A couple of days ago I had remarked in a comment that I don’t have a Bucket List. I went on to say that I mostly take things as they come but that there might some places or things I like to see or do if circumstances get me part of the way there. Of course I couldn’t give myself an opening like that without then starting to think of some of the places circumstances happened to lead.
Where I am, just off Chestnut Ridge in the Allegheny range, there are several small commercial caves including the only catacombs type cavern on this side of the country (or at least I’ve been led to believe). It’s a place I’ve been to enough times that although I wouldn’t go out of my way to explore a cave, if I happened to be around one with a particularly effective marketing plan hawking its presence, I might stop by. Thus it was that I happened to be sitting in my then living room with my then wife at my then house for the few years way back then in the middle of Texas looking for something to do the upcoming weekend. Then we realized we were only a half dozen hours’ drive from the cave of all caves, Carlsbad Caverns.
Going to Carlsbad was going to see a natural wonder. And the caves are pretty neat too. Yes, for as wonderful as the Caverns are (and they were) (then and I’m sure still), getting there should be on anybody’s bucket list and it’s not even the most scenic part of New Mexico. And if we hadn’t decided to see how the big western cave measured up to our back yard caverns, it was a scene I’d have missed.
From the first time I saw the picture of the Niagara Falls on the can of spray starch on my mother’s ironing board I knew I had to see it. If I had thought of doing a bucket list when I was 6 years old that didn’t include a new bike, ice skates, and an never ending jar of chocolate covered raisins, “see Niagara Falls” would have been on it. And see them I had. I’m not sure how many times I’ve been to the falls but it’s been “some.” But always from the Canadian side. There is the spectacular Horseshoe Falls and the most spectacular views – including the one on the can. Until the time I ended on the American side. It was a long weekend gifted me and my then She by her offspring. And it was in winter!
Never would I put “see Niagara Falls from the puny American side in freezing temperatures” on any bucket list. Even one so insane as to include chocolate covered raisins. Spectacular is an understatement that even a picture can’t outdo a thousand words’ worth. (If the picture looks familiar it is from my last post in addition to that weekend.)
I can run through pages if places that I’ve been (THE house of seven gables -surprisingly not scary) and things I’ve done (rappel from a helicopter – surprisingly scary) that I never planned but just happened along. I guess I’ve been a victim of circumstances.
The Real Reality Show Blog 
I went to a sorta life-sleep this last 10 years. The only things on my list were to quit my job, which I did last year, and live more, which I hope to do next year once I have moved. It’s a short list heh.
Short lists are great. Easier to keep track and not be distracted. 👍
“I guess I’ve been a victim of circumstances.” Love this, I have a few things I’d like to do but most of the things on my imaginary bucket list have been by accident or things other people wanted to do and I just happened to tag along only to find out it deserved a spot on the list! oh, Niagara Falls is on my list 🙂
The best lists get written after the items get checked off!
Oh, and be sure to visit both sides of the Falls. As long as you’re there and all.
I have a list that rhymes with bucket…it’s a pretty long list, too.
This list gets longer as the years go by, though, as I add more thing to it which I’ve said “Buck-it,” with a casual shrug of the shoulders for emphasis.
See that, you expand you’re view a little every year! Or else each year brings things that are just plain more shruggable.
I love this! I think I have a similar list, an “I’m glad I did that!” list–there are a lot of things I never really planned to do, but stumbled into incredible experiences just by chance. I also do have a “Bucket List,” but in some ways, the list of accidental experiences is better!
You know, the more I think about this and read these comments and read other blog posts (your most recent one among them!), I’m convinced that although bucket lists are nice, they are just that, the nice things, the popular things, the things you see others do and you say, “that would be nice, I’d like to do that.” But the unexpected, the unplanned things that find you while you’re just trying to get by are the ones that 40 years later you still remember so clearly and so fondly that you say, “wow that was really nice, I’m glad I did that.”
You sort of lost me with the chocolate covered raisins. Raisins for Pete’s sake. I don’t have an actual bucket list either but I find myself saying I do whenever someone tells me what fine new vacay they are going on. Galapagos, you say? Yeah. That’s on my bucket list. I’m a bit of a fraud, really.
Yes raisins. But give me a break. For a six year old, a lifetime supply of raisins is the perfect snack food…it’s chocolate after all and it’s fruit for heaven’s sake so even Mom can’t argue with that! 😃
And you are the least fraudulent person on this blog thingie here.
I had a bad experience with an oatmeal raisin cookie masquerading as a chocolate chip cookie when I was a kid. We’ve had a complicated relationship since.
Perfectly understandable. I wonder what chocolate chip cookies made with chocolate covered nuts would be like… for those who put nuts in their chocolate chip cookies to begin with. Notice I’ve shifted from the raisin-centric theme of this thread. I didn’t want to add to any emotional instability you have regarding dried fruit. … You’re welcome ☺
Don’t even get me started on dried apricots.
Deal!