From the category archives:

Adrenaline

The Wildest Ride At The Winter Olympics

by Alan Rider

Let’s say you find yourself watching the opening rounds of the Olympic bobsled competition this weekend and thinking “Man, that looks like fun!” Well, here’s the cautionary tale of how you can experience this wild ride for yourself—and why you may not want to.
You see, I had the same thought when I visited Park City’s Utah Olympic Park last August.  When their PR person offered me the chance to try their Comet bobsled ride, well, I couldn’t say “Yes!” fast enough.
The park offers these rides year-round, though the number of public runs is limited during the winter months when dozens of world-class athletes use the mile-long track for training.  The [...]

Read More →

Matadors, Machine Guns, Monster Trucks & More: 4 Politically Incorrect Adventures

by Alan Rider

Come on, admit it: There’s something you’ve always wanted to do, some extraordinary experience you’ve always wanted to have, that you just don’t talk about for fear of what people might think.  Well, you’ll find no judgments here.  Provided it’s not illegal or immoral, I say go for it.
If you’re one of those rare folks who don’t harbor such secret fantasies, allow me to put a few outrageous ideas into your head. Here are four thoroughly un-PC adventures that promise to be so unforgettable you’ll have a hard time keeping them to yourself:
Fight A Bull
There’s just something about squaring off with a quarter-ton of bad-tempered bovine that’s bound to make [...]

Read More →

Going Out With A Bang: Contest Lets Lucky Winner Blow Up Texas Stadium

by Alan Rider

Not sure what it is about human nature, but it seems we’re genetically hard-wired for an attraction to things that go BOOM!  Now, a new contest is offering one lucky person what very well may be the ultimate extraordinary experience: A chance to set off an explosion that will literally bring the house down.
You see, the folks at Kraft Foods have just signed a deal that will allow the winner of an essay contest to push a button that will turn Texas Stadium, former home of the Dallas Cowboys, into a pile of rubble.  The blast that triggers the implosion is scheduled to happen this spring in front of a [...]

Read More →

Ten For '10: New Year, New Experiences

by Alan Rider

While other media outlets have been busy looking back at 2009, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks planning some of the great new feature stories I’ll be bringing you in the year ahead.
Now before we go any further, understand that the list below is by no means complete.  In fact, if my math is correct, you can look forward to reading about more than 100 truly remarkable once-in-a-lifetime adventures both here and on the pages of XTRORD.com in the next 12 months.
That said, here’s a quick preview of what I expect to be our 10 coolest extraordinary experience stories for 2010 (click on the links to see previous posts):
Throw [...]

Read More →

Black Friday Blues

by Alan Rider

Just heard an interview with a women who arrived at a southern California mall at 4:30 this morning because she thought joining the crowds lined up for the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving deals would be an interesting “experience.” I’m sure she’s right on some level, though honestly battling the Black Friday throngs for questionable deals on things I have no real use for is one adventure I have absolutely no interest in.
As a matter of fact, I’ve long been a proponent of the philosophy that we’re all burdened by way too much “stuff.”  All of which will wear out, go out of style, or just plain get ignored at the back [...]

Read More →

Shark Season

by Alan Rider

Remember the scene in the movie Jaws where beachgoers ran screaming from the water’s edge when someone spotted the movie’s toothy star (no, not Roy Scheider) in the waters off the fictional Amity Island?  Well, call me crazy, but I had exactly the opposite reaction last week when I heard several great white sharks had been seen cruising the waters around Cape Cod.
You see, I’m one of those people who’d go way out of my way to see a great white in the wild.  If you’re similarly inclined, you might want to check out the one-day shark diving trips to California’s Farallon Islands or five-day [...]

Read More →

Top 9 Tales Never Told

by Alan Rider

Given the fact that today’s date—9/9/09—is kind of unique, I thought I ought to mark the occasion by doing something equally unusual here.
Which got me to thinking that, while I’ve written about more than 30 of my most extraordinary experiences on the pages of XTRORD.com, I’ve had a number of equally cool once-in-a-lifetime adventures over the years that I’ve yet to share here.
With that in mind, I thought I’d give you a quick look at nine of my favorite extraordinary experience tales never told:
Airship Venture’s Zeppelin Flights
Cruising serenely 1,000 feet above San Francisco Bay landmarks like the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz aboard one of only three zeppelins on [...]

Read More →

Previous Posts

Newer Posts