sassenach Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Having lived in Hollywood, New Orleans, Santa Cruz, and (near) San Francisco, my weird meter is calibrated a little differently. I've seen more nudity and @ssless chaps than anyone should in a lifetime. I was trying to think of really unexpected sightings and these seem tame, but the wild stuff is kind of unsurprising. Like sighting a bear in Yosemite, cool but expected. In Santa Cruz, I once saw a guy riding a unicycle UP a truly steep and long mountain road. On the freeway, we saw a man driving his car with his casted leg sticking out the window. I admired his flexibility. The other day in our grocery store parking lot, I saw a man ducking down and running in between cars. He unlocked one, climbed in and drive off. We made eye contact. A minute later I saw a patrol come through. I called it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 We had a high speed car chase end up in our front yard. The car had all it's tires shot out and and was traveling only on it's rims. It dug big furrows in the yard. The guys driving it ran out and into the arms of the police who were following right behind them. This wasn't too long before we moved from that location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Some of these are :smilielol5: . I can't think of anything particularly strange. The only things I can think of are... Many years ago, stopping in the grocery store late at night. The gal in front of me was paying for a pretty large purchase of groceries mostly all in ones. She was chatting w/ the cashier & said where she worked (a local stripper club). All the bag boys that night were in our lane for sure. Alas, they all helped the stripper, so no bag boys around to help with my groceries. :lol: A turkey (?) walking across my driveway the other day. (This is unusual since I live in a suburban area.) I was leaving the house & as I drove slowly up the street to see where it went (out of curiosity), it started jogging right toward my car. I realize turkeys aren't supposed to be the brightest, but I seriously think he (she?) was trying to bang into the side of my car. The closer I got, the faster the turkey ran toward me. A turkey playing chicken with a car? (The turkey won. I stopped. ;) ) There was a turkey at my kids' soccer practice the other day. It was wandering around the field. It eventually moved on when they started practicing. While having dinner in Thessaloniki one evening, my DH and I saw about 100-150 people riding down the street on bicycles, many naked, some in body paint. Then in Rome a few days later, we saw the same thing again. I have since learned it is a common form of protest to get better bike lanes. However, I had never seen it before, so it was strange to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myeightkiddies Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 We've taken our sheep to the fair in the back of the van plenty of times... I guess we sometimes do get strange looks when we stop for gas. We've had goats in the back of our van (we used sheets of plastic - worked great). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Laurie Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Driving down the freeway and seeing a turkey sitting on the median, just watching traffic. Last week, we saw a large snake cross the road. Not too wild and crazy, but unexpected. He had already made it quite a ways when we saw him as we were passing over him, (it was too late when we saw him wiggling along, but dh managed not to run him over with the tires.) We checked on him and he actually made it all the way to the other side without getting run over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readinmom Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 A lot of these we see pretty regularly (except the unusual animals) because of our SoCal location. :laugh: My dh and I were in New York for a college music thing and a lady began pacing and waving beside our buses. When we began to step off the bus, she yelled "Welcome to New York", lifted her dress, squatted, and left us a nice package on the sidewalk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 DD and I went into Kroger last week dressed for our Harry Potter co-op's Wizard's ball. I had to pick up my deli order. I'm surprised at the lack of reaction (I half expected to end up viral). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 At the waterpark in Six Flags in MD there was a duck nesting right by one of the water play areas. People were splashing and shouting and having a great time on the play structure and the surrounding water and this duck just sat there on her eggs. The lifeguards said she was there when they opened for the season so they left her alone. We checked on her (and later he babies) every time we went and just before they closed for the season she and her babies headed off away from their nest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 A couple of years ago I walked into the kitchen first thing in the morning to find a 4-ft bull snake slithering back & forth in front of the patio door trying to find a way out. :confused1: There was also a HUGE toad in my bedroom in the middle of the night once. DH refused to get up, so I had to wake DS and make him catch it and take it outside. Try explaining to a half-asleep 10 year old at 2:00 AM that no, you're not kidding, you really do need him to come get a giant toad out from under your bed. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Once the kids and I were doing school and we heard a loud squeak and a thump and right in the middle of the entry room a mouse had fallen over dead. I made my son (who was about 10 at the time) dispose of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 We were driving down some highway in Texas, between Brownwood and Abilene, and saw zebras in a field. Yes! There's a house near me that had zebras one day. I have never seen them again. Donkeys, goat's, some kind of large birds. Always something different. I am dying to find out what is going on at that house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 The ten inch long scorpion on a chain (like a leash) in the restaurant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Our neighbors rented goats for yard work. I'm seriously thinking about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Last month I was driving through town (we live in the middle of the Bible Belt, home to a huge private Baptist University) and there was a man trudging along up a large overpass pulling a massive wooden cross over his shoulder. As in the thing must have been 12/15 foot tall, thick, and HEAVY. Turns out he walks all over the nation (and others!) with it... Was the cross red? Pretty sure it is the same guy that comes through our town every year. They have actually gotten him to speak at a few churches around here. He sits along the highway outside McDonalds every year....we have kind of come to expect him to be there around Easter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkInTheBlue Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I was waiting at a red light in Atlanta near the aquarium and Coca Cola museum with only my 17 year old son in the car with me and noticing the full length windows in the apartment building. We were talking about how great it would be to live in those and I realized there was a couple standing in their 2nd floor window completely naked and entangled together. They weren't more than 2 feet from their window. Well... I just keep telling myself they surely didn't know the floor to ceiling windows were not reflective from the outside. I was frozen at the moment but I did have a good laugh later with my teenager about unexpected things. :) Ugh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Totally forgot till I read the last one. We were heading north on 75 after going to the beach, and we see a truck pull in front of us...with a couple having sex in the back. :ohmy: Thank goodness the kids were all in the backseat half asleep. Ick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlemommy Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 A few years ago we were moving halfway across the country and stopped at a rest area. As I was nursing my 3 month old, we saw a guy walking a pig and a pug in the dog run. A pig and a pug! One of my friends growing up had a pig and a pug lol. Their names were Pigsly and Pugsly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Yes! There's a house near me that had zebras one day. I have never seen them again. Donkeys, goat's, some kind of large birds. Always something different. I am dying to find out what is going on at that house. Same zebras???????????? Between Abilene and Brownwood? Or different zebras?????????????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I saw a guy bring a soccer ball into church today, tuck it under his chair and act like it's a totally normal thing to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Growing up, we lived on a curved suburban street that had a small cul-de-sac right at the curve. Our house was just next to the cul-de-sac at the curve. Several times someone would be speeding down our street and not realize that the street curved and they would take out our parkway tree. My brother had just bought his first new car and had it parked at the end of our driveway. He heard a loud crack and thought someone had hit his car. As it turns out a teen just missed my brother's car, hit the parkway tree and tried driving away with a 15-foot tall maple under his car. The car died so he got out and tried to run away. He tripped and face-planted (probably drunk.) My dad was able to keep him down until the police arrived. One time, it was someone trying out his friend's motorcycle on our street. He lost control of the bike and it hopped the curb into our driveway. The rider fell off. The bike slid under our car and punctured the gas tank. We had an impressive display of emergency vehicles at our house that day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoobie Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Our neighbors rented goats for yard work. I'm seriously thinking about it. It's so cool! We really wanted to after seeing it nearby, but we had mostly holly, which is the one thing they don't eat. The company here sends sheep, goats, and a huge, gorgeous Great Pyrennes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Was the cross red? Pretty sure it is the same guy that comes through our town every year. They have actually gotten him to speak at a few churches around here. He sits along the highway outside McDonalds every year....we have kind of come to expect him to be there around Easter. No! This was definitely a rough wood, unpainted cross. It is totally strange to know that there may in fact be several? More? Individuals trudging around lugging crosses with them. I read an article not too long ago about a guy who has a modular cross he takes aboard airplanes so that he can literally cart his ministry to countries around the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillfarm Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 We live in a rural area, so wildlife is not all that surprising. However, once we were at a friend's house for a barbeque, when an ostrich (not at all native to Midwestern USA) burst out of the tree line and proceeded to run up the stairs to his aboveground pool deck, around the pool, and exit down the same stairs. Then it hopped a creek in a single bound into the neighbor's yard, where he popped out from under his car (where he had apparently been doing some auto-mechanic work). He then proceeded to jump on the ostrich's back and tackle it to the ground. All this over the hamburgers, hot dogs and potato salad. We still joke that people should go to the Smith's home if they want dinner and a show. :laugh: For the record, I have hauled chickens, sheep, goats, llamas, and small ponies in the back of my minivan, not to mention a friend's wolf hybrid dog. ( Not all at the same time, of course!) Livestock in cars is not unusual in my area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MollyAnn Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 We were driving DD to Girl Scout camp, going through the middle of nowhere Texas where we drove past this: Marfa, TX is kinda of an art town and it is a sculpture done with complete approval and assistance from Prada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Same zebras???????????? Between Abilene and Brownwood? Or different zebras?????????????? Maybe the same zebras, but I'm in Louisiana. Not the same house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Same zebras???????????? Between Abilene and Brownwood? Or different zebras?????????????? Maybe the same zebras, but I'm in Louisiana. Not the same house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Thong Man bikes down our street pretty often. http://mo.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/kelso/entries/2010/10/12/theres_been_more_response_to.html (Scroll down. Or don't.) My mom has convinced herself that he's wearing a flesh-colored body suit. That's right, Mom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpyTheFrog Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 This thread is hilarious. About six months ago I saw a school bus that had been converted to a flat-bed truck. Everything behind the driver had been removed and plywood had been screwed down where the floor used to be (or maybe over the floor). I think it must be used by migrant workers somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 When I was a kid I had a good friend who lived on an unusual farm. They had horses and pigs and chickens and the normal stuff. And then they had a zebra, an emu, a peacock, and some donkeys. Inside the house they had a pet fox, raccoon, skunk, and a couple other smaller creatures you generally would not keep as a pet (plus an adorable little pot-bellied pig). I never really thought of all that as odd since she was my friend and all, but, yeah, pretty unusual to see animals like those on someone's farm! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrookValley. Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I drive chickens around in my car all the time. I've been known to sneak them into hotel rooms occasionally (don't worry, they stay in crates). When I was in California, I passed a woman dressed in tight leather pants, an animal print vest, and the tallest high heels--leopard print, at that!--that I had ever seen. Her hair was platinum, her skin was tanning bed orange, and she was much bedazzled with lots of sparkle and flashy jewelery/accessories. However, her most notable accessory was the zebra she was leading along next to her (sporting a hot pink halter) like she was a shih tzu or some such lap dog. Zebras in fields. pffffttt. :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I had an unexpected sighting at the zoo yesterday. We were at the otters, and one was coming toward us. The middle-aged man next to us started squealing and knocking on the glass. Then his wife joined in. :huh: We ran into them several times - hooting at the tiger, yelling and knocking on the bears' glass. They were clearly tourists, but still. Their teenage kids were very well behaved.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Their teenage kids were very well behaved.... I think that's the part I wouldn't expect to see given the parents' behavior. Don't zoos usually have "don't tap on the glass" signs? Not that that would likely have stopped them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I think that's the part I wouldn't expect to see given the parents' behavior. Don't zoos usually have "don't tap on the glass" signs? Not that that would likely have stopped them. I'm pretty sure they couldn't read the signs - they were speaking in a foreign language. I suspect they would have been shocked to realize they were breaking the rules. I think they were just *very* excited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoot Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 A couple of summers ago I saw a woman walking the track at the park with an owl on her shoulder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I'm pretty sure they couldn't read the signs - they were speaking in a foreign language. I suspect they would have been shocked to realize they were breaking the rules. I think they were just *very* excited. Okay, that changes things. I wonder if in their culture it is considered normal to hoot at animals in a zoo? Or maybe they had never been to a zoo before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 This thread is hilarious. About six months ago I saw a school bus that had been converted to a flat-bed truck. Everything behind the driver had been removed and plywood had been screwed down where the floor used to be (or maybe over the floor). I think it must be used by migrant workers somehow. Yes...they gut them all the time here and use them to put watermelons in in the fields. Then workers unload them into boxes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LatteMama Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 I once saw a person walking down the street eating corn on the cob. There were no food vendors or county fairs or any other reasonable place nearby to buy corn on the cob. I guess they decided it was the perfect finger food for a walk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 A guy dressed head to toe as Chewbacca just walking on the sidewalk down a major road in the middle of the day. That began our "Never be surprised by anything you see in San Antonio" list. When I was 14 or 15 my mom and I were on the DC Metro and a couple seats ahead of us was a male couple. One of them had the most beautiful make-up I've ever seen on anyone. That was the only feminine thing about him. Full make-up. And then they started making out. Seriously making out. Like very obvious tonsil licking. Seriously, it doesn't matter is you are two guys, two girls, or a guy and a girl. Making out like that in a Metro car with other people sitting around you is just not okay. They got off at DuPont Circle. I'm in SA and I've seen Chewbacca!! It looked hot inside there! I can't imagine the smell.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Our neighbors rented goats for yard work. I'm seriously thinking about it. My cow is in my side yard right now. There were 2 horses out there but they got bored, so I put them back in the corral. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 My hubby used to work as a teller at a bank. One day a guy came through the drive through on his riding mower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 I'm in SA and I've seen Chewbacca!! It looked hot inside there! I can't imagine the smell.... We've seen him a couple more times. The first time he was walking by a shopping center. Since then he's been at the end of the main road for the area we live. One of those times he had one of his gloves off and was texting on his cell phone. I still haven't quite figured out what he is advertising because I'm so distracted by seeing Chewie that I forget to look at his sign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happi duck Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 I love this thread! I saw a guy wearing a box running down our street and thought "hey! I can post on that thread now!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoot Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 A few years ago I saw a guy rolling an enormous ball made to look like earth down the road. It was bigger than he was, and I just kept thinking that he would be so screwed if a big gust of wind came up and blew his ball away. It probably wouldn't have gone well for traffic either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 My worst unexpected sight - a man in Barnes & Noble unashamedly "reading" with his hand in an inappropriate location. Ick. Ick! ICK! My best unexpected sight - looking out the living room window to see bald eagles nesting in a nearby tree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtnTeaching Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I was a flight attendant. I saw LOTS of things I was not expecting to see. :blush: One of the strangest was "Mr. T" standing in front of me asking me to go "boogie" with him (I was 23 years old - and no - I did not. I told him that I had a very early morning.) Running around a corner in the underground basement of the CNN building in Atlanta and physically running directly into Andre the Giant wearing just his wrestling shorts and shoes. He steadied me with his hand and asked if I was alright. I have no idea what I said. That was unexpected. Realizing that Roy Rogers in his eighties still had the most gorgeous blue eyes I had ever seen. (Certainly could not tell that in his black and white movies). On a layover in Fort Worth, laying out in a bikini by the pool all by myself when I noticed the hotel staff setting up a table full of goodies. The next thing I knew, the entire New York Yankees team arrived. Billy Martin, Ken Griffey, Dale Berra (Yogi's son - a slime), Rickey Henderson (a very nice man), etc. Talk about animal sightings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 No! This was definitely a rough wood, unpainted cross. It is totally strange to know that there may in fact be several? More? Individuals trudging around lugging crosses with them. I read an article not too long ago about a guy who has a modular cross he takes aboard airplanes so that he can literally cart his ministry to countries around the world. I saw one last week. Friday, I think. Isn't there a tradition to carry the cross as far as Jesus did on one of the holy days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Today I saw a small car driving down the road slowly with its hazard lights flashing. Atop the car were two massive, disgustingly stained and lumpy mattresses strapped on with ropes and the like. The driver and passenger both had arms out the windows, I guess in an attempt to stabilize the precarious load. Strange, but not unheard off... The strangest thing was that there was a PERSON strapped on top of the mattresses! I had to double check to see if it was a live person or a body! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacus2 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I recently saw a guy riding a bike down the wrong side of the road while simultaneously texting on two different phones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flowing Brook Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 I wanted to thank everyone for their stories. This has been fun to read!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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