# Places you've been. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 8, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879 "2019-09-08T14:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/221 "2019-09-15T17:03:20Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > I’m an NFL football fan and in the cemetery at Rotan, TX three years ago I visited the grave of NFL Hall of Fame QB Sammy Baugh. Rotan is a small town in central Texas, about 60 miles NW of Abilene TX. > > Back in 1994 when “Slingin’ Sammy” was still alive (he passed away in 2008) I was reading a book that described his NFL accomplishments and was very impressed. Sammy Baugh was one of the first prolific passers back when the NFL offenses were built around the running game. Back then, in the 1940s, the forward pass was seen as a desperation play. Sammy Baugh helped to change that. > > Two of his records as quarterback still stand: most seasons leading the league in passing (six; tied with Steve Young) and most seasons leading the league with the lowest interception percentage (five). And in a time when players often played both offense and defense, as a defensive back he was the first player in league history to intercept four passes in a game. He is the only player to lead the league in passing, punting, and interceptions in the same season. > > That is a record likely never to be broken. I was in total awe of this Sammy Baugh. > > I was in San Francisco at the time, and on a whim I called the old directory assistance number for Rotan TX, 325-555-1212, and asked for his number. To my surprise they gave me a number, and when I dialed it and a gentleman answered the phone and I asked for Sammy Baugh, to my even greater surprise he said, “That’s me.” > > I was talking to the legend himself! I was 33 at the time and I felt like a 13-year old kid. I told him I was a fan and very impressed by his accomplishments. He described the game back then, 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust, and almost no passing. As a 49ers fan I mentioned Joe Montana and Steve Young and he said he’d LOVE to be playing in today’s game. He was very gracious and we had a nice conversation for about 10-15 minutes. I asked if he would autograph my book, _Seventy-Five Seasons: The Complete Story of the National Football League, 1920-1995_, and he said sure! > > I asked him how should I address the package. > > His answer, “Sam Baugh, Rotan, Texas. It’ll get to me.” > > That is one of my most cherished autographs! Nice story! I’ve mentioned before that I met Dave Brubeck in Moscow, USSR, when I was working security for the Reagan Summit in '88. Had a nice conversation with the man, who was gracious and chatty with a 41 year old fanboy. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/222 "2019-09-15T18:05:22Z")
On the same trip as the ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ visit, I went the [Berlin Olympic Stadium](https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/150723-1936-olympics-08.jpg) where Hitler hoped to gloat in 1936. The place was virtually empty and completely still. Even so, when I stood in Hitler’s box I could swear I heard the crowds roaring. An eerie experience for a teenager of Untermenschen roots. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/223 "2019-09-15T18:05:54Z")
Dang! Due to confidentiality, I can’t use the actual person’s name. Think…a major financial company named for the real-life person who founded it. Anyway, I’ve been in his basement. As a matter of fact, I’ve been in the basement of two of his (many) houses. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/224 "2019-09-15T21:41:48Z")
Doing fall cleaning today and emptied out the coffee mug cabinet, which reminded me of a couple of stops that most here haven’t been to: Buckshot Betty’s, a cafe just across the border in YT, Canada. Chicken, AK, on the Taylor Highway heading up to the Poker Creek border crossing, which I’ve also been to. Now _there’s_ a rough road; possibly the worst in Alaska. Dawson City, home to the Klondike gold rush, perched on the Yukon River, which we crossed by ferry. Also went to a vintage gold dredge on the Kondike River. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/225 "2019-09-15T22:57:11Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Staniel Cay, in the Bahamas. An island so small that the placemat in the only restaurant had a map with everyone’s homes on the island marked. > We flew into the small airstrip and stayed on a houseboat. Scratch this one. Someone on my wife’s Facebook feed just posted a picture from here. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/226 "2019-09-18T12:33:07Z")
Sorry I’m a little late to the game. I’ve been in: [ul] [li]The palatial home of a conservative U. S. billionaire (no, not that one).[/li] [li]The projection booths of at least a dozen IMAX theaters, including the one at the National Air and Space Museum, where I used to work.[/li] [li]Oak Ridge National Laboratory, including the X-10 reactor, the first nuclear reactor after Fermi’s original “pile” in Chicago; the immense [K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-25); and the [Y-12 Isotope Separation Plant](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-12_National_Security_Complex). The first of these is occasionally open to the public, but the last two are not, AFAIK. [/li] [li]The B Reactor, the world’s first plutonium production reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state. [/li](I visited Oak Ridge and Hanford while assisting with a Smithsonian research program on the Manhattan Project.) [li]The cockpit of the B-29 Enola Gay, and sat in the bombardier’s seat.[/li][li] The cockpit of an Air New Zealand 767 during a landing. [/li][li] Michael Andretti’s Champ Car (sitting still). [/li][li] The two-seat IndyCar racecar, running two laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (This one anyone can do if you pony up the bucks, so not as exclusive as the other items on this list.) [/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/227 "2019-09-18T12:58:01Z")
Was Mario driving you around Indy? ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/228 "2019-09-18T13:01:45Z")
I have been to the very top of the [Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower](https://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=173) in Baltimore. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/229 "2019-09-18T13:12:02Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Was Mario driving you around Indy? No, [Davey Hamilton](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Hamilton). But I have met Mario, got a picture with him, and got his autographs on the photo of us, his book, and the poster of the IMAX film he starred in, _Super Speedway_. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/230 "2019-09-18T13:19:00Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > No, [Davey Hamilton](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Hamilton). > > But I have met Mario, got a picture with him, and got his autographs on the photo of us, his book, and the poster of the IMAX film he starred in, _Super Speedway_. Nice, all around. Davey Hamilton isn’t quite a Mario, but doing two laps around the brickyard has to be an experience. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/231 "2019-09-18T15:17:30Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I have been to the very top of the [Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower](https://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=173) in Baltimore. I would love to have seen the big, blue rotating Bromo bottle that was up there until 1936. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/232 "2019-09-18T16:48:04Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I first lived in Japan in 1981 and have lived in Asia for over 32 years total. I traveled and backpacked extensively around in 1986 so there should be zillions of places where no one else on these boards have been. > > I worked in an industry selling professionals products often used in command and control centers and such. I suspect I’m the only Doper to have been in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. If I haven’t, then I’d like to hear why. > > Here in Taiwan, I’ve been on trails in Hualien which are restricted and require applying for permission. Most tourists wouldn’t be able to do that. Am envious about your backpacking Asia. I’ve done a little. There’s a mountainous region near lake Biwa that was beautiful…piney forest, reached by an old, slow train. Really romantic, IMO. I’ve not been to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but I have been to the Tsukiji Fish Market… ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/233 "2019-09-18T19:10:40Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Nice, all around. Davey Hamilton isn’t quite a Mario, but doing two laps around the brickyard has to be an experience. Davey was very nice and the ride was incredible. Here’s what I wrote in a previous thread: > [@The BMW HPDE track thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bmw-hpde-track-thread/789698/37): > > I’ve done the Mario Andretti Driving Experience at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and two Indy Racing Experiences at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: one where you drive an Indy car with a detuned engine that can go about 120 mph tops, and the other in a full-powered two-seater where a pro driver takes you at around 180+. Driving (or riding in) a real race car is great fun and gives you a hint of what pro race drivers have to be able to do. Although driving the detuned car was fun, and being able to say you actually drove a race car around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is pretty cool, I’ve gone faster in my own car (on track, of course). > > But riding in the two-seater was AMAZING! My driver was Davey Hamilton, who ran the 500 eleven times, finishing 4th in 1998. Even though the pros go 40+ mph faster in races, at “only” 180 mph the G-forces in the turns are incredible! The aero downforce gives the car a grip in the corners you just can’t believe. It was light years beyond anything I’ve experienced in any of my other track driving! Unfortunately, it was only two laps, less than two minutes! But probably one of the most memorable things I’ve done in a car. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/234 "2019-09-18T22:26:20Z")
Awesome!! Thanks for that description, I’m sporting a broad smile as I read that. ETA: when next I visit Indy I’ll have to check that out! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/235 "2019-09-19T15:01:54Z")
I climbed up the inside tunnel to the burial chamber at the top of Cheops. I don’t recommend it if you’re claustrophobic. It’s also a big letdown, as there is nothing there to tell you about the site. I also visited King Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, which is another letdown, as it’s just a hole in the ground, again with no informational plaques or the like. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/236 "2019-09-19T23:44:28Z")
I once crawled down to the end of a 21-inch diameter torpedo tube of a submerged nuclear submarine. Backstory: after a practice test-fire of a torpedo tube (called a “water slug” because you shoot off a slug of seawater instead of a torpedo), someone has to crawl down the tube and wipe off all of the seawater from the interior. You wipe off the seawater going down, and apply machine oil to all exposed metal on the way out. This is to prevent corrosion of the tube interior. The tube is about 20 feet long, though, and it gets pretty lonely, cold, and claustrophobic at the far end of the steel tube. I was reassured that nobody would haze me by closing the hatch behind me, though (which I’m sure used to to happen), because doing so was now an offense that would be punished by a court-martial. (I’m sure someone had freaked out in the past when it was done to them, not to mention what would happen if someone latched the breech door and then cycled the firing mechanism. :eek:) So anyway, I climbed in and crawled down the tube with a bunch of industrial Kimwipes in one hand, and an oil can in the other, along with a MAGLITE flashlight clamped in my teeth. It was very tight quarters – my elbows kept banging into the sides of the tube. I finally got to the far end of the tube, with nothing between me and the ocean deep but a single remotely operated muzzle door that opened out into the ocean…and found water leaking in. :eek: It was a fairly steady stream into a drain at the end of the tube. I dutifully reported this, saying, “Hey, there’s water leaking in down here at the end. Is that supposed to be happening?” Everyone back in the torpedo room started hollering that we were all going to die. :dubious: It turns out that the leak was perfectly normal for the depth we were at. 😉 I’ve also been in the battery well of a submerged submarine for battery charge line-up inspections (more times than I can count). I’ve laid on the reel of an antenna in a tight space behind the main ship’s control panel, then rolled forward until I was upside-down supporting my weight with my hands (again with the MAGLITE flashlight clamped in my teeth) to check seawater valve positions behind the panel. (These verifications are all required to be double-checked by an officer before a submarine submerges.) I’ve also inspected a submarine’s ballast tanks in drydock – I always imagined they’d be big and empty. Instead, they’re tight and cramped like everything else on a submarine. All in all…a submarine is no place for someone who’s claustrophobic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/237 "2019-09-20T13:44:52Z")
> [@robby](#): > > I once crawled down to the end of a 21-inch diameter torpedo tube of a submerged nuclear submarine. Who hasn’t? This thread is supposed to be about places most other people \*\*\*haven’t \*\*\*been. We’ve **ALL** done that! Sheesh! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/238 "2019-09-20T16:46:59Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Who hasn’t? This thread is supposed to be about places most other people \*\*\*haven’t \*\*\*been. We’ve **ALL** done that! Sheesh! What, only once? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2019, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/239 "2019-09-21T00:29:35Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > The two-seat IndyCar racecar, running two laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (This one anyone can do if you pony up the bucks, so not as exclusive as the other items on this list.) If we’re just talking places, I’ve done this as well, except we were in the four seater that just went 60 miles an hour, which was the bargain basement version of what you can do at Indy. Still, it was kind of cool. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2019, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/240 "2019-09-21T05:06:58Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve stood at the conn of the frigate USS _Constitution_, the brig USS _Niagara_, and the slave ship replica _Amistad_. But have you spent a night sleeping on the floor of the bar of the ferry in transit between North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879.md?page=13)