We have a rule in our house.
When someone says the word “adventure,” then someone else must repeat
the word, but as a whisper. This is the
reverence with which we treat new and unusual experiences. It can be as simple as turning down a road
we’ve never been down or trying the strangest snowcone flavor on the menu.
From nearly the moment we met, my wife and I have lived by
the principle that new experiences, or “adventures” (::whispered::
“adventures”), are the stuff of joy. Nothing is too strange, too dumb, or too
cheesy. In fact, the dumber and/or
weirder the experience, the better.
Here's a video with some pics to give you an idea of what we're all about.
Weird from Dan Buck on Vimeo.
And for some explanation of some of those...
The 10 Weirdest Buck
Adventures
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| Towing and Recovery Museum |
10. The Towing and
Recovery Museum – This is a thing.
There is a place in Chattanooga that holds the towing industry in esteem
usually reserved for policemen, firemen, and revolutionary war heroes.
I always
thought they were mostly the guys who make your car go away when you’re
illegally parked, but after an hour in this tribute to the men and women of the
towing and recovery industry, I see things differently.
9. Epic Nerf Gun Battle
– In our former home, when we were all packed up and ready to move out, we
had nearly 3000 square feet and many boxes to use as bunkers. So we found four
nerf guns and fought until we were exhausted.
8. Terrible movies – Rachel
Anne and I have tried to catalog some of the awful films we’ve seen
together. Some of the highlights include
Invasion of the Bee Girls, Nazis at the Center of the Universe, and Two-Headed
Shark Attack. It’s not that unique of a
thing to do, but our appreciation of the awful as an opportunity for fun
probably holds the key to our enjoyment of life.
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| Our family chalkboard |
7. The chalkboard – When
we moved into our new home, my wife repurposed a large decorative
mirror by
painting it with chalkboard paint. We
quite organically began a tradition where we take turns adding to a collective
masterpiece. As you might imagine with two boys ages 11-13, most of the drawings
include a character who is farting. And
I pretend I don’t think it’s funny. But
it totally is. Every time.
6. The world’s largest
ten commandments – This was a road trip to “Field of the Woods” a religious
retreat center about 45 minutes from us.
The highlight of the campus is a hillside recreation of the ten
commandments created with white stone laid on a grassy slope. Each letter is roughly 4-5 feet in
height. It’s a sight to behold.
5. Trivia as Blonde Prussian
Siblings – Back when we were dating we got on a kick where we spoke in Russian-esque
accents which we decided were “Prussian”. We found some blonde wigs (which my
self-professed weird wife had in a closet) and we went to compete in bar trivia
speaking only in our Prussian accents and referred to each other as Juergen and
Ute. Our team name was Mother Prussia.
We came in third.
4. Supersized Ears of
Corn – While travelling home from a raod trip to Michigan we used our
favorite phone app called “Roadside America” to discover that we were close to
a field full of ears of corn. No, not a
cornfield. A field of six foot, concrete
ears of corn. We had to make a stop.
3. Styrofoam Cup Museum
– In a town North of Atlanta, there’s a place called Car City, USA. It’s a sprawling junk-yard/art exhibit that
an eccentric but kindly man has created on his property. Dozens of cars over miles of trails are
arranged, painted and overgrown with trees and wildlife. However, one of the best parts of the stop is
in the large building at the front of the lot.
Car City is across the street from a tasty little eatery where all the
drinks are served in white Styrofoam cups.
The owner of Car City started to eat there daily and making each cup a
work of art, with a pen, or pencil etching elaborate patterns and landscapes.
Apparently, he kept ALL of them and has them on display. Thousands of cups. All decorated, elaborately and
skillfully. It’s wonderfully weird.
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| Noah's Ark Exhibit (St. Mary's, OH) |
2. Things Swallowed
Museum (Noah’s Ark) – Another road trip diversion. This is an exhibit at a regional museum in St. Mary’s, OH.Apparently,
there was a doctor who found he was often dislodging or retrieving odd items
from townspeople who had swallowed the unswallowable. For some strange reason, he kept those
items. And for an even stranger reason,
they are now on display in this museum.
Also in this museum is a mechanized, glass-encased moving
diorama that tells the story of Noah with various taxidermized birds. When it starts up, there is music and
narration as a birds enter the ark, two-by-two. Truly bizarre and
glorious.
1. Valentine’s Day – I
was quite shocked this last Valentine’s Day to receive from my beloved a large
red teddy bear in a scarf with a heart pattern.
It was a disturbingly normal gift from my wife. I looked at her confused, almost a little
hurt. Then, with wide eyes, she handed
me the scalpel (Pen knife). Flipping the
bear face down, I saw a scar with rough stitching that would’ve made Dr.
Frankenstein proud. So, I cut into
it. Inside, was… another bear. And inside that… another, and another, and
another. Finally, I got to a strange
figurine of a ferret holding a loving message addressed to me. It was perfect. She found a gift that required an adventure
to get to it. Albeit, a morbid one.
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| Dressed for Lady Gwendolyn's Bleeding Hearts Ball |
My gift to her was equally strange. I told her that we’d be leaving in two and a
half hours to head to Lady Gwendolyn's Bleeding Heart Ball. It was an event hosted by the “Dark Princess
Theatre” company at which a traditional New Orleans Funeral Celebration would
be held. And guests were encouraged to
wear their best Goth, Steampunk, or Victorian garb. It was fun to dress up and to see what people
turned up. The event itself was terrible.
The program was neither funny or interesting, but with our attitude
toward life, it would have been a success if it were good or bad. Just for the sake of the Adventure!
(::whisper:: adventure)
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