Late-Night Motel Talk and Cave Theories

After yesterday’s cave excursion, most of us got a full night of rest, barring a few odd dreams some decided not to share until breakfast. Motel coffee was weak, and the eggs were suspiciously square, but no one complained. I ended up sitting next to Professor and Josh at a booth while Caleb paced through the front lobby reading over a photocopy of the cave markings.

Jennifer started off the conversation saying she’d reviewed some visual parallels from the Pacific Northwest tribes and couldn’t find anything matching the five yellow-orange discs. Caleb added that the motif reminded him more of archaic sky representations found in petroglyph sites in Arizona, which—while not geographically close—could suggest broader migratory or observational overlap.

I suggested it might be symbolic storytelling—bison fleeing something divine or unnatural in the sky. Vernon disagreed, pushing that it could have a dietary or seasonal context, like mapping prey migrations to celestial positions. Donna supported that and suggested we shouldn’t rush into assigning paranormal value. She reminded the group that ancient people observed the skies far more routinely than most of us do today.

Professor stayed quiet until Mathew asked if he thought it could represent a documented UFO event. His answer was: “Not necessarily a vehicle—but not necessarily not.” The table went quiet.

Later in the day, Egiel recorded individual reflections from the group for documentation. Most of the team admitted the cave art felt authentic, ancient, and deliberate, but no one was willing to pin it as UFO evidence without lab confirmation. Still, it stayed on everyone’s minds longer than yesterday’s jerky mishap.

We stayed at the motel all day to rest and regroup. Jennifer and Josh worked on drafting site diagrams. Caleb talked about mapping other unexplored caves nearby in case similar art might appear. No plans to do that this trip, but maybe later this spring.

We’ll head back north tomorrow. Professor wants us to take a different route through Salem to visit a small town where eight residents claim to have seen lights in the sky last fall. That’s our next destination. Donna already put in a call to confirm the interviews.

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Miles Driven: 0 mi