The Bucket List: 50 Years in the Making

Today I celebrate my 50th birthday.  Where did that come from? 50.  Really? Time really does fly when you're having fun. I remember 50 being "old" when I was a kid, so now I guess I'm old. I don't feel old.  I don't act old. I don't even look old.  Maybe I'm not old, I'm just 50.

So, as this day approached, I felt it necessary to compile my Bucket List.  It is what you do when you are old you know. Things that I have not yet done, things that I want to do before I can't do them anymore, before they are gone forever, things to do while I am able.  In no particular order, my Bucket List:

1. Beer tour Belgium
2. Climb Mt. LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains
3. Visit Ireland
4. Visit Scotland and the UK
5. Go deep sea fishing
6. Learn to fly fish
7. Work the soup lines at the shelter on Thanksgiving or Christmas 
8. See, from the ground, the Grand Canyon ✅
9. Visit and tour Jerusalem, pilgrimage 
10. Experience New Orleans✅
11. Explore Alaska✅
12. Attend the Kentucky Derby
13. Eat hot chicken in Nashville✅
14. See Reelfoot Lake in West Tennessee
15. Attend the Chicago Blues Festival
16. Go to a Tennessee VOLS football game via the VOL Navy
17. Attend a Daytona 500
18. Attend an Indianapolis 500
19. Visit and explore Australia and New Zealand
20. Eat some real Kansas City BBQ✅
21. Experience a proper Mardi Gras
22. See Niagara Falls 
23. Attend a Super Bowl
24. Do a Southern BBQ tour✅
25. Do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail
26. Buy and drink a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 
27. Visit New England during fall✅
28. Safari in Africa
29. See Egypt
30. All of Italy
31. Visit Greece
32. Eat a true bowl of Pho, in Asia
33. Visit Canada✅
34. Attend Memphis in May
35. Learn to smoke great beef brisket✅
36. Enjoy Jamaica
37. Drink wine and tour Napa Valley
38. See Yosemite
39. See Yellowstone✅
40. Hike parts of the Appalachian Trail, eventually all of it
41. Attend a World Series Game
42. at Wrigley Field
43. or Fenway Park
44. See Colorado - the Rockies, Denver, et al✅
45. Attend Oktoberfest in Munich
46. Eat true deep dish pizza in Chicago  ✅
47. Eat and drink at Schlenkerla in Bamberg, Germany
48. Visit and tour Prague and the Czech Republic
49. Tour the Jack Daniels distillery ✅
50. Visit Weihenstephan Brewery, the oldest in the world

It is what it is.  I like sports, music, good food, great drinks, beautiful sites, my ancestral history, getting in touch with my spirituality. This list covers that.  Lots of different influences on my list from many sources.  I thank them all.  

Now on to the adventure that is life.