Did ya ever ?

[pistolpadre]

i really want my threads to be thought provoking.. the sort of things we can read years from now and.. Yeah ok i'm starting to barf to.. but i do have an idea.. actually this was the wife's.. i threw out that i wanted to put a thoughtful thread up this week. so from the lovely Mrs Edwards.. What's the neatest thing you've done.. Want to do again.. or Warn others not to do.. Mine will follow..

 

[robertc1024]

Going to England when in college with a crazy-psycho girlfriend. That satisfies all of the requirements. First time out of the country and went on a 6 week cycling tour over most of England and Scotland. I'll never forget that trip. Cycling by Loch Ness in the early morning hours is a sight I'll never forget. Met a Scottish man on Hadrian's wall. He asked me what kind of bike I was riding. I told him it was a Nishiki. He was "where's that from?" I say "Japan" he says "You'd buy a bike from them after what they did to you?" Took me a minute to figure out what he was saying and then I gave him a rattlesnake rattle.

Slept in youth hostels with people from all over the world. Some of the hostels were good, some were really bad - one was a grain barge. Met people who turned into life long friends with my family. The last night, her dad got us a suite at Claridges in London. When we got there, they didn't believe we had a reservation and had to find a teletype (yeah, I'm old) to confirm it.

On the warning part, don't travel with a psycho bitch from hell. You really learn a lot about people when you travel. There are always hurdles to jump and you quickly find out who can roll with the punches or bitch and moan about them.

 

[pistolpadre]

Lot of stuff here.. from a special trip with the wife to 7 states, Yellowstone national park, and a route along the Salmon river in ID.. hundreds of camping trips half of them on the back of a Motorcycle.. Lot's of backpacking, the crown was a four day and three night solo on the Tonto platform from Hermits rest to bright angel.. This was in the late eighties.. and didn't see a soul till i got to the super highway thats the bright angel.. one of the places that i had to get water.. OR DIE.. was dry.. a few hours of terror and then a trickle that took hours to fill my water carriers.. But the highlight i'd share with anyone if i could.. was on a winter day in Rota Spain.. i volunteered to fly radio on an old P-2 Neptune.. Got a break after a couple of hours went up to the flight deck for coffee.. the plane cdr asked me if i wanted to climb into the nose cone to drink it, one of these clear nose cones of the old WWII birds... i climbed out to this little chair that was 100% surrounded by plex glass.. Beautiful Med sea, then the coast of Italy.. Things like that make you confident that there's a God, I've always thought i got a peak at his Heaven that day..

 

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

I miss skydiving. Jumped for 5 years and decided to hang it up for a while. When my son gets to the age where he can get hooked, I hope to return. The sensation is something every person should feel at least 2 times in life. Once to say you did it and the second to actually soak in what the sensory over load made you miss on the first jump.

My last jump was September of 2010. I still keep renewing my USPA membership so I can keep getting the magazine and stay up to date.

 

[ROGER4314]

Cool Idea!

What's the neatest thing you've done? (Sorry...can't pick just one)
Two Motorcycle trips around the western US on a Honda Gold Wing 6 cylinder giant road bike. 6,000 and 8,000 miles. 23 and 28 days.

Dirt biking in the New Mexico desert at Belen NM alone. It was probably the most dangerous thing that I've ever done. Lived in a tent for a week and rode every day.

Saved a guys life while SCUBA Diving at 105 feet beneath the surface in the Bahamas. It was a thrill like no other.

Earned my Master SCUBA Diver and Divemaster ratings with lots of diving in exotic places.

Kicked chemical and alcohol abuse with 31 years clean & sober.

Want to do again...
In High School (1964), a counselor told my parents that I was too damned dumb to go to college and it would be a waste of money for me to attend college. I heard him say it! In 1989, I stood on a stage at OSU to be "HOODED" for my Masters Degree with a perfect 4.0 GPA and Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society membership...which is given by invitation only. I paid for every penny of my Masters and when I finished, I owed ZERO!
It was one of the greatest thrills of my life!
I proved you wrong, you asshole!

Shot a perfect 500/500 score in NRA High Power Rifle competition at 200 yards! It took me almost 8 years of continuous competition to earn that. I shot High Master rating rating before but never a perfect score. The closest I came before was a 499/500. What a thrill!

Warn others not to do.
Looking back over 66 years, marriage was the worst thing that I ever did. It was the most destructive and painful thing that ever happened to me. I had 7 years of being cheated on, stolen from and being disrespected. Never again!

My 401K was the worst investment of my life! I lost my ass and will never allow anyone else to manage my money again....especially if the government is involved!

Flash

 

[Younggun]

The one thing at the top of my list if I could do anything one mor time.

When I was 14 spent a week hog hunting on the Cotulla ranch with my dad, uncle and cousins. Middle of nowhere and even now a cell phone would be useless.

That was a great week.

 

[Charlie]

Back in my "youth" I frequented Lake Travis with my brother-in-law and his drag boat friends (all crazy as shit!). A friend and I finally talked one of the boat guys into taking us for a ride in his 18' go fast boat with the V-8 outboard on the back (1st mistake). We cruised around the lake going no slower than 50+ mph (2nd mistake). Little did we know that the driver (pilot?) of this extremely fast boat had been drinking beer all morning when we got in the boat, but were soon made aware of it. Nothing to hold on to other than grabbing the sides and propping my feet on the backs of the front seats (I was in the back seat) while accelerating up to and over 100 mph (I could see the speedometer) headed straight for the dam (3rd mistake). I knew I was going to die 'cause we were going to hit the concrete that was fast approaching us, or if I jumped out I would have just skipped over the water until I got to the concrete.. He suddenly did a bat turn and headed back to our dock. Circling the dock, I thought everything would be OK until we told the driver what a thrill that was (last mistake), at which point he said, "really, great let's do it again!). My asshole was puckered out so far you could cut washers off of it!

Edit to add: We don't think we make any friends with any of the folks in the sailboats that day!

 

[Miloe]

Lets see. Learning to fly helicopters and then planes. The first time you pull all those vibrating pieces into a hover and realize, I can actually do this. Just wish I'd have done it 20 years sooner and quite possibly in the military. Planes are handy, helicopters are just damn fun, expensive but fun.

 

[Flyingswords]

From Apr 2008 to Mar 2009 I was in the Philippines. My flight from San Fran to Hong Kong left about 40 mins late because alot of flights were being held back because of incoming flights. When my flight got off, 2 hrs into the flight everything was smooth and had no turbulence. Afterwards so much turbulence came that I would likely be able to mix a couple of drinks lol. Couple that turbulence with being over the Northern Pacific Ocean midway isnt making things any easier. When my flight arrived in HK at around 745ish-pm local time, all the eating joints were shutting down for the night. My next flight to the phils from there was 14 hrs away.

Fast-forward to my time there, Every 1st sunday of each month me and a bunch of relatives and neighbors would drink beer and eat bbq and play mahjong. New Years 2009 I drank like 5 litres of 12% alcohol beer. I could sit down and talk coherently and not act drunk, but whenever I tried to stand up, I would be like Jackie Chan in one of his drunken master movies. One of my cousins helped me to my bed (shes like 110lbs and I was twice that lol). As soon as my hind end touched the bed, I hauled ass to the bathroom and puked. Had a 3 day hangover afterwards. In Sept 2008 I went through a Typhoon Feng-Shen. We got hit by the SW area of the typhoon as it turned northward towards Manila, eventually sinking the ferry carrying 800+ ppl. In total 1000+ died.

Mar 2009 I was wearing shorts and short sleeved shirt when I left to come back to the states. The temp leaving the phils was around a humid 78 degrees. When I arrived in Incheon SK for my connecting flight, it was around 20 or so :\. Their airport jetbridge had no heating whatsoever. haha



A shot outside my seat from Seoul to LAX over the Pacific (just south of the Aleutian Island chain)





The 747-400 Combi I was flying in.

 

[ROGER4314]

Forgive me but I thought of another accomplishment that I am extremely proud of and grateful for:

I earned my Masters Degree in 1989 and graduated with ZERO debt! The story may benefit others who are working on their degree. Here's how I did it:

I worked full time during the day, worked a second job at night and went to school two nights per week.

When it came time to write my Masters thesis, I did the research, checked out the books and materials (a stack of books about 6 feet high), locked the doors, turned off the phone and didn't leave the house for about 10 days over Spring break. I typed it out then hired a professional typist to get it into correct form as they are very strict about the form. They actually stick a pin through the pages and all page numbers must be touched by that pinhole! It's completely insane!

Each semester when my tuition bill arrived, I paid part of it. The balance automatically clicked into a loan which I paid off before the end of the semester. I had to pay the balance off two weeks before the end of the semester or a "hold" would be placed on my grades and enrollment. I did that every semester and still finished with a perfect 4.0 GPA!

I owed absolutely nothing on the day that I was "hooded" to receive my Masters with National Honor Society recognition!

I worked my ass off for several years non stop and paid every penny of that education cost without going into debt. My entire life revolved around that education for about 3 years.

Flash

 

[pistolpadre]

nothing wrong with "proud of" area.. here's a "bragg'n" thing.. not the higher level education thing.. just the stuff that you look back at and say.. WOW did i really do that.. Had an INSANE girlfriend.. yep, know we all think our ex's are insane.. but i actually found the paperwork on this one.. she was on disability, that "per her" was a vague hard to define and recently diagnosed illness.. yeah right, !!.. found the paperwork.. THIS BITCH (sorry Lord but true) BE INSANE.. about a week later i moved out (middle of the night.. out of a hollywood movie) what i was left with were thousands of dollars of bills.. In retrospect i SHOULD have gone BK.. but i was just raised not to do that sort of thing.. for two years i couldn't afford a phone.. walked to work.. (not hard worked at the prison in Florence AZ lived in the small town) ate two of my meals at the prison.. lived a life that was minimalist to a degree that has still affected me.. you CAN live on bean's, rice, and tortilla's.. The bean's were for partying down!! i love my beer.. a twelve pack HAD to last a week.. Far less inspiring than Rogers perfect 4.0 grade point.. but a lesson in what you HAVE to have to keep vertical.. and what sort of women to avoid.. looks AIN'T shit when you can only drink 1 and a half beers a day..

 

[Sugar Land]

5 year road trip on a 1966 Shovelhead. Made both coasts and a lot of ground inbetween.

 

[hkusp1]

Solar eclipse in the Libyan desert in 2006. It was a really cool thing to experience in person.