Steve's Bucket List

In the fall of 2011, we discovered a tumor in my bladder. All of a sudden, our plans looked a little more distant. My wife and I have been talking about working in Antarctica, spending summers working in places like Alaska and winters in Big Bend, traveling to Iceland. Now we're concentrating on a single internal organ.

The prospect for future adventures is far from grim, however. There are high success rates with bladder cancer and we believe it was found early enough. Still, I am trying to spread the word that dark or bloody urine should cause you to make a doctor's appointment. I'm writing a lens about my experience in hopes of getting across that message and alleviating concerns about procedures and treatments by giving first-person reports.

Check out Bladder Cancer and Me for more information. But don't be surprised if things continue to get checked off my bucket list!

Visiting all 50 states is a natural and common goal. To date, I'm at 41 states, but I've knocked out the two most challenging - Hawaii and Alaska.

Two moderate driving trips or one extensive trip should take care of the list, but that's not scheduled at the moment. Most of my missing states are in the upper Midwest - Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. I've also not been to either North Carolina or South Carolina and have, somewhat improbably, driven all the way around Kentucky without entering the Bluegrass State.

My wife and I had done some traveling, but only a Hawaii trip was very ambitious, when our daughter was born. When she was 10 years old, we decided it was time the three of us saw the country. Our first trip was visiting friends in Wyoming and taking in Yellowstone National Park. That trip also roped in the Rockies, Salt Lake City, the deserts of southern Utah and Four Corners.

A year later, we visited Walt Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Two years later, we went to Washington, D.C., spending most of our time in the Smithsonian. From there, we routed a New England course that caught every state before hitting Niagara Falls and walking into Canada on the way back. A couple of years later, we made our last major trip for the three of us, visiting the Northwest, the highlight being Mount St. Helens.

Those family trips provided lasting memories and terrific bonding experiences for our little family. I know it would not be the same for every family, but I'm glad we took that course.

The nice thing about this list item is a casual world traveler can more easily check it off his or her list than something like "visit every country."

I was almost 50 years old and had never had any desire for international travel - save Australia - until a friend invited me to Bali for his wedding. Initially, I laughed off the invitation: "Sure, I'll just jump on down to Indonesia next summer." I had stated many times there were enough places to see in the United States to keep me busy, places to which I could travel without worrying about language barriers or whether I could drink the water. Twice I had crossed the Rio Grande and ventured a few blocks into Mexico; once I walked into Canada. How's that for seeing the world?

Anyway, the stars aligned themselves, I got a recommendation from another friend, an incredibly inexpensive flight became available (due in no small part to the SARS epidemic and the recent terrorist bombing in Bali) and I made the trip.

Even after that, there was probably no idea of adding "visit all seven continents" to my mental bucket list. No, that probably occurred after I spent four months working in Antarctica, the most difficult continent to achieve. When my wife and I visited Australia, the item actually seemed doable.

So, how do I check off these last three continents?

Europe has a lot of possibilities. I'm told my family tree extends into Germany and Ireland, probably England. There are tons of touristy places, but I like going my own speed and, more importantly, my own direction. Plus, I'm not really a fan of crowds. That's another reason for setting our sights on Iceland, Europe's least densely populated country. The real reason Iceland is a most likely target is my father-in-law talked my wife and I into it.

Well, that wasn't really his intent, but throughout the 30-plus years I've known him, he's always been ready to drop stories about his service in Iceland during World War II. He also spent quite a while in France and shared plenty of stories, but Iceland always held a particular charm. I hope we'll be able to transit through the mainland either coming or going and spend some time there, so please tell me where I should go. Any suggestions on Iceland would be great, also.

Africa is difficult for me, so there will be a lot of research before we start making plans. It doesn't help that things have been changing so rapidly. Again, if you have any thoughts, please share.

It might seem a little strange the nearest continent, South America, is still on my to-do list. Like Africa, South America has never resonated with me. Chile would probably be my choice right now should you make me select a destination without the benefit of research.

Sure, this is a dream item - unbelievable, over the top, filed under the subcategory "Should I win the lottery." But, hey, many items on our bucket lists were nothing but dreams at one time. Maybe I'll actually buy a lottery ticket sometime and win. Maybe I'll get a job on a cruise ship. Maybe ...

Placing a 105-day cruise on my list sounds even sillier when one realizes another item on my bucket list is "Go on a Cruise." Nope, I've never been on a cruise. That's not counting a five-hour gambling ship ride out of Port Aransas, Texas, or a 19-hour ferry ride between Ketchikan and Juneau, Alaska. (However, we found the ferry ride to be an incredibly affordable alternative that gave us a look at the Inside Passage, got us from Point A to Point B and pretty much insisted we kick back and relax.)

The idea of a round-the-world cruise is intriguing not so much because of the cruise as the idea of being able to visit 30 or so countries on five or six continents without packing or going through an airport line.

Taking a cruise to another country also seems like a "safer" way to get in and out of a place where I'm not familiar with the language or customs. On the other side of that argument, I realize that I don't have a prayer to experience anything about life there without it being tainted by and for tourism. So, it's a trade-off. A round-the-world cruise would give me access to a larger number of countries than I could likely manage on my own, but the depth of the experiences might not offer much more than a driving tour.

One last good-thing-bad-thing about a long cruise would likely be one's fellow passengers. While a lot of travelers will likely be aboard for a short leg or two, I think it's likely a lot of them will spend several weeks on board. Even in a floating city of several hundred people, one is bound to create relationships with a number of them. Of course, like I said, that can be both good and bad, but I tend to think the good parts would dominate.

It's one of those vivid memories from the early 1970s. There were three or four of us sitting around one summer evening near Terlingua, Texas, and talk turned to the recently released book, "The Late, Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey and Carole C. Carlson. I have never read the book, but we all knew the topic. The authors expressed the opinion based on biblical interpretations and current-day observations that we were near the end times - including the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ.

We talked about being ready for such an event and ... here's my strongest memory ... I said my one desire in life was to experience the joy of finding my soul mate and raising a family, to know the special love of a spouse and child.

Years later, about the time our daughter was in high school, I thought back to that conversation and had to admit I would not be able to complain should my time on Earth suddenly expire ... or mankind's time, for that matter. Now, a grandson has joined the party; I'm super blessed. Not that I was then or now in a hurry for the afterlife, as this extensive bucket list aptly illustrates. I guess you could say that I have checked off the two biggest items on my list.

People who followed my weekly newspaper column, A Texas Voice, probably would not be surprised by such a proclamation because my family was often a topic around which I wrote columns. In fact, I compiled a bunch of those columns several years ago into an e-book and titled it "I Would Ask You In, But You Already Are," a tip of the hat to the idea that readers were regularly invited into my family's life and home.

What's next?

My wife has always loved to dance and I, for the most part, enjoy dancing with her. I had managed to get all the way through high school with only two styles of dancing - standing apart and wiggling to fast songs or clinging close and shuffling feet during slow songs. When I met my future wife in college, she helped me learn how to two-step to the country-western music that dominated dances at school.

One night, we were at a dance in Zachry Engineering Center, which I believe had the largest open space of any building at Texas A&M University besides G. Rollie White Coliseum. Late into the evening, I had worked up enough nerve that I'd led Leah away from the periphery and into the middle of the dance floor, happily gliding among more experienced dance pairs.

The song ended and we started to applaud when the band broke into a lively number and a loud "Whoop" came from the crowd. Immediately, the dancers on the floor that did not include Leah and me formed lines and started jumping, kicking and sliding across the floor somewhat in unison. Overwhelmed, we worked our way to the sidelines causing as little damage as possible to other dancers or our egos.

"So," I said, "that's the 'Cotton-Eyed Joe' I've heard about."

We've made it through 30-plus years now without learning line dancing, but I still would like to. Even more than that, I'd like to learn some form of ballroom dance. We both bring it up occasionally, so that desire definitely belongs on my bucket list. I just hope my knees can still take it!

Rediscover the joy of bicycling. I loved to ride bicycles as a kid. Even as a student at Texas A&M, it was my main method for getting to and around campus; I never bought a shuttle pass or parking permit. Twice as an adult, I've tried peddling around again but to little avail.

Get certified in CPR. I'm embarrassed to have this on my list. That is, I should have done it 30 years ago. Then, Leah and I took an 8-hour first aid course and should have followed up with CPR. Since she went into teaching a few years later, she's stayed certified, but I've just never made time for it.

See a Broadway play. I love theater (though not so much musicals) and even acted and directed in a few community theater productions. Amateur groups put on fantastic shows, so I'd like to compare them to a great professional production.

Ride in a hot air balloon. This is one of the last forms of transportation I've not experienced. That's one reason for it to be on my list. The other reason is simpler: It's got to be neat to just float silently through the air.

Learn to play drums. I was in band in the sixth grade and intended to play drums, but so did most of the boys and I ended up on the cornet. I fought the horn and the horn won. The next year, I was in athletics and band was out. Over the years, I've made feeble efforts at piano (I can plunk out a melody but not really play) and guitar (my fat fingers foiled my dream).

Ride a train and ride a helicopter. Both have been accomplished. I rode an Amtrak train in the early '80s to take photos for a news story. Fifteen years later, we took a commuter train to and from Washington, D.C., from the Baltimore area. But the best experience was riding the Denali Star on the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Fairbanks. I'd still like to take a two- to three-day train trip sometime. The helicopter ride came while working in Antarctica. I hitched a ride from McMurdo Station to Black Island to take photos for a story and to file in the Antarctic Photo Library, including the one above.

That's one question I hear a lot, particularly from old friends and former co-workers. Other queries include, "Are you working on another book?" "Do you miss working in a newspaper?" "Are you still writing your column?" "Have you retired?"

So ... I'm writing, but in different ways. I started a second "The Reporter and" novel, but it's been untouched for some time. Frankly, I only miss journalism during breaking news, but I miss a lot of friends in the business. I'm kind of writing my column, but it's on no particular schedule. No, I've not retired.

What I'm doing now for a paycheck is delivering flowers. Yep, that's right. The drop in stress was monumental and it's extremely pleasant. I like to tell people, "Folks just don't complain when I'm handing them flowers."

On my bucket list, though, is to support myself through writing. Articles like this one can generate income if they interest enough people who will refer friends and if folks do business with advertisers ... the system hasn't really changed. The trick is to write a lot of different articles and find those that interest people.

One project I've started recently that I hope catches on is "A Small Town in Texas." There, I hope people will trade information about the small towns they know, such as great restaurants and worthy sights to see.

My first novel, "The Reporter and the Ferret," is still available by e-book . I suffer a disease common to many writers in that I'm incompetent at promoting the book. Should interest really fire up for it, I'll find inspiration to dive back into "The Reporter and the Hurricane."

I maintain a few blogs, some more regularly than others. I finally set up a blog that will serve as a central gathering place - I call it my Launch Pad - for my various online writing.

Any more questions?

Let's wrap up my bucket list with some more travel-related items.

Spend time living in different parts of the world. This is more than travel, of course. I'm talking about living several weeks to a few months in one area, not backpacking across a continent or something. I believe that's how to really learn about different lifestyles, customs and ways of doing things. Naturally, my previous item of supporting myself by writing is likely required in order to achieve this item.

Visit all Major League Baseball parks. There are 32 parks, ranging from Miami to Seattle, San Diego to Boston. I've been only to Houston and Texas. Ideally, I'd be able to work out a round-the-country driving trip, hitting up all 32 venues. Sweet!

Visit Iceland. As I hinted earlier, Iceland is a probable target for us. We've said among ourselves that Iceland will be our next international goal.

Visit the Galapagos Islands and/or Easter Island. These destinations just kind of flew off our brains one day. Both are difficult to reach but must be awesome to witness.

Visit Hawaii's outer islands, particularly the Big Island. We visited Oahu some 30 years ago and I went once previously with a church choir. Oahu, home to Honolulu, was great, but I'd really like to see the Big Island, Hawaii.

Travel a single highway from coast to coast. The idea is to slowly travel something like U.S. Highway 20 from Boston, Mass., to Newport, Ore. Along the way, I'd gather information for a book or ... more likely ... I'd write a blog about what I found traveling coast-to-coast.

Visit all five oceans. To be honest with you, I only added this item while putting together this list, after I realized I lacked only the Arctic Ocean to have them all. I've been to the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Southern Oceans.

Ride a steamboat down the Mississippi. I mentioned we went to Hawaii 30 years ago. We were planning a riverboat trip but were diverted by a good deal on the 50th State. We need to complete that item sometime.

Visit Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial. The Black Hills of South Dakota will be a destination soon, I think, and these two are must-sees.

Visit Key West. The closest I've come is Everglades City, but that's a far cry from Key West. I just have a soft spot for quirkiness.

As my parting shot, I feel it's fair to acknowledge that some bucket list items lose their luster over time. For example ...

I left college after two years because I had a job offer and I was getting married. My career hardly suffered because I quickly had experience and a track record, though being without a degree obviously made it more difficult to get consideration for non-newspaper jobs. For years, I thought I'd like to go back and I did pick up quite a few hours for various reasons, enough that I'd be a senior now, but going back just for a degree doesn't really appeal to me anymore.

Skydiving was long an item of low importance on my list, but not anymore. As I told a Facebook friend the other day, my spine screams at the thought.

I really thought I'd get my pilot's license someday, but our budget was never ready for it. Now, well, I don't think I'd be interested even if I had the time and money.

During all the years we lived on or near the Gulf of Mexico, I kept saying I'd go deep-sea fishing sometime. For all the various reasons, it never happened and now I'm no longer looking for a chance.

When we were in college, my brother and I said we'd go to the Moscow Olympics in 1980. That was about the time we both met our wives and we never seriously discussed it. Of course, the U.S. team wasn't there, either. Now, I really have no desire to be where everyone else is. The crowds at Olympics just don't interest me. For the same reason, I don't want to go to a Super Bowl.