Herein lies the tale of my 40th year. What I mean to say is below are some of the additional 27 adventures I’ve taken to make it up to 40 adventures in a year! If you’ve been following each of my monthly large adventures, you might be disappointed with the size/excitement of these. If that’s the case, move to another blog that has more money and vacation time. That cattle drive tapped me out. These are the small adventures for which I still had some time and money left over.
Category: Friends
And one to grow on…
I wanted to add one more big adventure that will carry me through my 40’s. I adopted another travel partner! Reynold has been an amazing addition to my life, especially during the corona lock down. He’s smart, he’s friendly, and he’s finally getting to the point he likes car rides (very important to match my lifestyle). He has nerve damage in his front leg and doesn’t lift it all the way when he walks. He needs to wear a shoe to keep from dragging his nails and pads off on pavement. He doesn’t let that stop him from rough housing with other dogs, running all over the place like a maniac, or jumping in and out of my Jeep. I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot of photos of this amazing guy in the years to come.
Forty Adventures #12 – April
The last big adventure to get my one-a-month! I also only need 2 more to finish up all 40 which is great because adventures are hard to come by under quarantine. I had all kinds of ideas to finish up the year. I had looked into bi-plane rides, spelunking, and even a plan to tour historic carousels along the east coast. Ultimately though, none of these were plausible. But if I can’t go to the adventure, I’ll make the adventure come to me! Dr. Jen and I created an 18 hole, indoor/outdoor mini-golf course. We even dressed for the occasion.
Forty Adventures #11 – March
In November I had my Old Timey adventure. One of the small adventures I’ll write about next month was a retro adventure. Here in lies my Ye Olde Adventure, where Dr. Jen and I lived like royalty! All the activities planned were themed to match with the “old world,” whatever that means. Jen and I have argued what era is Ye Olde. Jousting, archery battles, and shopping malls lie within. Stay safe and wash your hands, everyone.
Forty Adventures #9F – January
Dag yo, this is a lot of posts about 1 trip! Writing these is a flashback to the trip that started this blog. I figure cutting it up and filling it with pictures makes better reading than me typing up a long winded dissertation debating the relative merits of the Mystery Hole vs. Mystery House. Maybe that’s what I should be writing. Maybe I could get a degree from Oddball University. They do seem to have similar missions and visions for their lives to the ones I have. I need to reach out to them. Until then, dear reader, silly sites and pictures are found in this post.
Forty Adventures #6B – October
We saw the thermometer get as low as -14F. It snowed almost every day. Winds were between 35-50 mph at points. The route was about 70 miles but that doesn’t include rounding up the cattle, chasing after them, back tracking, etc. Shawn figured it was over 100 miles in saddle. It was challenging and I have enormous respect for people who can do this for a living. Was it fun? I’m not sure that’s the word I would use, but I loved it and will do it again without hesitation.
Forty Adventures #6A – October
I was doing so good at keeping up with my adventures. I actually have many of my small adventures already written for publish in May! Unfortunately after my October adventure I had to go on a work adventure, I got a promotion (yay!), holidays started, blah blah blah. Life is busy and the blog suffers. Anyway my cattle drive was too fantastic for 1 post, so I’m cutting it into a few and will hopefully get it and my November adventure posted before the end of next week. Before I describe the drive and my experience, I want to introduce the cast of characters that accompanied me.
Forty Adventures #4 – August
I’m sure this will go down as the most dangerous and most exciting adventure of the year if not my life. I hope that I don’t get beaten up any worse than this or I might not make it to 41. Instead of a mid-life crisis, this was almost my ride into the proverbial sunset. But I totally plan on doing this adventure again. On August 10th, 2019 I rode a freaking bull at the Let R Buck bull riding school! And by rode a bull, I mean I got thrown by a bull twice.
A conference is a gathering of people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done. – FA
In March my job sent me to a conference in Indianapolis. Not exactly a glamorous metropolis, but that’s not really my thing anyway. At these conferences I can rarely get far from the hotel/conference center but usually make a quick trip out to do something silly. In New Orleans I made it to Bourbon Street to drink my face off, in Orlando I took drunken co-workers for a midnight alligator spotting (stupid idea), and in Boston I managed to find a bakery that advertised amazing ricotta pies (which I glutinously ate like a hot dog walking down the street with no plate, fork, or napkin).
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. – VVG
The weekend after Valentine’s Day 2019, one of my favorite museums had a fun and strange event. The American Visionary Art Museum has a rotating collection that displays “outsider art.” Basically it’s from artists who are self-taught and can include anything from prisoner sock art to William Burroughs’ shotgun paintings. I’m always hopeful I’ll see John Waters at one of my visits but continue to strike out. I digress, I decided attending the AVM event should turn into a weekend in Baltimore!
Continue reading “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. – VVG”
The Yuppie Hobo 