August 2, 2018 • 33 mins
A story about some guys who got confused on a roadtrip... or did they?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Steve here. As we recently announced, we are
no longer producing new episodes of the podcast, but we
did have content that we had recorded that we had
not put into the regular feed for everybody to hear,
and we wanted to share that with you, of course.
So what you're hearing here is one of those episodes
of Down the Rabbit Hole that hadn't gone out into
(00:22):
the regular feed and had only previously been available through
the premium service. So enjoy and thanks a lot. This
episode of Thinking Sideways is not brought you by it
will pay for Jupicabras instead, it's brought you by pet shelters.
(00:44):
That's right. There are lots of dogs and cats and
bunnies and birds and snakes and leathery skin things. There's
all kinds of critters out there that everybody loves. Though
you may not love it, somebody else does, but they're
all out there for adoption because there are shelters that
help these kind of critters in a human world. Well,
(01:05):
if you want to help a critter that is in
a human world, go down your local animal shelter. If
you can't actually adopt, you can contribute in another way,
which is you could donate your time or money, because
those little critters they need your help. They need your time.
So do what you can make the world a better
place by helping a little thing that's fuzzy skin Shall
(01:30):
all those weird tactile senses thinking sideways stories of things
which can feed don't know the answer to don Hey, guys,
(02:06):
welcome to our very first bonus episode inaugural um. You
may have seen us doing polls or things like that
on social media for the name of this officially, right now,
we are calling this side program down the rabbit Hole.
By Thinking Sideways, special bonus content for all of our
(02:28):
fans on Stitcher Premium using Stitcher Premium, which we're very
excited for. Thanks for the rabbit Sorry, dude, we took
over your whole Thank you for subscribing on Stitcher Premium. Yeah,
for sure, this is the reward. I was stating around
awkwardly talking, Yeah, this is kind of lame for down
the rabbit Hole. By thinking Sideways, we are basically giving
(02:52):
ourselves a little bit of a free for all. We
are allowing ourselves to talk about things or stories or
whatever that interests us that doesn't necessarily fit into the
thinking sideways format genre genre in general. This is our
first one. I'm really excited about it because I get
to host it. As you can tell. So that's the concept.
We hope you guys enjoy it. Today we're talking about
(03:17):
thing of Phantom Ruby Tuesdays in New Mexico, some sort
of time slip with not just a fan and restaurants
a Phantom of city. It's yeah, Phantom. It's a weird thing.
It is a story that one of our mods, Leslie,
suggested to me and it was found on Reddit glitch
in the Matrix. Okay, so if you if you're on Reddit,
(03:41):
you probably know what matrix is, right, or you can
assume if you've ever seen the movie The Matrix. Yeah, anyway,
well let's just launch right in here. Okay. The story
starts in winter of two thousand nine, when the original
poster we're just going to call him op I'm just
gonna say it opt. That's great. Um Now, when you
(04:03):
do your story, you can call it Opie. Um Up
and his brother drove from Portland, Oregon our Fair City
to Florida to visit their system, and on the trip
back to Portland, they decided to take Interstate ten all
the way back to avoid some snow to lays they
had experienced on the way out. Because runs along the
southern portion of the Louisiana and Texas I've driven through,
(04:29):
I've driven actually both of these routes to the east coast.
I ten is actually way more enjoyable. Yeah, it was.
It was way more enjoyable. Um. The first day they
made it to San Antonio, which was a pretty good
that's quite a marathon. I mean that's like probably a
twenty two hour day. Yeah, So they stopped and then
(04:53):
the next day they had planned to make it from
San Antonio to Las Vegas. Um, like you do with
road trip, you start to really learn your car and
what kind of gas mileage you're getting from it. So
they knew that they usually needed to stop at about
three hundred and fifty miles for gas, but they could
go all the way to four hundred if absolutely needed.
(05:13):
They were right now. They were in a Honda hybrid.
Actually okay, okay, hybrid, okay, yep. Um, So, about a
hundred miles outside of San Antonio, the op noticed that
the fuel gauge was dropping noticeably faster than usual. So, um,
they looked to you know, on the hybrid cars you
(05:35):
can maybe you don't. On a hybrid car, you can
click to see fuel consumption. A lot of cars do
that these days. Yeah, I drive an old car, so
my car doesn't, but newer cars. If you have an
analog fuel gauge, if you would upgrade one of those
awesome digital ones, yeah, way better. I'm cool with my analog. Thanks. Um.
But they noticed that the car was only getting the
(05:55):
like almost barely twenty six miles per gallon versus they
had been getting closer to miles per gallon. Obviously, this
is pretty crazy, but there could be a lot of
explanations for it, like they were going uphill, or there
was a headwind or something, or maybe yeah, there was
some sort of gravitational tug from sort of you know,
gravitation after or something. Yeah, I mean somebody on RETTA said,
(06:18):
you know, it could just be something as simple as
they bought gas from a really crappy station that adulterate
their gas with water exactly, yeah, purposefully or otherwise. You
know that if the tanks live underground, and if the
tanks are old, they can get a little porous, and
the water because in the ground can just seep right in. Yeah, exactly.
So there are a number of reasons, but um just
(06:40):
decided they couldn't really come up with one other than
to quote, make them pull over where they did, a
reason that this was happening. That's what they can come
up with. Afterwards. I thought it was fate, yeah, or
some invisible hand something, yeah, um, And I do think
from the story the original poster is Mail so him.
(07:04):
They pulled over for gas earlier than expected and then
followed the GPS directions back on course. After a few
minutes of driving, they realized that they are not on
the predetermined I ten path, but instead on Highway to
eight five heading north Texas. Right. It was yeah around there, yeah, so,
and that that happens sometimes, especially in this kind of
(07:26):
more desolate parts of our of our country, interstates and
highways kind of commingle and share the same share the
same I mean, not the numbers, but they will share
the same actual road, have the same number, can be
on the same stretch of road they spur off. So yeah,
that's true. But oftentimes you know you'll get this is
um I five I four oh five and also Highway
(07:48):
to eighteen and Highway one seven I mean, you know
that all on that same road. So they just kind
of thought, well, maybe this is what that's what's going
on there, um relized only too late. Yeah, and then
they so they just kept going, and then they make
it to New Mexico, but realized that they're about an
hour early crossing into New Mexico. Then they would have
(08:09):
been on I ten. So they realized that they're not
actually on I ten at all, and at this point
exactly right, and then at this point that they've just
gone too far. It would have been an hour faster
to stay on I ten, but at this point it's
not faster to backtrack all the way back to I
tend to go back up to Vegas. So they're just
(08:31):
staying on the roads. There are other ways to get
back to River City, but they were, but they were
using a budget GPS unit, not a not a real
high dollar fancy one. Maybe that was part of it. Yeah, yeah,
I think it was part of it. But luckily there's
more than one road in the US. Sometimes they got
to find their way home. Yeah, and I've driven this
stretch of road, this actual specific stretch of road. I
(08:53):
don't know if either of you have, but even even
in this part of the country, if you've ever driven
through it, you know, almost everything you encounter are like
pit spots or um like we exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's
you know, you maybe get a gas station. Maybe if
you're lucky, the gas station has like a subway connected
(09:15):
to it or something like. That's pretty much all that
exists there. And more often than not, it's a sign
that says huber this way, no services. The jackpot when
you get the pizza Hut taco bell combination. One of
my favorites is just last gas for two. But you
want to pay attention to those signs, yeah, my favorite.
(09:35):
My second favorite is when it says last gas for
two hundred miles and then you drive ten miles down
the road in the risk there's way more. Yeah, and
there's actually a thriving city somehow. Yeah. So these guys
eventually hit a place called Vaughan, New Mexico. This is
like a four person population type spot, so, you know,
not the wide spot on the road, but not thriving
(09:56):
community necessarily. You know. Actually I had to go do
a little street view on that one, and it looks
like I used to have more than four people. There's
a lot a lot of they're like boarded up buildings
on the main drag there. Yeah, I think most of
the places through this area used to have a lot
more people, maybe at least some more people. Um and
and Sino they eventually drove through, after which I am
(10:20):
not lying. When you google and Sin, no, the thing
that comes up is pictures of abandoned outhouses. Oh I
thought it was going to be that poly short movie. No,
that's the first thing it tries to suggest, but it
is nope, nope. About ten miles by um the posters
estimation they drove to a town or a city. It
(10:42):
wasn't on their GPS. Again, this isn't insanely unusual. The
budget GPS is either you know, loose service and don't
really update or stuff. Yeah, their maps are out of
date or whatever. But they also said that there was
no no kind of signing around it, none of them
(11:04):
Ville next exit. Yeah, and actually this it sounds like
was not a poduncd vell. I mean there were a
lot of chain hotels and even like they said, like
in Albertson's and a number of chain restaurants. I mean,
it was a big enough they said they thought it
was like a ten to twenty thousand person population area,
(11:25):
which is fairly sizeable, particularly for that neck of the woods,
and particularly to have like no signage or anything else
just pops up out of nowhere. Yeah yeah, kind of weird. Yeah, though,
I will say again, having been on long haul road
trips like this, especially if they pulled a twenty two
hour day the day before, sometimes you just stop paying
attention to the signs that are blowing past. You think
(11:47):
you might have been on the wrong road or I
I don't know really why what's happening there? They decide
to take advantage of not being at a little podunct wherever. No,
you know, they don't want the the crappy burger and
yeah exactly, and stop in at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner day.
As soon as they walk in, they are greeted by
(12:09):
a waitress by name. I guess at this point we
have to name them. We can do our standard Justin
and Aaron. Yeah yeah, I like they're good names. Yeah um.
But the waitress basically walks up to them with a
huge smile on her face and she says, oh my word,
is that Justin and Aaron. They both assume that like
one of the brothers knows her, you know, like Justin's like, oh, well,
(12:32):
Aaron obviously knows her, and Erin's like, well, Justin obviously
knows her. And they kind of vague their way through
some answers, you know, and she says, how are you
doing blah blah blah, sits her down, and they sit down,
and she goes off to get the menus, and they
confer and they realize neither of them actually knows this woman,
and they think, well, Justin and Aaron are like pretty
(12:53):
common names. Maybe, you know, maybe maybe she's just that
podcast saying a lot of people started naming their babies,
so yeah, they are pretty common names at that point. Ye.
Then a bartender comes over and says, no way, Justin
and Aaron, are you guys back for jobs. They informed
(13:14):
him that he must just like be mistaken because at
this point they realized they they are being mistaken for
somebody else apparently, and he just kind of laughs like
they're joking. The bartender continues by asking how they had
fared in their three month anatomy and physiology courses that
they've taken at Oregon State. Once it turned out they
had taken yeah, I mean, Joe, can you read this
(13:35):
next little bit? It's an actual quote, okay, okay quote.
I remember thinking, all of a sudden, this is not
a coincidence anymore. My brother and I had taken the
three months fifteen credit A and P class at Portland
State University when we were in our early twenties. We
were late twenties when this interaction happened. Finally, I asked
the guy again exactly where they knew us from, and
(13:56):
he just kind of paused and started looking me over.
Then he said, oh, you guys just like really similar
to some people that used to work here unquote. He
apologized and claimed they had to get back to work.
After a bit, our food came and my brother and
I noticed it had switched out our waitress from the
girl who recognized us when we walked in. That wasn't
a big deal, though a bit strange. Next, a guy
I can only guess was the manager starts walking over
(14:17):
to our table with a big smile on his face.
As he guess with him about ten feet of us.
He kind of starts looking over my head and stops.
I think someone behind me was directing him not to
talk to us. After he received the message. You sharply
turned ninety degrees and walked away without saying a word unquote.
I mean it's weird and awkward, but yeah, a little bit,
(14:39):
you know, nothing like too crazy. That's kind of crazy.
I mean they basically you can tell they are not comfortable.
I wouldn't be. And they finished their meal as quickly
as possible, and the new waitress comes back and says, oh,
our cash register system is down, so your meals around
the house, which is again like a chain doesn't normally
(15:01):
do that, just to just sit there for the next minutes,
or you know, you need cash, like we have a
t M. There's an a t M down the way.
Just pay us cash something to get paid. Uh. Justin
says that he wanted to ask where they were, but
also just like really wanted to get out of there,
which I can totally sympathize with. There are some moments
(15:22):
where you're just like, oh my god, I gotta get
out of here. I need to know more, but I
gotta get out of here. They figured they had to
stop for gas anyway, so they would you get the
little receipt and it says, you know X on mobile
Portland's northeast or what I mean. You know, it says
where you're basically right. Um. But unfortunately, as they were
(15:43):
getting on the highway it was divided, so they were
forced to turn right out of the restaurant, putting them
back directly onto northbound eight five thank you, which basically
forced them back on the road without being able to
fuel up. So they drove for about twenty more minutes
and then found a truck stop where they stopped, which
ended up being right at the intersection of two five
and I forty. Uh and I forty is the road
(16:06):
that you would take for the rest of pretty much
the rest of your journey westward. Um. Yeah, so you can.
You can see this all on on Google. You can
see the area and everything. Yeah. Yeah. And so the
the other reason that this is weird is that there
is nothing there really isn't between Encino and the junction
(16:26):
of two eighty five and I forty. Actually, there is
a little phantom business there called Ruby Tuesdays. I forget
what it is. I was looking at something like, you know,
Mike's Mike's Repair or something like that, but it's certainly
not a Ruby Tuesdays. No, when you look it's actually
labeled to Google. But when you actually nothing there. Yeah,
(16:50):
so that's the thing. I attached a map to this,
so you guys got to look at it, which is
pretty cool. But that's like the weirdness of this whole thing.
I mean, on top of everything else, right, there is
nothing in there, literally nothing. I mean it's a pretty
short stretch of road, yeah, and there's nothing there. Yeah.
It's interesting though. It's actually if you look at if
(17:12):
you street, you and everything, it's it's a double highway,
so it's too lazy direction with with a nice me
radian in between, considering and I checked the traffic flow
on that. But through the state of New Mexico, that
little stretch in there is two thousand, two hundred forty
seven cars a day. That's a that's a lot of
really nice asphalt for that number of cars. And uh
(17:33):
it really is. Uh yeah, that's a big, beautiful highway
going straight as an arrow. Yeah. Well, actually, somebody on Reddit,
since this was a Reddit post, somebody on Reddit took
the time they lived close and they they actually took
a picture. They drove this entire journey, you know, from Vaughan,
New Mexico, all the way to this truck stop that
the guy said they stopped at and took a picture
(17:55):
pretty much every couple of miles, every time they saw
something of any kind of interest. And there's nothing there.
So here's the question, and I I So I looked
at the map you had and spun around a little
bit on the map, but I didn't do any extensive searching.
Is it at all possible that are our storyteller? That's
(18:16):
how I'm going to refer to him, our storyteller diverted
yet again from the road they thought they were all
I had that que I had that question exactly, and
I will tell you know because they said they went
through Vaughan and Encino, and those are two very distinct
(18:38):
points and then either you can go straight and then
you hit the border, or you go up and you
intersect with I forty. They know that they stopped within
an hour of Encino, give or take, you know, actual
driving distance an hour of Encino. They hit the junction
of UM to A five and I forty. And the
(19:02):
only place that that those two intersect is that truck stop.
Now granted, they could have yes gone diverted, but to
divert they would have hit like a bunch of major cities,
major cities, and they would have been hundreds, if not
thousands of miles off course and so wrong about where
(19:23):
they're at them they would have known. Yeah, And that
was one of the things is like, you know, one
of the theories on this is like they were just wrong,
but they would have had been really, really wrong. The
other thing is is that, um, if you look at
Ruby Tuesday's website or even a historic log of where
Ruby Tuesdays are in New Mexico, there's only one and
(19:46):
it's two hundred and five miles away from where they
claim they were, and it's actually a pretty decent sized city. Yeah,
you have to be really wrong. And of course this
wouldn't be the first time that somebody were wrong about something.
I mean, it could have been they were at Ruby's Tuesday.
I was a chain what I mean it could have been, Yeah,
it's not the chain Ruby Tuesdays. It could have been
something that was very similarly named or Rusday. Yeah, yeah,
(20:10):
Ruby Rubies. I mean they represented it as the reason
that they were excited about it is you guys may
remember that the first Ruby Tuesdays in Portland's started opening
up around two nine or whenever the story we're being
excited about. No, I wasn't excited. But you know that's
kind of when they came here. And so the reason
(20:31):
that they had chosen that particular chain is because they
were like, oh, those are opening up around us. Let's
see if it's any good. So here, and but yes,
I will allow I will allow a whole lot of
error here. But even like the most amount of error
can't get me a random city in the middle of
basically what is just like wasteland. So were we in theories? Now?
(20:53):
Is that where we're at here? Yeah? I mean this
isn't this isn't thinking sideways what it is talking about
what it could be? Yeah, okay, but before we talk
about theories, let's take a break. If you think being
a Ruby Tuesdays and having everybody recognize you when you
don't know them as a bit of a mind twister,
(21:14):
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(24:34):
Because I mean, the first thing that comes to my
mind is that this is on glitchen of Matrix, and
it really sounds like something that should have been on
no Sleep. It could have been made up. It sounds
you're very, very fictional. To well, it's very conveniently peppered
with true details, but then diverts from those rather corputate.
(24:55):
So um, shut up, stop tiring. Um. I mean, yes,
of course that is a theory that this is totally
made up, but it's I'm just having fun kind of
entertaining the other options. How far away is this from
Roswell's actually passed through Rowell to get to where they were. Okay,
so it's entirely possible that this is an after effect
(25:16):
of Roswell. The whole thing was in their heads because
they were doped up. Actually, that's like an interesting thing
is that there are two really interesting theories about that. One,
as we're playing along, right, is that it's possible that
they could have been abducted by aliens and then had
these memories implanted in their brain to supersede whatever horrible
(25:36):
things they experienced serience. The other theory is that they're
actually spies. No wait, no, wait, this is I mean,
this isn't the worst theory ever, right, Okay, they're actually
so that all of this aside. Right, we just assumed
that they were actually out of Ruby Tuesdays where everybody
knew who they were for some reason. It's the new
(25:58):
Mexico version of cheer sure, right, for some reason they
were like somehow, yes, they found this Ruby Tuesdays where
everybody knew who they were. It seems totally unreasonable. They
were in the totally the wrong place. But the other
theory part of this is that like that was all real,
but their spies and they've had their memories wiped and replanted,
(26:22):
and so all of the people at Ruby Tuesdays did
actually know them, They did actually used to work there.
They just have no memory of it because their spies
and have been brainwashed to believe that there's the exactly Yea,
I like that theory a lot, except you think that
they they were going to wipe their memories, they would
have also given them like new names and identities to
(26:43):
you would think, yeah, yeah, I am looking. I am
desperately looking through Google right now. For there was some
really really crappy Roswell movie. They came out probably in
the last five years, and that's something like this Happen
No No, But the plot of it, it's it's by
the same guy that he's has a bunch of those
(27:05):
really shaky camera movies. It's really cheaply made, and there's
like Blair Wedge Project, right, but there's been one or
two that are hits and the rest of them are
just garbage. But it makes me think of that kind
of thing where this could have been somebody's script concept
for that kind of movie that the shaky camp like
four hours in the car they rolled down the window,
(27:27):
they're talking to the camera that I mean that's this
is or it could be that they were just abductive,
but I think it I agree. I think it probably
is made up, but it's still like a crazy like
on the off chance it's not, it's a crazy, fun,
interesting story that I wanted to share. I admire that
that that he didn't overdo it with the dramatic elements.
(27:47):
That was that's good. If he did make it up,
it's it's like, you know, the whole thing about it
is it's it's very mundane. You know, he's not dramatized.
It's not a real dramatic story. The reason that falls
down for me is I'm totally into the whole time slip, alternative,
alternative timeline and all that stuff. But here's the problem
(28:07):
is that, uh, nobody would put a Ruby Tuesdays franchise
on a highway that has less than cars a day, well, right,
I mean alternative timeline. Well, but in an alternative timeline
that could have been the main highway. I mean, you know,
they're the only reason that it wouldn't because it wasn't
like this lone Ruby Tuesday is hanging out by itself.
(28:30):
There was a bustling little area, so you would assume
that in this alternate timeline, if they did happen to
slip into it or whatever. Um, that that for whatever reason,
that would have been a kind of hub in the area.
That occurred to me too. But here's here's where. Here's
where it fell down again for me. Okay, there's a
there's a there's this whole city that is not there
(28:52):
in our our timeline, and and so that means that
there's a lot more people. So he should have noticed,
you know, the notice the city. But they should have
notice all of a sudden, we realized there's ten times
as many cars on the road around us. Where did
they all come from? All of a sudden, we notice
that we're driving through this town and there's like there's
like overpasses and stuff. And that's the first overpass we've
(29:15):
seen it in this entire highway the entire time. Things
like that. They didn't notice any of those things. I agree,
I think. While Steve's over there on his phone, I'm actually,
that's okay, well that's what I'm usually doing, so fine. Um,
But I mean, realistically maybe, but I feel like I've
(29:35):
taken so many road trips in my life where there
have been times where we've hit this kind of weird
little bubble. And it's not like there are suddenly more people.
We are still the only car on the highway. But
that doesn't mean I mean, who knows what time. It
sounds like it was later in the day. Maybe it
was a weird time that they hit it, but it
(29:56):
just the impression that they did it right around lunchtime
or something. But that could be wrong about I guess
it was like later dinner time in my mind. But
I mean, you know, again, like that's not given, and
so that that gives us that kind of reasonable doubt
of being able to say, well, maybe it was a
weird time, And I mean, you know, I don't, I
don't know. I just I would say that things like, um,
(30:19):
you know, when you drive out to the coast, you
drive into Telemook for instance, Right, Telemooks kind of the
same size as I would guess this area was probably
a little probably probably a little bigger. But you know,
you can drive on twenty six, or you can drive
on the Telemook through the Telemook Forest, right, it doesn't
(30:40):
I've I've driven both ways a number of times, and
I've never felt you going either way that suddenly there
were more or less cars on either of them. The
twenty six gets way more traffic than the road through
the Telemook Forest, right, I don't. I think it always
feels about the same amount of traffic perception, Yeah, I
don't know. I mean suddenly when they get into town though,
(31:02):
there should have been all of a sudden a lot
more cars around, and there may have been, and they
just didn't because because there was tended people. He was like, yeah,
of course there's more traffic. I don't know. As we
thought as we talked about this when I was on
my phone for is that this really really makes me
think about I cannot find the name of it, but
(31:23):
years ago I read it was a book or a
short book or a story by Stephen King where essentially
this person was driving all the time and making fantastic
different distances, and the concept was if you have a
flat paper map, but you fold the map and you
connect the to the the road from the two folded edges,
(31:44):
you cut out all that distance, but you go through
this weird kind of fantasy space that makes me think.
But it's it has the same quality, in the same
feel as the things that are described in that like
I almost feel like a rip off of King in
a way that I mean, that sounds like not intentionally,
but the King probably ripped off Reddit. Yeah, that sounds
(32:09):
like a wrinkle in time to me. So are you
sure it's Stephen King? I really feel like it was
Stephen King. But it's a theory of time travel in
general is that you just wrinkle two things and stop.
Actually he did mention that he picked up that road
Atlas to the western US and that which is market America.
(32:29):
They did, he didn't, But that's okay. Anyway, UM, do
you guys feel like you have anything more that you want?
I mean, this is a weird story, I want to
be honest, but I hope you enjoyed it. Yeah, it's good.
Sure they made it up. Like I said, I don't
think that you're going to find it because even in
the alternative timeline, I still don't understand why anybody would
(32:51):
plant the city in a particulous spot because I've looked
at it. Why do they planning cities in any typically?
But anyway, I hope that everybody else got to enjoy this.
UM as a little bonus something. UM, we want to
thank you very very much for being part of Stitcher Premium.
If you want to connect with us, you can head
to our Stitcher page to connect with us on all
(33:13):
of our various social media's and also linked to our website.
Or if you want to talk to us about this
case or any other case, you can feel free to
email us at Thinking Sideways podcast at gmail dot com. Yeah,
if you live on Highway five, we especially want to
hear from. If you work on the rout at the
Ruby tuesdays on that road, please let us know. Um.
(33:34):
But otherwise um, Yeah, thanks for going to get out
of here to lou. We'll see you next time. Get
burger okay,
Hey, everybody, Steve here. As we recently announced, we are
no longer producing new episodes of the podcast, but we
did have content that we had recorded that we had
not put into the regular feed for everybody to hear,
and we wanted to share that with you, of course.
So what you're hearing here is one of those episodes
of Down the Rabbit Hole that hadn't gone out into
(00:22):
the regular feed and had only previously been available through
the premium service. So enjoy and thanks a lot. This
episode of Thinking Sideways is not brought you by it
will pay for Jupicabras instead, it's brought you by pet shelters.
(00:44):
That's right. There are lots of dogs and cats and
bunnies and birds and snakes and leathery skin things. There's
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you may not love it, somebody else does, but they're
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if you want to help a critter that is in
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So do what you can make the world a better
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(01:30):
all those weird tactile senses thinking sideways stories of things
which can feed don't know the answer to don Hey, guys,
(02:06):
welcome to our very first bonus episode inaugural um. You
may have seen us doing polls or things like that
on social media for the name of this officially, right now,
we are calling this side program down the rabbit Hole.
By Thinking Sideways, special bonus content for all of our
(02:28):
fans on Stitcher Premium using Stitcher Premium, which we're very
excited for. Thanks for the rabbit Sorry, dude, we took
over your whole Thank you for subscribing on Stitcher Premium. Yeah,
for sure, this is the reward. I was stating around
awkwardly talking, Yeah, this is kind of lame for down
the rabbit Hole. By thinking Sideways, we are basically giving
(02:52):
ourselves a little bit of a free for all. We
are allowing ourselves to talk about things or stories or
whatever that interests us that doesn't necessarily fit into the
thinking sideways format genre genre in general. This is our
first one. I'm really excited about it because I get
to host it. As you can tell. So that's the concept.
We hope you guys enjoy it. Today we're talking about
(03:17):
thing of Phantom Ruby Tuesdays in New Mexico, some sort
of time slip with not just a fan and restaurants
a Phantom of city. It's yeah, Phantom. It's a weird thing.
It is a story that one of our mods, Leslie,
suggested to me and it was found on Reddit glitch
in the Matrix. Okay, so if you if you're on Reddit,
(03:41):
you probably know what matrix is, right, or you can
assume if you've ever seen the movie The Matrix. Yeah, anyway,
well let's just launch right in here. Okay. The story
starts in winter of two thousand nine, when the original
poster we're just going to call him op I'm just
gonna say it opt. That's great. Um Now, when you
(04:03):
do your story, you can call it Opie. Um Up
and his brother drove from Portland, Oregon our Fair City
to Florida to visit their system, and on the trip
back to Portland, they decided to take Interstate ten all
the way back to avoid some snow to lays they
had experienced on the way out. Because runs along the
southern portion of the Louisiana and Texas I've driven through,
(04:29):
I've driven actually both of these routes to the east coast.
I ten is actually way more enjoyable. Yeah, it was.
It was way more enjoyable. Um. The first day they
made it to San Antonio, which was a pretty good
that's quite a marathon. I mean that's like probably a
twenty two hour day. Yeah, So they stopped and then
(04:53):
the next day they had planned to make it from
San Antonio to Las Vegas. Um, like you do with
road trip, you start to really learn your car and
what kind of gas mileage you're getting from it. So
they knew that they usually needed to stop at about
three hundred and fifty miles for gas, but they could
go all the way to four hundred if absolutely needed.
(05:13):
They were right now. They were in a Honda hybrid.
Actually okay, okay, hybrid, okay, yep. Um, So, about a
hundred miles outside of San Antonio, the op noticed that
the fuel gauge was dropping noticeably faster than usual. So, um,
they looked to you know, on the hybrid cars you
(05:35):
can maybe you don't. On a hybrid car, you can
click to see fuel consumption. A lot of cars do
that these days. Yeah, I drive an old car, so
my car doesn't, but newer cars. If you have an
analog fuel gauge, if you would upgrade one of those
awesome digital ones, yeah, way better. I'm cool with my analog. Thanks. Um.
But they noticed that the car was only getting the
(05:55):
like almost barely twenty six miles per gallon versus they
had been getting closer to miles per gallon. Obviously, this
is pretty crazy, but there could be a lot of
explanations for it, like they were going uphill, or there
was a headwind or something, or maybe yeah, there was
some sort of gravitational tug from sort of you know,
gravitation after or something. Yeah, I mean somebody on RETTA said,
(06:18):
you know, it could just be something as simple as
they bought gas from a really crappy station that adulterate
their gas with water exactly, yeah, purposefully or otherwise. You
know that if the tanks live underground, and if the
tanks are old, they can get a little porous, and
the water because in the ground can just seep right in. Yeah, exactly.
So there are a number of reasons, but um just
(06:40):
decided they couldn't really come up with one other than
to quote, make them pull over where they did, a
reason that this was happening. That's what they can come
up with. Afterwards. I thought it was fate, yeah, or
some invisible hand something, yeah, um, And I do think
from the story the original poster is Mail so him.
(07:04):
They pulled over for gas earlier than expected and then
followed the GPS directions back on course. After a few
minutes of driving, they realized that they are not on
the predetermined I ten path, but instead on Highway to
eight five heading north Texas. Right. It was yeah around there, yeah, so,
and that that happens sometimes, especially in this kind of
(07:26):
more desolate parts of our of our country, interstates and
highways kind of commingle and share the same share the
same I mean, not the numbers, but they will share
the same actual road, have the same number, can be
on the same stretch of road they spur off. So yeah,
that's true. But oftentimes you know you'll get this is
um I five I four oh five and also Highway
(07:48):
to eighteen and Highway one seven I mean, you know
that all on that same road. So they just kind
of thought, well, maybe this is what that's what's going
on there, um relized only too late. Yeah, and then
they so they just kept going, and then they make
it to New Mexico, but realized that they're about an
hour early crossing into New Mexico. Then they would have
(08:09):
been on I ten. So they realized that they're not
actually on I ten at all, and at this point
exactly right, and then at this point that they've just
gone too far. It would have been an hour faster
to stay on I ten, but at this point it's
not faster to backtrack all the way back to I
tend to go back up to Vegas. So they're just
(08:31):
staying on the roads. There are other ways to get
back to River City, but they were, but they were
using a budget GPS unit, not a not a real
high dollar fancy one. Maybe that was part of it. Yeah, yeah,
I think it was part of it. But luckily there's
more than one road in the US. Sometimes they got
to find their way home. Yeah, and I've driven this
stretch of road, this actual specific stretch of road. I
(08:53):
don't know if either of you have, but even even
in this part of the country, if you've ever driven
through it, you know, almost everything you encounter are like
pit spots or um like we exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's
you know, you maybe get a gas station. Maybe if
you're lucky, the gas station has like a subway connected
(09:15):
to it or something like. That's pretty much all that
exists there. And more often than not, it's a sign
that says huber this way, no services. The jackpot when
you get the pizza Hut taco bell combination. One of
my favorites is just last gas for two. But you
want to pay attention to those signs, yeah, my favorite.
(09:35):
My second favorite is when it says last gas for
two hundred miles and then you drive ten miles down
the road in the risk there's way more. Yeah, and
there's actually a thriving city somehow. Yeah. So these guys
eventually hit a place called Vaughan, New Mexico. This is
like a four person population type spot, so, you know,
not the wide spot on the road, but not thriving
(09:56):
community necessarily. You know. Actually I had to go do
a little street view on that one, and it looks
like I used to have more than four people. There's
a lot a lot of they're like boarded up buildings
on the main drag there. Yeah, I think most of
the places through this area used to have a lot
more people, maybe at least some more people. Um and
and Sino they eventually drove through, after which I am
(10:20):
not lying. When you google and Sin, no, the thing
that comes up is pictures of abandoned outhouses. Oh I
thought it was going to be that poly short movie. No,
that's the first thing it tries to suggest, but it
is nope, nope. About ten miles by um the posters
estimation they drove to a town or a city. It
(10:42):
wasn't on their GPS. Again, this isn't insanely unusual. The
budget GPS is either you know, loose service and don't
really update or stuff. Yeah, their maps are out of
date or whatever. But they also said that there was
no no kind of signing around it, none of them
(11:04):
Ville next exit. Yeah, and actually this it sounds like
was not a poduncd vell. I mean there were a
lot of chain hotels and even like they said, like
in Albertson's and a number of chain restaurants. I mean,
it was a big enough they said they thought it
was like a ten to twenty thousand person population area,
(11:25):
which is fairly sizeable, particularly for that neck of the woods,
and particularly to have like no signage or anything else
just pops up out of nowhere. Yeah yeah, kind of weird. Yeah, though,
I will say again, having been on long haul road
trips like this, especially if they pulled a twenty two
hour day the day before, sometimes you just stop paying
attention to the signs that are blowing past. You think
(11:47):
you might have been on the wrong road or I
I don't know really why what's happening there? They decide
to take advantage of not being at a little podunct wherever. No,
you know, they don't want the the crappy burger and
yeah exactly, and stop in at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner day.
As soon as they walk in, they are greeted by
(12:09):
a waitress by name. I guess at this point we
have to name them. We can do our standard Justin
and Aaron. Yeah yeah, I like they're good names. Yeah um.
But the waitress basically walks up to them with a
huge smile on her face and she says, oh my word,
is that Justin and Aaron. They both assume that like
one of the brothers knows her, you know, like Justin's like, oh, well,
(12:32):
Aaron obviously knows her, and Erin's like, well, Justin obviously
knows her. And they kind of vague their way through
some answers, you know, and she says, how are you
doing blah blah blah, sits her down, and they sit down,
and she goes off to get the menus, and they
confer and they realize neither of them actually knows this woman,
and they think, well, Justin and Aaron are like pretty
(12:53):
common names. Maybe, you know, maybe maybe she's just that
podcast saying a lot of people started naming their babies,
so yeah, they are pretty common names at that point. Ye.
Then a bartender comes over and says, no way, Justin
and Aaron, are you guys back for jobs. They informed
(13:14):
him that he must just like be mistaken because at
this point they realized they they are being mistaken for
somebody else apparently, and he just kind of laughs like
they're joking. The bartender continues by asking how they had
fared in their three month anatomy and physiology courses that
they've taken at Oregon State. Once it turned out they
had taken yeah, I mean, Joe, can you read this
(13:35):
next little bit? It's an actual quote, okay, okay quote.
I remember thinking, all of a sudden, this is not
a coincidence anymore. My brother and I had taken the
three months fifteen credit A and P class at Portland
State University when we were in our early twenties. We
were late twenties when this interaction happened. Finally, I asked
the guy again exactly where they knew us from, and
(13:56):
he just kind of paused and started looking me over.
Then he said, oh, you guys just like really similar
to some people that used to work here unquote. He
apologized and claimed they had to get back to work.
After a bit, our food came and my brother and
I noticed it had switched out our waitress from the
girl who recognized us when we walked in. That wasn't
a big deal, though a bit strange. Next, a guy
I can only guess was the manager starts walking over
(14:17):
to our table with a big smile on his face.
As he guess with him about ten feet of us.
He kind of starts looking over my head and stops.
I think someone behind me was directing him not to
talk to us. After he received the message. You sharply
turned ninety degrees and walked away without saying a word unquote.
I mean it's weird and awkward, but yeah, a little bit,
(14:39):
you know, nothing like too crazy. That's kind of crazy.
I mean they basically you can tell they are not comfortable.
I wouldn't be. And they finished their meal as quickly
as possible, and the new waitress comes back and says, oh,
our cash register system is down, so your meals around
the house, which is again like a chain doesn't normally
(15:01):
do that, just to just sit there for the next minutes,
or you know, you need cash, like we have a
t M. There's an a t M down the way.
Just pay us cash something to get paid. Uh. Justin
says that he wanted to ask where they were, but
also just like really wanted to get out of there,
which I can totally sympathize with. There are some moments
(15:22):
where you're just like, oh my god, I gotta get
out of here. I need to know more, but I
gotta get out of here. They figured they had to
stop for gas anyway, so they would you get the
little receipt and it says, you know X on mobile
Portland's northeast or what I mean. You know, it says
where you're basically right. Um. But unfortunately, as they were
(15:43):
getting on the highway it was divided, so they were
forced to turn right out of the restaurant, putting them
back directly onto northbound eight five thank you, which basically
forced them back on the road without being able to
fuel up. So they drove for about twenty more minutes
and then found a truck stop where they stopped, which
ended up being right at the intersection of two five
and I forty. Uh and I forty is the road
(16:06):
that you would take for the rest of pretty much
the rest of your journey westward. Um. Yeah, so you can.
You can see this all on on Google. You can
see the area and everything. Yeah. Yeah. And so the
the other reason that this is weird is that there
is nothing there really isn't between Encino and the junction
(16:26):
of two eighty five and I forty. Actually, there is
a little phantom business there called Ruby Tuesdays. I forget
what it is. I was looking at something like, you know,
Mike's Mike's Repair or something like that, but it's certainly
not a Ruby Tuesdays. No, when you look it's actually
labeled to Google. But when you actually nothing there. Yeah,
(16:50):
so that's the thing. I attached a map to this,
so you guys got to look at it, which is
pretty cool. But that's like the weirdness of this whole thing.
I mean, on top of everything else, right, there is
nothing in there, literally nothing. I mean it's a pretty
short stretch of road, yeah, and there's nothing there. Yeah.
It's interesting though. It's actually if you look at if
(17:12):
you street, you and everything, it's it's a double highway,
so it's too lazy direction with with a nice me
radian in between, considering and I checked the traffic flow
on that. But through the state of New Mexico, that
little stretch in there is two thousand, two hundred forty
seven cars a day. That's a that's a lot of
really nice asphalt for that number of cars. And uh
(17:33):
it really is. Uh yeah, that's a big, beautiful highway
going straight as an arrow. Yeah. Well, actually, somebody on Reddit,
since this was a Reddit post, somebody on Reddit took
the time they lived close and they they actually took
a picture. They drove this entire journey, you know, from Vaughan,
New Mexico, all the way to this truck stop that
the guy said they stopped at and took a picture
(17:55):
pretty much every couple of miles, every time they saw
something of any kind of interest. And there's nothing there.
So here's the question, and I I So I looked
at the map you had and spun around a little
bit on the map, but I didn't do any extensive searching.
Is it at all possible that are our storyteller? That's
(18:16):
how I'm going to refer to him, our storyteller diverted
yet again from the road they thought they were all
I had that que I had that question exactly, and
I will tell you know because they said they went
through Vaughan and Encino, and those are two very distinct
(18:38):
points and then either you can go straight and then
you hit the border, or you go up and you
intersect with I forty. They know that they stopped within
an hour of Encino, give or take, you know, actual
driving distance an hour of Encino. They hit the junction
of UM to A five and I forty. And the
(19:02):
only place that that those two intersect is that truck stop.
Now granted, they could have yes gone diverted, but to
divert they would have hit like a bunch of major cities,
major cities, and they would have been hundreds, if not
thousands of miles off course and so wrong about where
(19:23):
they're at them they would have known. Yeah, And that
was one of the things is like, you know, one
of the theories on this is like they were just wrong,
but they would have had been really, really wrong. The
other thing is is that, um, if you look at
Ruby Tuesday's website or even a historic log of where
Ruby Tuesdays are in New Mexico, there's only one and
(19:46):
it's two hundred and five miles away from where they
claim they were, and it's actually a pretty decent sized city. Yeah,
you have to be really wrong. And of course this
wouldn't be the first time that somebody were wrong about something.
I mean, it could have been they were at Ruby's Tuesday.
I was a chain what I mean it could have been, Yeah,
it's not the chain Ruby Tuesdays. It could have been
something that was very similarly named or Rusday. Yeah, yeah,
(20:10):
Ruby Rubies. I mean they represented it as the reason
that they were excited about it is you guys may
remember that the first Ruby Tuesdays in Portland's started opening
up around two nine or whenever the story we're being
excited about. No, I wasn't excited. But you know that's
kind of when they came here. And so the reason
(20:31):
that they had chosen that particular chain is because they
were like, oh, those are opening up around us. Let's
see if it's any good. So here, and but yes,
I will allow I will allow a whole lot of
error here. But even like the most amount of error
can't get me a random city in the middle of
basically what is just like wasteland. So were we in theories? Now?
(20:53):
Is that where we're at here? Yeah? I mean this
isn't this isn't thinking sideways what it is talking about
what it could be? Yeah, okay, but before we talk
about theories, let's take a break. If you think being
a Ruby Tuesdays and having everybody recognize you when you
don't know them as a bit of a mind twister,
(21:14):
then you are gonna love the new show from HBO.
When Young Girl disappears from rural wind Gap, Missouri, reporter
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(21:35):
the novel by Jillian Flynn. Amy Adams stars as reporter
Camille Preaker, whose proximity to the investigation her chilly mother
and mysterious half sister bring her own scars to the surface.
Hailed as a spell binding, addictive immersion into a dark,
small town mystery by Indie Wire and the most captivating
(21:55):
show of the summer by Time, Sharp Objects also features
Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, and Eliza Scranling. See new episodes
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I recently interviewed my cat, Princess fluffy Pants, about one
of our sponsors, and I wanted to share that interview
(22:17):
with our listeners. Of course, she's a cat, so I
had to bring in a feline translator for this conversation. Hello,
your Royal Fluffiness, purveyor of the regal fur and most
valued occupier of the boxes, How are you doing today?
I am well human servant, and I would like to
congratulate you on finally addressing me with my full and
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well earned title. But of course, Princess, you asked for
this interview today, so what would you like to share
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They are amazing things, and while I have yet to
figure out how to wear them myself, I greatly enjoy
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lounging on them, and it is a guilty pleasure to
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(23:43):
down around your ankles and looking like a dorky. Let's
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you can go clean my litter box and we're back.
(24:34):
Because I mean, the first thing that comes to my
mind is that this is on glitchen of Matrix, and
it really sounds like something that should have been on
no Sleep. It could have been made up. It sounds
you're very, very fictional. To well, it's very conveniently peppered
with true details, but then diverts from those rather corputate.
(24:55):
So um, shut up, stop tiring. Um. I mean, yes,
of course that is a theory that this is totally
made up, but it's I'm just having fun kind of
entertaining the other options. How far away is this from
Roswell's actually passed through Rowell to get to where they were. Okay,
so it's entirely possible that this is an after effect
(25:16):
of Roswell. The whole thing was in their heads because
they were doped up. Actually, that's like an interesting thing
is that there are two really interesting theories about that. One,
as we're playing along, right, is that it's possible that
they could have been abducted by aliens and then had
these memories implanted in their brain to supersede whatever horrible
(25:36):
things they experienced serience. The other theory is that they're
actually spies. No wait, no, wait, this is I mean,
this isn't the worst theory ever, right, Okay, they're actually
so that all of this aside. Right, we just assumed
that they were actually out of Ruby Tuesdays where everybody
knew who they were for some reason. It's the new
(25:58):
Mexico version of cheer sure, right, for some reason they
were like somehow, yes, they found this Ruby Tuesdays where
everybody knew who they were. It seems totally unreasonable. They
were in the totally the wrong place. But the other
theory part of this is that like that was all real,
but their spies and they've had their memories wiped and replanted,
(26:22):
and so all of the people at Ruby Tuesdays did
actually know them, They did actually used to work there.
They just have no memory of it because their spies
and have been brainwashed to believe that there's the exactly Yea,
I like that theory a lot, except you think that
they they were going to wipe their memories, they would
have also given them like new names and identities to
(26:43):
you would think, yeah, yeah, I am looking. I am
desperately looking through Google right now. For there was some
really really crappy Roswell movie. They came out probably in
the last five years, and that's something like this Happen
No No, But the plot of it, it's it's by
the same guy that he's has a bunch of those
(27:05):
really shaky camera movies. It's really cheaply made, and there's
like Blair Wedge Project, right, but there's been one or
two that are hits and the rest of them are
just garbage. But it makes me think of that kind
of thing where this could have been somebody's script concept
for that kind of movie that the shaky camp like
four hours in the car they rolled down the window,
(27:27):
they're talking to the camera that I mean that's this
is or it could be that they were just abductive,
but I think it I agree. I think it probably
is made up, but it's still like a crazy like
on the off chance it's not, it's a crazy, fun,
interesting story that I wanted to share. I admire that
that that he didn't overdo it with the dramatic elements.
(27:47):
That was that's good. If he did make it up,
it's it's like, you know, the whole thing about it
is it's it's very mundane. You know, he's not dramatized.
It's not a real dramatic story. The reason that falls
down for me is I'm totally into the whole time slip, alternative,
alternative timeline and all that stuff. But here's the problem
(28:07):
is that, uh, nobody would put a Ruby Tuesdays franchise
on a highway that has less than cars a day, well, right,
I mean alternative timeline. Well, but in an alternative timeline
that could have been the main highway. I mean, you know,
they're the only reason that it wouldn't because it wasn't
like this lone Ruby Tuesday is hanging out by itself.
(28:30):
There was a bustling little area, so you would assume
that in this alternate timeline, if they did happen to
slip into it or whatever. Um, that that for whatever reason,
that would have been a kind of hub in the area.
That occurred to me too. But here's here's where. Here's
where it fell down again for me. Okay, there's a
there's a there's this whole city that is not there
(28:52):
in our our timeline, and and so that means that
there's a lot more people. So he should have noticed,
you know, the notice the city. But they should have
notice all of a sudden, we realized there's ten times
as many cars on the road around us. Where did
they all come from? All of a sudden, we notice
that we're driving through this town and there's like there's
like overpasses and stuff. And that's the first overpass we've
(29:15):
seen it in this entire highway the entire time. Things
like that. They didn't notice any of those things. I agree,
I think. While Steve's over there on his phone, I'm actually,
that's okay, well that's what I'm usually doing, so fine. Um,
But I mean, realistically maybe, but I feel like I've
(29:35):
taken so many road trips in my life where there
have been times where we've hit this kind of weird
little bubble. And it's not like there are suddenly more people.
We are still the only car on the highway. But
that doesn't mean I mean, who knows what time. It
sounds like it was later in the day. Maybe it
was a weird time that they hit it, but it
(29:56):
just the impression that they did it right around lunchtime
or something. But that could be wrong about I guess
it was like later dinner time in my mind. But
I mean, you know, again, like that's not given, and
so that that gives us that kind of reasonable doubt
of being able to say, well, maybe it was a
weird time, And I mean, you know, I don't, I
don't know. I just I would say that things like, um,
(30:19):
you know, when you drive out to the coast, you
drive into Telemook for instance, Right, Telemooks kind of the
same size as I would guess this area was probably
a little probably probably a little bigger. But you know,
you can drive on twenty six, or you can drive
on the Telemook through the Telemook Forest, right, it doesn't
(30:40):
I've I've driven both ways a number of times, and
I've never felt you going either way that suddenly there
were more or less cars on either of them. The
twenty six gets way more traffic than the road through
the Telemook Forest, right, I don't. I think it always
feels about the same amount of traffic perception, Yeah, I
don't know. I mean suddenly when they get into town though,
(31:02):
there should have been all of a sudden a lot
more cars around, and there may have been, and they
just didn't because because there was tended people. He was like, yeah,
of course there's more traffic. I don't know. As we
thought as we talked about this when I was on
my phone for is that this really really makes me
think about I cannot find the name of it, but
(31:23):
years ago I read it was a book or a
short book or a story by Stephen King where essentially
this person was driving all the time and making fantastic
different distances, and the concept was if you have a
flat paper map, but you fold the map and you
connect the to the the road from the two folded edges,
(31:44):
you cut out all that distance, but you go through
this weird kind of fantasy space that makes me think.
But it's it has the same quality, in the same
feel as the things that are described in that like
I almost feel like a rip off of King in
a way that I mean, that sounds like not intentionally,
but the King probably ripped off Reddit. Yeah, that sounds
(32:09):
like a wrinkle in time to me. So are you
sure it's Stephen King? I really feel like it was
Stephen King. But it's a theory of time travel in
general is that you just wrinkle two things and stop.
Actually he did mention that he picked up that road
Atlas to the western US and that which is market America.
(32:29):
They did, he didn't, But that's okay. Anyway, UM, do
you guys feel like you have anything more that you want?
I mean, this is a weird story, I want to
be honest, but I hope you enjoyed it. Yeah, it's good.
Sure they made it up. Like I said, I don't
think that you're going to find it because even in
the alternative timeline, I still don't understand why anybody would
(32:51):
plant the city in a particulous spot because I've looked
at it. Why do they planning cities in any typically?
But anyway, I hope that everybody else got to enjoy this.
UM as a little bonus something. UM, we want to
thank you very very much for being part of Stitcher Premium.
If you want to connect with us, you can head
to our Stitcher page to connect with us on all
(33:13):
of our various social media's and also linked to our website.
Or if you want to talk to us about this
case or any other case, you can feel free to
email us at Thinking Sideways podcast at gmail dot com. Yeah,
if you live on Highway five, we especially want to
hear from. If you work on the rout at the
Ruby tuesdays on that road, please let us know. Um.
(33:34):
But otherwise um, Yeah, thanks for going to get out
of here to lou. We'll see you next time. Get
burger okay,
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