Running into interesting characters at bars

[kipin]

Anyone else really get great amusement out of talking with random folks who have a ridiculous story to tell?

Last night I ran into this man

who is walking from San Diego to Washington DC to raise cancer awareness.

He has made it to about 25 miles outside of the capital and I got to talk with him about his wife who died of cancer, and the business he left for his kids to run so he could go on his trek.

Interesting guy, anyone else have any cool stories?

Link to a newspaper article about him: here

[hoff21]

That is a cool story. I always meet degens in bars. Airports are cool places to meet interesting people. It was quite a few years ago but I met a guy who buys out lottery winners when they go bankrupt from overspending when they take the yearly payments.

[pokah5]

i only meet stupidly drunk young professionals that have nothing better to do with their money than get wasted in wrigleyville in and lincoln park...

[z28dreams]

Do 2p2 happy hours count?

[KilgoreTrout]

On a business trip to Silver Spring, MD, my inbound flight was delayed due to weather. Beltway traffic was bad. Got to the hotel around 9:00 and the kitchen was closed. I needed beer and fudz.

Concierge refers me to a Ruby Tuesday's. Whatever. I go and sit at the bar a fire down a couple 22 ouncers. In walks a bevy of drag queens. They sit opposite, order fruity drinks, and are loudly enjoying each others' company. Whatever.

After I wolf down my burger and two more 22 ouncers (feeling pretty good), and oldish barfly type sloshes over next to me and asks for a light. I have no fire and even less interest in this floozy. She's persistent and touchy... placing her hand on my arm, touching my hand. She had to be 55 and well on her way to stuporville. I have just started my 5th 22 ouncer but I really want to leave.

As I'm plotting my exit I get slapped on the back of the head. "Rodney I didn't think you were flying in until tomorrow," gushed one of the drag queens. "Come on over here and buy your momma a drink!" My name is Dan and I've never seen this ... whatever s/he is... in my life.

I played along. The queens noticed that I was bothered by the floozy and took it upon themselves to come to my rescue. I bought a round, stayed and finished my beer, and got the hell out of there right quick, my cornhole intact but my dignity deflowered.

Edit to add: this was my first trip after 9/11, in october of 01.

[neuroman]

Two months ago I arrived in Melbourne, Australia from the U.S. The second day I was there was a Sunday. The winter afternoon was gorgeous as I walked near the city center.

Near the intersection of Elizabeth Street's tram lines with Flinders Street Station was a basement bar ("E-55"). I walked down a dark red stairway to get a pint of Cooper's Pale Ale and use the internets.

I bummed a cigarette off two young guys with short hair and five o'clock shadow. They had been up all night and were on the day 2 of a weekend bender. Over smokes, I found out Johnny was a drug dealer who lived in St. Kilda and Dave was a techie who worked in the eastern suburbs. Johnny let me know he could get me "literally anything I wanted."

I bought a round of beer, Johnny the drug dealer bought us shots of Jaeger and tequila, and then Dave and I played chess. It was a narrow match which I won because he was drunk. Shortly thereafter we got kicked out of the bar, but I hung out with Dave and Johnny several more times before I left Melbourne for the Gold Coast.

[SmokeyRidesAgain]

I met this guy in a bar that I jumped in to avoid the rain and have a plate of fries and a beer. It was about a year or so after Iraq round 2 kicked off and after we shot the [censored] for a bit about what he should visit in town he told me he was a special agent or similar, he was talking about seeing Saddam's golden shitters and all that. He was from Cali and this bar was in northern scotland, it was kind of strange. I didn't believe him really until he showed me his pimping ass badge. He was stopping over in Ecosse before visiting his folks in Ireland I think. I got his email but lost my phone that it was on, I hope the dude's still in one piece. We were going to go for a joint but my town was dry that week.

Met a lot of... interesting.. characters in the 24 hour bar at 8am too.. mostly just alchies with that unique perspective on life. Pretty depressing after the fact though. I used to work the bar for a couple years as well, most of the more memorable people were just absoloute degenerates.

[mmbt0ne]

My friends and I have befriended this one guy who occasionally shows up the monday night karaoke bar we go too. We always knew he did some kind of work in the porn industry, but never knew exactly what.

About 2 months ago we saw him again for the first time in almost 8 months and got to talking while he got to buying drinks. Turns out that he sets up a lot of promotional stuff for the conventions like booking everyone's booths, scheduling limos, etc. But then he also informed us that the majority of their income comes from the performers "extra-curricular activities." If you want to ball out, it'll be $2000 per hour, they only take cash or money order, and you might be able to get Simon Cowell's sloppy seconds.