by shifting into warp drive or by leaving our dimension altogether–poof! Gone!

Bill was not willing to talk about it. He did not believe in UFOs, he said, and that it had to be some experimental aircraft that flew out of the nearby Air Force Base (I think McClellan). As for me, I could not stop trying to draw what I had seen as the days went by. Even at work on breaks, I spent time trying to duplicate it on paper. But I just could not capture the awe of it.

I decided a few days later to call McClellan AFB to report this. I spoke with a very nice screener, and our initial conversation went pretty well. She asked general questions on location, time, etc. and then said, “Just a few more questions and I’ll let you talk with the officer on duty.” This is where I totally blew it. She asked me to describe it in detail. I started off well enough, describing the spotlight, red aura, and the portholes, but then it flashed in my mind to say without thought “Actually, it could be described as a flying strawberry…I mean…uh…” End of interview. But….

A few days after that incident, I found a very brief news article buried in the daily newspaper that told of two men who were fishing several miles south of where we were that night on the river banks in Rio Vista. They had described seeing the very same type of craft, but they must have been wiser about how to describe it since they at least made it into the newspaper. I had to content myself with trying to draw this exquisite craft and take the guffaws from my friends and family, but I did not care. I knew what I saw and that was all that mattered. For Bill’s part, he denied later he ever saw it, which was sad to me.

I have not seen anything like it since, although I keep my eyes peeled. For me, it was an awesome, peaceful experience. Despite the chaos playing out in my life, I felt no fear whatsoever in that short time; in fact, I felt a fleeting sense of complete harmony and calm. I had this brief sense of clarity that there was a reason my life was unfolding in such uncharted territory that would in time be revealed. Just for that brief moment, I felt I was being looked after by something ‘out there’. What has happened since in terms of the direction of my life has been to say the least an interesting journey, but as I continue my blogs, snippets of my journey might be seen as patterns of Spiritual color interweaved in my outlook and writings.

So, are we being visited on this planet by extraterrestrials? My answer would be that rather than “visiting” us, our worlds are merging interdimensionally as the veil becomes thinner and transparent and somewhere deep within me is a sense that our changing Sun is somehow acting as facilitator to that end.

A friend and I were discussing over breakfast the interesting parallels between my sighting in 1980 and the Stephenville sightings Jan/Feb 2008. She remarked with a grin, “Don’t you think in the span of 27 years, they would have updated the style of their spaceship? ” to which I responded “Who’s to say that the one I saw in 1980 didn’t simply leave my time/space and a second later by their ‘watch’ end up in 2008 Stephenville? Hummm……

Note: In August 1999, I was new to New Mexico. I visited Roswell’s UFO Museum and was encouraged to write out my experience in a little room full of files. I know not whether it is still in their files or not.