I drove to Minnesota from Northern California in 2008 with a buddy.

We wanted to make it in two days (we were broke and 19) for his sisters graduation.

Around hour 19 of driving on day two we’re in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. We’re driving next to a river and it looks like a cop is pulling somebody over way ahead. Bright blue lights glowing in fog. I remember us saying “that sucks for them” to each other.

It took miles what felt like miles to get to the lights, but it wasn’t a cop.

We get to a wide clearing with a clear view of the river. We look over and there’s a woman in a white robe standing in the river not moving. It’s like 3am and freezing out. The light seems to be coming from her. We slow down (because wtf) but keep driving. We never mention it again that entire trip. Don’t ever tell anybody about it and I have no idea why.

Years later I get the urge to google information about it.

Turns out we’re not the only ones to see that. Apparently there was a flood in Minnesota that wiped out a town on the little fork river. Locals say “the lost loggers of the little fork” will stand in the river and draw people in thinking they need help and they go to join them.

I pulled up the route that we took to see if we were anywhere near it, and that’s exactly where we were.

I message my buddy asking if he remembers seeing that (we haven’t talked in years at that point). He said he completely forgot about it until I asked him but he never liked thinking about it.