[Shanoncia]

"You will find adventure or adventure will find you!"

That's a nice lil quote I like, seeing how every fibre of my being craves for dire encoutners, danger and extreme adventure. And so far in my life I've been what I would like to call 'lucky' in that area. I've had adventures with bears, bombs, tornadoes, hauntings, wolves... and thats just in Canada, let alone what I experianced in Europe. Anyway, I am quite interested in hearing what sort of adventures you all have experianced whether they be terrifying or just plain hillarious. Such stories could make for an interesting thread! C'mon, let's hear 'em! :)

[Miriamele]

One time I was staying at this dacha in Siberia, and as the outhouse was occupied I decided to pee in the bushes behind it. It was dark, and I didn't realize that I was sitting on fireweed --ouch! My backside was a-burnin' for two days!

Here's some good advice for all of you--never sit on fireweed! :D

I've had many adventures but for some strange reason that was the first one that came to mind. I wonder what a psychologist would have to say about that...

[LePeze]

Aaah, adventures, I've had lots of those in my life.

The first that comes to my mind was when I was in the last year of highschool.
Every friday at 3.55 PM, that's the time when school was over, our entire class ran out of the classroom and we spurted out of school to the pubs on the other side of the street.(if u were slow u wouldn't have a place to sit)

I was always the fastest on the stairs(our class was on the second floor) and so I always had a place to sit.
Of course, over the year I managed to fall three times of the stairs and three times my right foot had to be taped for a week.

It was worth it

[Kingslayer]

None that I can think of......does seeing a scorpian in Italy count?

[saintjon]

Had one incident involving my buddies, a dirtbike, a school assignment that was due, my friend's totaled car and some cops. For years after it would be fun to talk about how many laws we broke that day. (pretty tame compared to some of the stuff that went on around there)

A month and a half ago I was painting this house with this really hard to get at wall. It had two different peaks from lower roofs sticking out beneath it so we couldn't ladder directly to the wall, and didn't want to stand on the lower roofs because it was tin roofing (slippery). So I saved the day with my brilliant idea to go up on the roof barefoot. Jesus that was scary. I was like mentally calculating every little thing that could cause me to fall off the roof and die. (wasp nest a few feet away, paint drips accumulating, one of my bracing feet slipping)

Went to this Ethiopian restaurant once. Some people I've talked to consider that quite a risk, but I was impressed with their cuisine. :D

So anybody getting the idea I've led a pretty tame life?

[LePeze]

I remember another one. Two years ago, we were visiting Paris for three days with our school. Around 11 PM, I was standing with 5 friends in front of the 'Notre Dame' and we did a moonshot. There were lots of people taking pictures of us. We didn't really care 'cos the wine is very cheap in France.

[enazwo]

Well I have had a number of adventures in my day. But I will relay this one. Back in 1988 my band received an offer to play in Ketchikan Alaska at a club called the Frontier Saloon. The offer was submitted via, a former roadie who advised that he and a "silent partner" had purchased the Frontier Saloon for $375,000 dollars. Since none of the band had ever been to Alaska and the pay was good we decided to accept. The gig was suppose to last three months with tranportation and lodging provided. So we left from Seattle Washington on a three day drunken sea voyage that took us through Queen Charlette then on to Ketchikan, which by-the-way is only accessible by sea or plane.

Arriving we were shone the band house a two story,plua basement, five bedroom abode with satellite TV, big screen Tv and a freezer full of Salmon, Steel Head, and Moose. Other then this strange smell the gig was shaping up quite nicely.

So we played for about four weeks, and the town loved us. It was about that time we met the "Silent Partner". This fellow soon began showing his face everywhere all the time. He would be at the band house, in the basement, show up at the club in the office. He literally seemed to have taken over completely. Which at that point was fine with us because we were still getting paid and everyone was loving us.

Then one night our drummer, who used to be the nosiest guy you would ever want to meet, was rummaging around in the attic where he found a human skull. It was quite an experience to hear him screaming and yelling for everyone to come and see this thing.

Well after getting the nerve to pick it up it was evident that it was relatively fresh as there was still some dried tissue and ligiments on it.

Of course we were totally freaked about this. As we had learned that the real owner of the Frontier Saloon was this silent partner, who also was the real owner of the band house, I told the band to keep their mouths shut about it for now.

The next day I was chatting with one of the bartmaids, who I had gotten real friendly with during my stay, and I brought up what our drummer had found.

Then as nonchalantly as you could imagine she starts talking to the bouncer ,"Who was the last guy that John (Name of silent partner changed) had killed? Was it that Troy guy?"

The bouncer then answered "yeah it was that loud mouth Troy."

The barmaid had a good chuckle then asked my if I really didn't know how my old roadie friend and his silent partner, John, came up with all this money to buy the club, etc, etc,
I told her that it had never really occurred to me to ask. So that is when I was told that the silent partner, John, was the biggest and most dangerous drug lord in Alaska. John owned about 120 houses in Alaska with automatic Hydro-ponics grow operations in all the basements, not mention to he was the main provider of Cocaine for the panhandle and Seward Pennisula. She also told me that on several occasions it had become necassary for John to "do away with" certain individuals.

Well that certainly scared the hell out me and when I told the band they weren't happy either. And we couldn't just leave town. We either would have to book a flight or a boat ride, and we didn't have that kind of money laying around.

And it was only a matter of time that John found out that we knew. John then quit paying us, then we didn't see John for awhile. It was spooky.

I made arrangements with the barmaids and bartenders one night to get into the cash register to get the money out that John owed us so we could get money to get back home. So on a friday daynight I took the entire night's cash. Our intent was to return the to band house getting our luggage then back to take our equipment to safety. However when we went to the band house the entire place was padlocked up with a note from John saying that he was going to hold all of our stuff for taking the money out of the cash register, and that some of his friends would make sure we coughed up the cash. I was getting pretty freaked at this point.

But we had made a number of friends. One of the people we met was head of Ketchikan fire department. We called him fireman Bill. We had let Bill sing every sunday night for Jam night and we became great friends. Bill knew the chief of Ketchkan's Police department which he took and introduced me to. I explained our situtation to the chief explaining that we just wanted to get out of Ketchikan alive. I did not tell him about the human skull. The chief was really cool saying that they knew everything about John but they didn't have enough to bring charges against him.

So the chief sent three police cars with me to the band house where I broke down the front door and grabbed the rest of our belongings. And as I left with Fireman Bill the Police began searching the band house.

I then met up with the band and we removed our equipment from the Frontier Saloon and moved it. Fireman Bill was also the owner of the Gold Coast Floating Lodge, it was a two story lodge build on a huge barge that had seven state rooms, a bar and dance floor upstairs, a suana. It was what Bill did for a living during the summer tourist season. Bill would charge five hundred dollars a night to stay in this fancy lodge, which he would tow to all these great halibut fishing spots on the pan handle.. Any way we moved ourselves and our equiment there. It was the safest place to be because you could only get to it by boat and had plenty of warning if anyone was coming.

Three days later we loaded up and left Ketchikan. Soon I was back home breathing a sigh of relief. Two weeks later my phone rings and its John. He's demanding that I pay him for the money I took out of the cash register and pay for the broken door. I told him there's no way. I have never forgotten the words he said next, "Zane it's a small world, you'll never know when I' show up at your door and blow your f***ing head off" He hung up.

Four days later I got a call from the barmaid, who told me that the state police had arrested John and confiscated everything he owned including all the houses he owned. He apparently had bank accounts with several hundred thousand dollars too.

Sorry for the long post, but is a true story and anyone of band mates will tell you the same story.

[Miriamele]

Holy s**t. That's not an adventure, that's a nightmare! I'm glad you all came out of it safely.

Did the police ever figure out whose skull that was up in the attic?

Creepy! :eek:

[enazwo]

From what I understand, when the cops searched the house after I broke the door down, they not only found the skull, but also discovered a large grow operation in the basement (one of the sources of the strange smell, and why the basement was padlocked up from us.) To answer your question yes the skull apparently belonged to a former employee of the Frontier Saloon who's name was Troy and apparently who the barmaid and bouncer were referring to in my conversation.

The very last I heard was that the "silent partner" went away to prison for life" as well as two of his "buddies". Believe it or not Alaska does not have the death penalty. However to be honest I don't know exactly what they were convicted of. It was just a relief to know he couldn't just show up at my front door.

And believe it or not I have since returned to Ketchikan to play the very same club in 1992. The Frontier Saloon is now called the Bank Shot. And though I tried, I could not find a single person there that I met back in 1988. Everyone had moved away.

There were a few people that remembered John when I asked about him and they told me he's still sitting in prison.

[Shanoncia]

OMIGOD! :eek: OMIGOD! :eek: OMIGOD! :eek: OMIGOD! :eek: OMIGOD! :eek: OMIGOD! :eek:

At least that which doesn't kill us shall only serve to make us stronger. :(