One thing only you or few have done

Spent way too much time in various abattoirs

 

I've been bitten by a copperhead twice, a brown recluse, and a shark....

 

I ate at McDonalds and at a Michelin *** restaurant in the same day. In Paris.

 

I sent my car for a ride with no one inside. Intentionally.

 

I went to Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Sertar, China in 2015. It closed to foreigners a year later.



On the way back to my hostel, we stopped to watch a sky burial. Basically, family members chop up bodies of the deceased and do a ceremony before feeding the body to the birds. That was...something.

I have also seen Mount Everest from 3 different countries (China, Nepal and India)

I am having massive wanderlust right now. Let me OUT OF AMERICA DAMMIT.

 

This is a huuuuuge bucket list item for me! I expect to cry from fear when I finally get there

 

Wow...what an interesting group and here all I thought you were interested in was hanging out in LV.

 

Thank You for your service to our country !

 

Can't say it hasn't happened to anyone else, but in all my years playing golf, the only time I've played in the snow was in Las Vegas.

 

Umm, I got nuthin'.

OK, I once had three birdies at Pebble Beach yet barely broke 100. On the way up 18, after two of those three tweeters coming on the previous two holes, my caddie put his arm around my shoulder -- after I'd nearly blocked my drive OB -- laughed, and said, "Mr. V, you're some kind of fucked up, aren't you?!?"

I know I'm not the only one to do this, but it's rare: I've never had a hole-in-one but I once got a par on a par-3 from the tee box.

 

Ah, a fellow Bubblehead. I obviously did the bluenose but not golden shellback.

 

Several years ago, my mother passed away at the age of 93. A few months later, my brother and us three sisters get a call from a sister we didn’t know we had. The “new” sister had a close relationship with our mom for the past 35 years. She and my mom talked weekly, she would come to town 4-5 times a year and take my mom to her favorite Red Lobster, exchanged birthday gifts, went out dancing several times, was with my mom for several hours before she passed, etc. The new sister knew everything about us four siblings, our spouses, children, etc. After every visit, she would ask my mom if she could meet her siblings the next time she came to town. My mom would always say “we will see”. In the early 90’s my two sisters and I were on our annual August Vegas trip and stayed downtown. My mom had told new sister that us girls were going to Vegas and it turned out that one evening we all were in front of the Plaza watching the filming for CSI. What are the odds? We all keep in touch and some of the similarities are uncanny. The odd thing is our mom could not keep a secret and she held onto this one all those years. We just all got together at Red Lobster over what would have been her 95th birthday. We think she would be happy we met. P.s. ignore my SIL in the middle with the full head of gray hair and new sibling is on the left.

LOL….I guess I really didn’t do it, but still semi unique.

 

I sang "We Are the Boys from Old Florida" (UF Gators fans will recognize it) with a men's ensemble atop the Eiffel Tower (The one France, not the one on the Strip!). In 4-part harmony.

 

I'm a bit of a "Deadhead meets Forrest Gump" when it comes to events and famous places. Haven't done international but I've pretty much had "The Run" of The States to the extent that I would like (with few exceptions), and would be one rather large bucket list for anyone who got to cross this off such:

Over 500 rock concerts, including 90+ Grateful Dead, 80+ Phish, and similar String Cheese Incident concert numbers, as well as The Rolling Stones, The Who, U2, CSN (and sometimes Y), all on multiple occasions, as well as Peter Gabriel, Yes, King Crimson on multiple occasions, Kiss, Van Halen, Rush, Neil Young with Crazy Horse, I could go on and on.....and in venues as well known, storied, and varied as Madison Square Garden, Red Rocks, Both Greek Theaters (CA), A number of Fox Theaters (GA, StL, and MI), The Warfield, Mt. Shasta (literally on the mountain), and of course, Phish at Big Cypress in the Florida Everglades, Dec 30/31, 1999. See also seven Phish Halloween performances, two of which might be the greatest rock and roll shows of all time, as well as the best holiday rock and roll ever had, still alive and kicking bi-annually in Las Vegas.

On the sports side, I've seen a bunch. I've seen four Super Bowls - XXV, XXXVI, XL, and XLV - as well as a fifth host city week in Jacksonville, but couldn't get tix for mortal prices. I was "that guy" you saw in ads in an old Cutlass with a sign emblazoned "Super Bowl Or Bust", who before internet, Stubhub, or even before most even knew who a ticket broker even was had methods to get into these events. Before E-tickets, the "paper" was everything, so if you could be where the "paper" - read: tickets ended up, you could see the biggest events in history. I entered lotteries (including the NFL fan ticket lottery, which I won for XL) and tried to get tix for everything I could, especially for Super Bowls.

I saw Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals SIX times, including "the two hand move" in Game 2 against the L. A. Lakers (where 18,000 people lost their collective minds as I still don't think they believe what they saw), their second title against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 6 of the 1992 Finals, and the final two games Jordan played in the United Center, games 4 and 5 of the 1998 Finals. We procured these tickets by showing up at outlets on a particular day about a month ahead of the regular season's end, where they would sell all 15-16 possible home playoff games in one day - just line them up: Home Game A, Home Game B, etc......and they would just play them through, in order, as the series progressed. So we would buy up the last six games, where we thought the Conf and NBA Finals would fall, and saw 6 NBA Finals games doing this over Jordan's career. This doesn't include the "near misses", as we had what would have been Game 7 of the 1996 Finals in hand, but The Bulls won in Game 6 - on Father's Day, which was Jordan's first full season after his father's murder. We knew full well that Game 7 would never be played, not once the "clincher" got set in the United Center for Fathers Day Game 6.

I saw Game 3 of the 2001 World Series in Yankee Stadium, where George W. Bush threw out the first pitch - this being in NY freaking C at Yankee Stadium, the World Series in the aftermath of 9/11. Snipers on the roof, from end to end of that stadium. Talk about a scene. We made sure to get in the building before the President got there, as all entry and exits were shut down at that time. We did, plenty early, and watched every bit of that scene play out, including the Yankees winning the game in a nail biter.

We weren't even supposed to go to that game initially; we were going to attend a String Cheese Incident concert at MSG Theater, this all courtesy of an NYC that was BEGGING for warm tourist bodies to fill hotel rooms and seats in the aftermath of 9/11. $100 round trip seats on major airlines (this when that was unheard of), $80 concierge level rooms at the Sheraton (normally $500ish nightly in 2000ish era pricing) at an address that no longer exists save for billionaires living in the new digs......but I got lucky when a light went on so to speak, and checked on when the Yankees would sell a theoretical World Series ticket, given that it ws likely they would make it and known that if they did that a Game 3 would fit our schedule. We got lucky on the TM.com and the rest, as they say, is history.

Saw the Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 2015 in the United Center, as I had attended games since high school (early 80's) and never thought I would ever see the Hawks win one, let alone three - and got to bear witness to the last one, the first Cup that team had won at home since the 1930's. I also saw every Ditka-era Chicago Bears playoff game in Soldier Field, including both of the games that put them in the Super Bowl in New Orleans in January 1986, as well as a few heartbreakers at the hands of Joe Gibbs' Washington teams and Bill Walsh's Niners, as well as the infamous "Fog Bowl" (Eagles). First Cub night game at Wrigley, etc.etc......

44 states in the Union and many, many championships witnessed. The bucket did runneth over.

 

Got called into a live cockpit 10 minutes before departure. As a non-pilot or employee.

Las Vegas, 2019.

There is a story to it: as we were one of the last passengers to board the plane, we were waiting behing a man in a wheelchair who was helped by the Delta-crew. At one point, a flight attendant had trouble folding the wheelchair, and the other flight attendant felt the need to excuse herself for the delay. We said, don’t mind it, it gives us time peek into the cockpit (we are both plane enthousiasts). The pilots heard this, said “well, come on right in then”. After a second or so when I realized the were not joking, they put their hats on our heads and took pictures. He even joked “fly safe, what’s your seat number, I’ll be over there!”

We could not believe this just happened to us. Americans

 

Some of the folks on VMB have done some pretty "interesting" stuff.

The only thing I could think of is that I've eaten "Fugu" and lived to tell about it. LOL For those who aren't familiar with Fugu, it's a poisonous Pufferfish which is a delicacy, particularly in Japan. The chefs who prepare them are specially trained and licensed. If you ever decided to give it a try, just make sure it's prepared by a licensed chef.

 

Just like Freddie at Sawgrass!

 

Hit a grand slam in a Big Ten tournament. I only hit one other home run in collegiant my career.

 

Speaking of par threes, I've only come close to a HIO twice. Both times I put it just inside a foot, on the same course, same hole in August a year apart. I took it as the golf gods telling me "Enjoy it, 'cause that all you get!" Damned if they were'nt right. BTW, it was in LV.

 

Got to ride in the Goodyear blimp as a kid (Age 8-9). My Dad and I flew above Akron, while he took pictures.

Note: This is a stock photo, not the blimp we rode in.