I'm reminded of a dear friend who died from cancer several years ago. Hanging on a wall in her house was a citation she was given by the Parks Service for swimming in the indoor pool at Hearst Castle. (She had waited until the tour group had moved on to another area.)

Framed with the citation was a photograph of her swimming taken by her husband, just in case no one believed the citation.

Thinking of Linda doing laps in that pool just makes me smile, and I hope she's up there in heaven giving Mr. Hearst a hard time.

A touching story Jean! I am sure you really miss your friend.

Your friend's story reminds me of what a Priest I knew well said once "some people live eighty years and some people live one year eighty times".

Okay, here's one..... We were in Switzerland on a school trip. I was 15. My two girl friends and I met these two brothers that worked at the Mc Donalds. They were american and said they went to college in the US, but were living in Switzerland for the summer. I think they told us they went to some very elite colleges. Anyway, we were just out of the 10th grade. They were flirting with us and asked us out.
They picked us up at our hotel in a little red sports car. Now, where were the chaperones anyway? We hopped in their car and went to a bar where I stole the mug I drank out of (popped it in my purse as a souvenior, and no I am not a usual thief). I still have the mug.
We arrived back to our hotel safely with a kiss goodnight. (I was one of the ones who got kissed. They were both cute).
Anyway, after I heard about Natalie Holloway, I just think about the silly things that I did too. We were three girls and two boys, but in a foreign country and in their car. Stupid, but it was fun and they were both very cute

I'll try to keep mine travel related and funny (or: it was very funny at the time)...

My younger cousin was going to school in London for a semester and I went over to join her for the last week or so of her stay, also staying in the dorm. On the last day of class, in true student form, all the American students celebrated at a local pub. I and their instructors were invited along. It was a lot of fun; we sang, drank, danced and laughed all night.

But at closing time, we were still partying quite heartily out on the street on the way back to the dorm, which was at Outer Circle, Regent's Park. We passed through a beautiful crescent, still singing, laughing and carrying on. A nifty, new and expensive little sports car was left running, unattended, in front of one of the crescent houses. In an instant, we had all piled in and taken the little car for a turn around the crescent.

No one came out, and we left the car where we found it. Hard to believe, but I think that it is even harder to swallow that I, ten years older than the rest of that gang, went along on the little spin.

I still remember that night as a really fun time, but as I write this, I am amazed that I jumped on that particular wagon. ;-)

This one is more serious, but it could serve as a warning for young college girls.
I was riding a bus with a friend from our spring break visit to her aunt's. We were returning to college. I struck up a conversation with a nice clean cut guy on his way somewhere. He offered to walk me back to my dorm.
My friend was getting picked up at the bus stop by her boyfriend who she hadn't seen for a week and I didn't want to be a third wheel.
So I walked back to the dorm with this guy. He was maybe a few years older, but so polite. He gave me a necklace that was kind of Victorian, and said I reminded him of someone.
Since the dorm was full of returning students, I invited him to sit down in my room. I kept the door cracked open, and lots of people were in the hallway.
Anyway, nothing happened, but it probably wasn't very smart of me to say the least.
A few months went by. In the news, they had just caught the guy from Seattle who had once worked with the crime writer Anne Rule. He had been caught in Florida. He had taken a bus from Seattle across the country. I saw his picture in the news. OMG- he looked a lot like the guy who had walked me to my dorm. I didn't sleep good for weeks and probably lost some weight too. To this day, I'll never know if that was him. I couldn't tell my parents or even any of my friends.
I was so careful after that happened, and still am wary around strangers.I know his name but I can't type it because it gives me the creeps.

Sounds like we had a Guardian Angel looking after us when we were young and foolish. All of us could have ended up in big trouble, but fortunatly we didn't. No wonder adults get gray hairs regarding what our younger generation is doing. We know what we did.

Quite a thread.
Special thanks to Anciana for sharing -- I have heard stories of my relatives in Communist countries and how difficult it was.

Some of mine just can't be repeated, but couple of what was I thinking memories: hitch hiking with my sister from SF to LA down 1; and driving with friends from the Russian River to SF on 1 on a full moon with the car's lights off, we were stoned and thought it was beautiful--it was the late 60's what can I say!!! Lucky to have survived some of my adventures.

chelseaM, can you give initials? Might be the same person I met.

All these stories has me thinking back to way too many incidents! Thank goodness all turned out ok. But like LoveItaly said...I'm not sure I want our kids to know all the stupid stunts we pulled!

Chelsea--I know who you are talking about. I had to study him for a class and he sure was creepy! A friend of mine, her mother was very close to being a victim also. She was a phone operator, and he asked her to meet him in person. She gave a description of herself and what she would be wearing. Turned out she got off work late, so was late meeting him. From a distance she could see that there was another female at the same spot, wearing the exact same outfit/jacket. He left with the other woman. I don't want to think about the rest of that story.

Hi there mms, I "think" I know who you are talking about, but maybe not. Scary, real scary, in any case.

chelseaM, I was also in college during Ted Bundy's time. We use to swim at the area that one of the girls disappeared. Unfortunately, he touched a lot of lives.

I still have a 15 year old daughter at home so my stories will have to wait for about ten more years!

Oh hester, that is who I was thinking of! How scary..it gives me the creeps to this day.

gomiki, hester has it in her post. I thought I was good at reading people until that happened. A good lesson now, because there have been too many cases of the great guy at work, or next door who turned into a Jekyll and Hyde.
I have read many of Anne Rules books. I am fascinated by people who can seem together on the outside and have such dark demons. I read Heart Full of Lies and it was heartbreaking what that "all American girl" was capable of. They married in Hawaii and lived there for a few years.
Anyway, I believe someone was watching out for me then and I was lucky.

Reading all of your posts has been great - almost every one reminds me of a different misadventure I somehow survived! Except (thankfully) the ones dealing with Communist regimes - Anciana, your story tops them all!

I did just remember an incident so deeply buried that I would have never remembered it if it were not for this thread:

Five of us road-tripped from upstate NY to New Orleans for spring break my senior year of college - two girls (including myself) and three guys in a Mercury sedan. Our lodging was to be someone's friend's apartment at Tulane, as that guy would also be on spring break and thus the space was available, and free. But the place was too dirty and smelled too rank for even the staunchest of our party, and we all ended up crashed out on yet another friend's floor at what was then the Sonesta on Bourbon Street. There were many crazy stories from those few days, but the one that had escaped me until now was that late one night (early one morning??), I swiped part of the Easter display in the hotel lobby! The highlight of the display was a very large one of those eggs with the windowpane in the front and a scene inside, but instead of sugar it was made of dark chocolate. It reminded me of a similar egg when I was a little kid, so I took it - all the way back to Saratoga Springs, NY! Somehow, no hotel personnel caught me in the act.

Freshman year of college in the early 80s driving back to the midwest from Florida after spring break we(two cars full of girls)met up with a carload of guys from a college near us.

We decided to caravan home and were cruising at about 110 mph through Georgia when we got pulled over by State Highway Patrol.

I was riding in the "boys" car at the time and they got veeeeery nervous when we were pulled over. Turns out they had quite a bit of coke (not cola!) in the trunk but the patrolman didn't search the car and we were given tickets and went on our way.

I'll play...
Sewing lots of hash into my multi colored patch work rabbit fur coat - hey, it was the 70's.

I stupidly, flew back from a country where they probably would have locked me up and threw away the key.
Visions of Midnight Express, ewwww!
The hash was quite good btw.

chelseaM, Same guy. I was meeting a friend for lunch and was in the parking lot in a mall when he came up and tried to engage me in conversation. He appeared out of nowhere. He wanted me to go to lunch with him and was very persistant. I was very wary and kept him at a distance. He just made me nervous. I always remembered him and was shocked when the whole story came out.

Oh, yes, for this one I agree with sylvia3. Ain't no way I'm tellin!

Those were back in the days my mother was gonna jerk my young wild ar$$ out of school and bring me home!