In yesterday’s blog I wrote that visiting the Four Corners area, Monument Valley, and Canyon de Chelly, all in Arizona, are on my personal Bucket List. You know what a Bucket List is, right? It’s all of those things you want to do before you kick the bucket, as in the great movie by the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
All a bucket list is is a set of goals you want to accomplish in your life. Things you want to do and places you want to see. And hopefully, as you cross some things off your personal list, you’ll find some new things to add to it. That way you never get bored.
I’ve been lucky in that I’ve crossed a lot of stuff off my bucket list already, including jumping out of an airplane (and surviving), driving in a stock car race (I won my one and only race and retired a winner), overcoming my terrible fear of public speaking, traveling fulltime in an RV, making my living as a writer, visiting Washington, D.C., visiting Key West, starting my own business (done that several times), buying a classic Corvette and driving it on old Route 66, and finding my soul mate, to name a few.
There are still plenty of things I have left on my list, including visiting (in no particular order) Cape Cod, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Mystic Seaport, Santa Fe, Yellowstone National Park, Valley Forge, Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and going on a whale watching california excursion.
I also want to drive to Alaska, take a cruise ship vacation, follow the Great River Road from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, kayak in Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, spend a few nights camping on the beach on the Texas Gulf Coast, learn to draw, learn to play the saxophone, and see a live Jimmy Buffet concert.
I’m sure if I gave it some thought, I could come up with a couple dozen more to tell you about, but instead, why don’t you tell me what’s on your bucket list? What places do you still want to see, and what things do you want to accomplish before you give that bucket its final kick?
Thought For The Day – If you can’t combine business with pleasure, you’re in the wrong business.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
My husband and I want to try full-timing again. We did it once and loved it – then found the “perfect” house, which led to another “perfect” house. We are done with that. We want to explore the coast of California and Oregon. We want to hit all our old spots that we use to stop at when we were snow birding. Stay in the same places and see how they have changed. Personally, I would like to visit Seattle. Grew up there and haven’t been back in 27 years. I could go on and on, as our bucket is pretty big and we have no plans on kicking it soon!
My bucket list is also too long to list. Like you said, I just keep adding things on as I check things off and it doesn’t seem to get any shorter. I guess that is the real reason we have wheels on our house! I can’t imagine sitting on the front porch the rest of my life dreaming of what might have been!
Your trips sound much more worthy of your time. But that said, overcoming fear of public speaking is much easier than people think. So that could be easily crossed off of your bucket list.
Stage fright has taken on legendary status, and like a bad rumor, just keeps getting repeated. Even Jerry Seinfeld said “attending a funeral, most people would rather be the one in the casket than the one giving the eulogy”. Funny, and mostly true, but perpetuates a myth.
Fear of public speaking is actually something that can be eradicated using any number of techniques, and at my sites (BestPublicSpeakingTraining.com & SeminarAcademy.com – sorry for the plug) I’ve got tons of articles and videos on techniques that really, actually, do work… and no, it’s not that same awful regurgitated “library book” junk you’ve heard a zillion times that does not work.
Best,
David Portney
Nick, I have a long bucket list with much crossed off so far including visting 48 contiguous states, lucky for me my dad was a vagabond and he took care of getting me to over 30 of them in my youth while visiting historic civil war battlefields and southwestern highlights including garden of the gods, Taos, petrified forest, and grand canyon etc. Still to go includes watching my grandkids grow up and excel. (12 year old Mackenzi has won a place on the jr. olympic development team for soccer.) Trying out fulltiming for a year or three or more. Getting further involved in RV history education, driving to Alaska and spending 4-8 weeks seeing that glorious land. A cruise on a square rigged sailing ship. Fishing in as many states and provinces as possible. Catching a marlin and a tarpon, a 10 pound bass, 7 pound Smallmouth, 50 inch muskie and a 2 pound crappie–and continuing to stay on the green side of the grass.
Here’s a thought regarding your “cruise” idea. Several years ago I went on a cruise with a group brought together by a DJ in San Diego. They spread the word on air that you could get in on their group rate by contacting them. We sailed on Costa Cruises in the Caribbean in March. I lived in Chicago then and my friend from San Diego made the arrangements. You might want to consider contacting some of the cruise lines (who are hurting for business right now) and see if you could make some deal with them to do a Gypsy Journal Rally. They are also looking for people to present seminars. Food for thought…
I suggest you scrap the idea of kayaking in the Okefenokee. You’re likely to become dinner for the abundant alligator population there. One whack of the tail and you’re scuttled to become their feast. I’ve been there, they can be very aggressive and they are not to be trifled with.
Just picked up a sample copy of GJ in Bisbee, AZ, Monday and we really enjoy it. I’ll be subscribing soon. I don’t have a bucket list per se. Don’t like the implication of finality down the line. I call mine a tin can list. Smaller, a variety of ingredients that I can keep kicking down the road and eat (do) or change on a whim. I fill my can with suggestions from other RVers and locals. We get a lot of local color that way. Like stopping at the local winery in Deming on the way home to get some gallon jugs filled with some happy juice blended to my liking. We share many of the things to do in your list, but if they don’t happen, we won’t fret. It’s a great trip whatever comes next.
Nick, I love your bucket list! Funny, I have done some of your list…camped on the beach in Port A many times (yes, nothing like walking in the moonlight and sleeping to the crashing of waves) We have returned to Cape Cod many times and made a return to the Outer Banks in ’07, two of our fav beach places for sure. Yellowstone was our first destination in ’98 when we went fulltime. We hope to return this summer before heading to Alaska, our third trip. I guess you can tell we are now “retreads.” Although you can never see it all, we do have a shorter list of places we loved that we want to return to. We have RVed all 49 states and D.C.; cruised to Hawaii and have many a cruise under our belts. Cruising is our #2 love behind RVing.
It is alot of fun, LOTS of good eats (you would go nuts!), you meet interesting people , see wonderful new places and like RVing, only unpack once. Plus you get waited on and pampered! I know Miss Terry could use some of that too.
My bucket list you say….New Zealand (hopefully by RV), Austrailia, China, Maritime Provinces by RV, and a cruise to “somewhere” in Europe. The rest of my bucket is filled with just RVing this magnificent country of ours for as long as our health allows.
Thanks for helping me remember!
Chris
Hmm, my bucket list is being constantly filled and emptied as we travel around in our motorhome full-time. Every time we spend time with other RVers — or read their blogs — we find more places we want to visit or things we want to do. After two years on the road, we still find the list of things we’d like to do is longer than the list we’ve crossed off.
Two big ones yet on the list are driving to Alaska for a summer and driving to Maine for a summer in the NE.
Char
I was always told that “crossing things off a list” was a negative way to look at life. At some point the list would be depleted and then what?…time to die? It’s better to add new accomplishments to your list…you just keep getting a bigger bucket!
I’d like to add to my bucket:
Flying in a glider. Visiting Alaska in my RV. Showing my bride the places I have visited in Europe. Visiting the Pacific NW in my RV. Maybe even returning to the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
I will add one thing to the list next week when I see the Lesser Prairie Chickens do their mating ritual in SE Colorado!
his-self