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What's the Weirdest Place You've Slept?
I saw a TV show about some fearless people climbing the sheer granite walls at Yosemite National Park. The slept in hammocks hanging off the side of the mountain. Yikes!
That had me thinking about what's the weirdest place I've ever slept. A couple come to mind but the strangest is that I once slept in the engine compartment of a fighter jet. Really.
I grew up on military bases. When I was about 13 or 14 my friend & I decided to camp out inside the retired jet that was on display across the street from the base's main gate. The jet was a Canadair CT-33 Silver Star. (It is the Canadian license-built version of the Lockheed T-33 jet trainer aircraft, in service from the 1950's). When it was put on display - up on a pedestal - the engine had already been removed. The intact fuselage nozzle at the back of the jet was open to the former engine compartment. We figured out that with a couple of wooden boxes to stand on we could climb up & shimmy up the smooth nozzle to get inside.We could do it fairly quickly. Using ropes tied to the boxes we could pull them up inside after we got in, so nobody would see the boxes. (Getting out was harder!) Inside there was quite a bit of room & nobody would know we were there unless they looked up the nozzle. Looking back now it seems really odd that our parents let us do it. We told them. Parental neglect I guess! If we had been caught we certainly would have been scolded by the Military Police. It wasn't comfortable in there but the air mattresses we brought made it doable.
Looking on Google I found the following image of the actual jet on its stand. At the time there weren't any trees around it so we were very visible when climbing in.
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So What's the Weirdest Place You've Slept?
Re: What's the Weirdest Place You've Slept?
Sounds like you were practicing for stowing away on a plane.:D
I have seen those pictures of people sleeping on the side of a cliff while climbing. I don't think I would get any sleep until I passed out from exhaustion.
Now I am someone who can sleep anywhere just about. Stationed on a submarine, slept in a torpedo skid rack as part of my sleeping arrangement.
Rack
Re: What's the Weirdest Place You've Slept?
OK, air, sea and now land.
Night crossing on pontoon bridge over the Rhine and dug in and got a kip to be woken by a Chieftain tank track-turning on top of my trench, collapsing it with me still under.
The next time, I'll bring a wooden box for protection, or perhaps that'll be too late.
Acorn
Re: What's the Weirdest Place You've Slept?
Rak - I imagine even the huge submarines must be quite claustrophobic. I have visions of Das Boot. :)
All submariners are special people in my book. To be able to put such trust in a machine & the teamwork of your colleagues must require a special kind of person -- similar to astronauts in many ways. I don't think most of us could do it.
Acorn - I'm guessing you served in the military. (You can call me Capt. Obvious). Pontoon bridges & Chieftain tanks seem to suggest either that, or foolishly you snuck into a military training exercise! Sounds like you were extremely lucky to not have been killed. Were you injured?
Re: What's the Weirdest Place You've Slept?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ross Macintosh
Were you injured?
Probably, as I bought into Xara for designing stuff.
Acorn