Things I’ve Already Done Before I Die

It’s popular to make lists of “Things I Want To Do Before I Die.” As a lister, I can understand the appeal. But after thinking about it for a while, I decided not to do it for several reasons, which I won’t bother listing.

Instead, I decided to make a list of Things I’ve Already Done Before I Die. It’s not nearly as ambitious, I know, but on the other hand, it’s concrete evidence that my life hasn’t been totally without accomplishment and excitement. Those things listed in red are updates and additions since I first made the list in 2010.

As of December 2, 2024, I have …

1. Gone spelunking in an unimproved cave.
2. Planted a tree.
3. Sung in an ensemble in front of a crowd.
4. Taken two years of piano lessons and played at a recital.
5. Visited a World’s Fair (in New York in 1964).
6. Gone to a Major League game with a Major League ballplayer (Phil Reagan of the Cubs).
7. Attended an NBA game (and saw Michael Jordan play).
8. Been to a Mozart festival.
9. Attended an NHL game (in Buffalo).
10. Attended a preseason NFL game (and saw Walter Payton play) and a regular season NFL game (Bears at Broncos).
11. Performed on a released CD (I had one spoken line).
12. Gone to a drive-in movie.
13. Seen the northern lights
14. Seen a lunar eclipse
15. Seen a solar eclipse (including a total eclipse in Arkansas on my 66th birthday).
    
16. Found Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Uranus in the night sky.
17. Traveled in a steamship.
18. Flown in a pontoon plane that took off from and landed on water.
19. Spent a night under the stars (and got bronchitis and pneumonia as a result).
20. Read over 1,000 books that are considered classics.
21. Identified 561 species of wild birds in North America and another 41 in Europe.
22. Completed a New York Times crossword puzzle by myself.
23. Watched almost 300 movies that are considered classics.
24. Earned a college degree.
25. Eaten in an automat.
26. Ridden in a helicopter.
27. Ridden on a motorcycle.
28. Hiked 28 miles in a day.
29. Biked 30 miles in a day.
30. Found the rare Brewster’s Warbler hybrid on three separate occasions.
31. Eaten caviar.
32. Had a book published (albeit with no by-line).
33. Built a sandcastle.
34. Lost 50 pounds.
35. Attended a Chautauqua tent show.
36. Baked a cake.
37. Survived a tornado that damaged the building I was in.
38. Juggled three tennis balls for 30 seconds.
39. Read biographies of all presidents (Washington to JFK).
40. Spent Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve and New Years Day alone.
41. Visited all 48 contiguous states.
42. Gone white-water rafting (on the French Broad River in NC and the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge in CO).
43. Gone swimming in a waterfall.
44. Bred and raised tropical fish.
45. Ridden a horse that was running full speed.
46. Seen Casablanca in a theater.
47. Taken an all-day train ride.
48. Seen Blue Man Group (3 times).
49. Been a camp counselor.
50. Beaten everybody else in the world at online Boggle (or at least everybody who happened to be playing at the time).
51. Won 103 consecutive games of Free Cell.
52. Waded in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
53. Waded across the Mississippi River headwaters.
54. Gone on an overnight canoe trip.
55. Spent a day detasseling corn.
56. Ridden on a combine that was harvesting corn.
57. Driven a pony cart.
58. Walked across a lake on the ice.
59. Taken a ballroom dance class.
60. Gone archery golfing.
61. Seen a moose, elk, pronghorn, black bear, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and Grizzly Bear in the wild.
    
62. Broken par at disc golf.
63. Won a ping-pong tournament.
64. Carved a wooden duck.
65. Attended a Broadway play.
66. Built a snowman.
67. Taken a walk when it was -30 degrees
68. Taken a walk when it was over 100 degrees.
69. Walked at least 100 miles a month for an entire year.
70. Seen Niagara Falls at night.
71. Traveled alone at least 300 miles from anybody I knew.
72. Been to the top of the Washington Monument.
73. Been to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
74. Learned to do “around the world” with a yo-yo.
75. Written a letter to a President.
76. Parred a hole in golf.
77. Boxed a round.
78. Collected hail and use it as ice in a drink.
79. Pulled an all-nighter to study for a final.
80. Caught a snake with my bare hands (and stepped over a Copperhead that was lying on the trail).
81. Won a prize at a carnival game.
82. Stacked three golf balls.
83. Adopted a stray cat.
84. Had a published book dedicated to me (by my father).
85. Gone to the top of Pike’s Peak three times (twice by car and once by incline railroad).
86. Ridden in an electric trolley.
87. Eaten an entire baby octopus
88. Had one of my photographs published in a book.
89. Celebrated the Fourth of July in two foreign countries.
90. Eaten ostrich.
91. Eaten shark.
92. Eaten musk oxen.
93. Eaten caribou.
94. Been to the top of the world’s tallest building (at the time).
95. Caught a fish that weighed more than 10 pounds.
96. Skied down a hill (on cross-country skis)
97. Ridden on a snowmobile.
98. Gone water skiing.
99. Heard Timber Wolves howling in the wild.
100. Driven a London taxi.
101. Managed a car wash.
102. Stood on Little Round Top at Gettysburg after dark.
103. Seen a Gray Whale.
104. Been a School Safety Patrol crossing guard.
105. Played Little League Baseball.
106. Been to a tent circus.
107. Qualified as a Marksman with the National Rifle Association.
108. Camped for a night on an island in Lake Superior.
109. Been to a Harlem Globetrotters game.
110. Ridden in a gondola in the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco in Mexico City.
111. Taken an eight-hour bus ride through Mexico.
112. Swam over 80 yards (after reading that only a small percentage of Americans can).
113. Learned to ice skate and roller skate.
114. Gone sailing by myself (in a small boat on a small lake).
115. Worked in a library.
116. Driven a catering truck.
117. Worked as a roofer.
     
118. Gone deep-sea fishing.
119. Played the harmonica.
120. Been bitten by a dog.
121. Been stung by six bees in 30 seconds.
122. Pumped gas at a full-service gas station.
123. Discovered the nest of a Bachman’s Sparrow.
124. Taught a canoeing course at a summer camp.
125. Been the southernmost person on the West Coast of the United States.
126. Watched a Dallas Cowboys-Chicago Bears football game with Josh McDowell.
127. Walked within six feet of a six-foot alligator.
128. Memorized all the countries in the world and their capitals (and forgot most of them).
129. Been to the first night game at Wrigley Field.
130. Been to the final game at the old Comiskey Park and the first game at the new Comiskey Park.
131. Taught workshops at a training conference.
132. Attended an opera.
133. Been given a cooking lesson by the owner/chef of a fancy five-star restaurant.
134. Participated in the first ever Chinese fire drill in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
135. Hiked 28 miles in one day from my house in Illinois to the Wisconsin border.
136. Gone up in a hot air balloon.
137. Climbed to the top of 14,271′ Mount Evans and 14,265′ Quandary Peak in Colorado, two of the famous 14’ers.
138. Climbed 9,095′ Mount Herman and 9,368′ Eagle Peak in Colorado.
139. Located and identified 80 species of wild animals.
140. Eaten a bacon cheeseburger with two grilled cheese sandwiches as the bun and lived to tell the tale.
141. Visited Grand Mesa, the largest flat-topped mountain in the world.
142. Visited Lucas, Kansas and used the second-place finisher in the 2014 “America’s Best Restroom Contest.”
143. Had my photo taken under the marquee at Wrigley Field 9 hours after the Cubs won the World Series.
144. Read all 106 books National Geographic Adventure Magazine’s Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time.
145. Seen baseball games at 21 Major League Parks and 10 Minor League Parks.
146. Seen Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, The Beach Boys (2x), Chicago (3x), Paul Simon, Olivia Newton John, Huey Lewis and the News, Sha-na-na, The Lettermen, Over the Rhine (3x), Josh Groban, Joe Cocker, Frankie Valli, The Everly Brothers, Lee Rocker, and Earth, Wind & Fire live in concert.
147. Became a member of the Century Club by hiking 1,000 miles within Conservation District parks in McHenry County, Illinois.
148. Stood on the highest point in the states of Tennessee, Arkansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Indiana.
149. Walked every inch of every street in Cary and Fox River Grove, Illinois.
150. Drank a glass of free ice water at Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.
151. With my wife, painted layer 24,505 on the World’s Largest Ball of Paint in Alexandria, Indiana.
152. Been on a boat on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Mississippi River, and three of the Great Lakes (Michigan, Superior, Erie).
153. Caught a “throwed roll” at Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston, Missouri.
154. Visited all 16 remaining (at the time) Dog n Suds drive-ins.
155. Visited Redmon’s World’s Largest Gift Shop in Phillipsburg, Missouri and didn’t buy anything.
156. Twice completed a 21-mile circumperambulation of Lake Geneva, in Wisconsin.
157. Ate dinner with my wife in the Walnut Room at Macy’s (Marshall Fields) in Chicago when it was decorated for Christmas.
158. Had one of the 600 highest point totals in the entire world in Angry Birds (in my defense, I was incapacitated with the flu for a week and couldn’t summon the energy to do anything else).
159. Had my name appear on the Colorado Rare Bird report (for spotting a Townsend’s Warbler) five months after moving to the state and the Arkansas Rare Bird report multiple times in the first year I lived there.
160. Visited three state fairs (Illinois, Wisconsin, Colorado).
161. Visited Canada, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, and France.
162. Attended a concert at Red Rocks Park outside Denver.
163. Been in every county in the state of Wisconsin.
164. Visited 40 different homes once lived in by U.S. Presidents.
165. Been to the Presidential libraries of Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and William J. Clinton.
166. Visited battlefields of the French and Indian war (4), Revolutionary War (6), War of 1812 (5), Civil War (23), World War I (1), World War II (1).
167. Ridden on the Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad, the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad, the Georgetown Loop Railroad, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, the Royal Gorge Route in Colorado, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, and the Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.
168. Visited Maroon Bells, widely considered to be the prettiest view in Colorado.
169. Been 1,000 feet underground in a gold mine.
170. Toured Little Bighorn National Battlefield, scene of Custer’s Last Stand.
171. Stood in actual ruts made by wagons on the Oregon Trail.
172. Toured Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich.
173. Toured Hohenzollern Castle, built and owned by German emperors.
     
174. Ridden a cable car to the top of the Schilthorn in the Swiss Alps and toured Piz Gloria, prominent location in the movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
175. Gone kayaking.
176. Found and identified three species of owl (Great Horned, Burrowing, Western Screech) in one day.
177. Found and identified three species of falcon (Peregrine, Prairie, and American Kestrel) in one day.
178. Attended a college football game (San Jose State at Air Force).
179. Learned how to curl (and had two stones land on the button).
180. Drank only two (very small) cups of coffee in my life, one of which was Kopi Luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world, made from beans collected from civet droppings.
181. Lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin (for a summer), Colorado, and Arkansas.
182. Read 4,294 separate books of 40 pages or more. (If you include rereads and those I read before I began keeping track, my total is well over 5,000.)
183. Watched 3,031 different movies. (If you include multiple viewings of the same movie and those I watched before I began keeping track, I’m just embarrassed.)
184. I’ve seen 153 different species of birds in the yards of the houses I’ve lived in.
185. I’ve seen 251 different species of birds within walking distance of the houses I’ve lived in.
186. Visited the following National Parks: Arches, Badlands, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitoll Reef, Crater Lake, Cuyahoga Valley, Gateway Arch, Grand Teton, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smoky Mountains, Hot Springs, Indiana Dunes, Joshua Tree, Mammoth Cave, Rocky Mountain, Saguaro, Theodore Roosevelt, Wind Cave, Yellowstone, Zion.

Stay tuned. Who knows what further adventures are in store …