Highway to Heaven

State route 27 in Ohio is known as the highway to heaven. The open, flat land make it a popular place to drag race late at night. It is known as the highway to heaven because of all the accidents that take place there. Take a ride down that road between Oxford Ohio and Harrison, and you will notice all the roadside crosses marking the places where people have tragically died in accidents. There are many tales of ghostly hitchhikers and phantom cars in this area, here are a couple that I have experienced.

First I will tell you the chilling tale of the ghost rider....
One summer evening I was driving out to Oxford to my favorite fishing hole for some nighttime fishing'. I was driving along a long flat stretch of route 27. It was between 10 pm and 11 pm sometime when I heard a motorcycle roaring up behind me. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a single headlight fast approaching me. I said to myself, this guy is screaming down the road, he must want to pass me. So I slowed up a little bit, watching in my mirror the whole time. The headlamp grew bigger, and bigger..then I couldn't see it anymore, I tapped my brakes to indicate that he needs to pass me. I was still hearing the engine of the motorcycle, but I couldn't see his headlamp... I heard the engine pass by my car, I looked left and right for the rider but saw nothing. Suddenly right in front of my car, I see a single tail light. I panicked and slammed on my brakes thinking I was about to hit someone. When my car came to a stop, I opened my eyes and there was nothing there..no sounds and no headlamps.

On another night, a few years later I was driving towards Oxford to catch a basketball game at the college when I had another experience on the highway to heaven. It was a little after 6 pm, I was driving along route 27 again... up ahead, on the right hand side of the road I noticed something faintly glowing. As I got closer to the source, it took the shape of a human. I shrugged it off, I mean the person WAS wearing light colored clothing... So I started to slow down to see if the person needed a ride, but as I got closer, it seemed to move a little further down the road. Finally I got within 25 yards of the person, when they disappeared!

I did some research on the road and I did find that people have died in motorcycle accidents there, but a local story intrigued me more. Some time ago a man was riding his motorcycle to meet his girlfriend for a party. On his way there he was in a fatal accident twenty yards from where the woman was standing. The woman was stricken with so much grief, she hung herself in her families barn shortly after.